How To Do An Elevator Pitch Like Daenerys Targaryen

What in the Seven Kingdoms is an Elevator Pitch?! Most of us know it as the question: "Tell us a bit about yourself, why should we choose you for this job?"

It's our 21st Century way of essentially doing this:

TRANSCRIPT

You stand in the presence of Daenerys Stormborn, of House Targaryen, Rightful Heir to the Iron Throne. Rightful Queen of the Andals and the First Men, Protector of the Seven Kingdoms, The Mother of Dragons, The Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, The Unburnt, The Breaker of Chains.

That's how you do it right. Now class, for an example of how NOT to respond to this question see Jon Snow.

*Dany and Tyrion look at Jon, Jon looks at Ser Davos*

This is Jon Snow.

*long awkward pause*

He's the King in the North.

They have both pitched themselves to the other (through their servants I admit) as though they met in a 21st Century elevator, shook hands and blaaaaed at each other a breakdown of who they are, and what they are capable of.

So now we know WHAT an elevator pitch is, let's analyse where Jon went wrong shall we.

Now were Jon Snow to have a proper introduction his list of achievements would be just as long as hers, here is my suggestion:

You have the great privilege of meeting Jon Snow. Reconciler of Wildlings and North Men, Lord Commander of the Knight's Watch, The White Wolf, Elected King in the North, Champion of the Battle of the Bastards, Saviour of Winterfell, Owner of the Best Man Bun in Westeros.

Jon comes from a place where actions speak louder than words, that is how he proved himself worthy to be King. He forgets however that Daenerys doesn't know who he is or what he has done and this is important if she is going to trust him and help him against the White Walkers.

Dialing back the drama slightly, it's the same when applying for a job, at your old job you don't have to keep listing off your achievements and your CV every time you have a meeting with someone because they know you. You already work there. But when applying somewhere else, they don't know anything about you at all except for what you tell them. If you only tell them that you are the King in the North, that's all they will think of you. (ok yes that is still pretty cool) SO TELL THEM HOW AWESOME YOU ARE.

Now when I watched this last week, I suddenly went, oh, ah, I know which one is my usual answer. Oops. I realised we should all be Daenerys in a job interview.

And so. CHALLENGE. I challenge you to create your own Daenerys introduction speech, it will probably feel really silly, and I don't suggest you actually respond this way in an interview, BUT! It will help you have more confidence in each one of your achievements. For example let's say John Smith write's his introduction, it might go something like:

John Smith, Writer of the Blog, Twister of Words, Tweeter of the Account @gameofthronesisawesome, Manager of Time, Player in a Team, Skilled in the Ancient arts of Indesign and Photoshop, etc. etc.

Comment below any of your Westerosian style skills because I had a lot of fun coming up with some and really want to hear yours.