So, what do you do for a living? If you are an accountant or pediatrician or teacher, this is a pretty easy question to answer. Unfortunately, for many of us, the answer isn’t this simple. And it is amazing how many people have no idea how to answer this question.

I attended my 20^th high school reunion last night and was astonished at how difficult this question was to answer for so many of my classmates. I thought it was a simple question, but apparently I was wrong.

Let’s take Bryan for an example. I asked Bryan what he did for a living. His response involved something to do with helping businesses strategize and grow and there was something in there about percentage increases. Most of it just sounded like “yada yada yada.” I asked several other questions to try and figure out what he was talking about but not until I saw his business card did I finally learn what he did – he sold life insurance.

Was he embarrassed that he sold life insurance? Does he do more than sell life insurance but his business card doesn’t reflect that? Did Bryan just have too much to drink and couldn’t remember what he did for a living? I really don’t know (well, actually I do think he had too much to drink, but I don’t know if that was the explanation behind the vague answer.) What I do know is that Bryan really needs to work on his “elevator pitch.”

In this example, an elevator pitch is a short summary to quickly and simply define what you do for a living. The name “elevator pitch” refers to the fact that this statement should be able to fit into the time allocated for an elevator ride (30 second to 2 minutes.)

As a public relations practitioner and a small business owner, my elevator pitch needs to quickly and efficiently explain to someone what I do and what I can do for their company or organization’s bottom line. Actually, after talking to dozens of my former classmates last night, I now realize that I need to work on my own elevator pitch. It needs a few tweaks. But that’s ok, because a few tweaks is a lot better than a complete overhaul (remember Bryan?)

If you Google “elevator pitch” you get hundreds of websites that will help you perfect your own personal elevator pitch. It’s a good idea to do, so that the next time you are presented with the question, “So what do you do for a living?” you’ll be prepared.

The best answer from the reunion last night came from Pat, who when presented with the simple question of “What do you do for a living?” gave me a simple answer – “I sell toilets.” Having intrigued me, he went on to explain that he was a distributor for an industrial parts provider that provided, among thousands of other things, toilets. Pat knew how to answer this simple question and I will remember Pat and his business.

Bryan…well…at least he could party!