Preparing for Pitch Situations

1. Preparing for Pitch Situations

2. Imagining work experience as a narrative helps prepare for “pitch situations” • Narrative Theory • Rising Action • Climax • Falling Action (resolution) • Important Narrative components • Description • Character • Dialogue • Action • Setting

3. Basic Steps to Producing a Narrative • Write a basic Work Experience Narrative • This is a one paragraph description of a memorable work experience that might be told in a social situation • Where is there room to incorporate elements from the job description into your story? • Once you have written the basic story, consider places to be more detailed about specific skills and abilities in the story. • Look back to your job description for ideas • How can I condense this story to be delivered in an informal environment, quickly?

4. Write a Work Experience Narrative: • “I had an internship once working for the state fish and game commission as a biologist aide. A state biologist and I were working on this fish spawning project where we would go out on motor boats just before sundown and drop these long gill nets. The fish began to move once the sun was down, and they’d get caught in the nets. Every hour or so, we’d go out, and check the nets for fish. Once we collect all the fish that were caught, we’d go back and take measurements on gender, ovary development stage, length, and finally collect the head of the fish for microscopic age verification of the otolith, which is the ear bone. Like trees, they grow in concentric rings, and the number of rings can tell you how old they are. That was a brutal summer because I’d get home at 3 or 4 in the morning covered in fish scales and stinking like muskrat. My friends avoided me for weeks.”

5. Basic Narrative Components • Rising Action • I had an unusual internshipone summer • Climax • Covered in fish and the job made me stink • Resolution • None of my friends talked to me for weeks, but it was a good ecperience

6. Where is there room to incorporate elements from the job description into your story? • Look to the job description for help • http://jobview.monster.com/Lake-Superior-National-Estuarine-Research-Reserve-LSNERR-Monitoring-Coordinator-Job-Superior-WI-US-103698221.aspx

7. “I had an internship once working for the state fish and game commission as a biologist aide. A state biologist and I were working on this Shad spawning project where we would go out on motor boats just before sundown and drop these long gill nets into the Delaware River. The fish began to move once the sun was down, and they’d get caught in the nets. Every hour or so, we’d go out, and check the nets for fish. Before we began and during down-time, I would collect water quality measurements like pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen.At the end of the shift, which was usually 3 or 4 or the morning, I’d go back and collect all of the water, weather, and study data into a report for that night. But every hour or so, we’d go out and collect all the fish that were caught in the net. Then we’d bring them back and take measurements on gender, ovary development stage, length, collect sperm and eggs for mixing, and finally collect the head of the fish for microscopic age verification of the otolith, which is the ear bone. Like trees, fish bones grow in concentric rings, and the number of rings can tell you how old they are.Once the sperm and eggs were mixed I would carefully place them in the water and coordinate with state and local officials to have them picked up and driven to various state hatcheries. I couldn’t get the smell of fish off of my body for weeks after that project, but it was a great experience”

8. This adds important attributes to the story • Experience in conducting specific measurements • Experience working with state officials • Experience working in an outdoor setting at unusual times • This adds important information, but often makes the narrative too long • How can I condense this story to be delivered in an informal environment, quickly? • Keep narrative elements of the story • Keep specialist terms over explanatory terms • Keep links to job description

9. “I had an internship once working for the state fish and game commission as a biologist aide. A state biologist and I were working on this fish spawning project where we would capture them in long gill nets. The fish would get caught in the nets, and every hour or so, we’d go out in motor boats to check the nets for fish. Before we began and during down-time, I would collect a host water quality measurements like pH, conductivity, and dissolved oxygen.At the end of the shift, which was usually 3 or 4 or the morning, I’d go back and collect all of the water, weather, and study data to put into a report for that night. Once we brought the fish back I’d take measurements on gender, ovary development stage, length, collect sperm and eggs for mixing, and finally collect the head of the fish for microscopic age verification of the otolith. Once the sperm and eggs were mixed I would carefully place them in the water and coordinate with state and local officials to have them picked up and driven to various state hatcheries. I couldn’t get the smell of fish off of my body for weeks after that project, but it was a great experience”

10. What are the uses of this narrative? • You wouldn’t memorize or use this narrative directly in a pitch situation or in your resume • You might use some of this in a personal experience letter for graduate school • The real value of this is to develop relationships in your mind between past work experiences and the skills/traits that are valuable to a position you are considering • Writing about these relationships in a narrative helps prepare you to make valuable connections in some of the pitch situations we discussed previously • How else might this be useful?

11. In-Class Writing: • Open the draft you started Monday • Using the job description materials you’ve prepared, follow these steps to develop a written job narrative: • Write a Work Experience Narrative • How can I condense this story to be delivered in an informal environment, quickly? • Where is there room to incorporate elements from the job description into your story? • Keep narrative elements of the story • Keep specialist terms over explanatory terms • Keep links to job description

12. For Friday: • Complete your 1 paragraph work experience narrative and submit via email Friday. Focus on the steps shown in the power-point presentation to develop an interesting work story that incorporates many of the skills and qualifications of the job description. To avoid the appearance of self-promotion, be sure to maintain important narrative elements that make the story primary, and the skills and qualifications secondary.