The 90-Second Elevator Pitch
Your whole career story — who you are, what you do, what you want — in under two minutes.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 5
- Confidence
- 85%
Posner's first interview tip is to have your elevator pitch and your story down cold, because most recruiters open with 'tell me about yourself.' The target is 90 seconds to two minutes covering your whole career story: who you are, what you do, and what you want to be doing. The method is deliberately unglamorous — write it down, flesh it out, practice it, stand in front of a mirror, tell it to your friends and family. It's a living asset that you adjust as your career progresses, not a one-time script. Posner learned the exercise in 2011 while leaving American Express and still uses it daily. He also notes that a good recruiter reviews your background beforehand precisely so the pair don't spend 25 of their 30 minutes on it — but you cannot count on facing a good recruiter.
Origin
Posner learned the elevator-pitch exercise in 2011 when he was leaving American Express, and describes it as a skill he still runs constantly — both to tell his own career story and to ask candidates for theirs.
Core principles
- 01'Tell me about yourself' is the near-universal opener; it should never be improvised.
- 02The pitch has three payloads: who I am, what I do, what I want to be doing.
- 03It's a living artifact — it gets adjusted as your career moves.
- 04Written, then rehearsed out loud, then tested on real humans.
How to run it
- 1
Write it down
Get the full career story out on paper before trying to compress it.
- 2
Flesh it out
Shape the raw material into a coherent arc rather than a chronological list of employers.
- 3
Compress to 90 seconds to two minutes
Cut until you can deliver who you are, what you do, and what you want to be doing inside two minutes.
Pro tip Time yourself; 'about two minutes' unrehearsed is usually five.
Watch out Going long eats a quarter of a 30-minute recruiter call before you've shown any fit.
- 4
Rehearse out loud and on people
Practice it in front of a mirror, then tell it to friends and family and watch where they disengage.
- 5
Keep adjusting it
Revisit the pitch as you go through your career so it always ends pointing at what you want next.
Pro tip Posner still runs this exercise 'day in and day out' a decade after learning it.
In the wild
Leaving American Express in 2011, Posner built the elevator-pitch exercise and has run it ever since — he can tell his whole career story, who he is, what he does and what he wants to be doing, in 90 seconds to two minutes.
→ It became a permanent skill he uses on both sides of the table: delivering his own story and asking candidates for theirs.
Common mistakes
Improvising the most predictable question in the process
'Tell me about yourself' opens almost every recruiter call. Winging it wastes the highest-leverage two minutes you'll get.
Writing it once and freezing it
Posner treats the pitch as adjustable through your career. A stale pitch ends at the wrong destination — it points at what you wanted three roles ago.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone interviewing, networking, or pitching themselves repeatedly.
Not ideal for
Highly technical screens where the evaluation is entirely a live problem-solving exercise.
From the transcript
“Be prepared to have that elevator pitch where I could tell you my whole career story, who I am, what I do, and what I…”
“Write it down, flush it out, practice it, stand in front of a mirror, tell it to your friends and family, and be able to…”
From the episode
Adam Posner: Land The Job
Adam Posner