Personal branding in an elevator: Developing job search pitch skills in tertiary level Business English pedagogy

Abstract

Abstract This contribution reports on the use of genre-based instruction in developing students’ job search pitch skills in a Business English course taught at the tertiary level. The job search pitch (also referred to as personal branding pitch) is viewed as a subgenre of an elevator pitch; it is regarded as an essential communication tool to be mastered and used by students in future job search situations. Drawing on the available literature as well as the author’s own research and experience, the report demonstrates how the generic structure and rhetorical devices contributing to the realisation of the communicative function of job search pitch are incorporated in the job search module of an undergraduate Business English course taught at the University of Economics in Katowice. It also provides a brief account of students’ reflections and observations related to the usefulness of job search pitch skills and the challenges involved in their development.