> I study a lot of things outside of this: leadership, economics, site reliability engineering, writing, queuing theory, product development, extreme value theo

> I study a lot of things outside of this: leadership, economics, site reliability engineering, writing, queuing theory, product development, extreme value theory, lean, survival analysis, etc The extent to which this is true should affect your answer quite a bit. Look at yourself honestly and decide whether you study these things or if you’ve just read a book on each of them (or maybe just a New Yorker article). Have you received intense critique and feedback from a true expert in those fields? I’d lean towards never mentioning your study unless it’s actual study and not just self-learning of whatever catches your fancy. Dilettante isn’t often used as a compliment. The elevator pitch you give should be tailored to the job you want. Do you want to be CTO? If so, learn what that job is and where you fall short and where you don’t. Maybe something like, “I’m an experienced full-stack engineer. In addition to X,Y,and Z, I’ve often found myself improving systems like A,B,C - that you have at your company. I’m looking for a CTO role where I can D,E,F and work on building skills in G,H,I.”