问题:How do you make your self-introduction different in the interview?

回答：

Well firstly Derek, congratulations on getting an interview! Secondly, thank you for your question. It’s something that concerns a lot of people. It’s also something that quite a lot of people don’t seem to do anything about…

‘Tell me about you.’

‘Introduce yourself.’

‘Tell us a bit about what makes you tick.’

Why do these classic interview prompts make people feel so awkward? You could view them as an interviewer’s lazy way of getting into the right frame of mind. Or perhaps they do it to remind themselves who they are actually interviewing? Maybe it’s the interviewer “playing for time”?

A little further along the spectrum, perhaps they confront you with this sort of thing precisely because it often makes people nervous. Maybe the idea is to throw you off balance and see how you handle it? Alternatively, you could view it as the interviewer doing you a big favor. By asking this question, they are offering you an opportunity to set the interview’s tone and content right from the start. It puts you in control, not only because—for 2 minutes or so—you’re the one who’s speaking, but also because you can prepare for it.

You should prepare for it. It’s good you’re doing so. But don’t rote learn it. Don’t memorize whole paragraphs. (I’ll suggest a much better approach a little further down my answer ↓). But for now—in the prep stage—think of yourself as crafting three handfuls of sentences that respectively summarize, distill, or represent:

Your core values and motivations. The most relevant and impressive stuff you’ve done so far (or that you’re doing right now).What you want to do in the future. As a start, I suggest three aspects to prepare a good approach to this question:

#1 “Why are you here, talking to us, right now?” The key mindset to acquire before you prepare is this: You’re not tricking anyone. They’re not trying to trick you. You are there to represent the best version of yourself. Say what you mean, mean what you say. Why are you planning on expending an hour of your time in front of those people, in that stressful situation?

‘Because I want to get an offer.’Well yeah but why?

Think deeply about content of your answer. (1) What motivates you? (2) How can you substantiate your motivations (by illustrating an intentional course of conduct and personal growth you’ve undertaken already)? (3) How can you extrapolate those motivations (by mapping them onto a set of goals for your future that the interviewer/organization will find appealing)?

It may be better if you reflect on these things in the following order instead: (1) How can you substantiate your motivations? (2) What motivates you? (3) How can you extrapolate those motivations by mapping them onto a set of goals for your future?

So, now you have an understanding of why you are there. You have some neat ways of expressing it. The next aspect of a successful response would deal with the following:

Question #2: “How do we fit in, and why should we care?” Develop a fourth handful of sentences that connect your goals to (specific elements of) the program. Why are you particularly thrilled to be in this interview? What do have to offer the people round the table?

#3 How to begin, how to end. When you have your four handfuls of sentences ready and waiting, the next thing I suggest you do is decide on a first sentence and a last sentence; figure out a good way to open and a good way to close.

A lot of people don’t seem to get this right. At the beginning, you hear lots of ‘Umm’s from candidates or the recitation of somewhat pointless biographical information. And, at the end, you hear many others trail off or emit sheepish little ellipses… ‘So… yeah. That’s me.’

If you know how you’ll begin:

‘I’m here because I’m passionate about XYZ and I love your school. Here’s why—’

…or whatever, and how that statement leads you into telling your story, you have equipped yourself to start the interview well. Immediately you will begin to build a positive impression. Same with the end. Know when you’re going to stop talking so when you get there you can do just that:

Stop talking.

Smile.

And await the response.

Stopping when you’re done is a really simple way to project confidence…