How to answer “Introduce Yourself” in an Interview…

We hope you have already been enjoying the season with lots of exam. At this juncture, we wish to CONGRATULATE those who have already got IIFT calls and we also wish to take you ahead to the second level of the process of getting into your dream B-Schools. Yes, you are thinking right. We are talking of Group discussion and Personal Interview preparation.

Let me give you a glimpse of ‘What does a GD and a PI check you on’? Answer is straight and simple. Written exam has checked you on your aptitude. Now is the time when you should be checked on your attitude: attitude towards life, attitude towards your career and attitude towards the society as a whole.

Attitude makes your overall persona. How you carry yourself? How you present yourself, especially in a formal group? How you know your own self – Your strengths and weaknesses, your goals, your ambitions, your dreams? How much of the world around you, you know? Do you mean everything you have written in your bio data for e.g. these are a few things to begin with, which are part of your persona?

Now we are coming with an exciting series on “How to handle GD-PI”. Today we are going to take one of the most popular question & going to answer it with our experience. So we are coming up with first challenge which students faced when they enter PI room & they are asked to describe themselves. They concoct such a story which lands them in nothing but arrays of questions which they are not expecting. Try to answer this question in such a way that you take examiner where you want to take him.

How to go about the question ‘Tell me something about yourself’

While answering this question you should start with what kind of person you are, what are your special interests or achievements, what you like what you dislike? And you should know what you like – why you like that and similarly what you dislike – why you dislike that, though you won’t say that unless asked for.

Then you should talk about what your ambitions are. And this answer should be supported by ‘What made your ambitions’ Remember there is always a trigger for what your ambitions are at this stage. Any one while in graduation or after should know Why he wants to go for something.

And this should be a good 45 to 60 seconds talk.

Next, you should talk about your strengths and should not talk about weaknesses though you should know them at the same time. Never use words like ‘My strengths are…’ Better say – ‘I am a person who believes in perseverance’ etc etc. Here only you should mention about your academic achievements and also your hobbies.

You should know the difference between Hobby/Interests/Leisure time activities. Don’t say ‘Coin collection’ is your hobby if it wasn’t pursued passionately. If you use to collect coins just as an amateur than say that it was a leisure time activity or something you were deeply interested in.

Understand one thing; choice of right words makes a difference. The meaning of what you say should be crisp to them and they should understand what you want them to understand.

And this should be 30-45 seconds answer.

Last you can talk about the kind of family you belongs to and the value system of your family. This can be 15-30 seconds answer. So all in all you can have an answer ready for 2 minutes to 3 minutes, and that is enough. Usually an interviewer will come up with another question from your first 40-60 seconds answer.

All the best for next phase.