How to introduce yourself in English?
How to introduce yourself in English?
If there's one thing scarier than sky diving and that's being asked to tell me something about yourself by a group of strangers in a formal setting so today I'm going to give you a ten step process to help you answer this trick question which appears in every job interview.
I'm going to give you one a simple ten step process to help you introduce yourself in any job interview in fact you can use this in any selection interview,
second I'm going to give you some rules that go along with each step and,
third I'm going to talk about some common mistakes and how you can correct them I'm also going to give you some stock phrases that you can use in your introduction if English is not your first language,
and at the end of this post I'm going to give you a complete introduction that you can use with your own customization.
Tell me about yourself this question comes in a number of different forms,
for example;
walk me through your background
or
take us through your resume (CV)
but whatever it is this is a trick question because the interviewers asking us to tell them about ourselves and in fact they know everything about us by seeing that resume (CV),
so;
> exactly what are they asking us to tell them they're asking us for two things;
1- One they want to know our attitude towards work
2- What kind of a person am I.
3- They want to know whether I'm a good fit for the job and what I can contribute to the company or any jobs for which you apply.
So,
we need to catch their attention and keep them interested. Chances are they've had a full day looking at hundreds of applicants that look exactly like you here's your opportunity to prove to them that you are best suited for the job
and now on to that
*10 step process
First steps;
that you need to take are about who are you step number one is called greetings now formal greetings are highly recommended like Assalamualaikum Sir/Madam.
Smile be confident and make good eye contact.
Step number 2;
thank you for the opportunity this is an optional step and depending upon the situation you could either say thank you for shortlisting me for the final interview or thank you for this opportunity to talk about myself now this will not only create a good first impression but it'll also help both you and the interviewer relax a bit step.
Step number three;
is your name now I am Muhammad Umar I'm Muhammad Umar or you can also say my name is or my name's the rule is to smile to be proud of your name and to enunciate it clearly and some common mistakes here are a saying myself Muhammad Umar or calling yourself mister or miss now,
the question you have right now is should I use my full name and the answer is yes always please use your full name because simply using your first name may sound a little casual.
Category two type of questions are about why you're qualified
step number four;
position and company if you have work experience then this is the time to tell them about the position you held the name of the company the number of years any awards that you've won and what impact you've had on the company what difference you've made to them for example for the last five years I have been the sales manager at dot dot leading a small sales team and our team was awarded the best sales team of the year for two years in a row I have worked closely with clients and built some key relationships example I am an HR manage rat blah blah blah looking after the key functions of recruitment compensation Learning and Development I have over 5 years of experience in the field and we have been able to increase our employee productivity by 8 percent during this period now the rules for this step one sound enthusiastic about your work
*Two don't sound very pompous like I am a leader I've done everything try to make it sound like you're a good team playe
rule number three;
tell them something over and above what they can already read in your resume and
the fourth rule;
is if you make a claim try to give some proof to make it credible and believable the question you want to ask me right now is should I start with my most recent position and go backwards or should I start with my earliest work experience and come forward and the answer to that is always start with your most recent position and talk about it and go backwards only if it's highly relevant or very important otherwise your resume covers all of that.
Step number five;
is qualifications if you're a fresher you're not going to be able to answer step number four and you're going to jump right into step number five so let's see some examples I'm a recent MBA from - - - with prior work experience inthe pharmaceutical sector or I have completed a bachelor's in mass media degree with a specialization in public relations and corporate communications or I am currently pursuing a five-year integrated law program at - school with a focus on cyber law if your college is prominent and well-known mention it otherwise let it pass common mistake I am a bmm from NMIMS mm-hmm so
if you are a fresher than just one line like I'm a software engineer from so-and-so school doesn't seem enough so this is your chance to add achievement-oriented mini stories for example I was part of the research project on how modern technologies changed the way of teaching in the future where we worked with an ed tech company to evaluate the efficacy of some tech based teaching interventions make sure you talk about a project in an area that's relevant to the employer and if the area is not directly relevant how about you talk about some skills that could be relevant for example you've recently done a project called the impact of gaming consoles on the youth and you're just about to appear for an interview with a food marketing company so how about you say this to them this project helped us understand the motivations of today's youths and how to attract their attention with our products and services you can also talk about any training program courses or other experiences that you might have had during your graduation question should I mention my CGPA when I'm just a fresher well normally I would avoid it because it's already there on your resume but if you want to highlight your academic achievements how about saying something like I've consistently been inthe top 1% or 5% of my class step number 6 additional qualifications this may include any outside courses that you did skills that you gained or awards that you want for example I have completed a six-month computer animation course from ... I'm proficient in German and Spanish I have learnt dot net Java and Python on Coursera which have helped me in completing a project on so on and
so forth
step number seven;
is called adjectives now use some adjectives to describe yourself to the interviewer for example,
you could be versatile easy going solution-oriented determined team player or just someone who enjoys working with others now if at this point you're worrying about English and you're saying hey English is not my first language and how am I going to be able to say all of this then I'm gonna introduce you to this app called Cambly that I use a lot where you can connect with English tutors from around the world and there are native speakers and you can brush up your conversational English so let's quickly call one of them up and find out what they have to say about tell me something about yourself well I think it's very good tobe authentic you know authentic is yes so it means to be very real and be yourself you should definitely use a complicated vocabulary and complicated grammatical structures as long as it doesn't interfere with who you are and how you present yourself,
step number eight;
is called hobbies and passion this is optional but you want to include this if this helps you build a connect with the interviewer if you think they are significant or it helps you establish some skills that you want to demonstrate to them for example I am a trained singer and the daily riyaaz has taught me self discipline and dedicationor I am a keen runner and this not only helps me keep fit but also helps me network with other runners in the community I recommend that you keep this section very very brief.
step number nine;
is family now this is optional I would typically leave it out of a standard introduction but you can choose to use it strategically if you wish for example my mother has been a housewife and during my vacations I helped her set up a small tailoring boutique at home with my savings from work or my father is a farmer and I helped set up a process where he could directly sell his produce at the farmers market and bypass the middle men alternatively you can use this technique to answer this question on family when the interviewer poses this question to you, later on during the interview and category three type of questions is why you're here.
step number ten;
is called closing this is the point where you tell the interviewer two things one why are you here?
why are you applying for this job?
and two,
why are you a right fit for this job?
you can also use your future plans and connect them to the company's (Pak Forces) goals for example although I love my current role I feel I'm now ready for a more challenging assignment and this position really excites me this is a very general statement and you can make it more specific and suited to the Forces or you can show off your research that you've done about the company and add a little bit of flattery to it as well at this point for example with my passion for sport and my skills of data analytics I wish to work for a leading innovative sports analytics company like yours and I do believe I can make a positive impact,
and you can end your introduction by saying that's all from me, thank you.
some rules to follow for step number ten a read the Job Description so you can get some words from there that you can cleverly fit into this answer and second sound enthusiastic about the position and
Now some final tips
tip number one;
write down your personal introduction customize that every time you walk into an interview.
tip number two;
jot down and learn only key points don't memorize the entire introduction or you're gonna sound like a robot let a little bit of spontaneous he come in and don't worry too much about the grammatical errors that you think you might make the third tip is very important limit your entire introduction to about a minute two minutes is long I would think one minute tops rule number four maintain good eye contact and look confident while giving all these answers if they're more than one people sitting in the room and only one person has asked you the question don't answer the entire question looking at just that one person look at everyone around the room smile relax breathe and remain confident use a storytelling mode to tell about your accomplishments you can use hand gestures if you wish don't go over the top but you can use some hand gestures also sound excited happy about everything that you've done in the past and everything that you're going to do in the future and now let's put it all together and this is your
sample introduction;
on tell me something about yourself,
assalamualaikum,
thank you for shortlisting me for the interview,
my name is Sonia Madhok,
I'm the sales team leader at PQR for the past five years making significant in roads into new territories with our products,
I have worked intensively in both the rural and semi-urban markets understood the dynamic and build some strong distributor relationships,
I'm an MBA from XYZ with astrong background in marketing during work breaks I enjoy trekking and mountaineering this activity has shown me that good strategy consistency and determination can help you overcome any obstacle,
I'm a person who thrives in a fast-paced environment and right now I'm looking for an opportunity to apply my marketing expertise along with my creative problem-solving skills to an innovative marketing company like yours,
I'm sure your introduction to the question tell me about yourself will be even more powerful than what I've been able to show you and I hope I've been of help and thank you so much for watching right till the end,
wish you all the best for that interview coming up.
Comment below, if you have any question or suggestion!
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