Reading this post by David Jensen I realized he poses a very good question I’ve had come up in my recent interviews:
“Tell me a little about yourself?” (or its many derivations)
He says to have three versions ready: 10-minute, 5-minute, 2-minute.After running it through in my head for a few days I realized i definitely had the 10-minute version, that one was easy to figure out; I found a shortened historical format to be very easy to adapt. The five minute version I found to be a little harder, and the two minute version is constantly rewriting itself. Having done Licoln Douglas debate, I definitely know what its like to have two minutes to try and say the most meaningful things I can think of. But this is different, since its about ME!
It really got me thinking, how can I sum up everything about myself into a short burst of time, but really represent myself well. I found that saying I’m really awesome at Actionscript, or going on very technical about myself is not the way to go. The person asking the question wants to know something about ME, and sure I can just continue to further my qualifications by babbling about some project or another… but the truth is the person I’m talking to probably doesn’t have the knowledge of code I do, and going into a bunch of techno-babble is just going to make them think I’m just another anti-social IT guy.
So I resort not to the tech-nerd-borderline mad scientist side of myself, and instead more into the poetic-prosaic-romantic-artistic side and let it come up with the following. This is the first paragraph of my 5-minute version, it also in a way doubles as my two minute version except I make the appropriate changes.
5- (and 2) minute version:
For the most part there are two kinds of people in the professional world. Ones that can do one thing extraordinarily, and ones that can be amazing at many. Most people I’ve worked with always fall on the former, i am the latter. My thirst to learn has always fueled my drive, I constantly find ways to engage myself, even if it means learning something completely foreign. Being a foreigner myself, I was born in Cartagena Colombia, I know what its like to dive into completely uncharted waters and swim successfully. It’s difficult to label myself as one thing, because I strive to be great at many, it is an art form in of itself. I am a highly organized objective thinker, and a brilliant problem solver. I have an extremely high IQ (ask maybe I’ll tell), although I lack the full college education, there’s not a concept I can’t comprehend, or anything I’ve ever had problems understanding despite obscurity or scrutiny. I love my work, it is an extension of myself and a representation of who I am therefore I put into it as much of myself as I can. I’ve learned to work hard and train harder for everything in life. In comparison to life all challenges I’ve accomplished have seemed dismal, but it all works in support of itself. I am a firm believer that life was not meant to be easy, we are just meant to make it look that way, if you’re good at it.
