MAIN POINTS:
• “Tell me about yourself” is a request for specific information about you and your work.
• Focus your response on who you are, what you do, and why it matters.
• Tune your message for your audience.
“Tell me about yourself.” It’s a common conversation-starter in professional settings, and it won’t be long before you hear it again. So, if you haven’t already, now is the time to think about your response. Don’t be fooled by the casual delivery or the simplicity of the statement. This is a request for specific information about you and your work. It’s not an invitation to go on about hobbies or pets or podcasts. Perhaps that’s obvious. To make the strongest impression, your response should be …
• a clear message about who you are, what you do, and why it matters,
• conceived in advance but delivered spontaneously, and
• tuned to your audience.
Here’s one way I respond: “I’m a professor and union officer at a music school in Boston. I use my experience and expertise in professional writing to help students and colleagues achieve their professional goals.”
What follows is, starting from scratch, one way to craft your own response.
STEP 1 – ANSWER THE 3 QUESTIONS
Start by formulating answers to 3 questions: “Who I am?“ “What I do?“ and “Why it matters?” Keep your answers simple, clear, and relevant to your musical activities.
For the first question, think about your work and interests. Maybe something like “I play the cello.” Simple? Clear? Relevant? Yes, yes, and yes – onward.
For the second question, identify your passions and strengths as a musician. What projects compel you to leap from bed before the alarm goes off? What repertoire motivates you to pursue music rather than, say, enroll in medical school or start a tech company? Maybe something like “I really enjoy chamber music.” Okay. Good enough for now.
For the third question, consider the broader relevance of your work. Why might what you do matter for someone who is not a cellist, not a musician, or not obligated to support you because they fed you and bathed you and paid for your cello lessons? (Thanks, mom!) Maybe something like, “I’ve got this crazy idea that I could use chamber music as a way to foster community.” It’s a bit high-minded, but okay, we can work with this.
Write down your answers. Speak them aloud. Revise to make them look and sound more comfortable. Resist the urge to skip these steps. Also, resist the urge to pile on qualifiers and clarifiers and technical (or poetic) language. You don’t want to sacrifice clarity for overwhelming detail. Or flair. Even something overly simple and direct (“I play the cello”) is preferable to scripted and sentimental statements such as (“With cello in hand, I seek fulfillment in communities of sound.”). Most will say, “tell me more,” in response to the former statement, whereas the latter makes everyone think, “I’ve heard enough.”
STEP 2 – REHEARSE AND REVISE
In the same way practice and rehearsal increase the likelihood of a good performance, focused attention leads to more refined and more natural responses to the 3 questions. “Winging it,” or improvising new responses every time, is inadvisable. You’ll never get past the awkward and unwieldy stage. What begins as awkward and unwieldy, though, will become clearer and more engaging with practice. Practice also leads to a better understanding of your work for your own benefit in addition to enabling you to describe it, with ease and poise, to others.
Writing, speaking, and revision continue to be useful exercises here. Feedback from trusted mentors and colleagues is also valuable at this stage. To increase the odds of getting substantive and meaningful feedback, refrain from disclaimers and apologies (“I haven’t spent much time with this.“) and leading questions (“Is this any good?”). Simply ask, “How can I improve this?” Accept feedback graciously, and as before, revise as necessary.
“I play the cello to pursue my passion for collaborative music-making.” Okay. This is getting better, more specific, more engaging, less suspiciously high-minded.
STEP 3 – TUNE YOUR MESSAGE
You’re now ready to tailor (or “tune“) your materials. Think of the material composed in the previous step as the theme. A context-specific variation will enable you to capitalize most fully on every unique audience or opportunity.
For example, your “Tell me about yourself” response in a social context should be similar but not the same as your response in a professional context. In other words, the message to a potential supporter at a fundraising event (“Audiences often say my expressive style of playing enhances their connection to the music-making.“) is tuned differently than it is for a potential employer (“My commitment to chamber music allows me to teach through collaboration, which really resonates with this generation of students.”) In both cases, the message aligns with the audience, and by extension, it stands apart from more common and unremarkable responses, such as “Well, let’s see. I play cello, and when I’m not practicing – which is, like, all the time – I like to watch reality TV.”
In closing, “Tell me about yourself” is an opportunity. Set yourself apart with a clear and engaging response – about who you are, what you do, and why it matters – tuned for the circumstance. Once that message is pitch perfect, sure, go ahead and say something about your pets.
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