Who ARE You?

I recently stumbled upon an online video interview of a business professional.  The first thing the interviewer asked was for the interviewee to introduce himself.  It was shocking.  This individual did not have a brief, 30- 60 second sound bite to describe who he was.  Worse yet, the interviewer let him stumble though this lack of preparedness without much help.

I started searching through YouTube.com for other interviews to see if this was an anomaly or if people really do not understand the importance of a good, strong introduction.  It’s definitely the latter.

How about you?  Do you have your elevator speech ready?  What do you say when you meet someone new?  What critical information do you give?

If you don’t have anything prepared, here are a few things you can think about to get you started.  I’ll use myself as the example.

• Name-  “Hi, I’m Trish McFarlane.”
• Job/ Profession-  “I’m a Director at Perficient in St. Louis, MO.”
• Type of Company- “Perficient is an IT consulting firm.”
• Any additional career related info-  “In addition, I am a writer, professional speaker and HR consultant.  I author the HR Ringleader blog, co-founded the Women of HR blog and co-founded the HRevolution  conference.  I also speak and consult about Human Resources, Social Media and Communications.”
• Throw in the personal info–  “I’m also a mom of nine year old twins.  I love supporting them in their school and sports.”

All that only takes a minute or so to tell someone, yet concisely summarizes who I am and what I do.  It is a very important skill to have though because it may be the only chance you have to make an impression on that person.

So, WHO ARE YOU?  Tell me in the comments….