How Do You Write an Awesome Self-Introduction Speech?

The Basics

Remember, high-quality self-introduction is a carefully selected collection of information, a hard work, which only slightly resembles an improvisation. Don’t postpone writing an important self-introductory speech and count on sudden inspiration at the very last moment. Instead, prepare your speech in advance.

To begin preparing a speech about yourself, write on a separate sheet of paper the most important biographical information (place of study, diplomas, certificates, etc.), all your professional achievements on another sheet, and the third sheet – all positive personal qualities. It will be better if you devote more than ten minutes to this procedure. Aim to do this exercise thoughtfully and incrementally, returning to the task over several days. The quality of the output would definitely be worth it.

Now think about appropriate linguistic tricks (epithets, metaphors, comparisons, etc.) you want to include in your self-introduction. Use these expressive features with care so that your speech does not become stylistically like a fable.

The Strategy

Before writing a good self-introductory speech, a good speaker ponders over three questions:

• Who am I speaking to? What do these people know and what they don’t know about me?
• Why and in what situation will these people hear me speaking?
• Why are they interested in me and my product?

Let’s say a job candidate is preparing to write a speech:

For whom? 

– For a recruiter who needs a writer in business media.

Why and how will he hear my speech?

– He will listen to me during the job interview after (or before) many similar speeches by other candidates. So, he has little time and there is high competition.

What does he want?

– As quickly as possible to find an adequate candidate who will fill in the job gap and solve the company’s problems.

The goal of the candidate, based on this logic: “To help a recruiter immediately see that I will solve writing problems in his business media.”

Anything this candidate will now write will work for the good of his self-introductory speech. Each creative idea to target his listener will help him achieve his goal. Anything off-topic should be dropped.

Detailed Rules for Writing a Self-Introduction Speech

• The speech should be understandable and clear to the listener. It should be easy to perceive, interesting, and engaging. For ease of reading and memorizing, any text needs to be formatted correctly – into paragraphs of 3-4 lines.
• The tonality of the text of your introduction should not be too official or dry. Also, do not get carried away with epithets or aphorisms. Though, a little improvisation won’t hurt.
• It’s a story about you. Hence, you need to start with a name and education/specialization.
• Describe your reason for being in this place at this very moment (looking for a job, meeting new colleagues, representing your company at an event, etc.).
• Trust. Describe in detail why you should be trusted. That is, tell about your experience: professional skills, education, work experience, etc.
• Interest. Why was it all started or the goal that needs to be achieved? For example, get to know your colleagues better and share your experience, get a dream job, etc.
• Benefit. Here it is necessary to tell about how you can be useful, or what is so unique about you.