How to Introduce Yourself When You Suck at Self Introductions : A Personal Manifesto

I suck at introducing myself.

That’s what I figured the most every time I’d attend a job interview or if someone asks me, “can you tell me something about yourself?” Most of the time, instead of answering the questions directly, I’d rather ask, “what do you want me to talk about?”

Stupid answer. I know.

You see, during job interviews, those that require you to sit inside a room while an evaluator peruse over you resume and credentials, they would always ask you things that are already written in the piece of paper they were holding. Hence, it really baffles me how they wanted to ask the same things over again. But for the sake of probably knowing the applicant (which, in case at hand is me) they’d ask you to tell something about yourself.

If those case arises, I’d answer the basics—I’m a Journalism Graduate from Polytechnic University of the Philippines; My work experience can be summarize as: being a romance writer in Precious Hearts Romance with 12 published books (as of writing), has different experiences in publishing and content writing works and has two year stint in a below the line advertising agency; I’m the eldest of five siblings and my hobbies include reading and travelling—nothing extraordinary, and if you’d ask me, I think how I introduce myself is too ‘scripted’ and something I’ve already said over and over again.

Nothing extraordinary and everything is too…typical. Maybe it’s because aside from the fact that I suck at introducing myself, I lack enough courage to speak for myself. Being a communication major, people would always expect you to know how to speak and carry yourself confidently. Do not get me wrong though, I can definitely speak in front of the crowd if needed to (I can even sing if you’d ask me to) however, my strength will always, always be in written words.

The confidence I lack when speaking is the opposite of how I’d describe myself to you if you’d ask me to do with written words.

So take this advice: know your strengths and use it to your advantage. This advice is cliche, and probably another thing I also suck at doing but I guess this is one of the simplest yet truest advice that I've tried and tested for years.

So yeah, let me re-do this again, shall we?

Hi! My name is Lyssa Jane Villanueva, but you can call me Lai. I mostly consider myself as a young professional whose career playground has always been in line with Creatives. At present, aside from my continued love and hate (or, more specifically frustrating) relationship with writing books, I’m still vigorously learning and continually finding my own path and niche in the creative industry.

Coming from a family of artists, I discovered her creative direction at an early age—I know that I am born not to draw (though, I have basic knowledge and skills on the area) or paint, rather, I am alive to write. Consequently, it is writing that makes me feel alive.

I took up a Bachelor in Journalism Degree in Polytechnic University of the Philippines (PUP) to further flourish my writing skills and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 2015. During the course of my tertiary education, I was able to gain experience and master journalistic writing which includes news and feature/magazine writing. Moreover, I am also able to discover another hobby turned into passion—photography.

In 2014, guised in the pen name "Honey Villa,” my first book was published under the biggest Tagalog romance publisher in the Philippines. As of writing, I already have 12 titles under my belt, some of which are recognized and awarded by the PHR Community. Since I started writing in 2012, I’ve been continually exploring other categories of book writing to make my craft better and allow me to get out of the box that I am in.

I also have a blog, which chronicles my adventures and other misadventures since her junior year in high school. I regularly contribute articles on different websites all over web—which most of the time reflects romance (or the lack of it.)

Aside from writing books and articles, taking photos, and working freelance jobs here and there, I also like to travel (where I get inspiration most of the time), read books, binge watch on K-dramas, catch up on sleep and sing (because I still fervently believe that I can be able to sing on point someday.)

So…did I introduced myself right, this time?