Your Biggest Achievement is Not Your Strongest story | Nitin Babel | TEDxJaipur National University

0:05 Good afternoon. Tell me about yourself. It is such a simple question, right? Every time when I hear this, I would do what almost all students do. I'll stop being a human being and become bullet points. Best internship, top grades, best project, biggest competition win. And the funny thing is I always thought I'm answering fine, right? Because isn't that the obvious answer?

0:44 Find the most impressive line, lead with it, hope it lands. And this habit followed even after college when I was doing my startup. People used to come and ask me tell me about your startup and I would you know just answer the most efficient way which is we are building a chatbot for e-commerce. Now of course this is accurate but also quite forgettable.

1:17 I was describing a product. I was not telling a story. I was giving people information. I was not giving them meaning. And that I think is a mistake a lot of students make. We assume that our biggest achievement is also the strongest story to tell. We confuse CV and a story. But a CV and a story have two different jobs. A CV records events.

1:49 A story reveals character. A CV tells you what happened. A story tells you who you were when that was happening. So when somebody is asking tell me about yourself. They don't only want to hear what have you done. They also want to know who you are when things are unclear. Who you are when there is pressure. Who you are when things are at stake. Now that is what a real story answers.

2:23 So how do you find your story? Well, I found mine in 2017. I was living in Bangalore like a lot of young software professionals in those days. I was you know booking cabs online. I was ordering food online. I was shopping online. I was saving a lot of time with my smartphone. And I was saving a lot of money with my smartphone. I was getting a lot of convenience through my smartphone. At the same time, I had a cousin in Udapur who also had a smartphone. Same generation almost same device.

3:00 Well, he was using a smart the smartphone in a very very different way. What got him most excited about the phone was that he would used to go to a internet shop, pay the shopkeeper 5 rupees to get the latest OTT episode downloaded onto the phone. So that event stayed with me because the contrast was so clear. Smartphone was taking me in Bangalore into a new economy whereas in Udaur the smartphone was mostly acting like a TV.

3:36 Now at that time in my startup I was doing a lot of things. I was you know running around like a headless chicken. I was moving in you know with a lot of uh speed but with lack of clarity. After this event, my work stopped being scattered. I could clearly see that technology was moving fast, but not everyone was moving with it. And that is when the chatbot for e-commerce was now a means to build software which could bring a billion people into this new economy.

4:14 That is when I found my meaning. I've realized I deeply care about that nobody should be left behind in this new economy. Now, of course, in order to sound impressive, I can always say that I've built a startup. I've built AI products. I've raised a lot of funding. While that is fine, but that is not the strongest story to tell. The strongest moment was when my work found its meaning and that is what people remember.

4:44 So how can you find your own story? Well, I have realized looking back at my journey that a lot of pattern is not unique to me. So let me give you an example and take you through a few questions that can help you find your own story. So imagine you are doing a fourperson group project in college. The question number one to be asked will be what is the biggest achievement on your CV? Say the dream project uh is a big success and you get the highest grades in your class. But that is not the story. So go deeper. Ask the second question. What moment in the project felt difficult or uncertain?

5:26 It is not when you submitted the project but it is the night before the deadline when one person of the group just disappeared. when the second person was always busy, when the third person kept saying and then now you are, you know, left with a halffinish project and staring at a WhatsApp group that has gone silent. Ask yourself question number three, what made that moment hard? It was not the project itself. It was the awkwardness.

6:01 It was the feeling of unfairness. It was the silence. It was the fear of conflict. It was the temptation to say, "Forget it. I will do it myself." And carry the resentment with your team for weeks. Ask the next question. What did you do when it would have been easier to give up? This is where your character becomes visible. Do you cover silently for others? Do you confront people honestly? Do you escalate the ma matter or do you let the whole thing fail? This is where the real story begins.

6:39 Go to the next question. What does it reveal about you? Maybe it says that when things get messy, you don't disappear. Maybe it says that when things are uncomfortable, you can handle it. Maybe it says that you care about responsibility more than you care about looking good. That revelation is the point. Ask the next question. What changed in you after that moment? Maybe before that teamwork was just a nice to have word on the CV. But after that you realize what it is. It became harder. It is not just about dividing task between your friends. Teamwork is also about judgment, about communication, about drawing boundaries, about taking responsibility when things stop working.

7:26 Ask the last question. What does this story tell about you that is not there on your CV? Well, it tells who you become when others around you stop doing their part. So you just not just complete the project but you also lead, you confront, you coordinate, you hold standard when things are falling apart. Now that is the story and for students this matters in placements. A CV gets you shortlisted but a story gets you remembered. The interviewer is not just looking for your achievements, they're also looking for your character. Not just what you did, but also who you were when it mattered. So the next time someone asks, "Tell me about yourself." Don't just rush to say the biggest line on your CV.

8:12 Go underneath. Talk about the difficult uncertain moment. Tell the story that changed you. Because remember, the biggest achievement is not always your strongest story to tell. It is the moment that made your character impossible to miss. Thank you.