AUTBIOGRAPHY Take Home Assignment Details

Batch: MBA & MBA (SM)

Subject: Organizational Behaviour
Topic: Personality

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 4th September, 2014

Using the below mentioned questions, write a biography of your life till date. Wherever required, you may add any
information from your side to explain something in greater detail. The confidentiality of these reports will be duly
respected. Depending on how you like to portray yourself, you may add pictures, designs, colours to your
autobiography report. This will be a soft copy submission so feel free to unleash your creativity as there is no
restriction of a black & white print-out, etc. The report will be a representation of you, it is something about you.
How do you like to present yourself to the world? The answer to this question will determine the overall appearance
of your report.

List of Questions:
i.

I, your silent partner, need to hear something about the story of your life. As of this moment, I know almost
nothing about you. What has happened to you thus far? What were the twists and turns in the winding road
of your life?
(This question is about an overview of your life. It tries to get you started with your autobiography by making
you ramble about your life for a while. This is like a rough manuscript of your life so far. Please note that this
document would be kept confidential. Just let it flow. If you belatedly realise you have left something out, put
it in when you think about it. How long should your story be? As long as it takes to tell. Tell away!)

ii.

How late did you start your story? Most people get themselves born and then jump to age twenty. But if you
want to collect the facts that you'll need later to analyse your own career path, you should fill in some of the
things that went on before you were an adult.
Not that I care if you fell in love with your doll or your rocking horse at the age of four. But if your story begins
with "I graduated from Bombay University and..." it probably leaves out some facts that are both public and
pertinent -such as the years of secondary school. Or even primary school, at least its name and nature. Or
that most cordially hated activities imposed by the parents or whoever it was. Or...

you tell me. This is your

life!
What else went on back there?
(This question seeks to understand more about the beginning about your life story. The years & events that
we disregard by calling them unimportant e.g. your childhood, teenage, etc)

iii.

Please fill in the cracks. May be you already have, but if you did you are unusually thorough. People's lives
are full of temporariness. What went on during summer holidays? Were there jobs that filled your evenings or
weekends?
These odds and ends of living often teach lessons that matter. They often contain data you can use now,
even though you saw no relevance in the experience back then.
(This question tries to bring out more memories from your life that you may have missed out in your account
so far either intentionally or unintentionally. They can be funny, sweet or even embarrassing. Each of them
made you who you are today. Lets hear a little more about them!)

iv.

Talk a little, if you already haven't, about the people in your life. At least the public facts. Was Uncle Rajiv a
graduate? A drop-out? What has become of your brothers and sisters? And your friends, what of them?
(This question asks about the important people in your life starting from the beginning of your memory.
Maybe some of them dont matter today, but at some point they impacted you. What have they left you with?
This is all data that will prove helpful as you proceed with your autobiography.)

v.

What about the future? Of course, that's the question we both are trying to answer through this exercise, but
what reading do you take of your future now? Perhaps you have already mentioned your future in any of the
previous questions. If you haven't, please do. If you are uncertain about it, describe the nuances of your
uncertainty.
One sub-question surely deserves your attention: What future would be ideal? If all went as well as possible,
what would be the Happy Ending?
Or maybe you could dream of more than one? Or more than two? Just pour out!
(This question attempts to capture your aspirations, hopes, dreams, your vision for yourself.)

vi.

By the way, I forgot to ask you one thing! Was there any one who greatly influenced you in your childhood?
Who was it? Any close family member? A neighbour? A sports-personality? Matinee idol? Or any other
public figure? What in them appealed to you?
As you grew up did the significance of this person reduce/increase? Has that person got replaced by
someone else? Is there anyone who is source of great influence on you? What in that person is so
powerful? Would you like to become like him/her? In what way?
(This question tries to understand how you draw inspiration from those around you, or how you get influenced
by the people you meet. From childhood heroes, to role models, to other influences. Each one of them is a
data point towards deconstructing your personality. Lets talk about them, shall we?)

vii.

If we read back over the exchanges in your written interview, we surely can find a series of moments when
your situation changed. You left high school to go to college, college to go to B School, or to work, which at a
later moment you left to go to B School. Perhaps during your college years you transferred, took a year
elsewhere, or dropped out. Or simply changed your major. Some of these changes were in good part forced
on you. Each put you into a new situation.
Please go back over your story and pick out these points of change. Make a list of them. Add some others
we haven't discussed, if others now occur to you. This list will be the backbone of our discussion as we
continue our written interview.
(So basically, for this question you only need to enlist the instances in your life when a major change in your
surroundings or life-situations took place.)

viii.

What disillusionment did you suffer? Can you recall your expectations about college, or a job and how these
expectations contrasted with the event? Perhaps your expectations were dead wrong; perhaps they were
right on target.
At any rate, please try a little retrospect on the before and after views of each listed event.
The emphasis here is on cognitive awareness, not on values. Did you know the facts?
(This question tries to help you notice if in all the situations mentioned above you were able to predict the
changes that you will face. At points where you met unexpected outcomes, what was your reaction? How did
you feel? Etc.)

ix.

By now you must be aware of some repetition in what you have been saying. There probably are themes
and patterns. What patterns do you see?
What entries recur? Can you conceptualize a factor underlying apparently distinct entries? If you arrange
the decisions chronologically, do the entries evolve with time?
This last point is of special interest, since being able to observe yourself acting as if you held consistent
values and beliefs is one thing and deciding to base your next decision on these same considerations is quite
another. There are two sides to a career: where it has been and where it is going.
Can the array of ins and outs of your actions in the past reveal to you something of the direction of time's
arrow?
(This question wants you to start pin-pointing themes that you can notice in your responses so far. Is there a
consistency in the way you think, or the way you take decisions, or the way you see things, feel emotions,
react, express? What are those patterns that have evolved so far in your previous responses?)

x.

Write out in detail how you felt writing this autobiography. Frustrated? Emotional? Excited? Boring? Painful?
Just write down