Graduate school application essay question

Graduate School
1

My son is applying to graduate programs in public policy and one of the questions on one of the applications instructs: “Describe yourself to a future employer. (200 words maximum)”

He has asked for my advice about how to approach this question and I am stuck. He has the “show don’t tell” philosophy about essay questions down pretty well, but what is this question even looking for? Would you “describe” a long list of traits? A handful of traits with some examples? One or two key traits with a story?

2

Just tell him to think of two or three things about himself that (a) would really help him to excel in his job but that (b) many to most of his peers would lack, and then just try to distill those down to 200 words. They are not looking for a long list, they are looking for a concise but meaningful set of traits. If they wanted a story, they would have given him the wordcount for a story. They are looking for a few concisely explained/documented characteristics.