Tell me about yourself vs why specialty

[interviewq]

I think it's fair to assume most interviews include the two questions "Tell me about yourself" and "Why x specialty". For the "Tell me about yourself" question, how much information should you include about your path/desire/personality fit/etc related the specialty? Knowing that the next likely question is why x specialty, I don't want to repeat myself, but I also don't want to skip it completely as it does reflect who I am. 

[robclem21]

These questions are very different. When people ask you about yourself, they are looking for personal information. It is very broad, but generally tends to include things like what makes you special, what you enjoy doing in your free time, what life experiences have helped shaped you, are you more than just your CV or is your entire life about medicine. If your only answer to tell me about yourself is why you like that specialty, then you're not a well rounded applicant and probably not that fun to work with.

Path, clinical experiences, personality fit, interests, research, etc. would be good things to include in your answer to why "x" specialty.