HOW TO ANSWER ‘Tell Me About Yourself?’ INTERVIEW QUESTION

This ice breaking yet the most important interview question. It is a way of making the interviewee speak about his/her life story. ‘Tell me about yourself’ is the most common interview question that is guaranteed to be asked by the employer-regardless of your industry, job type and experience level.  Often mold in other words like;

• I have read your CV/resume, tell me more about you?
• How your friends describe you?
• Introduce yourself?

In the whole career of a person we come to this question many times it’s not only attached with interview phase. In our professional career networking community, we came across to this question many times, even in our personal life.

This simple question Tell me about yourself can make you sweat, especially in an interview. It may seem toughest and stressful question for some candidates. In fact, this question is an opportunity for you to make your first impression- set the tone of your voice and speak about the points that the employer is looking for. Do not waste this chance by reciting your resume & cover letter. Do not make a weak impression by discussing about your likes, dislikes, hobbies and other interest. Do not answer unwanted things according to interviewer’s perspective.

HOW TO ANSWER ‘Tell Me About Yourself?’ INTERVIEW QUESTION

Instead, try the concise collections of words depicting you as atheistic, responsive and passionate towards learning and facing new challenges. Let me assure you that talking about yourself should be the easiest thing to do. After all, who knows you better than you? 

What is the Interviewer's Perspective Behind this Question?

• In the 1st most point we will discuss that why interviewer ask this question?
• Do they really want to know about you?

What is the interviewer wanting to suspect by asking ‘Tell me about yourself?’ Well, for the interviewer it is the easy way to icebreaker and start a conversation in a light mode. Don’t be over excited about knowing the background or intention of interviewer regarding questions, tell me about yourself. He is not free that much to know about you. They have busy schedules about interviewee’s list appointed for an interview. They formally asked such open ended question you may say that they are so lazy to reads the sections about your personal information.

Through such casual, unstructured questions they want to evaluate perfect candidates they are searching for. They want to break your mind set game and make you uncomfortable by such questions. They have a much cleared view about your interview preparation, but they want you to come out of your comfort zone and show how adaptable you are for unexpected things. Through such unstructured question interviewer measure your ability to tackle weird situations.

How to Answer Unstructured Questions?

Unstructured question can make you uncomfortable in the interview. Be prepared to answer such unstructured questions. A good candidate is always prepared for such questions. What you need to do is:

•         Do Research
•         Read your Resume & Cover Letter
•         Go through Interview Questions
•         Practice & Refine Your Answers
•         Make sure your answers are correct & precise

Don’t be over cleaver in front of the interviewee. They are not stupid, that why they are the ones’ doing interview. Through such unstructured question interviewer measure your ability to tackle weird situations.

What do you think is Important?

The main purpose of open ended and unstructured questions is assessing your thinking capabilities of the candidates in tricky nervous situations. The purpose of unstructured questions is checking your level of understanding about jobs’ experience and skills for which you had applied. Your interview will be considered over if you start reciting your resume and cover letter. Mold you answer in a way that will ultimately add value to the organization and reveal your image as a potential candidate. So, do get idea about answering the question, ‘tell me about yourself’. Let’s 1^st talk about common mistake made by interviewee. 

Common Mistakes made by Candidate when Answering ‘Tell me about Yourself?'

Often we do not examine our mistake during the interview. Tell me about yourself is the 1^st question of the interview that most people get wrong.  I have to point out some common mistake you might have had made once. Now let’s have a look at it and make sure that you’ll not going to make it again. Because you learn from your mistakes rather reiterating them again.

• Don’t recite things from your resume & cover. Its okay to mention your past success, accomplishments but in relevance to that particular position at the moment.
• Don’t share your Life Stories. Save it for sharing with colleagues, after you get hired.
• Do not ask further questions. For example:  Well, what do you want to know?  It will give an image that you don’t prepare for unstructured question and you will lose the opportunity.
• Short to Your Speech 1 minute/90 seconds would be enough. There are lots of questions on the way, which you have to answer. So, keep your speech precise and you’ll find a chance to elaborate experience and skills later as well.
• Don’t give lazy late answers. The speed of response is the actual response. The pausing, stalling and fumbling can create an image of lack of self-awareness & self-esteem.

What an interview want to hear in your Answer?

Often people think that it is a mystery, what an interviewer want to hear from a candidate. That might be true up to some extent, but not correct 100%. Interviewer are also human beings and would like to hear only right things in a precise way with perfect communication skills.  Let’s have a look to below, check list:

• Who You Are?

The 1^st statement of your sentence should be introduced who you are professionally. Add show off words (do not add over) make sense about your personality. Prepared this line before you go for an interview.

Example:

I’m an innovative SQA Engineer with almost 2 years’ experience managing all aspects of Software Testing Life Cycle.
Well, I grew up in Pakistan. As a child, I always want to be a doctor. But later on during my graduation from Punjab College, Lahore, I found the computer subject more interesting than the rest.  I’m very passionate in learning new things…

You can precisely summarized your professional introduction with diverse background.  Make sure to do, not discuss your personal life stories.

Example:

• Highlight Your Expertise

Do not think that the interviewer has read your resume closely and knows about your qualifications. So be wise enough to highlight your expertise regarding job. Describe your experience in the field, show enthusiasm and describe about your performance.

• Why You Are Here?

End your answer by saying that why do you want this position. How you’ll contribute to company success? Make sure your reply should me short and positive.

Example:

Although, I’m happy with my current job, but I feel now I’m ready for new challenges & assignments. This position really excites me.

Because of financial problems of my organization and my boss’s issue. I’m worrying about my job so I decided to start looking for new opportunities.

What is the Best way to Answer Question, Tell me About Yourself?

Now when you got a clear idea bout, what an interviewer want to listen? And what are the common mistakes you have to avoid while answering the question, tell me about yourself? Now I’ll tell you about the best ways to answer the question, tell me about yourself. The most important thing to be remembered is to focus the interest of the interviewer. Does it make sense to you? No!

Let me brief out, you don’t need to focus what is best for you. All you need to focus how you’ll fulfill the needs of the company you want to be a part. Focus on the company values and strengths. You need to customize your answer that as per the needs of the organization. And your answer should in favor to the company so they take you as a valuable resource that will play a vigorous role in the success of the company. Read: Job Interview Question & Answers. Check the below list for better understanding:

• Focus the Interest of Interviewer & Organization.

•  Structured your Answer Properly

•  Practice Your Answer, Effectively

•  Speak confidently, don’t speak as memorized script.

•  Give little Pause in Your Speech, for Potential Interruptions form Interviewer

•  Mention the Qualities that Company Acquired

• You can summarized your answer as Success Story (Highlights Qualities) of A few Seconds.

Tell Me About Yourself, Sample Answers

I have screened some of the best sample answers for question, ‘Tell me about yourself?’ Through these answers you will get an idea, how you should summarize your answer in your next interview. Let’s have a deep look at each of this answer and write your own:

Well. I’ve been working for the past six years as a systems analyst and data manager. During that time I’ve been trained and certified on a number of different software platforms and systems.

I have more than 5 years of experience as a technical project manager at ____ companies. Most recently, I led the development of an award-winning new trading platform. I’m a person who thrives in a fast-paced environment so right now I’m looking for an opportunity to apply my technical experience and my creative problem solving skills at an innovative software company like this one.”

I'd really describe myself as a person with a versatile skill-set, a lot of integrity and a willingness to go the extra mile to satisfy a customer.  Perhaps the best way to let you know what I'm about is to share with you a quick experience I had. 

You should involve interviewer in your answer so their potential interruption let you add more in your answer. Another tips is that make sure about the gesture of interview. If he is interested or not in your answer. The little pause in your answer give a chance to interviewer & you to ask new question and prepared for new answer vise versa.

Experienced Vs. Fresh Candidates

Just like other field specifications, experience & fresh graduates have to answer in a different way. Experience candidate can talk about their experience in the field. The challenges they have faced in their professional career. How they survived in critical situations & how they add value in an organization’s success story.

An Example of how to best answer question ‘tell me about yourself’ for experience candidates,

"I've worked hard in my education and career to prepare myself to become a world class accountant. I received my BBA in Accounting from the University of Illinois and then went to work for KPMG after graduation. I passed the CPA exam on my first try and have progressed well in my career. I was recently promoted from Staff Auditor to Senior Auditor and was selected to train new hires in our region on recent GAAP accounting changes…"

Either you are experienced candidate or entry level you always have something to tell the interviewer about your experience. All you need to talk about professional and personal experiences that would grab the interest of the interviewer. Keep in mind that the interviewer is interested to highlight your abilities to fulfill the need of their organization as you did in previous organization.  

An Example of how to best answer question ‘tell me about yourself’ for inexperienced candidates,

Unlike to experienced candidates if you do not have any work experience, don’t feel bad. If you do not have a super story to tell the interviewer. You can reference your academic accomplishments, educational career excellence, charity, athletic endeavors and volunteer work. You can mention if you ever had any kind of group activity or internship experience that various organizations offer during your academic career.

“I am Martin, I have completed B.Tech from the university ___ in the stream of computer science & engineering with an aggregate 65 percentage. My short term goal is to crack this interview and my long term goal is to reach at some leading position in a reputed organization like yours…”

 Conclusion:

At the end can assume how you’ll receive this question. I’m sure that from now you loved to hear the question, ‘tell me about yourself’ from the interviewer. Take a few moments now, and plan your next interview how you’ll respond.

Remember, you need to answer every question of your interview behaviorally. Whether it is a behavioral question or not. Use S-T-A-R Approach, to make each answer a STAR:

• S- Talk about Situation

• T- Talk about a Task

• A- The Actions you took

• R- The Results you achieved

Assured that you have given unique answers of the interview with your 100% preparation. It will give an inner peace towards your effort level. If you do not select, don’t lose heart, rather highlight your mistake and make sure next time you have not made them twice. For more interesting post, stay tuned. Don’t forget to share your remarks, I would love to hear from you!