The Perfect Guide for “Tell me about yourself”
Everyone who has appeared for an interview has to face a simple yet difficult question “Tell me about yourself”. People know a lot about themselves but this short and simple question leaves them blank. Some start reciting rehearsed dialogues, some gibber, some stutter. Tell me about yourself is the most common question in interviews irrespective of location, age, experience, sex, position, accolades, references, education. One is usually perplexed over the figuring out right things to say to impress the interviewer.
Why is it even asked?
What do you want to know? What should I talk about in my life? What should I refrain from telling?
Before we dig into what to answer it is important to understand why it is even asked. Why would an interviewer ask this question?
1. Ice-Breaking
Yes, the very first question helps in ice-breaking between participants. Starting an interview without knowing even the skin-deep detail of a person is very awkward and may ruin the mood. This question helps to bring in the warmth between interviewer and interviewee.
2. Set Direction
Tell me about yourself is not really a question in a literal sense. This is an opportunity for the candidate to set boundaries. The interviewer can then be sure about things he can ask. Also when the candidate speaks it sets a direction thereby making it easy for both parties to get a productive outcome.
3. Beyond Resume
This ice-breaker question allows candidates to share things beyond the resume. Resume is strictly professional however this question is not. Depending on the context, one can pick and share colors from the spectrum of life with the other person.
4. Save Face
Many times interviewers forget the details of the resume as they have been through a number of resumes already, or have gone through yours a long time back and they simply are not able to recall the details that well. Also, it is very likely they do not get time to the resume till the very interview they are sitting in right now. Hence to save face they let the candidate talk about themselves to literally know about them before they start digging further.
5. Enthusiasm
A lot of times this question alone can decide the fate of the candidate as the lack of enthusiasm to answer this question gives a signal on how the candidate will handle day-to-day meetings, conversations, projects as a part of the organization with internal and external stakeholders.
What to speak?
Now that you have understood why, let’s get to the point. To begin with, think of yourself as the protagonist of a movie. This movie starts with the protagonist sitting in front of the interviewer, and it goes into a flashback, and by the time movies flashback all the way to present then toward the climax of the movie.
1. Present
The movie starts with the protagonist’s present life. Things to include here must be crisp and include roughly 3-5 sentences about your current work.
1.a. Start with your name, current role, and organization
1.b. Give a high-level idea of your scope of work
1.c. Recent Achievement
2. Past
After giving a brief glimpse of the present situation, the movie goes into flashback. This is the point where you decide what are the relevant points. You can choose to keep or omit scenes of the protagonist’s life. Being relevant to context is extremely important when you talk about past things. Everything you speak about in the past should be aligned with what you’ve applied. It can be the longest part and you can take the liberty to keep it up to 2 min of information sharing speech.
2.a. Start with alma mater and education
2.b. Tell the number of positions you have worked over the years
2.c. Pick only relevant positions and share high-level details
2.d. Pin-point the problem(s) taken care of and the outcome(s) including promotions, monetary gains, metrics
2.e. Mentioned hand-picked hard and soft skills gained over the years
3. Future
As the movie gradually progresses toward the current scene, shift the focus towards the future of the movie. Picture the protagonist within the organization adding significant value to the company with learned skills. Keep it to 3-5 sentences.
3.a. Talk current skills that will help in performing well in the position applied for
3.b. Areas you would benefit from while working in the new organization
3.c. Soft aspects of the company that excites you
How to polish your answer?
Now that you have understood the three-part movie method for “Tell me about yourself”, we can move forward to polishing for the perfect starter of the interview.
1. Keep it relevant to position and company
A lot of people get over the board and start speaking about everything they have worked on. Avoid throwing unnecessary information that would make it hard for the interviewer to maintain the direction of the interview. For example: If you are being interviewed for software engineer then it will not benefit you if you share information about ad-hoc work like assisting your manager to finish some procurement project. Speak about
2. Keep it professional
When asked to talk about yourself do yourself a favor and keep it professional. A lot of people become emotional or use slang language. It can make an impression that you are immature. The best bet would be to keep things professional. Avoid talking about your hobbies, family, personal issues at this moment. Use this question to showcase the best of yourself. Maybe the interviewer will give you room to slack as the interview progresses.
3. Be positive
When you speak, avoid any negative experiences. You may have left the last organization due to the manager’s ill behavior, late salary payments, or any similar negative experiences. Avoid all negative things in this question. Show your positive side. As a matter of fact, people feel repulsed due to negative behavior. It is considered toxic and leads to unproductive culture. Show the positive side of yourself. Be energetic, loud, and clear. The interviewer is looking for a person he can work with at least 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. So he definitely wants someone who can amplify productivity, creativity, and teamwork.
4. Show passion
The hero of the movie is passionate, always! In your movie, you are the hero of the story and no matter what the interviewer is your viewer and he needs to see your passion for work. You need to need to give them a passionate reason to believe in you. Would you hire someone who doesn’t show passion to get the work done? This is the same answer he would have to give when interviewing you. While talking about the past/future, throw in a good reason why this position, company, domain, and/or industry is your destined line of work (till now).
5. Be Crisp
The interviewer is not interested in listening to every word you have written in your resume. They expect you to tell them everything quickly before they can prove you further to check for fit. Delivery what you are in about 2-3 minutes. Anything less than 1 min will force the interviewer to make you speak more before the actual interview starts, and anything more than 3 minutes will probably leave him exhausted. Stick with the movie method and keep it crisp.
7. Be prepared for this question
Expect this to be your first question and be prepared for it. An underprepared candidate can be a big turn-off for the interview. Being over-prepared is far better than being under-prepared.
7.a. Get details of the position: Be in touch with the recruiter and ask questions about the specific qualities, skills the interviewer might be looking for. It gives the recruiter the confidence that you are more than willing to join the company. Also, they will be happy to help as it allows them to close the position quickly and improve their productivity.
7.b. Know the interviewer: Tailor your answers according to the role. Knowing the interviewer helps you to highlight points that are more likely to add sharpness. It will also allow you to decide where to focus. As you clear rounds of interviews, the checklist for the right fit for the job shifts from hard skills to soft skills. Keep your answer aligned to what is expected.
7.c. Rehearse: Jot down a few bullet points as per the movie method and talk about it as you brief about yourself when you meet new people.. Rehearse, rehearse and rehearse till you have these points in your subconscious mind. This will help you to become original and at the same time well-versed about yourself.
Conclusion
Wrapping it up, we’ve gone through reasons for “tell me about yourself” being the first question in the interviews, the things to be covered using our movie method, and polishing the delivery of the movie as per the job. Do keep in mind the person in front of you is trying to find someone who can help him to reduce their work-related headache. This question makes your first impression on a complete stranger and your first impression matters. No one wants to add a person who is not sorted in their head while working. So follow the technique and become a pro at this question and ride the interview as a surfer does a wave. Good Luck!
