Tell Me About Yourself

“Tell Me About Yourself”: Prepare an Effective Response to One of the Most Popular Questions Asked in an Interview
Questions Asked in an Interview: Of all of the questions asked in an interview, “Tell Me About Yourself is one of the most popular. The following technique will help you successfully respond to, “Tell Me About Yourself”, one of the all-time favorite questions asked in an interview.

Develop Your, “Tell Me About Yourself” Response to Handle One of the Most Popular Questions Asked in an Interview

Of all the questions asked in an interview, it seems as if an answer to “Tell me about yourself” should be easy (after all, who knows us better than ourselves?). But for most of us, “Tell Me About Yourself” is one of the biggest fear-inducing questions asked in an interview. In just a few seconds, you have the power to make yourself look like Mr. Incredible…or Mr. Idiot.

Does the pressure of responding to one of these tough questions asked in an interview make your knees knock? Never fear! Your great “Tell Me About Yourself” plan is right here. Create a plan for what you’re going to say, and practice it enough so that you’re comfortable responding to one of the most popular questions asked in an interview, and you’ll be in great shape. Consider the following bits of personal and professional information (a little mix of both is best) to decide what you want to share about yourself in prepare for “Tell me about yourself”, one of the all-time most frequent questions asked in an interview:

Where you’re from originally and how you came to live in your current location.
A few of your hobbies or interests.
What type of work you’re aiming for.
A brief listing of former positions and employers.
What people say are your strengths.
A real-life example (maybe one of your What, How, & Proof stories) that demonstrates one of your strengths.
A brief overview of your educational credentials.
Something interesting or unusual about you.
A statement about why a particular job is especially appealing to you.

To begin developing your response to, “Tell me about yourself”, one of the toughest questions asked in an interview, find some index cards or sticky notes. Use a separate card for each of the items above, and jot down a sentence or two about each topic. For instance, on, “A brief overview of your educational credentials,” you might write,

“After high school, I pursued an associate degree to help me learn more about accounting. A few years later, I went back to school for my bachelors in accounting, and last year earned my CPA.”

For the “Something interesting or unusual about you,”…

“A few years ago I biked from coast to coast across the United States with my father.”

Once you’ve written your responses, spend some time experimenting with the pieces you might want to include for this challenging questions asked in an interview query, and in which order. Rearrange the pieces and practice your response over and over until you find a set and order of elements that feels good to you.

You’ll want your “Tell me about yourself,” answer to be just a few minutes long, to avoid losing the interest of the listener, and to present an effective response to one of the most widely-used questions asked in an interview. When you’ve got an answer that feels good to you, practice, practice, practice until you can practically tell-you-about-yourself in your sleep! That way, when you’re sweating and nervous in the interview, you’ll have a no-brainer reply to get things started successfully.

Excerpted and adapted from “Career Coward’s Guide to Interviewing” by Katy Piotrowski, M.Ed.