Tell me About Yourself – What are they really asking?

Let’s decode it for you – “Tell Me About Yourself” is Interviewer code for Why Should We Hire You? So while it may be important to you, interviewers do not want to hear about your social life, favourite hobbies, whether you are in a relationship or not, how many siblings or children you have or what your sister does for a living.

What do they want to hear then?

They want to hear your assessment of why you feel you have what it takes to do the job well. And they would like that summarised in a maximum of TWO minutes. So spend time during your interview preparation getting your answer to this question ready – it’s highly likely to come your way. Use our structure to avoid waffle.

Here is our modular structure to create a great answer:

Your Work Experience

You should lead with your best card, which for most candidates will be their career and work experience. All of this should take no more than 60-70 seconds. You may think it’s impossible to do justice to a long career in 70 seconds but remember that this is just the first few minutes of the interview. Just give them the headlines – not the whole article!

Your Education

Summarise your Education next highlighting why it’s relevant to the role. Make sure to mention your most recent or most relevant education first – you don’t need to list every CPD programme you’ve done!

If you are a recent graduate with little relevant work experience, just swap the first two sections – lead with a summary of your recent Education and then summarise your work/volunteer experience to date.

Your Skill

Next up are Skills. You can bet your first month’s salary that the interviewer has a sheet in front of them with a list of skills or competencies they are looking for in each candidate e.g. teamworking, initiative, motivation, working accurately to deadlines, managing client relationships etc. Doesn’t it make sense to tell them that you have all of these? Absolutely! But at this point it’s enough to just list the skills you know are required for the role and that you’ve got them.

Strong Finish – Tell them what you can do for them

The final part of the Tell Me About Yourself answer should focus on telling them that you understand their business and that you are confident that you can add value to it. Leave them thinking that it’s all about what you can do for them – not what they can do for you.

Remember, the 4 sections are modular and can be rearranged so that you lead with your best cards and what is most relevant to the role. For example, if you are a new graduate, you can begin with your Education before moving to your Work Experience. On the other hand, if you don’t have a very strong education story, you can move that to after your skills or leave it out entirely.

One final point! Don’t think that you can wing it and that a great answer will trip off the tongue in an interview.  It needs to be practised – out loud.  If you can impress the interviewer with a strong answer to this first question then the rest of the interview will be a breeze.

Hilt Interview Preparation

We can help ensure you have a great answer to Tell Me About Yourself and many more questions. During our Interview Preparation session, you will have the opportunity to practice your answers with a Career Consultant who knows what the employer is looking for!

Image Credit: Photo by Freepik