Nailing the “Tell me about yourself” question starts with realizing that your interviewer already knows your job history thanks to your resume. Performing a monologue based on your LinkedIn page is pointless, yet job applicants do it all the time. Remember that interviews are more about making strong matches than proving qualifications. If you weren’t qualified, you wouldn’t be in the room. — Harvard Business Review
We've all had this question in our job hunt. And it can sometimes be a perplexing one to answer. Presentation coach, Joel Schwartzberg, identifies this feeling in a recent article. "Receiving such an open invitation invites more perils than opportunities because you’re given no framework for your response—just a blank, clue-free canvas. Your mind may have myriad internal considerations," he writes. Things like, "should I tell my life story? Should I run through my job history? Should I share my hobbies and favorite movies? Or, should I talk about my last job or boss?"
It can be tough, but Schwartzberg recommends that we "be more than our bio," that the essence of answering this question lies in aligning ourselves with the needs of the employer. That we should research the company beforehand and have a good understanding of what they're looking for. "Pick a story from your professional life that illustrates you filling that particular need in another job, preferably one in which the setting of your story matches the setting of the business to which you’re applying," he writes.
This question is an opportunity for us to solidify our qualification for the position we are vying for. We want to match "who [we] are and [our] personal story with the company’s brand and primary need, all while answering the question directly." Instead of just telling a prospective employer about ourselves, Schwartzberg wants us to help them understand why we matter. Perhaps, in our next interview, it is an approach worth exploring.
2 Comments
all things considered =, it always comes down to cultural fit
I remember applying at a landscape architectural firm for an architectural graphics position. Besides my resume which was made up of architectural signage positions all they asked to see was my sketchbook. I had never been asked this before so when I asked why they said they wanted to know how I thought. How I solved design issues. They wanted me to "tell them about myself" visually.
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