One of the questions that some of my clients struggle with is “So tell me about yourself?” It’s tricky, because it is so broad, I once told an interviewer that I was born in High Wycombe, I have no idea why I felt this was pertinent to the job or interviewer, it was my probably my worst interview ever because my interviewer dozed off for a few minutes. I managed to wake him up and fortunately I got a second interview, largely out guilt I expect but hey you have got to take the breaks where you can get them. I have since learned how to answer this question as well as heard some excellent responses which include the following bits of information:

1. Your Experience: What have you developed a track record in? How long is your experience? What is your breadth and depth of experience, i.e. what kind of environments/functions have you worked in? How would you describe your contributions?
2. Your Strengths: What are you good at? What do you excel in? Tailor your response, by highlighting your skills and strengths that complement the position in question.
3. Your Factor: What makes you unique? Which traits sets you apart? Show the interviewer how your drive will make you an outstanding asset. Think about what your manager/peers would say about you. How do people experience you?
4. What’s in it for the prospective company? Why are you interested in the position? What would you enjoy about it? How would you contribute? Why would you be successful in the role?

The key here is to script and practice your response, until you feel confident, natural, but not rehearsed. You are sharing resume highlights so limit your response to two minutes or so. You can always end with “Is there anything that I have mentioned that you would like me to elaborate on?”

Bonus: You can also use the above framework to craft your professional/executive summary for your resume, your elevator pitch or your online bio for your blog or LinkedIn for example.

Drop me a line and let me know what other interview questions have stumped you in the past.

Tags: elevator pitch, Interview Questions, Online bio, professional summary, tell me about yourself?

This entry was posted on Friday, September 26th, 2008 at 8:56 am and is filed under Interview Questions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.