How to effectively respond to the "tell me about yourself" question in an interview
How to effectively respond to the "tell me about yourself" question in an interview
When asked in an interview, "Tell me about yourself," it can be challenging to respond if you are unprepared. The stress of job searching is already high enough without adding self-perception.
Given that it might be challenging to communicate about yourself without any rules, you can feel lost when trying to respond to this topic. Fortunately, when your responses have a solid structure, it can be lot simpler to speak confidently about your accomplishments.
Here are our top formatting advice and response-writing tricks.
Why do interviewers need a brief biography from candidates?
The main goal of a job interview is to get to know you. The "tell me about yourself" interview question is used by interviewers as a bridge between the small talk and the technical and behavioural questions.
The interviewer wants to know if you can speak professionally and clearly. Making a negative first impression when you're placed on the spot is to freeze up.
The interviewer hopes the applicant can respond to the question in a way that comes naturally and demonstrates their level of preparation and interest in the meeting. In a job interview, having a strong response might make you stand out.
If this issue comes up during a phone interview, you can prepare your responses in advance. In-person interviews require you to be ready to respond without consulting your notes.
Additional ways interviewers might phrase this query
Sometimes, the "tell me about yourself" interview question has a distinct tone. Interviewers may inquire:
- More about your background, please
- I'm curious to know more about you.
- Describe your experience spent working at "x" company.
- Could you elaborate on your experience for me?
- Tell me something about you that I didn't learn from your résumé.
Be prepared with a planned and practised response to handle any iteration of this question.