This job interview question ‘trips a lot of people up’—the best way to answer it

“Tell me about your­self.” 

It’s one of the com­mon — and decep­tive­ly dif­fi­cult — ques­tions you might be asked dur­ing a job inter­view.

Most inter­view­ers use this ques­tion as an ice­break­er. But respond­ing to such a broad invi­ta­tion to talk about your­self can feel intim­i­dat­ing. 

“Even though it’s the most com­mon job inter­view ques­tion, it trips a lot of peo­ple up,” Julia Pol­lak, chief econ­o­mist at ZipRecruiter. “So many can­di­dates have a ‘deer in head­lights’ reac­tion and cycle through their whole biog­ra­phy.”

Since the “tell me about your­self” ques­tion is typ­i­cal­ly asked at the start of a job inter­view, your can set the tone for the rest of the con­ver­sa­tion. 

“If you have a long-wind­ed, bor­ing answer, it can bring a quick end to the inter­view,” says Jeff Hyman, an exec­u­tive recruiter of 28 years. “You don’t want to launch into a long sum­ma­ry of your sto­ry and resume.”

Instead, think of the ice­break­er as an oppor­tu­ni­ty to make a strong first impres­sion, he says.

Your response to this ques­tion should be a short ele­va­tor pitch (no longer than 1–2 min­utes) high­light­ing some of your , rel­e­vant expe­ri­ence and why you’re excit­ed about this job. 

You also might want to con­sid­er men­tion­ing a recent chal­lenge you’ve over­come in your career, and it taught you, Hyman adds. 

“It sounds coun­ter­in­tu­itive, but few can­di­dates will think to do it, so it will grab the inter­view­er’s atten­tion,” he explains. “When I ask can­di­dates to tell me about them­selves, I’m look­ing for self-aware­ness and matu­ri­ty, and talk­ing about chal­lenges with con­fi­dence shows me you pos­sess those traits.”

For exam­ple: “One of the for­ma­tive peri­ods of my pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment was my first job out of . The per­son who hired me quit soon after I start­ed and it was dif­fi­cult to adjust to my new boss’s man­age­ment style at first, but that expe­ri­ence taught me how to be more adapt­able and col­lab­o­rate effec­tive­ly at work.”

If you’re uncom­fort­able dis­cussing a set­back, Hyman sug­gests weav­ing in an exam­ple of how you’ve demon­strat­ed lead­er­ship at work to impress the inter­view­er.

For exam­ple: “Some­thing I’ve learned about myself recent­ly is that I’m pas­sion­ate about lead­ing a team and ral­ly­ing peo­ple around a cause. At my last com­pa­ny, I was a co-lead of one of our employ­ee resource groups. I orga­nized vol­un­teer projects along­side some of my col­leagues, which was such a grat­i­fy­ing expe­ri­ence.”

Hir­ing man­agers also use the “tell me about your­self” ques­tion to eval­u­ate your con­fi­dence and get a pulse on your goals and pri­or­i­ties, William Van­derbloe­men, the CEO of exec­u­tive search firm Van­derbloe­men Search Group, told CNBC Make It last year.

It’s impor­tant to tai­lor your response to the spe­cif­ic job you are inter­view­ing for, Van­derbloe­men explained, focus­ing on the skills and expe­ri­ence that are most rel­e­vant. 

For exam­ple, if you’re inter­view­ing for a job as a soft­ware devel­op­er at a grow­ing tech start­up, you might say:

“At this in my career, I’ve learned that I enjoy work­ing in fast, agile envi­ron­ments. I can’t stand sit­ting still and doing the same thing every day, even out­side of work, I’m always eager to pick up new hob­bies. One thing I love about your com­pa­ny is that you are in a phase of hock­ey-stick- growth right now. I’m excit­ed to con­tribute to this growth, adapt on the fly and sup­port oth­er teams’ work how­ev­er I can.”

We built Lovevery: How our play kits bring in $226 million a year

Are you stressed about mon­ey? Sign up for CNBC’s new online course. We’ll teach you how to be more suc­cess­ful and con­fi­dent with your mon­ey, and prac­ti­cal strate­gies to boost sav­ings, get out of debt and invest for the future. Start today and use code EARLYBIRD for an intro­duc­to­ry dis­count of 30% off through Sep­tem­ber 2, 2024.

Plus, sign up for CNBC Make It’s newslet­ter to get tips and tricks for suc­cess at work, with mon­ey and in life.

Read More

Leave a Comment