Interview Advice: Answering the Question, “Tell Me About Yourself”

Interview Advice: How to Answer, “Tell Me About Yourself.”

I’ve interviewed hundreds if not thousands of people ever since I started my company 3 years ago and I always start off each interview with a simple question: “Tell Me About Yourself.” It is a question that is meant to be vague and doesn’t necessarily have a right answer. However, while there is no right answer to this interview question, there is a right way to answer this interview question.

Before I start off with teaching you the right way to answer this question, I’ll run through some examples of the wrong way to answer this question. So what shouldn’t you say when you answer this question?

First, don’t talk to me about your personal life – I don’t care about how long you’ve been married, how many kids you have, your civil status, or your religion. Keep that to yourself. These facts should have nothing to do with the job you are applying for – I’m interviewing you, not you and your wife.

Second, don’t tell me what your favorite color is or how many FX rides it takes you to get to Manila or Makati. Unless these questions are relevant to your job position, share them with your friends and not the employer you are interviewing with.

Third, don’t talk about your personality traits. I’ve heard everything from ‘I’m a jolly person’ to ‘I like to smile’ to ‘I’m a hard-worker.’ I assume that everyone who comes into my office works hard and is generally a happy person. There is no need to highlight these assumptions – if anything it makes me question why you are telling me you are happy all the time – could it all be a lie?

So what sort of answer am I looking for to the question, “Tell Me About Yourself?”

In short, I want you to summarize your resume and highlight the last 2-3 companies you’ve worked for, what you did there, and why you are sitting here in front of me right now. If you can do this in 1-2 minutes, great. If it’s longer than that, I guarantee you that the interviewer stopped paying attention long ago. Keep it concise, to the point, and all business. If I want to ask you what your favorite color is, I will ask you that. But until then, focus on the work you’ve done and why you’re in my office interviewing for this position right now.

Here’s a quick example of how I would answer the question:

“Hello, my name is Paul Rivera and I currently work at Google where I served as an AdWords Account Manager for the past 3 years. As an AdWords Account Manager, I handle these duties and manage this amount of revenue. In addition to these duties, I also do this at Google. Prior to Google, I worked at Unilever where I did this job, and that job. While my job has been very fulfilling at Google, I’m seeking a more challenging opportunity that will test the skills I’ve built up over the last few years at Google and that’s why I’m sitting in front of you now for this interview.”

You get the point. If I were to hear that from an interviewee, I’d come away very impressed because this person not only clearly knows their resume (you’d be surprised at the number of people who don’t know whats on their resume) but also knows why they are interviewing for this position.

I could really be leaving Google because I was passed up for a promotion or am not happy about my compensation but that’s not what you want to focus on. You want to focus on the positive contributions you’ve made and how your skill set can contribute to the success of the company you are interviewing for.

The best way to answer this question is to practice. When I was in college, preparing for my interviews with prospective companies, I practiced answering this question to the point where I had it memorized and could recite it both in long-form (lots of details) and short-form (a quick summation).

Success in an interview, just like in life, is a result of preparation. If you’re prepared to answer this question, then I might just be prepared to hire you.