How to answer the question “tell me about yourself” in an interview
Tell me about yourself?. Have you ever been in an interview and this question is asked? If you have, let me know what your answer was in the comment section below.
If you’re preparing for a job interview or any form of a business interview, this is one question you cannot afford not to answer correctly.
You may probably think, it’s just for you to randomly start talking about yourself but there are basic rules you need to know in order to correctly answer this question and land more job offers.
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#1 Do not talk about your personal life or family.
This is one mistake you don’t want to make, whenever someone asks you to talk about yourself, they’re not asking you to talk about your personal life story and what you have learned from them.
Let’s simply say when someone asks you to tell them about yourself, why not talk about your qualifications, experiences, and why you are fit for the role.
In a nutshell, what they want to know about you is your professional background.
#2 Do tell a story
As much as you should not tell them your life story, You do want to tell them your professional work story. Something you should put into consideration when telling the story is that you shouldn’t be boring, try as much as possible to be very active and engaging with your story, make it very simple and clear, and don’t make it too long.
Now you know the rules, we can now go into four major tips that will help you to talk about yourself right.
Tip number 1
Give a snapshot of your work history
You have to start your story from the earlier professional jobs that you have held. Major details you should not leave out is
- The company name
- Your title in the company
- How long you held the title in the company
- your major responsibility in that position.
It could be that while you were in that company you moved from one minor role to a major one, you have to start off by explaining how you took off from one role to another, this will show your work progress.
Tip number 2
Make your mini-story achievement-oriented
You wouldn’t want to tell an empty story that doesn’t make you a champion and worth employing. After explaining your role in the company, it will be nice to talk about 1 major accomplishment in that role.
Accomplishment is whenever you save time, save money, make more money, improve processes, or anything that brings quantifiable results to the company.
When you talk about your accomplishments, the interviewer starts seeing you as a resource in his/her own company. Make it obvious to them that you have all the reasons in the world to employ you and if they do not employ you, they’ll lose all that you can offer to them.
Once you can make them see not employing you as a loss, it means you have successfully convinced them to hire you.
Tip number 3
Tell the employer what you know about the role you are applying for.
It is only right that you tell the employer what you know about the role they are hiring you for after telling them the story of your past companies, roles, and accomplishments.
This is very important, what this does is that it doesn’t only tell the employer your abilities and accomplishments, it psychologically plays a big role in letting him/her know you are aware of his needs or the company’s needs as well.
When you can relate to the needs of your employer, you are simply raising a strong connection between you and the employer. It means that despite the question being about you, you could make it about them because you want them to see the need of hiring you.
Tip number 4.
Tell them why you are the right fit for what they need.
This is like an outro speech, it’s like the conclusion of the whole matter. This is what gives beauty to all you have said so far. Never overlook this part because, in as much as you are applying for this job, there may be over a thousand more people seeking that same job.
Hence, this is why you need to convince them that you are the only perfect fit for the job. Tell them how confident you are that you will succeed in the role they’re hiring for.
If you don’t end your talk with this, you just ended it on a flat note and you may not be sure of the response you will get. Whether or not they ask you if you are the right fit, this is your opportunity to prove to them that you are the right fit for the job.
If you take all that has been said into consideration then you now know how to confidently answer the question “tell me about yourself”
As someone who knows what to say, don’t panic, just dish out the four tips given to you and stand the higher chance of getting that job.
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