The vast majority of interviews, and even general networking meetings, open with some variation of “Tell me about yourself”. (You might also hear: walk me through your resume or take me through your career.) In each variation, you’re being asked for a retelling of your background, and many candidates answer the question literally – with a play-by-play of their background.
The problem with that approach is that it takes too long. Even if you’re just out of school, you probably already have several part-time jobs and internships, not to mention your classes and extra-curricular activities. By the time you have amassed years of experience, you have had multiple jobs, each with long, complex tenures, not to mention a rich life apart from your work. You could spend your entire interview (or meeting) on that opening question, and too many candidates do, unfortunately.
However, a regurgitation of everything you have done is not the best use of anybody’s time. This interview isn’t about you. It’s actually not just about the job either. Your interview is about you plus your potential fit with the job. That’s the point of “tell me about yourself”, all its variations and every other question you will get in that interview – the employer is trying to assess whether you are the right one for the job at hand.
Therefore, every question should be reframed with that assessment in mind. Tell me about yourself is a retelling of you as it relates to the job opening in this interview (or agenda for this meeting). Change the job, and you need to change your answer. You’re still the same person but you would want to highlight different examples, use different keywords and spend more time on the relevant items and less or no time on others.
There is no one “right” answer to every interview question, including a seemingly straightforward one like “tell me about yourself”.
While there is no one right answer to an interview question, there are many wrong ones. If you want to know how to give clear and compelling responses, how to handle the hostile interviewer, how to change your approach for callback interviews v. first rounds and much more, check out Behind The Scenes In The Hiring Process, my online course with 48 video lessons on all aspects of the job search – including 10 lessons on interviewing.
