Tell me about yourself

                   Tell me about yourself

At the beginning of the conversation, your interviewer will likely start out by asking you about yourself. They are seeking to understand your qualifications, what led you to the job and generally why you think you'd be a good fit. The key here is making your answer concise and direct, including only professional information relevant to the job. Your answer should be structured as follows:

1. Start by describing your background with a summary of your most impressive responsibilities: "I've been a hostess at XYZ Restaurant for just over two years where I greet and seat customers, assess wait times, fulfill to-go orders and answer the phones. I love the lively and busy environment—we often have Friday and Saturday wait times of one hour or more...”

2. Next, briefly summarize your previous experience with key achievements: "...Before working at XYZ Restaurant, I worked in retail as a floor associate for five years. Working in retail developed the customer service skills that make me a great hostess, offering a top-tier dining experience from the moment customers walk in the door. It also equipped me with the ability to work quickly under pressure..."

3. Lastly, express how you found the new job and why it's a good fit for you and your goals: "...I've enjoyed and grown in my current role, but wish to expand and utilize my customer service expertise in an elite restaurant environment. I am interested in your restaurant because of its reputation for delivering first-in-class service to your patrons in a lively, dynamic environment.”

Why do employers ask "Tell me about yourself?”

“Tell me about yourself,” or questions like it, are common at the beginning of interviews as they ease both you and the interviewer into the interview. It allows the interviewer to hear a short, summed up version of your background and skills, and it gives them insight into what experience and qualifications you think are most relevant to the position you’re interviewing for.

It’s also not lost on employers that, although a common interview question, it still has the tendency to fluster or stump candidates. By answering this question well, you are setting the tone for the interview as someone who is confident, good under pressure and attentive to the qualifications of the position.

Some interviewers might approach this question as an icebreaker by using your response to spark casual conversation to get to know you better, while others may move directly into other interview questions after you respond.

Planning your answer

Even for common interview questions, it can be hard to get started crafting your response. To keep you on track, here are a few questions to ask as you brainstorm ways to respond and structure your answer:

• What qualities make you a great fit for this position?
  Think of what makes you stand out as a job applicant for this role. Perhaps it’s your years of experience or some highly desired specialization, training or technical skills. Review the job description closely and note ways that you exceed the requirements.
  
• Why are you interested in the role?
  Brainstorm why this position excites you, how it fits into your larger career goals and why you feel it’s the best next step.
  
• Why are you interested in the company or the industry?
  After you’ve spent time researching the company and the industry , you should have a better sense of the mission, goals and trends impacting the industry. Do these align with the professional goals that you’ve set for yourself? What do you like and respect about the company as a whole? What excites you about the future of the industry? As you start building your story, tie together similarities among your professional goals, the future vision of the company and industry trends you feel are especially important.
  
• What are the positive traits or characteristics you possess that will serve you well in this role?
  For example, have friends or colleagues described you as especially organized? Curious? Entrepreneurial? Generous? Think about how you’ve long thought of yourself or how others have seen you. Then, think of recent examples from your life when you embodied that characteristic.
  
• Is there something unique about your background that makes you stand out from other applicants?
  As we’ve mentioned, this is one of the most common interview questions. Therefore, interviewers have heard this answered time and time again. Try to think of something that will hook the interviewer. For example, saying something like, “I’ve been building computers since the age of 8,” when applying for a developer role is likely to make an interviewer's ears perk up.