Tell Me About Yourself
Unveiling My Story: A Personal Narrative of Experience and Growth.
This blog post shall not be taken as guidelines. Instead, this is my way of thinking about a common interview question/topic, “Tell me about yourself.” Irrespective of any industry, it is the most commonly discussed topic on the interview board.
We need to understand that “Tell me about yourself” is a general interview topic, not an interview question. The word “QUESTION” is always fearful to many of us. So the first step is to consider this not a question and offload some of our pressure.
Think about meeting an unknown person in your personal life for any individual or business reason. We start the discussion by asking a few common questions like,
How was the traffic? Did you take a drive or take a bus or subway? How did the weather look like in your area?
We had a little shower in this area. Often we tell them as an ice breaker. You may have noticed that you wait to start the original discussion immediately after you meet. You are allowing him to settle and be comfortable. You may ask him how is your work or project going. (Which might be your main point of interest). In this case, you are not directly asking that person about his work. You are allowing him to start a conversation about the type of work he does. As a professional individual, he shall take this as a lead to start the discussion and allow you to know more about his type of work, at least at a high level, to get a clear overview of his nature of work.
Behind the simple request, 'Tell me about yourself’, lies a chance to share your passions, accomplishments, and aspirations, revealing the incredible tapestry of your journey.
Let’s return to the “Tell Me About Yourself” topic from the job interview perspective.
When we are in an interview room, we all are unknown to each other. So we need an ice breaker like any regular conversation, which starts with asking about the weather, time zone, and any breaking news of that day. Although these are icebreakers, one must respond spontaneously. “Tell me about yourself/ Tell me what you are doing currently/How is the project looking?” shall follow after the icebreaker question. I would take this question as a part of ice breaking, in other words, as a general conversation, not an interview question.
When one can distinguish between questions and general discussion, which reduces some pressure and allows our brains to think appropriately, remember the earlier conversation with an unknown person!!!
In an interview, our common interest is to assess each other. The interviewer will evaluate the interviewee and interviewee to evaluate the company and its culture through the interviewer. The “tell me about yourself” question allows you to describe what you are doing in the context of your current job and your qualifications aligned with the job you are interviewing for. Your explanation shall not be full of too low-level information. Still, it shall describe your recent work and skillsets in a very organized and understandable manner so that everyone on the interview board understands your experience and capacity to work. A conversational statement that makes everyone feel comfortable also grows interested in listening and asking questions about your experiences and expertise. When we talk about ourselves, we shall focus on our strengths and good things, making us passionate about our tasks.
It would greatly help to implicitly concentrate on how your current ability may help your interviewing company. You do not want to talk about something entirely out of the interviewing company’s interest. That does not put value to the conversation either way.
“Tell me about yourself” is the gateway to the actual interview. An interviewer likes to take the lead out of your narration and ask for more details. Narrating something you do not know or do not have expertise in shall lead you toward trouble. It is acceptable to allow people to know your strength and weakness in your task while giving high-level descriptions.
No one can know everything. Every company is unique. As an interviewer, it is essential to see if you can demonstrate your ability, as mentioned in your paper resume, which does not reflect the real yourself until you perform on the interview board. In other words, you defend the context of your resume at a high level by narrating about yourself on an interview board.
Tell me about yourself or a topic that determines in which direction you would like to drive your interview. It is an open question/topic. You have much freedom to talk, and allow you to control the interview room environment. Through open-end questions like “Tell me about yourself,” you can initially influence the interviewer to ask questions about what you are good at or have expertise in. In many cases, this short discussion determines the fate of an interview. Remember interviewer has limited time, and they have questions to ask you. If you can direct them towards your strength through “Tell about yourself,” you allow them to spend some time within your comfort zone. Thus highly likely you end up with a positive outcome from the interview.
Make your strategy to narrate about yourself. You know yourself, your field, and your expertise more than anyone. Yet, although you may have great skill sets and the ability to perform your work, you may need help to pass the job interview hurdle. These might be due to a need for more soft skills in narrating your knowledge to the knowledgeable interview board.
Thank you for reading. I hope this helps. Leave your comment below.