Is it a more senior role? In some cases individual keywords could help give the cue that you’ve done your research and are a good fit, according to Campos. Definitely not everything. If you’re speaking to a recruiter who’s not immersed in the hard skills of the team you’d be joining, you might keep your answer more focused on the bigger picture, whereas when you speak to your prospective boss, you might get a little bit more technical. How to answer “Tell me about yourself”. Dea warns, however, against memorizing and reciting your spiel word-for-word. Cleaners perform a variety of cleaning and maintenance duties to keep company facilities in an orderly condition. You don’t want to wait until you get this question in a live interview to try out your answer for the first time. “When an interviewer asks that, they really mean … In this article, you’ll find the 26 most common sales interview questions, PLUS the types of answers your interviewer is looking for, so you can raise the bar on your interviewing skills. Obviously, not every single employer is going to go down this route during an interview, but you should be prepared for when they do. At first glance, … What is your understanding of the office manager role? When Muse career coach Theresa Merrill does mock interviews with her clients, she always leads with, “Tell me about yourself.” It’s good practice because that’s often the very first thing an interviewer will ask you to do—whether you’re having a preliminary phone screen, speaking to your prospective boss, or sitting down with the CEO during a final round. “When an interviewer asks that, they really mean tell me about yourself as it’s relevant to the position you’re applying for and this company. I’ve always really loved writing.”, Campos agrees. I've been able to work with some really interesting people." If your practice buddy is game, you can even ask them what they would say if they were being asked, and try to put yourself in the interviewer’s shoes to think about what you’d look for on the other side. How to answer the job interview question: ‘Tell me one thing about yourself you wouldn't want me to know’ Remember, when this job interview question about secrets comes up: You’re not talking to a friend, you’re talking to a potential boss. So wait until you get a specific question about why you’re looking to change jobs or why you have a gap on your resume to address those topics. By Jeff Gillis. Tell me about yourself. The interviewer is listening for an answer that indicates you’ve … Do you fit the company culture? I have your resume in front of me but tell me more about yourself. You’re also giving a hint as to how you’ll speak in meetings with co-workers, bosses, and clients. Honesty really is the best policy. You might incorporate a sentence like, “I’m really passionate about x and y and so I was really attracted to your company…”. It’s often the first to … You'll probably want to note your overall satisfaction with your job, and even give one specific thing you've found valuable about the job. If you’re talking to a C-level executive as part of your final round, it’s probably smart to touch on why you’re drawn to the overall mission of the company they run. You can also enhance your answer and make it more specific to the role and company based on what you learn as you progress through the interview process, Campos says, such as, “When I talked to so-and-so it really resonated with me that your mission or value is…”, If you were fired or laid off from your last job, this probably isn’t the best moment to mention it. Before joining The Muse, Stav was a staff writer at, 15% off Career Coaching | Use code CYBER15 through Dec 13th |, A Simple Formula for Answering “Tell Me About Yourself”, 8 More Tips for Answering “Tell Me About Yourself”, Tailor Your Answer to the Role and Company, But Inject Some Passion Into Your Answer (if You Feel Comfortable), Be Succinct (and Definitely Don’t Recite Your Resume), Remember This Is Often Your First Impression, and It Matters. Even if the powers that be aren’t making an irreversible determination shortly after the conversation begins, a first impression can color the rest of the interview. It needs to come off as very authentic,” he says. Open-ended questions are an important aspect of the "discovery" or "information gathering'' aspect of the meeting. And, ideally, you'll cite things that you'll be doing in your new role (the one you… Mention past experiences and proven successes as they relate to the position. You still need to be careful to answer the question. about yourself" interview question and more. What are your strengths? “We really only have one chance to make a first impression,” Davis says. Why should I hire you? What about this job interests you? “Most people answer it like they’re giving a dissertation on their resume,” says Davis, but that’s only going to bore the interviewer to tears. Have a look at other Starbucks jobs and find a career you can see yourself in five years. Asking a trusted colleague, friend, or family member to listen and react to your answer will help you hone it. It’s not just about entertaining or engaging your interviewer, Campos explains. In my last 15 years as a professional sales recruiter, I have interviewed … "Tell me about yourself" Uhh, what do you want to know? I have a great dressing … But your objective needs to fulfill their goals,” says Muse career coach and recruiter Steven Davis. Cleaner Interview Questions. Make sure you’re also reading the room as you’re talking. Take advantage of the opportunity! That’s all great in theory, but what would a solid answer actually sound like? It’s important to highlight your strengths throughout the interview, but … The conversation’s not ready for that.”. Keeping your answer professional, however, shouldn’t stop you from shedding light on why you’re passionate about your work or about this company, even if that broaches slightly more personal territory. That seems pretty self-explanatory. You’ll have to decide what feels right for you in any given context, but if you’re speaking for longer than a couple of minutes, there’s a good chance you’re getting into too much detail too soon. As you move further into an interview, things get more comfortable. You need to understand the hiring manager's purpose in asking a question to effectively answer it. That’s why I’m saying, “I enjoy the hands-on accounting work and that’s still what I want to be doing,” in the example answer above. “If you view this as your first impression professionally, give them a window into that but don’t give them everything. throw you off your game and break you free from the memorized answers, But even more importantly, by asking this question the hiring manager also, trying to get a sense of whether or not you truly understand which experiences, skills and abilities are relevant for the position you are interviewing for, a willingness to go the extra mile to satisfy a customer, I did the whole project for a fraction of the cost the other “analyst” had quoted, Click Here To Download Our “Tell Me About Yourself” Answer “Cheat Sheet”, 200+ Job Interview Questions List (PDF Practice Cheat Sheet Included), How To Write A Killer Resume Objective (Examples Included), Behavioral Interview Questions And Answers 101 (+ Example Answers), The Best Cover Letter Format For 2020 [3 Sample Templates], 8 Phone Interview Tips That Will Land You A Second Interview. “The interviewee’s nervous but the interviewer’s trying to get their bearings [too].”. Check out these examples from Zhang, Dea, and Campos. Especially here. “You don’t want to sound overly rehearsed,” she says. If they perk up at one part of your answer, it might be worth expanding on that topic a bit more. This way you will not sound like a “job hopper”. What I like least about myself: I cannot work through the night. And that includes these icebreaker questions about yourself. In general, however, remember that you don’t have to relay your entire life story here, Dea says. When you sit down with a hiring manager and start interviewing for a position in sales, you’re not just highlighting your skills and qualifications, you’re selling yourself. If you bring up specific details about your previous role, focus on your... 3. There’s no question that sales job interviews (and the sales interview questions you will be asked) are some of the toughest types of interviews out there.. To learn how to deal with questions about your motivation, read What Motivates You? Point only job related worst qualities: Always stick to professional qualities and not too personal … A longtime word nerd and bookworm, Stav studied history and dance at Stanford and later journalism at Columbia. There are plenty of times when you’ll hear these exact words: “Tell me about yourself.” But interviewers might have their own versions of the prompt that are asking pretty much the same thing, including: Lily Zhang, Manager of Graduate Student Professional Development at the MIT Media Lab and a writer for The Muse, recommends a simple and effective formula for structuring your response: present, past, future. 2. In other words, are you interested in improving yourself more in a personal or professional capacity. “There’s a time and place for everything—you don’t have to cram it all into this answer,” Campos says. “A good place to end it is to give a transition of this is why I’m here,” Dea says. Determine how to tie your answers into the overall theme of the interview, your qualifications, and the specific needs or parameters of the program you are interviewing with. “Be prepared for this question and show interviewers you prepared for it,” Campos says. You say: "I've given this question some thought, and overall I've been very satisfied with my job. There’s no scientifically proven optimal length for answering this or any interview question. First and foremost, don’t use a situation that could make you look inflexible. No Starbucks Interview Questions list would be complete without this question. If you can, go beyond practicing solo. Think through what you want to convey about yourself ahead of each interview and practice saying it out loud. So don't take it lightly. Are you going to ramble for 10 minutes every time someone asks you a somewhat open-ended question? Talking about your strengths means focusing on professional skills, whereas this question becomes a little more personal. “So, tell me a little about yourself.” This common interview prompt inspires dread for many internship and first-time job seekers. Wascovich explains that whereas the norm in some countries might be to share personal details at this point, in the U.S. you should avoid doing so. Trying to present yourself as someone you're not may help you get a job offer, but it might not be the best idea in the long run. That applies here, too. But then transition into your success story by saying something like "But the best way to emphasize who I am and what I'm about is reflected in this story...". “The confidence that comes across in this is a really good place to start from.”. One way a business prevents the skeletons in your employment closet from becoming skeletons in the company’s closet is to ask questions about your strengths and weaknesses, including questions about traits that you would like to change. “It lets them ease into the actual interviewing,” says Alina Campos, Muse career coach and founder of The Coaching Creative. Practice will surely make your answer stronger and help you become more confident giving it. You don’t have to go into a huge amount of detail, but if your goal in an interview is to stand out among the applicant pool and be memorable, then infusing this answer with some passion can help you do that. Tailor Your Answer to the Role and Company. Prepare yourself by sitting down and coming up with answers to residency interview questions like these in advance. So when you’re in the midst of a job search looking for a particular type of role, you might have a basic template you use for every interview, but make sure to tweak it to fit the company. “People don’t want to talk to robots—they want to talk to humans,” Dea says. Some coaches and recruiters will tell you to keep it to 30 seconds or less, while others will say you should aim for a minute, or talk for no more than two minutes. As with any interview question—or conversation for that matter—you’ll want to make sure you understand who you’re talking to. “I am an abstract artist, a civil engineer at heart, and a ruthless bookworm. For example, does the company refer to itself a tech company or a startup, a consumer brand or an online retailer, a publication or zine? Even if the... 2. This is a basic question designed to test … “Imagine yourself telling a story to a good friend.”. You want to be absolutely certain your interviewer is left with the impression that it “makes sense that [you’re] sitting here talking to me about this role.”. “My opinion is that most hiring decisions are made in the first minute,” which includes your greeting, handshake, eye contact, and the first thing you say, which may very well be your response to “tell me about yourself.”. To make matters worse, every job opening today gets an average of 250 applications, and out of that group, only 4–6 people get in front of an interviewer. Sharing what inspired you to make the career choice you made is OK, for example. If you are going for a job as a nurse, show that you are compassionate. Interests like long-distance running or yoga that help to represent your healthy, energetic side are worth mentioning. As for what a good answer to this question might look like, the first thing you should do is cite the things you like about your current job (even if that wasn't part of the question). In order to do that, you’ll want to spend some time combing through the job description, researching the company, and figuring out how you can tell your story in a way that makes it crystal clear why you’re interested and what you bring to the table that aligns with the role and company. Never be negative. Consider how your current job relates to the job you’re applying for. Every interview question about you requires a slightly different answer, but there are a few useful tips you can keep in mind whenever you are asked a question about yourself. Think of your interview as a sales meeting. If the first thing you tell an interviewer is how awful your boss is and you’re trying to escape the misery of their micromanaging clutches, that’s a big turnoff. It can also be asked to get a feel for your priorities. “Often when the conversation starts it’s a lot of small talk and it’s a way to transition into it,” especially for less seasoned recruiters or hiring managers. Davis recommends leaving yourself a voicemail or recording your answer and then waiting an hour or more before you listen to it to give yourself some distance and perspective. The point is this interview question is important in that your answer can reveal a lot about you and your candidacy. “So in telling your story about how you got your start, that could be a unique hook.”. So start out by giving a quick recap of your employment history and how that's led up to where you are now. I think they’re giving you an opportunity to articulate succinctly why you have the right qualifications,” says Muse career coach Tina Wascovich. “Everyone has a different approach,” says Dea, who’s had candidates speak for one minute or go on for five. “If they talk a lot about culture, weave that into your answer,” she adds, and if the company or even the particular team emphasizes something else, see if you can incorporate that. “If a person really is connected to their mission and what they want to go after in their next role and this company really aligns, this is a great place to bring that in,” she says. Wascovich explains that recruiters might be more understanding of new grads in their first couple of years in the workforce who sound like they’ve memorized their answer, but that it’s likely to be a red flag for anyone with a little bit more experience. But in his experience, people tend to start losing steam after 1.5 to 2.5 minutes of uninterrupted talking. Whatever order you pick, make sure you ultimately tie it to the job and company. The new job she wanted entailed working on an entirely unrelated product, so the important thing for her to mention in this case was that prior to her current role, she’d never had experience working on antibacterial creams and was able to come in and figure out how to move the process forward, just as she could do in this new role. Cite several specific things if you can. Because questions about what you dislike about your job are considered tough interview questions by most applicants, it’s important that you do not fall into the trap that many others do. Then, think of recent examples from your life when you embodied that characteristic. In keeping with the notion that this question carries an invisible addendum—“as it’s relevant to this role and company”—you’re best off keeping your answer professional. Focus on your values and morals, cultural fit and personal traits relevant for the job. 1. “If people feel comfortable telling their story from a passionate perspective, it helps engage the interviewer and set them apart,” says Wascovich. It’s a great opportunity to demonstrate that you can communicate clearly and effectively, connect with and react to other humans, and present yourself professionally. “I get more engaged because I can see that it’s going to go somewhere.”. In other words, this isn’t the time to talk about your family and hobbies, unless you know something very specific about the company that would lead you to believe otherwise. Think about how you’ve long thought of yourself or how others have seen you. And when you start to think about how you'd field this question, you'll want to keep in mind all of the above that an interviewer might be searching for when asking you this question. “Generally the [answers] that always resonate with me show that they really get the role,” she says, as well as why they applied. There’s always a chance that interviewers ask follow-up questions. It’s such a simple phrase, but you have no idea what the interviewer wants to hear. 1. If there’s a particularly potent story about what brought you into this field, for example, you might decide to start with that “past” story and then get into what you’re doing in the present. For example, a client he worked with was leaving a job where she’d worked on a team developing a new antibacterial cream and getting it ready for clinical trials. For every interview you go into you should prepare for all eventualities. It's important to maintain a positive tone when answering this question. To successfully complete your hiring process for this position, you should identify experienced candidates who are organized and can perform quickly. 4. You might be thinking: Um, what do you want to know? Even though it’s one of the most common interview questions, “it almost always stumps them,” Merrill says. Begin by rereading the job description. How to answer "What did you like most about your job?" This is probably the most common interview question. You definitely want to get a sense of the organization in the interview, but that's not the only reason you should do this as you prepare. Just make sure you always sound like you’re interested in doing the day-to-day work, or core work, that the job involves. Best Answers to This Interview Question . You might get some form of “tell me about yourself” at every single stage of the interview process for a job, from the phone screen through final rounds, but that doesn’t mean you have to give the same exact answer every time. Because the actual question isn't "Tell Me About A Time That You Were Successful." For example, Wascovich recently worked with a special education administrator who’d actually been a special education student in elementary school. “You should be able to have a conversation,” she adds. Luckily, you can prepare in advance and use this common opening prompt to your advantage, setting the stage for a successful interview. If you are attending college or university, state what you would like to be doing after you finish. Take note of the required ... 2. By Mike Simpson. “It always helps to practice with other people to hear yourself say it and hear feedback from how other people are interpreting what you’re saying,” Dea says. For example, have friends or colleagues described you as especially organised? A company thriving on experimentation and pushing the envelope may want its employees to be just as adventurous. This question is designed to find out how you view yourself and your opportunities for growth. If you have to spend the rest of the time making up for a bad opening, you’re in a very different position than if you gave a succinct, confident, and relevant answer right off the bat. Curious? “This is the best chance to be very direct and share your objective. How am I supposed to pick what to share out of my entire life story right now? It’s also a great starting point that can help inform the direction of the interview, says Muse career coach and CareerSchooled founder Al Dea: “Depending on what you say it’s going to help them figure out the next question,” which might help start a chain effect of follow-up questions and lend an easy flow to the conversation. Her teachers inspired her to pursue the career she did. If you answer it well, the interviewers will begin to find out why you’re the best candidate for this job, in terms of hard skills and experience as well as soft skills. Beyond serving as an icebreaker and transition, Dea says, this introductory question also helps recruiters and hiring managers accomplish what’s often one of their major goals in the hiring process: getting to know you. “I love it when someone tells me, I knew I wanted to work in marketing when I was a kid. It can be good to give a little personal history or insights into who you are when determining how to answer “Tell me about yourself, as long as you do it right. If the other person looks bored or distracted, it might be time to wrap it up. As with any interview question, the key to crafting an impressive answer is understanding why people are asking in the first place. It might seem like an easy win—after all, you know all about yourself!—but responding to this invitation to talk about you in the context of a job interview can feel stressful and complicated. If you’re like most people, you’re fully prepped to field queries about what you know and the experience you have, like “Tell us about your responsibilities in your current job” or “Explain the strategy you used for [project on your resume].” But don’t stop there! Focus on the positives. Think of it as a teaser that should pique the interviewer’s interest and give them a chance to ask follow-up questions about whatever intrigues them most. Okay, so you’ve got an interview coming up and you know it’s probably going to start with some form of “tell me about yourself.” Here’s what else you need to do to nail your answer. Focus on the work rather than the people. Whatever you do, don’t waste this time regurgitating every single detail of your career. Purpose. And that includes these icebreaker questions about yourself. The Question's Purpose. Examples might include a hobby that you are passionate about like quilting, astronomy, chess, choral singing, golf, skiing, tennis, or antiquing. All Rights Reserved. “It’s challenging because it is broad, open-ended,” Merrill points out. Talking about yourself should be the easiest thing to do. If not, you could cost yourself the job offer! 9. Tell me a little bit more about your background. After all, who knows you better than…You? And that advice you’ve probably heard a million times about not badmouthing your previous employer? Entrepreneurial? When you finally play it back, see if the answer sounds solid and credible to you. But for some strange reason, nearly every interviewer can agree that giving a good answer to the question “Tell Me About Yourself” during a job interview can be one of the toughest and most stressful things to do. “It’s an opportunity to show them right away that you get it,” Campos says. Generous? In this case, a manager wants to find out if you have grace under pressure, can perform genuine self-assessment, and are compatible with the needs of the position. My body demands a minimum 6 hrs of sleep, and it sucks because I lose that tremendous productivity potential. This isn’t the only way to build your response, of course, and you can tweak it as you see fit. “There’s a fine balance between practicing and memorizing.
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