if you're paralyzed in interviews and can't figure out how to answer the interview question tell me about yourself you're not alone so keep watching this question trips up so many people i'm going to share how to structure your answer important do's and don'ts and a foolproof example answer hi i'm Amri Celeste i'm an hr recruitment specialist and a career coach with over nine years hiring experience a client once asked me why is this question asked why don't interviewers ask for exactly what they want to know the purpose behind phrasing this question as open-ended is exactly
that it opens up the candidate to speak unrestricted and it helps the interviewer get a sense of you and your approach if they were to ask a closed or boxed in question about specific areas of your cv or experience such as how does your educational achievement add value to this role they would get a much shorter and closer response structure there are many ways to structure your answer to this question one way is to start off with your current role and then go backwards through your career highlighting key points this is easy to remember because
you're starting with where you are currently you can also start with relevant education but if you do this link it back to relevant areas in your career so that you're linking it back to the job that you're interviewing for fairly quickly also include what drew you to this company role or industry how long should my answer be i'm afraid to say that there is no solid rule for how long or short you should speak but with the structure i've given earlier you're giving a career overview and because you're only highlighting key areas of relevant experience
you should be able to summarize this without boring the interviewer i would say if you're still speaking after a few minutes it's worth pausing and asking would you like to know more but make sure that by then you've covered all the relevant areas and key points in your career history what the interviewer doesn't want is a full five-year breakdown of everything you did in every role relevant or not since the birth of your career and they certainly don't want your whole life story also don't include personal things like political affiliations sexuality marital status i know
this may sound obvious but when people are nervous personal things tend to slip out i've seen this many times and you don't want to be assessed against any of these things for a job you need to show that you have good judgment and that means knowing what not to say because the interviewer is going to try to imagine how you might interact with clients or colleagues depending on the role how to answer keep your answer succinct and relevant your goal is to be memorable so you're only highlighting relevant areas of your career so this doesn't
mean that you would skip periods of time where you worked in roles that weren't relevant but you can skim them easily by saying something like then for three years here i worked at various admin roles at company x and company zed but the most relevant details about myself would be in my current role and steer the conversation back to key points and relevant experience fairly quickly if your interviewer wants to know more they will ask you or you can say if you'd like to know more about any of the areas i mentioned please let me
know a common mistake is trying to include everything and speaking for such a long time that your interviewer doesn't remember any of it the hardest thing can be deciding what to include and when to stop speaking if you find answering interview questions a struggle you'll be pleased to know that i have created a guide for you packed with 20 example answers to difficult interview questions for your job interview including questions like why should we give you the job what is your greatest weakness and how do you handle pressure at work i also cover the types
of questions that you should be asking your interviewer at the end of your interview show your personality i know there's a lot of advice about not getting personal and keeping things strictly professional and while you don't want to come across too familiar or over friendly there's nothing wrong with including a hobby you like or coming across enthusiastic if that's your personality you just don't want to go overboard you can share why you're passionate about that role or industry or company or a hobby you have that's related to the role so let's say for example you
were interviewing at l'oreal and you had a youtube channel where you gave beauty advice because you love it include that it might not be your professional history but it illustrates your passion and it's a hobby that is relevant people enjoy talking to humans not robotic scripted candidates so i always recommend injecting a little bit of life into your interview remember you could be neck and neck with another candidate and they could be just as skilled but they won't have your personality and that could put you over the top stay positive try to steer away from
too many negative points in your answer not all interviewers are created equal and you don't know how your interviewer will handle anything that is too personal or traumatic your role in your interview is to create an atmosphere that makes you memorable for the right reasons when your interviewer or manager remembers your interview they should remember how enjoyable it was they should feel positive and associate that positivity with you answer confidently remember that if you have an interview you were likely selected out of multiple other candidates and you may have already had to go through a
phone interview or multiple previous stages where they decided that they felt that they could see you in that job remember if you're interviewing face-to-face they've already seen your value based on everything you've already done so project confidence sit up straight smile make regular eye contact pause and think for a few seconds before you start talking to collect your thoughts then speak confidently about your career no one knows it better than you do so do you feel like this is a difficult question or have you struggled with it in the past let me know in the
comments so i'll give you an example answer to the question tell me about yourself and then i'll explain why it's such a strong answer so an example answer might be i've always had a passion for connecting with people i graduated university with a degree in communications and i found that very useful when i moved into sales i was able to utilize that when i developed what i now consider to be my key skills of new business development client relationship development and meeting my targets under pressure overall i've spent the last seven years in sales my
most relevant and recent position is as a sales manager for company a where i manage a team of five brilliant sales execs i really enjoy what i do there i manage all aspects of team leadership including one-to-ones development sales training daily huddles and keeping the team motivated and coaching them through rejections and how to handle them all the while continuing to bring in revenue myself so even though i manage a team i've never lost my passion for selling because i wanted my team to see me leading by example in fact last quarter i exceed my
target by 10 and my team by 15 however after dedicating seven years i'm now ready to take the next natural step into head of sales which is what attracted me to this position i immediately felt i could add value based on my previous experience and was attracted to your company because i noticed your values include passion and accountability which matches with my personal ethos along with your impressive growth over the last two years this answer is about a minute and a half and it hits various points your passion for what you do and how it
tied into your education how you utilize your education at the beginning of your career which shows your dedication to your industry your loyalty to your company your respect for your sales team again your passion for what you do you're making it a theme throughout your answer your duties and your dedication for continuously developing and supporting your team your motivations to leave what attracted you to the role and two areas that attracted you about the company indicating that you've done your research on the company values and other areas so to recap make sure your answer is
structured and you start with the most important relevant key highlights of your experience in skills try not to make your answer longer than a few minutes don't share personal information such as marital status and political affiliations show your personality or passions you have that are relevant to the role keep a positive tone answer confidently if you found these tips helpful and your job hunting then subscribe and i will help you on your journey to the right role thank you so much for watching i do hope that you got value from this if you did tap
like and i will see you soon goal is to be memorable so your goal is to be memorable why you're passionate about that role or industry or company
