Interview Question: “Tell Me About a Time You Failed” ... detailing what you learned from your experience. Example Answer With No Experience: “I graduated with a degree in Engineering two months ago. ""For the last two years, I've been at XCorp. they are not trying to make it hard for you and everyone who does interviews knows how hard it is. If you see others posting comments that violate this tag, please report them to the mods! Have you ever heard of an Elevator Speech? This week we're going to focus on the job interview question, "Tell me about yourself?" Quick decision. I tell them where I'm from, where I went to school, my last/current job, and why I am sitting in front of them. Employers like to give jobs to people who will appreciate it. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The other twin was the opposite. Should I start talking about my schooling because I have no actual work experience. Recuiter: Tell me about yourself. A one or two minute story. ... It’s often difficult to assess yourself objectively when you fail. Tell them something interesting about you. If you don’t have experience, a simple ‘no’ will do here. Right now I'm on a team using A and B to do X. They may be interested in your skills. Finally after stating what I like about my current/previous job(s) I use that as a jumping off point to talk about non work stuff. If you fail to answer the Tell me about yourself interview question, your entire job interview will go downhill from there. Do I talk about my education and some prior experience, my technical skills I possess? Tell me about yourself. Ultimately the story should conclude by explaining how you came to be applying for this job. This may be one of the first questions you get asked in your interview, so you'll definitely want to be prepared so you don't start on an awkward note. And it should be one of the easiest questions to answer — because you can anticipate and prepare for it — but, just as commonly, it’s one of the most anxiety-provoking and confusing questions. I can also see how well prepared you are with this question to, and I can gauge the rest of the interview based off of it. What the Interviewer Really Wants to Know . They may be interested in your work history and education. Same thing with these kinds of interview questions. I seem to get asked this question A LOT during phone screens by technical managers and HR recruiters. This is helpful to elaborating on why I want the specific job I'm interviewing for. Use the timing of the question and the context to figure out which one. I like to work hard but I also like to make time on the weekends to be with family and be active...bullshit like that. I ask them if they want to hear about a big legacy refactor at work, or a side project I finished all myself.). I guess difference could be that in university recruiting we have such a huge breadth of positions that we can match the job to the kid, instead of trying to find a kid with the skills to match a req. Me: Well, I am a software developer with X years experience passionate about Java and web services and with a track record of delivering quality software in a fast-paced, team-oriented, deadline-driven environment. These, too, are negatives. Don't mention the things in the job post directly. The right and wrong 'tell me about yourself' answers. Describe yourself in 3 words, or one word are some of the other versions of this question. "My name is X, I graduated in Y from Z University. They were scripted how to answer the "tell me about yourself" question. This open-ended invitation often kicks off an interview, so make sure you’re prepared with a smart, short response. Google it. Studies have been done on this. ", One of the things I do in interviews is telling people what I'm not (as long as it's something they don't need. This shows them you're just trying to find the best match, and you're not bullshitting them about being good about everything. The tell me about yourself can actually be the only question you manage to answer during the first three minutes. 🙂 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. I also don't know the proper amount of time to use to answer this question, I imagine short answers probably aren't the best. Which means they basically want to find out if they like you and trust you. It is often asked as a follow-up to one of the most common interview questions, "Tell me about yourself." Should I ever refer to the job posting and my skills or is there a better way? Why not? Since you have little to no work experience be brief when answering this question and don’t make an essay out of your answer. The best way to practice this all is to have someone ask you this question, then answer it three or more times (or do it out loud by yourself if you have to). People pay strongest attention when first listening to a voice. All business. Your resume states the facts, but the interviewer wants to know about the person behind the work history. “Tell me something about yourself,” is an interview question so popular applicants always anticipate it in every interview. That first example showed you how to answer “tell me about yourself” for experienced job seekers (at least a few years of experience). Try to remember that many interviewers are often as nervous as you are. Don’t overdo it. is lame. This is for entry level specifically. Situational Interview Questions. It's [worked|didn't work] (insert something funny if it didn't work).". "I really liked the analytical aspects of my previous job and appreciated that I was able to do XYZ - which is actually something I've been pursuing on my own. Also, I worked on XXX project which won a XXXX award at my {internship, last job, etc..}. The applicants were sets of twins (so the interviewer couldn't make judgements about looks). At the end, tell us which one you'd most like to hire. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Basically, give me a quick rehash of your resume, expound on a couple key points that you think I should be keying in on, and (this is most important) be enthusiastic. Yup. Your hobby, something you enjoy to do, anything interesting you done lately. She has a … One question. As you go backwards, you can become less detailed. Not as often as the first question but sometimes. Everybody should be comfortable talking about themselves, and I don't want you stressing out so early in the interview. Additionally it lets you demonstrate that you're not only competent (which to be honest is the bare minimum) but also someone that the interviewer would want to work with. “With this experience under my belt, I’m looking for an opportunity to take the next step in my career. I think it's a totally fair question to ask, but I've only ever done university recruiting. By Jeff Gillis. Here’s how to write an ‘About Me’ page you can be proud of. There was this study done once where some guy acted like a potential employer interviewing applicants and was asked to do only this: ask each applicant to tell you about themselves, that's all. Some job interview questions go far beyond the expected, "Why do you want to work here?" When asked "Tell me about a time you had to learn something quickly," leverage the question to demonstrate your familiarity with the business, especially if you are an entry-level professional. New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast. Ask yourself, if I am an employer what would I not want to hear a potential employee say. Now let’s look at an example for entry-level job seekers and job seekers with no experience. That being the case... Let the absolute first group of sentences out of your mouth be about your positive qualities. In your response, do the following: 1. Be confident and be relaxed. Interviewers don’t want to know your entire life story; think of this as the highlight reel, and keep your response to about one minute. Don't "think about it first.". So it was something like: Recuiter: Tell me about yourself. Thanks for your cooperation and enjoy the discussion! Look at the people and work out what they want to hear. Cookies help us deliver our Services. They were scripted how to answer the "tell me about yourself" question. I don't care about the fact that you were on the JV track team, or that you're really interested in homebrewing beer (both of these have come up). Before that I... Before that I...". Things like that, just use common sense and you should be fine. I always mention how balance is a good thing. They will remember "this is a guy who thinks a lot", not "he doesn't know". How you respond to the “Tell me about yourself” question can set the tone for the rest of the interview. One question. ), "If you need a low-level crazy high performance and novel algorithms guy, that's not me. When I was asked this, I wasn’t sure what to say. Tell me about yourself examples: how to answer the 'tell me about yourself' interview question. If you are attending an interview you should really be prepared to answer this questions – beginners and experienced alike. This question (or a variation like “Walk me through your background”) comes up in just about every job interview and many job searchers hate it. Have you ever noticed how many commercials you hear where the voices jump from one person to the next? They don't care that you lived in New York. You'll say stuff wrong the first time, and coming back and doing it again will give you a chance to make those changes and improve. They ask questions like this because they have no idea of how to gauge just who you are. Start out strong. It’s usually the first thing you’ll be asked when you sit down. What I really want to hear from you when I ask this question is more or less a brief overview of your professional life, and possibly anything you do in your personal life that can tie into what I'm interviewing you for. Give them a feel for the kind of person you are. to "Why do you exist?" Say something like, “My experience in SEO, front-end development and as an Oracle DBA give me a … But keep the posting in mind. Please keep in mind that the OP of this thread has chosen to mark this post with the [Serious] replies only tag, therefore any replies that are jokes, puns, off-topic, or are otherwise non-contributory will be removed. They may be interested in who you are as a person and what you do for fun. Most interviewers are using this question as a "warm-up" question to have time to arrange their questions, read again your CV, test your communication skills. Give me an example of a time in which you handled a looming deadline. One of the most common questions in an interview is “Tell me about yourself.” Actually, it is not even a question -- it is an invitation. Then I go with a short description of my last 2 roles, responsibilities and tenure. One twin mentioned only positive things first, and then some negatives at the end. That's your answer. “Tell me about yourself” isn’t usually going to be a major part of the interview — it’s the easing-in that happens before you get into more nitty-gritty topics, so it doesn’t need to be an extensive treatise. Summarise all your important academic and professional achievements in a subtle manner. Define what you do as it relates to the job, think about three to five past experiences that are relevant to the job at hand and try to quantify in terms of time, money or people. Interviewers can ask "Tell me about yourself" in many ways. Someone unique or interesting is a +1. It’s often used in response to “tell me about yourself,” a question that most recruiters and hiring managers will ask in an interview. Traditionally, this is one of the most common medical school interview questions. The format is an effective way to approach the important points of your story while keeping it short. Attention! Without one exception, the twin that mentioned positive things first "got" the job because that's the stuff they listen to the most - the first things you say. The answer to this should be customized person to person BUT I can tell you what not to say. 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