“Tell me about yourself.”
Kerri O'Connor
Recruiter of Top Tier Sales & Marketing staff | Building Materials & B2B Markets | Career Curator & "Corporate Cupid" | Saunders Lynn & Company
The classic “Tell me about yourself” opening interview question is not an opportunity to tell your life story. Nor is it an opportunity to run through your career history for the next 20 minutes. This is NOT a good start to your interview.?
This is an opportunity to be memorable - to give somebody a handle to remember you by.?
This question is a quick and easy answer. You only need a few sentences to a paragraph (at most) to describe who you are. Take the opportunity to make it memorable.?
I often suggest a good example is??
“I am a caramel latte drinking, football fanatic, passionate mom of two and a driven trade marketeer. I love working in large corporates?as a brand champion, creating opportunities to drag in more sales!” What else do you want to know about me?”?
That’s a really great handle to remember you by. They may not remember your name, but they will remember you. They will remember your handle.?
The people you have met will debrief after the interview and say “Let’s get that redhead back in - the caramel latte drinker! Let’s get her in for a second interview.”?
You also provide your interviewer with a host of follow up questions about you personally and professionally. They could ask about the football team you follow, what you love about trade marketing, how you bring in more sales etc. The banter back and forth at the start of the interview builds rapport. People hire people they like.?Good rapport at the start of the interview is a great jump out of the blocks and sets you up to win.
Happy job hunting!
Business Development & Marketing at NECA Training and Apprenticeships.
2 年Great Read Kerri
Calibre Steel State Manager
2 年Great Reset on interviewing and being interviewed, Its a fine line between being too personal or too professional. A Job interview is not a "date", but it is a two way conversation to share critical information. When interviewing I am looking for honest natural responses, and how well "we" build rapport. Once we have that, we can look at how YOU will deliver the position that is required. Thanks Kerri
Culture Interviewing, Leadership Training, Executive/Key person search - use the Konfident Fit process to have massive success in scaling your organization!
2 年it is honestly better if we remove this ridiculous question out of the arsenal of untrained interviewers. it is a terrible question where you hope the person you are interviewing knows what you might need to hear, which is virtually impossible and an absolute waste of time. if you are a hiring manager and are still asking this question, please stop and up your interview game :).