The first time I was asked to “Tell me about yourself” in an interview, I gave a canned conversation about how I like to help people; I was sure I would impress my interviewer. But after my clichéd response triggered a disappointed look on his face, I panicked.
I ended up rambling about how “fun” it was, citing my time as the lead singer and guitarist of a Blink-182 cover band in sixth grade as compelling evidence. Needless to say, I didn’t get the job.
As the old saying goes, you never get a second chance at first impressions. So to crack your interview, learn how to answer the “Tell me about yourself” question.
What interviewers really want to know
If you’re in the process of interviewing for a new role, you know how difficult it can be to find a unique and compelling response to this common message.
“Tell me about yourself” is pretty open-ended, but it’s one of the most popular ways interviewers start the conversation. This answer has a huge impact on the interviewer’s first impression of you and can shape the entire conversation.
To get some insight on how best to respond to “Tell me about yourself,” I asked Claire McCarthy, Director of Recruiting at HubSpot, about the best way to respond to the request.
“There’s no ideal answer to ‘Tell me about yourself,'” he says, “but I always encourage candidates to create a value proposition for themselves that touches on a couple of things.”
According to McCarthy, the ideal value proposition includes:
- Your motivation
- The specific challenges that excite you
- What you can bring to the table
- Why you want to work at the company you are interviewing for and why now
- Why this job is a good fit
With McCarthy’s advice, we’ll help you develop a strong, cohesive value proposition that answers all of these questions.
How to give the best answers to “Tell me about yourself”
- be honest
- Tell a story.
- Weave personal data.
- Describe what motivates you.
- Explain what kinds of challenges excite you.
- Highlight your most relevant skills.
- Explain why you want to work at the company you’re interviewing for.
- It illustrates why you want to work for them right now.
- Prove that you would be a good fit for the job.
1. Be honest.
The most important thing in answering this question is to be honest.
If you start your interview by embellishing details about your experience or lying about your skills, you’re setting yourself up for failure.
Even if the hiring manager doesn’t realize it at the time, it’s likely they’ll spot inconsistencies later.
It’s hard enough to get this question right, don’t make it harder. Instead, skip the games and bring yourself completely to the interview.
2. Tell a story.
Think of this question as an opportunity to tell the interviewer a short story about yourself.
Just as a story has a clear beginning, middle, and end, so should yours, except that you cover the past, present, and future.
Throughout your answer, you will weave in various elements that will highlight your skills, motivation and future goals.
3. Weave the personal data.
This step requires a delicate balance.
You want to include personal data about yourself that will help hiring managers discover what makes you tick and get a holistic view of who you are.
However, you don’t want to take a deep dive into your personal life.
Therefore, only highlight personal details that relate to a professional skill or goal. For example, you might mention your love of storytelling from early childhood and how that led you to start a career in content creation.
4. Describe what motivates you.
One of the most important (and common) traits that hiring managers typically look for in candidates is their intrinsic motivation. Research suggests that intrinsically motivated employees produce higher quality work than extrinsically motivated employees.
So if you can tell a personal anecdote that shows you’re a hands-on professional and not just someone enamored with the company’s lucrative stock options, it will immediately grab the hiring manager’s attention.
To do this, start your value proposition like this:
“As I approach my five years working in the content marketing space, I’ve learned a lot about myself. More specifically, I’ve realized that I feel most fulfilled when I can create compelling stories that truly help and inspire. the people”.
5. Explain what challenges excite you.
Hiring managers generally don’t hire candidates to maintain the status quo of their team. They hire candidates who will challenge it and propel their team to greater heights.
To show that you can be a catalyst for the team, talk about challenges in your industry or this particular role that you’re excited about, like the following example:
“Today, we both work in an industry where countless brands fight for limited attention, saturating our space with mediocre content. It’s never been so hard to cut through the noise. But that doesn’t intimidate or discourage me. It actually excites me because it forces me to keep innovating and finding new ways to connect with an audience.”
6. Highlight your most relevant skills.
Once you’ve explained what challenges pique your interest, you can naturally follow up on how you have the skills to overcome them and excel in the role, like the following example:
“There’s a fierce battle for attention in content marketing right now, and it’s pushed me to master both my writing and analytical skills. Data drives decisions in our industry, and I know that if I want to make an impact on a team, I have to be both creative and strategic. Fortunately, my adaptability has allowed me to acquire the skills necessary to extract accurate information from data and weave it into a compelling story.”
7. Explain why you want to work at the company you are interviewing for.
Highlighting your most relevant skills will grab your hiring manager’s attention. But to really impress her, communicate how your passion and skills align with the company’s interests and goals, like the following example:
“That’s why I think I’d be a high-impact employee here: You really care about doing two things well: making objective, data-driven decisions and telling great stories. I think I can help you get better at both of those things.”
8. Illustrate why you want to work for the company right now.
After explaining why you want to work for the company, expand on why you want to work for them right now.
This shows that you took the initiative to learn about the latest company updates and the hiring manager will definitely take note of your proactivity. See the example below:
“This is also one of the best times to work at HubSpot – I was at INBOUND in September and was impressed with all of your new product launches. It’s clear that HubSpot is doubling down on innovation and striving to push itself to the top of the industry. I’d like to be a part of that.”
9. Show that you would be a good fit for the job.
To give a nod to the bottom line of your value proposition, show the hiring manager how you’ve used your skills to improve your current team by quantifying your accomplishments.
These previous experiences will prove your worth and qualify you as the employee who can take the team to the next level. Close your answer with something like this:
“And as the top performing content strategist at my current company, where I’ve doubled blog views and grown our email subscription list by 40% in just one year, I think I could help you develop a killer content strategy, write some of the best MarTech stories, and build an even more loyal audience than he boasts now.”
What not to do when asked “Tell me about yourself”
Just as there is a long list of things you can say when answering this question, there is also a long list of mistakes you should avoid.
When you answer “Tell me about yourself,” don’t:
- Fly your answer – Memorize the key points to hit so you can ensure a concise answer every time without sounding rehearsed.
- Focus on your personal life – Given the context in which this question is asked, focus on your career path and not on the personal.
- Debate on controversial issues – Topics like politics, religion and sex have no place in an interview, let alone during this question.
Sample Answer “Tell me about yourself.”
Overall, a strong response to the “Tell me about yourself” message would look like this:
“As I approach my five years working in the content marketing space, I’ve learned a lot about myself. More specifically, I’ve realized that I feel most fulfilled when I can create compelling stories that truly help and inspire. the people.
Today, we both work in an industry where countless brands fight for limited attention, saturating our space with mediocre content. It’s never been so hard to cut through the noise. But that doesn’t intimidate or discourage me. It actually excites me because it forces me to keep innovating and finding new ways to connect with an audience.
There’s a fierce battle for attention in content marketing right now, and it’s pushed me to master both my writing and analytical skills. Data drives decisions in our industry, and I know that if I want to make an impact on a team, I have to be both creative and strategic. Fortunately, my adaptability has allowed me to acquire the skills necessary to extract accurate information from data and weave it into a compelling story.
That’s why I think you’d be a high-impact employee here: You really care about doing two things well: making objective, data-driven decisions and telling great stories. I think I can help you improve in both of these things.
This is also one of the best times to work at HubSpot – I was at INBOUND in September and was impressed with all of your new product launches. It’s clear that HubSpot is doubling down on innovation and striving to propel itself to the forefront of the industry. I would like to be a part of that.
And as the top performing content strategist at my current company, where I’ve doubled blog views and grown our email subscription list by 40% in just one year, I think I could help you develop a killer content strategy, writing some of the best MarTech stories and building an even more loyal audience than he boasts now.”
Frame “Tell Me About Yourself” as “Pitch Yourself”
“Tell me about yourself” might be one of the most dreaded prompts in interview history.
But if you understand why hiring managers use candidates, you can turn your answer into your pitch.
From there, structure your value proposition the way we did above and you’ll make a strong first impression.
Editor’s note: This post was originally published in November 2018 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.
