Answer "tell me about yourself" with a short, tailored account of what you are doing now, one thing you have done well, and why that fits the role. Prospects says this question, usually the opener, tops its list of typical interview questions. SEEK Grad, a graduate jobs site with a commercial interest in recruitment, says interviewers are not after a page-turning account of your life but your own words on why you are best for the position.
Why it comes first
LSE Careers treats the start of an interview as an invitation to introduce yourself. It groups "tell me about yourself", "why have you applied for this role?" and "talk me through your CV" as variations on the same request.
University of Sussex Careers files it under general questions, which it says tend to be open, and gives telling the interviewer about yourself as the example.
Prepare an answer instead of improvising. SEEK Grad says you can count on being asked, and that the question should not get a throw-away answer.
What to put in
Start with the basics, as SEEK Grad advises: what you are studying and where, plus your current role or job title if you have one.
Prospects suggests beginning with an overview of your highest qualification and greatest achievements, then running through your work experience with examples of the skills you developed. It also asks you to focus on your skills, characteristics and successes and show how they make you a strong candidate against the job description.
LSE Careers offers the SEAT model — Skills, Experience, Achievement and Type of person who — and says most of your answer should cover your professional background, with your academic background forming much of it where that is relevant. It also counts work shadowing, volunteering, competitions and live projects as experience, so unpaid work earns a place in the answer.
If you have little industry experience, SEEK Grad says to draw on relevant skills from elsewhere in your life: taking initiative during an internship, balancing study with part-time work, or building team and interpersonal skills at a community sports club.
Keep the whole answer to what might be relevant to the employer, as the University of Warwick Law Careers blog advises.
How long to speak
Guidance on length varies, so pick a target before you rehearse. Prospects sets a ceiling: keep your answer to less than five minutes. LSE Careers suggests timing yourself and aiming for around two minutes. The site's own view, on its interview questions page, is that the interviewer is checking you can give a clear, relevant account in about a minute.
Shaping the answer
LSE Careers advises starting with the present day and working backwards, and says ending on an insight into the type of person you are can be effective.
SEEK Grad finishes on a forward note instead: your future career goals, how the position is relevant to them, and what you can bring to the company.
The University of Warwick Law Careers blog adds a closing move you can use in the room: ask the employer whether there is anything more they would like you to add.
What to leave out
The Warwick law careers blog names two things to cut:
- your name, because the employer already knows it — it is the one that asked you to the interview;
- anything you did more than a couple of years ago, which it says is probably not relevant.
A made-up outline
The shape below is made up to show the order. The content has to come from your own study, work and activities.
- Present: what you are studying, where, and any current role.
- Achievement: one thing you are proud of, and why.
- Fit: the skills from that example that answer the job description.
- Close: the type of person you are and where you want to go.
Practising out loud
Writing the answer is half the job. The Warwick law careers blog advises saying it out loud and listening to yourself, which is the step to do this week: read your draft into the room, hear where it drags, and cut there.
Prospects is blunt that preparation matters while the answer should not sound rehearsed, so aim for familiar rather than recited.
You can run it with Pip on the mock interview page: say your answer aloud, then type the short version, and Pip asks one question, marks it and shows a stronger version built only from what you said.
Write the draft, read it aloud, and time it against the target you chose. If a line would fit any employer in any sector, replace it with something from the job description in front of you.