How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” - with 3 Examples | Job Interview Tips

Here it is, my highly effective three part formula to Answering the question Tell me about yourself, which Last time I created a video on this topic, thousands of people commented with success stories and I want to beat that high score and make this video even better. That's right, you'll get the proven Answer formula, a free worksheet, and then stay to the end because I will give you three example answers for early career, later career, and career changing. All right, let's turn it up to 11. If you're new here, I'm Mat Madeline Mann. I'm known for turning job seekers into job shoppers. You may have seen me in places like ABC News, Bloomberg, New York Times, and more. And be sure to subscribe Jumping right into Part one of the Tell me about yourself formula who you are. Begin by introducing yourself professionally with a concise, crispy sentence that typically includes your job title or a statement about the type of professional you are. Don't worry if what I'm telling you is as clear as mud. I will give you lots of examples in this video. If your current role is not directly related to the role you are interviewing for, you should prepare a through line that connects the experience you have with the role you're aiming for. For example, if you are a software engineer looking to become a product manager, you may say, I am a software professional who has scoped and built products that are successful in the market Here. The through line is working on software products. You know, I created a handy dandy worksheet for you to follow along here and even has an example. This free worksheet has led to the most success stories out of any of my free resources, so be sure to grab that below. Now why do we start off our answer this way with the summary of who we are sentence? I hate to burst your bubble, boy. A lot of interviewers will be context switching and they are simply asking you the tell me about yourself question because they are getting their thoughts organized around who you are and what they actually want to ask you in this interview. Unfortunately, we can't rely on the fact that they have prepared a lot studied your resume. In short, this question isn't the main event. Make your answer short, less than two minutes. Just like the question how are you doing? This question is something that they ask before they actually get into their actual questions and I agree it's lazy. They say tell me about yourself and you think hello, it's called a resume. I agonize about every word and fit them into a nice neat piece of paper for you. Are you illiterate? Or are you blatantly telling me you didn't bother to read it? Interviews. They're fun, aren't they? So I'll also link a free resume workshop below. This helped thousands of people land interviews, since someone is still reading those dang things, right? Moving along to Part two your highlights Share what you've been up to the past few jobs. I usually recommend sharing this in reverse chronological order since the company is almost always most interested in what you've done. Most recently. Though, you can share this information in chronological order if your most important experience was potentially several jobs ago or something about your story makes much more sense that way. It's great to highlight just the most relevant accomplishments you've had for your past jobs without going too deep or off topic. One thing I teach my clients is all about not sharing too much from your past, but sharing only the most important information. That's actually really hard to do. So I created a free class on how to go job shopping and land more job offers, which I will link below. If you are a recent graduate or career changer without much professional experience in your field, you can draw on your academic or volunteer or project based activities to demonstrate your potential. For example, if you are applying for a job in marketing but have no direct marketing experience, you could highlight a time you were a volunteer who helped get the word out about an event. And finally, Part three why this role? You'll want to end your answer by explaining why you're interested in this particular company and role. This is truly the key to to not rambling too much or ending your answer with so yeah, I used to say this all the time. Do you tend to ramble or say too little in the job interview? Put too much or too little in the comments. So by adding this Part three, you're actually answering the question why do you want this job? Which is one of the most important pieces of information a company wants to know when interviewing you. From hiring thousands of people, I have seen time and time again that when all things are equal, a hiring manager will extend an offer to the candidate who wants the job more. They want people who are intrinsically excited about this work and more likely to stay in the job long term. Because heads up, the people who are interviewing you hate hiring and interviewing. They don't want to do it a bunch. They want to hire this role and get back to their actual job that they're hired to do. So show your interest right up top. For example, if you are applying for a job at a nonprofit that focuses on on environmental advocacy. You could say I have always been passionate about protecting the environment and I'm excited about the opportunity to use my skills to make a difference at an organization that shares my values. By making this connection, you show that you are not only qualified for the job, but that you also have a genuine interest in the company's mission. Now let's walk through three examples to help you perfectly answer this question. The first is for if you're early career, the second is for if you're later in your career and the third is if you are a career changer. I do recommend watching all three so that you can pick and choose from each of them, kicking off with an early career example where you don't have much experience I am a college student majoring in computer science with a particular interest in cybersecurity. Recently I completed a project where I identified and resolved multiple security vulnerabilities in a web application. I also participated in a hackathon where my team and I developed a new algorithm for password hashing. I believe that this role at your company is the perfect next step for my career because I am eager to build deep expertise in penetration testing and ethical hacking. Your reputation for cutting edge security solutions and focus on protecting sensitive data in the healthcare industry is highly motivating. What went right here Even though this person has zero paid work experience, they were able to share specific examples of how they have been building the right skills for the role they are applying for. Golf Clap Our second example is for a later career professional I am a Senior Project Manager with over a decade of experience managing complex projects across multiple industries. In my current role, I led a team of 20 people in the successful completion of a project that generated $10 million in revenue. Before that, I managed a project that resulted in a 20% increase in customer satisfaction ratings. I'm excited about the opportunity to join your team as the Director of Project Management with a focus on streamlining project processes and enhancing team collaboration. I'm eager to take on the responsibilities of this role and further develop my leadership skills to help the company achieve its goals. Okay, this one got a little spicy. There were metrics. We were talking dollars percents, counting. This is not required for your answer, but it can be the whipped cream on top of the hot chocolate. Round of applause. Let's move on to an example answer for a career change. This person formerly worked in customer support and is now making the transition into content marketing. I am a marketing professional with experience in brand management and customer engagement. Recently, I have developed a passion for sustainable fashion and have been working on a personal project where I created a blog and social media presence that promotes eco friendly fashion choices. Through this project I developed strong writing and content creation skills and learned how to effectively engage with a niche audience. I am excited about this role as a content marketing manager because I'd like to spend as many hours as possible in my next job focused on my top interest creating engaging and informative content about sustainable fashion. What I love about this answer is this powerhouse isn't dwelling on the past giving us a bunch of distracting information about his former roles in customer service. No, we jumped right into the juicy details and reminded them that they made the right choice in inviting him for the interview. Seal of approval. Be sure to grab your worksheet for this answer and go out into the world and make us proud in your interview and come back and tell us how it went. You've got this wi fi high five.