When it comes to job interviews, there’s no such thing as an easy question, according to Madeline Mann, founder of career coaching business Self Made Millennial.
“Tell me about yourself” seems like a simple prompt, but it’s “probably the one that people struggle with the most, because you can take it in so many different directions,” Mann says.
The purpose of the question is typically to “just break the ice,” but that doesn’t mean job seekers shouldn’t take it seriously.
Their answer will “set the tone” for the rest of the interview, she says. But sometimes people veer into personal details or hobbies instead of succinctly presenting their career accomplishments.
For this interview question, Mann, who is also the author of “Reverse the Search: How to Turn Job Seeking into Job Shopping,” urges job seekers to keep their answers “super relevant” to the role at hand.
She also offers up her favorite three-part formula to answer this question in a way that “knocks it out of the park every time.”
How to respond to ‘Tell me about yourself’
First, start with a short opening line that directly links your past experience with the role you’re seeking. Candidates should aim to “basically match yourself to the job description,” Mann says.
For an accounting role, your statement could be as simple as, “I’ve worked as an accountant for the past five years in growth-stage startups,” according to Mann.
Repeating keywords from the job listing can have a positive psychological effect on your interviewer: Their brain “immediately goes, OK, this is the right person,” she says.
Next, Mann recommends “touching lightly” on your major achievements from past jobs.
The accomplishments you share should be quantifiable and “immediately relevant to the role you are in for,” she says.
A candidate could say something like, “At my most recent job, I was an accounting manager at X Startup, where I [grew] their accounting team from 1 employee to 4. Before that, I was at Y Company, where I also did all of their accounting and their budgeting and I was able to cut costs by 20%.”
Even if your past roles aren’t directly related to the job, you should highlight the elements that overlap, she says. For example, a former executive assistant applying for that accounting job could emphasize that they worked with leadership to manage budgets.
Finish by saying “And the reason I was so interested in interviewing with you is…” and then “fill in the blank of why this role is the best next step in your career,” Mann says. She suggests something like, “I’ve been looking to do accounting for a Fortune 500 company.”
According to her, this last step is crucial because it prevents rambling and provides a neat conclusion to the answer. “It really ties a bow,” she says.
“They know exactly how your background fits what they’re looking for, and then why you see this as the next step.”
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