6 Tips in Telling About Yourself Interview Question
This is one question that has dominated the interview for job world and still continues to do so even now. If you ask ten candidates this question you will have ten different answers totally not related to what the interviewer expects. Why do you think the interviewer ask this question? And what do you think they are looking for?
This is my best explanation. Let’s say one of your favorite movies is coming out on theatres, would you not like to see the trailer before you watch it? Yes you sure will. So “Tell me about yourself” is basically a “professional” trailer of yourself to the interviewer. He or she wants to see a short clip of your best highlights before the entire interview plays out.
How I do create a trailer clip of my professional self? Easy does it. Follow the lead below. Let us assume that the job you are being interviewed for is a Call Center Manager for Alarm Response and you have 4 years similar experience and you are asked this dreaded question, “Tell me about yourself.”
Here are the basic things that are requested of you to say when asked “Please tell me about yourself”
- YOUR ROLE
“My career started at Company ABC as a Customer Care Representative to which my role was to response to burglar and other non-emergency alarms. I was measured on each call and the company expectation was to process all calls under the 3 minutes. That includes calling the premises, and if no answer dispatch the police then work your way down the contact list to notify someone of what action you took.”
- ACCOMPLISHMENT AND PROMOTION
“Less than six month of working in this department, 98% of all my calls were under 3 minutes which impressed management and I was promoted to an Emergency Dispatcher handling calls only for hold ups, fire and medical emergencies.”
- MORE PROMOTION
“I worked in the Emergency Department for about 3½ years averaging above 90% in the statistics for response times. Until one day my keen alertness to a medical emergency saved the life of a senior citizen suffering from a heart attacked. The company used this example in their newsletters and advertisements and made record sales that year.
- MORE ACCOMPLISHMENT.
“In this position for the first month, with a team of 40 Customer Care Representative I was able to coach, motivate and with great team spirit and hard work, together we were able to improve the statistics of all calls from 84% under 3 minutes to 94% under 3 minutes. This was the first time the call center was able to achieve percentage averages over 90%. This high percentage average was consecutively repeated month after month”
- THE CONCLUSION SELL, SELL
“And this brings me here talking to you about this position to which the main job objective is to improve response times overall in your Call Center. I bring with me all my professional skills and experiences to benefit and give you guidelines in knowing how to present answers to questions being asked.
- HOW TO ANSWER “TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF”
So, the first question you’re probably going to get in an interview is, “Tell me about yourself.” Now, this is not an invitation to recite your entire life story or even to go bullet by bullet through your resume. Instead, it’s probably your first and best chance to pitch the hiring manager on why you’re the right one for the job.
If someone asked, “tell me about yourself,” you could say:
“Well, I’m currently the chief Editor at ResumeExtra, where I handle our top updating information for our client. Before that, I worked at an agency where I was on three different major technology brands. And I really enjoyed the work that I do. Remember throughout your answer to focus on the experiences and skills that are going to be most relevant for the hiring manager when they’re thinking about this particular position.
