Top HR Interview Question – “Tell Me About Yourself”

Posted on 01. Aug, 2009 posted by Bill in Employment News

Do you know why this question is asked so often in most job interviews? This question is actually an ice-breaker. Asking this question starts the conversion. So you should better be ready with an answer. This question gives the interviewer a chance to know about the interviewee. Once you start talking about yourself, interviewer starts preparing his/her next question. So there are high chances that the next question that would be fired on you will be based on the answer of this question. As the answer for this will be based on you, you think and prepare it before the interview.

While preparing for the answer consider including following points.

1. You:

Tell them your name and which place you are from. Suppose you are “Mike Creamer”, then do not start with “Myself Mike Creamer”; start with “I am Mike Creamer”. This is a very common mistake. Not acceptable in interviews especially in call center jobs.

You may talk about your family (cover up in short); you may talk about your how you came to the city, etc.

2. Your education:

Tell them about your education i.e. graduation/post-graduation. If you are a fresher then tell them the grades you got. If you have done something different than others then tell them. It surely adds a value!

3. Your experience:

Talk about your whole experience. Start from early years and gradually come to recent years. If you have a long experience then you must not be doing same thing all years. Then exactly what you were doing? This is what your interviewer wants to listen. If you are a fresher then talk about your projects.

4. Your experience regarding to the post you has applied for:

This is of most interest to your interviewer. You may be having lot of experience but how much experience you have regarding current job post is very important. If you do not have it then you can talk about some related experience. Or if you do not have related experience too then say it clearly. Buy along with it give them confidence that you can do it and you have genuine interest to do it.

Fresh candidates who do not have any kind of experience, you should show some positive attitude and exhibit willingness to learn and do new things. Be ready to do new things. Don’t worry that you will make mistakes. Fresher candidates are expected to do mistakes and your employers are well aware of it so you don’t have any reason to be afraid. Believe me no one will give you more work than you can handle.

5. Do not describe your salary or pay scale at this point of time (unless explicitly asked).

6. Avoid giving unnecessary details. Value your interviewer’s time.

7. The idle answer should not last more than 1 minute.

Good luck.

Author: Jayvardhan Patil

For more interview questions and HR interview tips visit http://undestanding.com/

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4 Responses to “Top HR Interview Question – “Tell Me About Yourself””

  1. grantcrow

    01. Aug, 2009

    I agree this is a very common question and one to which any interviewee needs to have a well rehearsed answer. I'm more interested though in how first time entrants into the job market (graduates and school leavers) are able to answer this question. There's less experience for them to draw on in their answer and therefore the “elevator pitch” needs even more preparation. In my experience young adults are not good at identifying the relevant experiences they have had and teasing out the skills they developed in the process. Whether it is the experience of managing a big table of difficult customers at a restaurant or the holida car washing business, there's always a set of skills waiting to be identified. Dr. G's blog is at http://www.mytalentplace.co.uk/blog.

    Reply to this comment
  2. Jayvardhan Patil

    29. Sep, 2009

    This is a reply to grantcrow’s comment.

    I completely agree what you have said. The Interview Questions will go on changing with a wide degree with every job type. What I have written in this article is very generalized answer. If you can add something that is relevant to the job type you are applying, then it will add starts to your answer.

    Good Luck.

    Reply to this comment
  3. Dharmareddy Ayodhyapuram

    30. Dec, 2009

    Tell them your name and which place you are from. Suppose you are “Mike Creamer”, then do not start with “Myself Mike Creamer”; start with “I am Mike Creamer”. This is a very common mistake. Not acceptable in interviews especially in call center jobs.

    You may talk about your family (cover up in short); you may talk about your how you came to the city, etc.
    Dharmareddy Ayodhyapuram´s last blog ..Executive Interviewing – How to Persuade the Right Way

    Reply to this comment
  4. Bj

    17. Jan, 2010

    thanks…they are very helpful questions

    Reply to this comment

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