How do you answer Tell Me About youself
I don't want to get too personal so should I just stick to work things? I am at a total loss what to say. IHvae not been on an interview for several years and of course this afternoon being the "Big Interview" I am very nervous to say the least. Thanks in advance!
I perceive "Tell me about yourself" to be a little of your personal background and a lot of your business background For example: I am originally form the east coast and moved to Texas for an opportunity to experience a different environment. While in Waco, I worked at a government agency as a file clerk/receptionist and learned many interesting aspects of law. After a few years I moved into another deivison of the same government agency as a litigation specialist where I gained experience with working directly with the courts and the various Judicial Assistants connected to the Judges with whom we had contact regarding our clients. This allowed me to move into another division of the agency and into a position which provided me with more responsibility in regard to the actual legal documents which came across my desk and allowed me the opportunity to have more one to one contact with the attorneys, our clients, the Judges and the courtroom. I relocated to California for personal reasons as well as for the opportunity to experience new challenges. That paragraph takes jsut under two minutes to actually recite if done correctly and this should provide the interviewer with enough information to ask what the new responsibilities were, what sort of face to face contact I experienced, what type of switchboard and phone systems I worked on, what type of legal documents I dealt with, etc. If I included that information within my "Getting to know you" speech, I would put the interviewer to sleep and sound like a drone. What should most likely be avoided is too much personal information. Such as: Well, I was born in Swampscott, Massachusetts. I have two brothers and two sisters. I am the youngest in the family. My parents split up when I was in junior high. I hate my oldest sister because she is a b!tch. My oldest brother was given up for adoption by my parents but I won't get into those details right now. Blah blah blah blah. Would it be a bad idea to let them know that I an a co-owner of a business. I work in the evenings at home doing the bookkeeping for my husband.
Definately include that because it shows additional bookkeeping outside of "conventional" practice. meaning offices owned and run by other people. It also can help show interviewers/hiring managers that you know the meaning of bottom line. What you say is up to you as long as it conveys what you want to get across in a way that is informative and perks the interest of the interviewer.
In my interviewing book, I lead right off with the question of Tell me about yourself because it's usually the first question candidates get asked. Now the key here is that your response isn't the most important thing. And that's because the interviewer is seeing how well you can speak! So what you say is not as important as the way in which you say it. But that doesn't mean you should talk about the weather either. No, you should focus on your ability to do the job and your qualifications. And if you don't have a clue how to start or get nervous, then you could always ask the interviewer what he or she would like you to talk about. In other words, ask if you should focus on something in particular. Sometimes they'll tell you; other times they'll leave it up to you. But whatever you say, it must be said well and totally organized! | |
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