Tell me about yourself: How to best answer this common interview question

The very first interview question is often the most predictable. And yet, you’ll see most interviewees panicking. Their mind goes blank.

Or the other common approach is to start rambling, and sharing details that have no real relevance.

As an admissions consultant and career counsellor, I’ve helped thousands of candidates narrate their life stories in the most impactful manner. But when they started out, they were as confused as anyone else. What helped them was having a structured plan and some practice.

If you’re among those who find the question confusing, this article will help you provide the best answer to the common interview question ‘Tell me about yourself’.

We’ll start off by understanding why interviewers ask this question, what you should not say. We’ll use a simple template to create a good sample answer and look at some examples.

Tell me about yourself | How to answer

Best answer for students, freshers & experienced folks

Why do interviewers always start off with Tell me about yourself, when they already have your resume?

Is it a trick question?

No, it’s not.

This is essentially a simple, warm up question to make you comfortable. The idea is to ask something that will not put the candidate under pressure. But ironically, that’s exactly what the question ends up doing, since the candidate is already stressed out.

So how should you introduce yourself? What are they expecting from your answer?

For starters, let’s look at what they’re not expecting.

They don’t expect you to impress them. Or even give them some secret information that you were hiding from them all along. They will not take a select or reject decision based on your answer.

But they do expect to see a clear and confident response that provides a short but memorable summary of your journey. They are also evaluating your communication skills, if it’s an important aspect for the position you’re applying for.

And here’s a dirty little secret that most interviewers will not tell you. Interviewing can be an additional burden for most interviewers, especially if they are not from HR. Also, if they’ve been interviewing a lot of candidates, they are probably not as familiar with your profile details as you’d expect them to be.

If you give them a good answer, it sets the tone for the rest of the interview. It gives them the signal that they’re talking to the right person and this interview is worth their time and effort.

So make sure you make a good first impression.

Common mistakes to avoid

The best way to make a good impression is to prepare beforehand. And also to know what mistakes to avoid.

1. Don’t be a robot

You don’t want to come across as someone who mechanically rattles off rehearsed answers with zero emotions.

Make sure you have the general structure for the answer ready in your head. Practice it multiple times till you reach a stage where you don’t have to struggle with what you should be saying, and you can focus on how you say it. But always remember to keep it natural and spontaneous.

2. Avoid personal stories

Try to avoid personal stories that are not relevant to the position you’re applying for.

Which means you don’t need to tell them that you were lost in the forest as a kid and were raised by wild animals. Unless you’re applying for a position with a wild-life conservation department.

3. Do not ramble

Most interviews are about 30 to 45 minutes long. Since this is just the first question, aim to answer it in about a minute.

If you overshoot by a few more seconds, that’s still ok. That gives the interviewer enough time to ask other important questions and go deeper into the details that really matter.

4. Avoid information overload

Just because it’s an open-ended question doesn’t mean you can squeeze in everything you’ve done in life.

In a subtle way, include just enough information to generate curiosity. That way you can also influence the subsequent questions to some extent.

There is no universal best answer to the question, since your background, experience and career plans would differ from others.

But there definitely is a good structure that you can use to come up with the best answer for you.

How to structure your answer using a good template

At MBA Crystal Ball, we have come up with a term to make it easier to remember the structure. We call it the INSPIRE framework. Here’s what it looks like.

Let’s break it down and construct a sample answer, step-by-step.

Ice-breaker

Since you’re answering a warm-up question, it makes sense to have an ice-breaker before you get into the details. Something as simple as – “Sure, I’d be happy to” would be just fine.

Or if you haven’t exchanged pleasantries before getting to this stage, you could start off with a greeting such as “Good morning” or afternoon or evening, depending on the time of the interview. Followed by something like “After all the emails and the phone calls, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person.”

Name

This may or may not be needed. If your name is unusual or difficult to pronounce, it helps the interviewer to be aware of the right way of saying it.

Avoid saying “Myself Raj” Or “Raj this side”. That’s wrong English. Start off with “My name is…” or “I am…”

Status

Explain your current status. Provide a short overview of your most recent role.

Past

A quick summary of how you got here would also help, especially if your career graph has been unusual.

Impact

Rather than stopping at what you do, it also helps to show the impact you’ve had.

Relate

This is a good place to connect all the dots that you’ve laid out in the answer.

Extrapolate

As the parting shot for this answer, explain what’s in it for the company.

That’s it. You have your answer ready.

Let’s take it from the top to get a feel of how the complete answer would sound. We share a couple of examples to illustrate what we’re talking about.

Sample answer for experienced folks

Ice-breaker	Good morning, Mr Gates.
Name	My name is Sameer Kamat.
Status	I am currently part of the mergers and acquisitions team at a German multinational company.
Past	Before moving into M&A, I spent several years working in technology and management consulting.
Impact	In my current role, I’ve managed international M&A deals worth half a billion dollars.
Relate	It might seem that my career change from technology to consulting to finance were unrelated. But all those have skills helped me handle the large complex projects related to post-merger integration.
Extrapolate	Based on my engineering and management qualifications, and my experience across industries, I’ve been exploring leadership roles. Specifically in companies such as yours that are planning to scale up rapidly using inorganic growth. Which is why I was really looking forward to having this discussion with you. I’d be happy to expand on any of the points I’ve shared.

Not too shabby, right?

But what if you are a student or a fresher who has just graduated?

The INSPIRE framework remains the same, but what you include in your answer will change.

Here’s an example of a good answer to the interview question “Tell me about yourself” if you are a fresher or a student.

Sample answer for student / fresher

Ice-breaker	It would be my pleasure to introduce myself.
Name	My name is Tanisha Kapoor.
Status	I’m a final year computer engineering student at XYZ college.
Past	I started coding since my school days. In my second year of engineering, I was a contributor to the prestigious and highly selective Google Summer of Code or GSoC. I’m also the lead of the coding club in college. In my third year, I did my internship at a Big Tech company.
Impact	My online projects have been used by over 100,000 users globally. My open-source work with GSoC has an impact on millions.
Relate	Along with maintaining high grades in academics, I’ve been involved in leadership and managerial positions in my college clubs.
Extrapolate	I understand that I’m applying for a Software Developer’s role. But what really excites me is your company culture of recognising junior developers who show leadership potential, and rewarding them with opportunities that can help the employee and the company grow.

How did that sound? Pretty good, right?

While working on the structure, you might have realised an important point. How impressive your answer sounds would depend not just on the presentation, but also on the content.

The presentation might take a few hours, but for the content you need to consciously put in thousands of hours. So, the earlier you start, the better.

Over the years, MBA Crystal Ball has helped thousands of candidates build their profiles and crack tough interviews.

Many of them now work in the best companies in technology, consulting, finance and other high paying industries.

If you need professional career counselling or admissions consulting help, send across an email: info [at] mbacrystalball [dot] com

P.S. This is a transcript of our video on the same topic. Considering how important this topic is, a quick revision wouldn’t hurt. Watch it here: How to answer Tell me about yourself | Experienced and freshers [Video]

Also read:
– Situational interviews: What to expect
– How to prepare for case interviews
– Interview dress code for males & females