When a person goes in for a job interview and the interviewer says “Tell me a little about yourself”, what is the correct answer?
I was laid off 6 months ago and on the very few interviews I have actually had, I am always at a loss for what to say. Somehow “I love to fish and hunt and I really love my truck” just doesn’t seem appropriate. All jokes aside though, what should I say?
Speaking (or writing, rather) as an HR manager, I tend not to use that question because it’s entirely too general. If I’m looking for specific information from an applicant, I ask for it. However, in spite of the usual distaste I have for that question, it can sometimes come in handy and it does serve a useful purpose at times.
In my experience, sometimes that question is asked because the interviewer genuinely wants you to just give the “Cliffs Notes” version of your resume and perhaps toss in a few extras that aren’t mentioned on there. Some hiring managers just want to see if you can ad-lib well, if you’re articulate, present yourself confidently and see if you inadvertently raise any red flags in your response. “Well, after I got out of Leavenworth in January, I got into accounting…” tends to raise some eyebrows. 
Don’t use that catch-all question to give the hiring manager a rundown of your favorite hobbies. While there is no absolutely correct answer to that question, there are some general guidelines you can keep in mind when you answer it.
Use this generic question to really, really sell yourself. Leave your hobbies and favorite music out of it. Did you write the definitive manual on cleanroom processes at your last job? Mention it. Do cleanroom processes have absolutely nothing to do with the job for which you’re applying? That’s okay; use this accomplishment any way you can and tie it in to the prospective job.
Have an answer ready in case your interviewer does ask this question. Consider the job for which you’re applying right now. What does it involve? You can use the job description for that job to formulate your response. The company doesn’t want to know that you love hunting, fishing and skinny-dipping. Bottom line, they want to know what exactly you can do for them job-wise and why exactly they should choose you over the ten other people they may be talking to about the job.
Look over the job description for this new job and compare to your resume. Are there responsibilities in the new job that you’ve done before in previous jobs, perhaps even to some acclaim? Then use that to create your answer.
So, you’re applying for an accountant position at XYZ Company. Before that, you were a payroll clerk at ABC Company for two years. You helped run biweekly and monthly payrolls, processed direct-deposits, processed court-ordered medical/child support payroll deductions, and so forth. Well, the accountant position for which you’re applying does some of that and also supervises a couple of payroll clerks. No supervisory experience? Don’t let it deter you; many supervisors started out at the bottom, too. Play up your strengths and don’t make a big deal out of the things you haven’t done yet.
If you can post some additional details about the job for which you’re applying without feeling oogy about it, I don’t mind typing out some example responses.
I’ve been applying for jobs in the Customer Service/Office Environment field. I have over 30 years experience in customer service of one type or another, 7 of them being in an office environment, which I liked the most. A lot of it was in a retail situation (grocery store) and I really don’t have much of a desire to get back into that aspect of it.
All of the jobs I have applied for, I am at least 98% qualified for and the other 2% I am more than willing to learn. I don’t tend to waste my time applying for jobs that I know nothing about.
I suppose I could try the tactic that the brother of a friend of mine did. He was looking for a job as a diesel mechanic. He walked into his first interview and the boss said “tell me a liitle about yourself”. My friends brother said “I’m the best damn mechanic you’ll ever hire”. :eek: The boss hired him on the spot, telling him that he respected a person that was that gutsy. That was 20 years ago and he is still there and he IS the best damn mechanic they ever had.
But somehow, I just don’t think “I’m the best damn pencil pusher you will ever hire” will carry as much weight.
I’d turn that question right back on the person. “What exactly would you like to know? Are you interested in my recent work experience or my education?”
If squeekster has 30 years of experience, it is unlikely any employer is interested in his education credentials. silver1 is dead on. The question is often an ice-breaker. You should have a canned answer tapered as much as possible for the job you are interviewing for. Answering quickly and confidently should build your own confidence through the interview.
As a sometimes interviewer, every question I ask is designed to do two things: to determine your fit into the firm and to determine what you could do for me. With that much experience, they likely want to know your most recent career highlights; the more you can taper it to the job requisition (assuming a well-written req), the better.
I would also suggest that you compile a database of questions you are asked, see which ones come up most frequently (such as “Tell me a little about yourself”), and have mostly prepared answers. You don’t want to sound like you are reading a speech, but you will be more comfortable and confident if you have an answer, and it will show to the interviewer.
This site has a pretty comprehensive list of questions you might be asked, and what the interviewer is looking for when s/he asks them. I can’t say that I agree with 100% of what they say, but I do agree with most of it.
silver1 really hit the nail on the head, too, with the advice to say succinctly what you can bring to that particular company.
I tell my clients to think of this as an opportunity to provide a 30-60 second infomercial about themselves, tailoring it to the particular job. Other people call it the Elevator Speech, because you have about as much time as you would have in an elevator ride to capture someone’s interest. More information about creating your infomercial can be found on different career sites. If I didn’t have a screaming 3-year-old in the room, I’d look it up for you now.
Do NOT use it as an opportunity to answer the unaskable questions. This is NOT the correct answer.
Well, I am newly married bisexual and I’m hoping to get pregnant soon because my husband will be allowed to mate with our other wife if I cannot bear him an heir because I am a member of a small cult which will require me to work in a sheep costume on the eve of the full moon.
I suggested that as a possible response because many of those hiring will have a background in sales. They tend to love “salesman” type responses. “Would you like it in blue or green?” Also, it may get the interviewer to reveal what they’re really looking for. “Actually, I called you in here because you used to work for company XYZ and I know they have an outstanding training program. Tell me about it.”
That’s how I answer that question and the famed “Where do you see youself in 5 years”?
I almost always answer that as "5 years personal or 5 years job related? "
I hate non-direct questions in interviews. I’ve been doing some job seeking as of late and been asked alot of these.
“What if someone said they couldn’t access the network part of the time?”
Access the network? Are they on the phone or am I in front of their system? Is it just parts of the network like email or a file server or the whole thing is dead? Are we talking “network” as in the local LAN or WAN access? Are they at home on cable and hitting a VPN? Throw me a frickin’ bone here.
Of course if I asked a question like that and the reply was “First thing, I’d tear the machine open and replace the network card” you’d know right away the tech needed work on troubleshooting skills.
I’m sure that’s what they’re looking for. The thought process behind the troubleshooting. But day-am. Just ask me some straight forward questions and quit with the hypotheticals.
As an HR consultant, I echo what silver1 said. Assuming that the interviewer is smart and knows what she’s doing, “Tell me about yourself” is an invitation. It means, “Tell me why I should hire you.” In fact, every question in the interview would be some form of “Tell me why I should hire you,” whether the question is specific or general.
Whatever and however you respond, the interviewer draws conclusions about you. If you respond with, “What do you mean by that?” the conclusion could be something like “requires clarification and clear instructions” or “not a self-starter.”
Interviews are not casual friendly conversations between two people meeting in a bar for the first time.
I recently got the infamous “How many quarters does <insert local mall here> collect in a day?” question. Can someone explain what this had to do with the IT job I was applying for? I got up and told the guy he was wasting my time. I have 10 years of experience and to me, it was just insulting. I’ve also gotten “Why are manhole covers round?” and the sock drawer in the dark question. I even know the answers, but these kinds of questions immediately turn off any interest in the job and make me want to do bodily harm to the interviewer. Someone please explain the madness.
It is simple. The interviewer picked up a book on interviewing which suggests these “creative” questions. The book tells them they can, “learn a lot about a candidate” from these off the wall questions.
I haven’t had anyone ask me a crazy question in an interview. If someone did, I’d get up and leave.
They are (were) pretty standard for a while.
For the quarters, the idea is to see if someone can think through a problem, make reasonable assumptions, make reasonable conclusions based on those assumptions. My guess is that someone who mutters back “um, I don’t know” and then stares blankly out into space (instead of at least showing a second of a “hmm, how would I figure that out” expression) is going to do the same thing when confronted with a strange problem for which they don’t already know the answer on the job.
I think some interviewers over use them and read too heavily into the answers, but I actually like those kinds of questions. (except the manhole covers question. Didn’t everyone do that in 2nd grade?)
The director of the department (yes, director - for an entry level monkey-can-do-it lab job) asked me the following question during a job interview. Note, I had worked there before as a student and knew the job fairly well, this was for a full-time position after graduation (condensed for typing ease!):
D (director) - Say you’re working on something, and your manager tells you they need it tomorrow because the client will be here, but your trial results (he gave a specific scenario) just don’t make any sense, what do you do?
Me - I’d double check my work, make sure all my settings were correct, that I hadn’t made a mistake in the sample preparation, etc. i’d reread the method to see if there was a note or comment that I hadn’t noticed which might explain the error.
D - well, if you don’t find a mistake and the equipment is working and the method is exactly what you did, then what?
M - I’d ask around, coworkers, supervisor, manager, etc, to see if anyone else had encountered this particular problem and how they solved it.
D- there’s no one around. It’s 6pm and everyone’s gone home.
M - (joke that Joan never goes home that early then go on to say) i’d look in previous notebooks, other available data to see how other people did the work, to compare
D - you’re the first to ever do this work. The manager is really counting on you to get this done.
M - well, I’d try and contact the manager, perhaps they felt it was important enough to leave me their home number…
D - you call, they aren’t home. there’s no one at all to help you, anywhere on the planet.
M - sooner or later, I’d have to simply accept that I can’t resolve this problem, and I’d go home and do my best to resolve it in the morning. I’m sure the client would accept a day’s delay in exchange for me making sure the results were true and reliable.
He was finally satisfied with that. The way the guy went on and on (trust me, this was the short version!) I was beginning to wonder if he’d have the lab blow up, the planet invaded by aliens and the universe collapse on itself if I continued to try and troubleshoot the problem. I wonder how soon I could have said “I’d give up” and still get the job?
This guy also asked me if I thought the (c)GMP guidelines and ICH and FDA regulations are stupid and they just result in us wasting our time trying to meet their criteria. We are a contract manufacturing and development pharmaceutical company. I don’t think too highly of this director!
Sorry for the hijack, but I just had to comment on this “hypothetical!” 
What the bloody hell?!
Finally getting a chance to check back into this thread and this is what I find??!! I’ma career counselor and I’ve never told my jobseekers to expect such questions. I guess I should be more prepared, huh?
I did once get “Tell me a joke!” as the opener in a job interview. Didn’t see that one coming and “blew” it, as far as the interviewer was concerned, but come on…
I have heard it said - and it may be a UL - that an MS question is: How much does Mount St. Helens weigh? Supposedly there is no correct answer and the interviewer is looking for:
I have had: Do you consider yourself to be lucky.
A guy I know swears he was asked: If you were a fruit, which fruit would you be.
I personally think that these questions are the sign of a poor interviewer, but that is just MHO
I just had my first job interview for 8 years, three weeks ago.
They asked me exactly that question, and I was totally unprepared for it.
My on-the-spot reaction was: “what should I say that will tell them something about the ‘inner me’, whil simultaneously illustrating my good work qualities?”
So I gambled on giving them a very brief rundown of my personal life and career, but began at the part of my life in which my former career had been relevant. Stuff like where I’d lived, the personal reasons why I was there, and what my personal reasons were for taking the job that I had at the time. (Needless to say, I didn’t mention th 12,000+ posts I have on the SDMB.)
I didn’t get asked back for a second interview…
I got the job.
Missed this:
I once had “make me laugh” in an interview. I panicked like shit, but then remembered a comedy show I’d seen the night before on TV, so copied it and did an impression of the interviewer as a nightclub comedian. It worked.
My wife, who’s an HR manager too, tells me that usually the kind of questions we’re talking about are asked either because the interviewer is inexperienced and nervously read some sort of management book before the interview, or is in the thrall of some evil corporation that mandates that sort of cult-like psychometric testing to interview candidates, ensuring that everyone they hire thinks exactly like them.
I was once asked what type of animal I could see myself as. I thought humans were animals, but whatever. I think I said sled dog (along with lots of BS about how I work well in teams, want to be the leader but am okay with my place, have lots of energy, etc.–total crap like that).
One thing to remember is that not everyone you interview with is going to be good at it. I get put on the interview rotation pretty often. It’s not because I’m a particularly great evaluator of candidates. It’s just that I will eventually work with the person hired (or I’m the only one who’s schedule is open at a particular time). When I first got scheduled to interview candidates, I did get an interview training course. It consisted of a half day of instruction on how not to get us sued for asking blatantly illegal questions. We never got any instruction on how to find the best person. So I really struggled through my first couple interviews. I didn’t ask any stupid “what kind of animal would you be” questions, but I’m sure some of mine were pretty lame.
One thing I recommend is coming into an interview prepared with a list of items you’d really like the interviewers to know about you. Those things may not come up unless you make an effort to fit them in (particularly if you get a novice interviewer). Open ended questions give you a great opportunity to do that.
Hmmm. I’ve done a number of interviews on the HR side. We usually have perhaps 4-6 of us on the interview side. It’s VERY informal. We introduce ourselves and speak to what we do in our jobs, and a bit about ourselves. What we do at work. Hobies we have, and why we work where we do.
Let them know a bit about the team they might be working with.
When we ask ‘Tell me a bit about yourself’. We go first. We are trying to lighten the mood, and get to know the person a bit.
It’s an introduction for us. A short bull shit session first.