“Tell me about yourself” is the most important part of the interview where the actual ice-breaking with the people takes place from this question and it is a great chance to turn the interview into a conversation. This will be your first impression on which they’ll judge you on whether you’ll be able to break it or not, similarly like the 3-secs rule, if you like a person you’ll like him/her in the initial 3 secs that same formula is applied to this question. Maximum times, all the further questions are dependent on this answer so try to crack it here itself.
The motto of asking “tell me about yourself”
- To check English
- To check confidence
- To check how good you are at storytelling
- To see how well you can engage with them through your communication.
The answer should not sound boring or as if you have mugged up everything. Yes, it is necessary to prepare and write down whatever you will say, but that should not be noticed by the people in the interview room, so practice it but don’t memorize your answers.
The answer to tell me about yourself has to be crisp but not in pointers rather in a story that completely has your personal touch. Leverage this question to highlight your personality…it’s your story so own it and be confident. Have a smile and lighten up the room with your personality, your vision, and who you are. We’ll step-by-step guide you to how to start and which pointers should be mentioned but this will be your story so you draft it which best defines you. Let’s start:
1) The personal brief:
So starting obviously goes from your personal introduction which covers all your personal information. Introduce with your full name to where are you born & brought up, your parents and their respective occupation, mention your siblings, and with mentioning their occupation. Telling about yourself is personal so open up with them as you do with your recent friend with whom you are trying to connect.
2) The educational background
Tell your story on how you chose your career path, what inspired you to do the next things. Everyone has their own story of why they chose this particular career which is completely unique, start engaging them…they should be keen about what is coming next in your story. You align your journey and start connecting the dots for them which finally ends up making you sit here in front of them for an interview.
3) The extra boosters:
Mention all extra curriculum activities you did, mention the prizes, and some highlighting points like being a vice president of XYZ group or the event head, it can be anything that shows that you take initiation and responsibility..in short highlight your leadership skills.
4) About your hobbies and interest
Talk about what you like to do in your leisure time and how you can be the best fit in the team to ease out the work environment from the pressure and motivate your colleagues, Yes each one in the room looking at you will have this perspective because the maximum time they spend is with the office people and that also should be happening and not toxic, so indirectly try to highlight this point.
5) Your skillsets:
Talk about the things which make you…The Real You and that itself should be the differentiation point from everyone else. Mention a few external courses which you did till now and give an overview with explaining what you learned in each course. You should mention the soft and the hard skills both…technical courses makes you stand out from the crowd so if you have learned coding, excel courses, data science, digital marketing then do mention it with your leanings
6) Work experience/ Project/ Internship
- Work experience
If you have work experience then tell few roles about yourself and key highlighting points like how many members you managed, if won any award then mention that as well
- Fresher without internship experience:
If you are a fresher without an internship then highlight your project and tell interesting facts on how really helpful it is in the practical world. Which role you specifically played in this project, how you developed leadership skills while getting it completed and many more key areas should be highlighted to showcase your efforts.
- Fresher with internship experience :
If you are a fresher with internship experience then highlight what you learned in your internship, how it helped you to understand the practical things and the corporate. Explain the key roles which you performed during your internship.
7) Which will be the next thing to strike
While ending your answer on yourself let them know just a gist about your plans and what is next on your mind to strike on. This will leave them with a lasting impression with the strong vision you are carrying gracefully.
Draft your answer with the mentioned points and rehearse it well, this is definitely coming your way as soon as you enter the room & here they decide whether to grill you or chill with you.
Don’t forget the key that will open their heart and ear to listen to you… Your Beautiful Smile…yes light up the room with that smile and put all the energy in front of them with positiwitty.
Yes, you got it right… All the best Buddy!