How To Answer The "Tell Me About Yourself" Interview Question

If there is one question you can guarantee you’ll be asked in interviews, it’s the tell me about yourself question. This type of question is usually asked at the beginning of the interview as a way to socialize, reduce the pressure and anxiety of formal interviewing experiences and a way for the interviewer to genuinely just get to know the job seeker more in their own words.

In theory, the tell me about yourself question is easy as it’s literally just about you. But have you ever tried to deliver your response only to find you suddenly know nothing about yourself, who you are and why the heck you’re telling the interviewer about the time you broke your arm 14 years ago? It happens to all of us- trust me!

Tell me about yourself is arguably the most difficult interview question and perhaps the most crucial, as it sets the stage for the rest of your interview. Here are a few different ways you can answer the tell me about yourself interview question and be strategic in how you present yourself.

Option A: Macro To Micro Storytelling

Interviewing is all about your ability to tell a story, weave relevant information throughout your story and be personable. People like to hire people they relate to and “have a good feeling about”. We assess this through interviews and stories are how we relate our previous experiences to how we would behave in the future.

The tell me about yourself question is about you so starting with a brief recap of who you are, why you have made the choices you have in life and how you are uniquely qualified for the job you’re interviewing is a good place to start.

Starting on a macro level and building that to a micro level is a very practical way to keep your tell me about yourself response short, personable, related and easy to follow.

Here’s how it might go:

Hi! Well firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to interview me today. I’m honored you found my resume worthy of a conversation with you and your team and I’m super excited to be interviewing with you. My name is Nadia and I’m a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in account management. I majored in marketing as an undergrad student at the University of Louisville, where I did my first internship and found my passion for customer service and account management. This work really resonates with me because I’m a huge people person and love developing, building and strengthening customer and partner relationships. After my internship, I knew account management was the area of marketing I wanted to go into and have since had 4 progressively more challenging and elevated positions over the last 10 years leading me to more executive leadership positions now. I’m now ready to take the next step in my career and move into a manager role, which led me to applying to this role…. Next, I’d go into why I want this and how I’m qualified for the role.

There are a few elements I want to raise about the example above. Firstly, it’s always appropriate to start your response with thanking the interviewer for their time and interest in your application. Since the tell me about yourself question is usually the first question of the interview, it’s appropriate to express your thanks here as part of your answer.

Secondly, notice I used the words “ I’m honored you found my resume worthy of a conversation”. If you genuinely want your interview to be more of a conversation (informal) vs. an interview (formal), try to infuse words that decrease the formality of the experience. Such as conversation vs. interview. Or the “opportunity to connect” vs. interview.

You set the tone of the interview as the job seeker, you bring the energy and the employer typically just matches what you bring to the table. So if your interviewing feels super stuffy and formal, consider how you are presenting yourself and what environment you are creating in the interview.

Thirdly, in the example above, I started the story in a “big picture” context and started at the beginning of my career, referencing my major in college, my internship, how I found my passion in my field and what I’ve done since. This is a macro view of my career and how it’s led me to applying to this role today.

Remember, your employer has seen your resume, cover letter, LinkedIn etc. They know the “what” from your resume- what jobs you’ve had, what you’ve majored in etc. Through the interview they are trying to understand more about you and your “why”. Why did you choose your major, why and how are you an expert in your field or love doing what you do. Why are you interested in the role? Etc.

Sharing Our Why

Storytelling is how we communicate our why. Going from a macro-to-micro structure allows the employer to see your story from a 30,000 foot view. Where did you start 10 years ago and how did you end up where you are today? The more detail you give in your story, the more likely the interviewer will have a similar or shared experience and will bond with you over that.

For example, I always talk about my study abroad experience and how it influenced me to take up my career in education. I lived, studied and worked abroad in college and many folks either had a similar experience or wanted to study abroad too but never did so I always end up talking about my study abroad experience in interviews as a social connection to the interviewer.

Common and shared experiences help job seekers connect with interviewers so drop little nuggets here and there throughout your tell me about yourself and see what interviewers pick up on. If you notice people really love talking about your experience abroad, be sure to include it in every tell me about yourself response you give!

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Option B: Micro To Macro Storytelling

As you might have guessed, micro-to-macro storytelling is the opposite of what we examined above. You start with more recent details and work your way towards the bigger picture.

Here’s how it might go:

Hi! Well firstly, thank you so much for taking the time to interview me today. I’m honored you found my resume worthy of a conversation with you and your team and I’m super excited to be interviewing with you. My name is Nadia and I’m a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience in account management. In my current role, I (insert things about your current role and what skills you use and how that qualifies you for the role you are interviewing for). Outside of work, I volunteer with the American Marketing Association as a mentor. Mentorship is very important to me because when I studied marketing at the University of Louisville, I also had an AMA mentor who taught me about account management and helped me land my first internship. Through this work, I found my passion for customer service and success, which has been at the center of my career and professional identity.

In this example, we start on the micro-level of where we are now in our career, what we do, our skills, successes etc. then we move into a bigger picture identity of who we are and why marketing is important to me. Again, it’s all about communicating what you are doing, why and how this matters to you.

Picking Option A or B

Now that you have two options on how you might answer the tell me about yourself question, how do you pick which option is best for you? Well, it kinda just depends! Personally, in first round interviews, I will use Option B as I tend to be more formal and detail driven in first round interviews. I will then switch to Option A for second or third round interviews as I find that structure to be a little more informal and deeper into my passion and drive in my career vs. the skills and abilities of my current role.

Try writing out your full elevator pitch and tell me about yourself answer a few different ways and see what resonates with you! Remember, writing things out seems super long on paper but be sure to time yourself actually speaking your answer out loud. A good tell me about yourself should be longer than a minute but less than 3 minutes.

You are just answering a very simple/introductory question. You don't need to recap your whole career. This is just a starting point for a fuller conversion. Be sure you are hooking the interviewer’s attention and leaving them curious to ask more questions. It’s a fine balance and it takes practice to know the amount of story, detail and information you need to share without monologuing.

Prepare, practice, do and reflect on what worked and what didn’t work and see how you might improve it in future interviews. As long as you are learning and refining your answers, you’re growing, which is how you get really good at interviewing.

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Meet The Writer!

Hi! My name is Nadia Ibrahim-Taney and I help people design happy and fulfilling careers through authentic career coaching. My expertise includes career exploration guidance, resume writing, interview prep and LinkedIn profile optimization. My pronouns are She/ Her/ Hers and as a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I focus on how diverse identities impact and influence folks holistically and professionally. Please connect with me on LinkedIn or at Nadia@beyonddiscoverycoaching.com

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