“Tell Me About Yourself.” Master This Job Interview Question With These 3 Simple Steps

There’s probably not an interview question that’s more difficult and annoying to answer than “Tell me about yourself.” Where do I start? I’m mid-30’s. I’ve been through quite a bit. How much time do you got, sir or ma’am?

Contemplating life.

Really. I’m playing here because, of course, there are at least three big steps that you can do right now before any interview happens where you can be very, very prepared for this particularly sticky question. I don’t want to let it get you down anymore, so let’s jump right into those steps.

Tell Them That You Have Dreams

Don’t make it hockey but let them know you have dreams to succeed that are related to the position you are going for. Don’t make things up here, okay? We’re not trying to lie, or exaggerate, or do anything funky. If you really do have hobbies, passions, dreams for the future that involve some skill or something that’s related to the position that you’re applying for, absolutely perfect.

There’s no better way to show that you have motivation, confidence, and esteem, and the drive, determination to get stuff done then something that you’re already working on or planning towards. That just proves, “Hey, you’re the bomb.” This person that’s interviewing you is going to be very interested in something you’re taking in your own initiative of your self-motivation to pursue and make into a reality.

Now, if you’re not sure what really is motivating you to do things, there’s a quiz over at my website, the self-motivation quiz, that you can take that will help you find your top nine motivators. It’s free. Go check it out. Start using those things to work on your ultimate dreams and work those into your resume, your cover letter, and your interview story. So, this question won’t be so tough.

Embrace True Integrity And Honesty

Plays right off of number one. At everything else that you do, you want to be straight on the rails, doing things right, making sure every part of what you’re actually seeking, doing, and communicating is congruent and tells your complete story or at least as much as is relevant to share for the job that you’re going for.

You don’t want to have some social profile somewhere or previous history or information from other jobs that completely conflicts with what you’re telling the interviewer or giving as part of the story of your life and your existence as far as a HR person is interested in.

It can be very easy and tempting to embellish and make things sound better than they really are. That’s not really what you want to do. It can also go the other route where you kind of go off on a tangent and talk about things that really aren’t relevant, but do hurt for the position you’re going for. Be careful what you say. Just make sure you stick with your honesty and your integrity and be relevant to the job you’re going for.

Have A Super-Strong Work Ethic

I understand the need to work 40 hours, and no more. I really do honestly believe that everyone can get everything they need to do in 40 hours, done, without having to do overtime, weekends, or any of this other crazy stuff. But that’s only if you have absolutely great work ethic. You need to work this into your story of talking about yourself.

It’s okay to communicate with people and to be friendly with neighbors and whatever, but you don’t have time to jimmy-jammy for too long, you don’t have time for gossip, you don’t have time to play around, and you don’t have time to not take any of your job seriously.

Communicate this. Make sure they know and that they’re very familiar with how wonderful and strong your work ethic is. You’ll be telling a lot about yourself and how you can add value to the company.

Tell Everyone How Awesome You Are

That wonderfully scary, but oh-so-powerful question of “Tell me about yourself.” is something that you can master in three easy steps. Tell them about your dreams that are related to the position, make sure you maintain integrity and honesty, and communicate your excellent work ethic.

These are three wonderful things that will get you started in being able to answer this question for all of your future interviews to come. Hopefully, it won’t be too many now that you’ve got this one down.