Don Georgevich here author of the
complete interview answer guide and
today I'm going to answer the question
for you tell me about yourself just like
I do inside the complete interview
answer guide I mean weird start what do
they want to know I mean should you
start in high school college first grade
I mean it's one of the most frequently
asked questions in the interview I mean
the way you answer this question is
going to set the tone for the rest of
the interview I mean this can be a
challenging question to answer if you're
not prepared for it but it's really
asked as an icebreaker like I said this
is this is an open-ended question but
really what the interviewer wants to
hear about is your recent work
experience I mean why don't they just
ask you know about your recent work
experience because they want to see
where you're gonna go with an open-ended
question I mean your answer tells them a
lot it tells them where your mind is if
you start telling them you know when
they ask this question you know that
you're a Cleveland Browns fan well then
you're way off base with what they want
to hear and you've just made your first
interview mistake now what do you want
the interviewer to know about you when
you leave do you want to know about your
work experience or your personal
interest in conflict their hiring
decision is going to be based on your
work experience save your personal
interests for the watercooler
after you get the job now I want to tell
you the wrong way to answer this
question don't throw it back in there in
their lap and say what would you like to
know
that's Beck that answer has really been
floating around for a while and all it
really does is just kind of shove that
question right back at the interviewer
in an insulting way and and then they
just have to react to question and
they're just not going to appreciate
that a better way to to answer that is
would be to say you know what part of my
work experience would you like me to
talk about and I say it this way because
I mean now the interviewer they can
reply with a simple straightforward
answer I mean some interviewers want you
to start from your first job you know
they have 30 years ago and and and
others just want to hear about what
you've been doing recently if the
interviewer want would like you to start
from the first job I mean assuming it's
been several years since you had the job
then lightly touch on the jobs that you
no longer hold but it
expand on your current or most recent
jobs experience and accomplishments the
ones that are more really relevant to
the job that you're applying for just
focus your answer and talk about your
accomplishments from your current or
most recent job and lightly touch on
your daily duties I mean these are the
things an interviewer really wants to
hear because if he thinks you were
successful at your past job then you'll
be successful at this job even if you
don't feel that you accomplished
anything look deep and think of
something you did that help for the
company
or better yet describe an accomplishment
that you contributed to the company just
make sure it's in the same line of work
I mean you know don't take credit for
boosting sales you know if your job was
to fix computers it's just totally
unrelated briefly talk about your
current employer or you or your past
employer discuss two or three of your
most significant accomplishments and
talk about a few of your key strengths
as they relate to the job for which
you're applying for and how they can
benefit and how the employer can benefit
from your strengths then discuss how you
see yourself getting into a position at
their company lay it out for them this
is tell them what you see tell them how
you are going to be an integral part of
their company and help them grow talk
about how you complete projects on time
and under budget
tell them how you've increased sales
revenues for two straight quarters in a
row describe how you came up with a new
procedure that saved the company money
you could say you know I have been in
the customer service industry for
several years and most of my experience
has been dealing with calls from our
customers I truly enjoy working with the
people in this business as well as the
challenges in my last job the good
relationships I formed with my customers
resulted in me holding the highest
customer retention rate of everyone else
in my department now you'd want to use
that answer if you were going for a
customer service job and you can even
change that around a little bit to make
it fit your industry and make it your
own answer because one thing I want you
to get from this is I don't want you to
memorize
my answers because that's not gonna do
you any good but I want you to see the
language I use and how I bring it all
together so and I and I want you to do
it too and I designed these answers in
exactly that way another way to answer
this question you could say one of my
best strengths is my attention to detail
when I set out to work on a task or a
project I always make sure it's good
yeah let's do that yet
one of my best strengths is my attention
to detail when I set out to work on a
task or project I always make sure it
gets done on time this is Don Georgevich of
for the complete interview answer
guide a jobinterviewtools.com stop by
my site any time and and you cuz you'll
see more questions and answers bye-bye
now