So tell me about yourself.
How would you answer that question if you were in an interview?
So today I'm going to give you just a couple of talking points
on how to answer that question, "tell me about yourself",
if you're in an interview and how to do it so that you can sell yourself to
anyone. The first thing you should think about if someone asks you,
"tell me about yourself", is that whatever you do,
you want to make sure that your story and your answer,
your response is complete and compelling.
It helps to do that, if you think about yourself as the product.
And I know this is not about starting
a business and it's not about becoming an entrepreneur,
but the product here is you.
You are the product and you are trying to sell yourself. In business,
if you're trying to sell your product, the way to do that is to communicate
it so effectively that it becomes an irresistible offer.
And you've got to talk about the offer in a way that is compelling.
So this is what we're going to do. If someone asks you, "tell me about yourself",
you're going to tell them about yourself in a way that is complete
and compelling and it becomes an irresistible offer. So up until now,
up until the interview, when you're sitting across
the table from the interviewer and they're asking you to tell them about
yourself, up until now, your resume, your references,
any networks or sphere of influence that you've had up until now,
all of that has served as your marketing. So they would have heard about you,
they would have searched you out on social media,
they would have seen your resume, whatever all the elements
of the journey it took to get you this interview has served as your marketing
tools. So now it's time to present the offer, which is you,
in a compelling way and to handle their objections.
Now I'm going to give you four steps to take to answer the question,
"tell me about yourself." The first step is to tell them who you are.
The idea is to start strong and to make it compelling by telling them
a hook that will captivate their attention. And the way to get that hook,
that way to get the hook and to make it compelling is to figure out
their pain points and the problem that they're trying to solve.
And this is easy if, up until that point to get the interview,
that it was a job application that you applied for, a job posting that
you applied for and the way to get to their pain points and that case is just to
go back to the job posting,
so you want to do your research before you get this interview.
You do your research, you look at the job posting, you visit their website
and in the job posting,
and especially if it is a complete job posting,
it will be replete with clues about why they are posting that position
and the "why" is the problem they're trying to solve.
Why are they trying to hire someone? What gaps in their process,
what gaps in their company, what gaps in their growth are they trying
to close by hiring and by posting this position. So if it is a job posting,
you apply to then go back to that job posting before the interview
and figure out what their pain points are. If you got the interview without
a job posting and you got it through a referral or if there's
some of them your network, then that's where you've got to
do your research and be creative and be innovative of where
you can get the answer of what problem are they trying to solve.
Every company will have problems because companies are made up of people,
and people have people problems. There are procedural problems,
there are systems problems.
So figure out what problem they have that they would be interested
in if they would take on a new member of their team.
So to make your hook compelling in terms of telling them who you are,
you'd talk about their pain points and you frame it around the
problem that you can solve based on your skills and experience.
Now I cannot give you a template for what your story will be
because everybody's is going to be different.
The the pain points are going to be different. Your career history,
your work experience will be different.
So it's impossible to give a plug and play template for this.
You just have to tell them who you are in a story with a hook
that is complete and compelling, but it can give you guidelines,
so your story when you tell them who you are, your story could be a work story.
It could be an example of achievement, a major achievement that you've done.
It could be your origin story or it could be your reasons why you are applying
for this position.
It could be your reasons why you're here with them in this interview.
Regardless of which direction you choose to take in terms of your story,
the idea is to play on your strengths. What are you comfortable with telling?
Which angle will give you the best leg forward,
and just have two to three talking points,
telling them your story and selling yourself in a very compelling way.
And the goal is that after hearing your story, they will be invested in
your journey and they'll be excited for what's to come in your career process.
And they'll also see you for the power that you have and also to know,
and get to know a glimpse of the core of the person who you are.
The second step is for you to tell them what you know about this position,
especially if you came at it through a job posting, a job application.
Then you want to go back to that job application and tell them what you know
about the role.
So just two to three talking points about what you understand
to be what they're looking for. And the other side of it is if you didn't come
through a job application,
then you then you make a statement of what you understand,
what they're looking for based on the research that you've done.
And this part is important because it shows that you're serious
and it shows that you've done the homework and that you
are somebody who is reliable. And another reason why this is
super important because it opens up an opportunity for them to have a dialogue
with you. You're telling them your understanding about what they're looking for
in this role and it gives them an opportunity to open up a dialogue.
It gives them an opportunity to stack on top of what you already know
and fill in the gaps for you,
especially if you had and you've built rapport with them in the beginning.
It gives them an opportunity to really stack on top of that
and that gives you ammunition later on in the interview.
The third step is to close the loop.
And this is where you move towards the close.
Closing is all the logical reasons that you're going to give them
why they should act now and hire you. And this includes all the reasons
why you're the right fit for the job, why you're the team member with
a culture that they're looking for and why you have the solution to the problem
that they're looking for. So comment below. What have you learned?
How has this helped you? I mean you must be watching this
because you're on your own career journey now and maybe you have an interview
coming up. Maybe you are submitting a lot of job applications right now and
hoping for that interview, with the perfect company and
the perfect culture that you're looking for and maybe that's
you right now and you want to be prepared.
So you are making a list of common interview questions and this is one of them.
Definitely one common interview question. But here's what I found to be true.
I mean I've been doing this for a long time in terms of helping people with
their careers,
helping people connect with their purpose and to really build careers
where they're doing work that they love.
And this part here in terms of preparing for interviews,
while it is very prudent to be prepared when you go on an interview,
it is only a small part of the equation. Because what we have here are tactics.
These are tactics, interview tactics, interviewing and submitting your resume,
are job application strategies. But what is really fundamental
are the principles of building a career.
And that's very different from strategies and tactics,
because your strategies and your tactics can change.
They always change depending on what industry you are in,
depending on how much work experience you've accumulated,
depending on whether you're quite new in your career path or
depending on whether or not you're looking to transition to something new.
So strategies and tactics change as time changes.
Because now they're introducing a lot of AI in terms of job applications.
They're introducing a lot of computerized and digital applications.
So that changes also strategies and tactics too, but that's why it's
really important that you have the fundamental principles and principles don't
change over time.
Principles of building a career have always been finding your true purpose,
have always been understanding the principles of business acumen
and what it means to build a career.
And this is something that I've been finding that people don't focus on.
They're so worried about "what are some tips?"
"What are some career tips you can give me?"
"What are some career strategies and tactics I can do to find that next career?"
But here's the thing, you don't find the career.
You build it and you build it with intention.
You build it knowing principles of how to build a career,
and these are the things that they don't teach in school. So if that's you,
if that's you and you're looking for that next step in your career
where you want to have success,
you want to have fulfillment or you're looking for
"how do I decide on a career?" "I'm starting out, how do I decide on a career"
or you're like, "I'm in this career path right now,
but it's not working out for me. I want to make a transition,
but how do I do that?" If that's you right now and you're asking these questions,
I invite you to visit careerrevisionist.com/intensive
that's careerrevisionist.com/intensive.
I'm going to include the link to that below so look below for that link.
And there is where I have for you, I have put together decades of
research in terms of human behavior and neuroscience, in terms
of what it means to build a career, what it means to find your true potential,
what it means to connect to, what's meaningful and important to you.
And so this intensive, will give you all the business principles.
It will give you all the principles of building a career and not just
finding it so that you can know exactly what to do. There will be frameworks,
there will be templates, there'll be tools that you can use,
and there'll be a lot of training and education as well.
And most importantly,
I'm going to be there as your coach. So visit careerrevisionists.com/intensive,
we have the next one coming up soon. And this doesn't happen all the time.
So make sure you visit the link right now.
And I look forward to hanging out with you.