Tell Me About Yourself

• 00:04 So tell me about yourself.
• 00:08 Many people dread that question in a job interview,
• 00:11 and it's not even a question, it's just a statement.
• 00:16 Tell me about yourself.
• 00:18 But hey, you know it's coming, so don't act scared, don't act surprised.
• 00:23 And don't say, well, as you can see from my resume, I graduated from
• 00:27 Duke University last year, and I majored in such, they've already got your resume.
• 00:33 So don't just go over your resume.
• 00:36 When someone says, tell me about yourself, what they really want to know
• 00:41 is tell me about your life experiences that are relevant to why you might
• 00:46 possibly be interested in this job, and why you might be good at this job.
• 00:51 So the job is actually a good fit for you and a good job for us.
• 00:55 So it doesn't really matter what the first question is in a job interview.
• 01:01 It doesn't matter if they say, can you tell me about yourself, or
• 01:05 why do you want this job, or why is it a good?
• 01:08 It doesn't matter what the questions are.
• 01:10 Now, this isn't because I'm trying to teach you to be a phony baloney politician
• 01:15 who ignores the questions and just goes right into the message points,
• 01:19 I think you should hire me.
• 01:21 No, you need to listen to the questions.
• 01:25 You need to answer the questions.
• 01:28 But you do need to realize your fundamental job is getting
• 01:32 this person to think that you are highly qualified,
• 01:37 that you can do this job, that you want to do this job.
• 01:41 And that you would be a good fit around here,
• 01:44 that you would be a welcome addition, an asset to this organization.
• 01:49 That's your job.
• 01:51 It's not to read to them from your resume when they already know how to read.
• 01:57 It's not to simply restate basic qualifications.
• 02:01 So for example, many, many years ago, I was on a job interview with a member of
• 02:06 Congress in a communications position, a press secretary position.
• 02:11 Now, my resume said, communications experience,
• 02:15 strong passion for communicating.
• 02:19 But when the member of Congress said, well, tell me about your interest in
• 02:23 communication, I didn't just go through the bullet points.
• 02:27 I said, I have a passion for communication, and
• 02:30 I think I can do it creatively.
• 02:32 For example, I was working on a political campaign for
• 02:36 a candidate who wanted to draw attention to the pollution in a particular river.
• 02:41 So I call all the media,
• 02:43 I have the candidate stand at the river and hold up dead fish.
• 02:48 And he said, vote for me, and I'm going to do everything I can, so
• 02:52 we don't have more dead fish.
• 02:54 It made every single TV newscast,
• 02:56 it got in every newspaper in that town, and it really drove home
• 03:01 the message visually that this candidate cares about the environment.
• 03:07 Later, when I asked the member of Congress why she hired me,
• 03:12 she said it's this, it was the fish, is what she said.
• 03:16 It stuck, it stuck in her memory.
• 03:19 And you've got to find something that sticks for you, too.
• 03:24 What you need is a story.
• 03:27 I don't mean something made up, I don't mean something fictitious,
• 03:33 I don't mean something creative, but
• 03:36 you've got to tell people why it is you're in this particular field.
• 03:41 What drove you there?
• 03:42 What motivated you?
• 03:44 The whole point of this is you've got to take this resume and blow life into it.
• 03:51 People have to see and understand and visualize what it is you've done.
• 03:57 Now, if you're only 16 and this is your first job interview,
• 04:00 you perhaps haven't done that much.
• 04:02 But certainly, you've done something around your home,
• 04:06 you've done something for your school,
• 04:08 perhaps with extracurricular activities that demonstrate a particular skill.
• 04:13 You need a signature story that is just a way for
• 04:17 you to talk about what it is you've done.
• 04:20 You need to talk about a particular person, a place,
• 04:25 what the exchange was, and how you felt.
• 04:28 I can tell you, I felt very good about getting that job on Capitol Hill for
• 04:32 a member of Congress.
• 04:33 There are certain jobs that you may look back on and say,
• 04:36 that was one of the best jobs ever, or it was one of the worst jobs ever.
• 04:41 But you need to have a story.
• 04:43 The resume gets you in the door.
• 04:47 Resumes don't get anybody jobs,
• 04:49 it's how you sell yourself in the job interview that does now.
• 04:54 You hear the word selling and people say, well, I'm not some high pressure salesman,
• 05:00 I'm an expert in law, or public health, or this.
• 05:03 I'm not asking you to be a high pressure salesperson.
• 05:08 But in fact, the best salespeople don't ever use high pressure.
• 05:13 They simply present information that's interesting,
• 05:18 that's useful, that's relevant, in a memorable way.
• 05:22 That's all you're doing when you are selling yourself.
• 05:26 So when that job interviewer says, can you tell me about yourself?
• 05:32 You need to hop right into something that demonstrates your passion for
• 05:38 a particular subject area, and then weave that into how it's relevant to this job.
• 05:45 What you don't want to do is the full chronology of your life.
• 05:49 Well, I was born in Pittsburgh, and at age five, I moved to Charlotte,
• 05:55 North Carolina, and I went to Starmount Element, boring.
• 05:59 You got to be a better editor.
• 06:01 That's not a story.
• 06:02 That's just basic facts on a timeline.
• 06:06 So what seems like a hard question, tell me about yourself,
• 06:11 is actually the easiest question in the world.
• 06:14 It's a softball.
• 06:15 It's a way for you to sell yourself, to convince this person that you have
• 06:20 the right background, that you have the right interest, that you have
• 06:25 the right skills, the right experiences, and the interest for this job.
• 06:30 So it's not the hardest question in the world,
• 06:34 it's actually the easiest question if you have your story straight.
• 06:39 Now, a lot of people get confused about story, and they think it has to be so
• 06:43 dramatic, and you save the world, or you went to war.
• 06:46 No, all it has to be is you telling about something that happened to you,
• 06:52 perhaps a problem, how you solved it,
• 06:55 how it used some of the skills that are relevant to this job.
• 07:00 And how it led you to this spot in your life where you're applying for
• 07:05 this job now.
• 07:06 Do that and you'll make your resume come alive, and
• 07:09 you will make it easier for the person interviewing you to remember you,
• 07:15 because here's the big problem most people face in job interviews.
• 07:19 It's not that they say the wrong thing, and the person is sitting there and
• 07:24 scratching you off, well, they're gone now.
• 07:27 That's not the danger most people have.
• 07:29 It's also not a situation where you're asked the so-called tough question,
• 07:35 and you're like, oop, you failed to answer that, off you go.
• 07:41 That's not what gets most people scratched off in job interviews.
• 07:45 The big problem most people have is their resume is fine,
• 07:49 it's like everyone else's who made the cut.
• 07:52 They may be perfectly articulate, they may be dressed well.
• 07:58 But when that interviewer interviews five more people today, and
• 08:02 three more people tomorrow, and two people on Tuesday, and now it's a week later,
• 08:07 and they're thinking, hmm, who did I like best?
• 08:10 Who were the top three candidates?
• 08:12 They just don't remember you, because nothing stood out.
• 08:18 That's the real danger most people face when they're in a job interview.
• 08:23 So you've gotta figure out how can you make yourself stand out?
• 08:28 How can you make your resume come alive so
• 08:31 that people associate you with the skills you claim you have?
• 08:35 Because everybody's resumes claim they have great skills.
• 08:39 That's your challenge.
• 08:40 How can you stand out?
• 08:42 Having a good story, having a good answer to this question,
• 08:49 can you tell me about yourself, is absolutely essential.

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