Keys to a Good Tell Me About Yourself Answer

In this post, we explain the keys to having a good answer to the “Tell me about yourself” interview question. Throughout our resources, we have emphasized the importance of having a well-prepared answer to this question that is logically structured and highlights qualities that are most relevant to the job you are applying to.

Your answer to this question is crucial because it will set the tone for the rest of the interview. It is also your chance to make a positive first impression. Thus, if you deliver a strong answer that clearly highlights your background, experience, and fit for the job, your interviewers will be impressed. On the contrary, if you give an unstructured answer that is full of irrelevant information, you may disqualify yourself immediately.

We once worked with a client who gave a very long and irrelevant answer to this question during an actual interview. After their answer, the interview was pretty much over. The interviewer had all the information they needed to make a decision: they were already unimpressed by our client’s lack of awareness of English communication norms. While such instances are rare, you could definitely disqualify yourself by giving a poor answer to this question.

In this post, we explain the keys to having a good answer to this question. Our clients struggle with this interview question more than others, and we have yet to work with a candidate who gave a perfect answer to this question. Therefore, you can likely benefit from applying some of the keys discussed in this post. 

The first key to giving a good answer to the “Tell me about yourself” interview question is to know what to say. This may seem obvious, but you would be surprised at the number of clients who provide unnecessary or irrelevant information here.

In your response, you should discuss your current role, the number of years you have worked in this role, the number of years you have worked in similar roles and relevant industries, your most relevant responsibilities that you’ve had in this role and others, any other pertinent experience that you have. You should end this question by discussing why you want the job that you are interviewing for.

Most importantly, your answer should be very direct and explain responsibilities and accomplishments that make you a good fit for this job. We often see clients use very indirect statements such as “My responsibilities include everything related to accounting” or “I can teach various English classes.” Without further explanation, these do not explain your background and capabilities. 

Moreover, you should not discuss personal information such as your age, marital status, or where you were born. English interviews should not evaluate you based on personal details. 

You also don’t want to include responsibilities or experiences that are irrelevant to the job you are applying to. For instance, if you are applying to a job as a content marketer, it is unlikely that your experience as a chemistry tutor or college admissions advisor will be relevant. 

Make sure you know what to talk about when you answer this question.

Another key to answering this question is having a solid structure. We provide a full template for this answer in our Interview Template Guide, but here we still want to explain the importance of a general structure. Using a structure to answer this question will allow you to move through your work experiences logically and smoothly. 

First, you should introduce yourself and say how long you have been working in your current role. Second, you should start explaining your work experiences in reverse chronological order (starting with the most recent). When you discuss each role, you should mention your main responsibilities. You should also highlight some of your most significant achievements. Third, towards the end of the answer, you can also discuss other relevant responsibilities or roles that might help you perform the role you are applying to. Finally, you can state what you are looking for in a new role or why you are interested in the role you are applying to.

Simply following this structure will greatly help you improve your response and make you more likely to deliver a response that impresses your interviewers.

Another key to having a good response to the “Tell me about yourself” question is keeping your response to 60-90 seconds. We often work with clients who give answers that are too short or too long. You want to be sure to keep your answers within the 60-90 second range. 

There are some exceptions to this. For roles in management consulting or university faculty positions, it is sometimes acceptable to give slightly longer answers. You should check with your industry standards when preparing your answer. However, in most cases a sharp and clear 60-90 second answer will be best.

Many clients tell us that it is too hard to answer within 60-90 seconds. As we discussed above, this is where a structure becomes so important. Without a structure, you are likely to start talking about irrelevant things or get lost in your answer. 

Therefore, use a structure that allows you to move freely and logically through this question.

The final key to having a good answer to this “Tell me about yourself” question is making sure it sounds natural. The way to make it sound natural is to not memorize your answer. Instead, you want to practice your answer so much that you internalize what you want to say. 

It is very obvious which clients have memorized their answer and which have internalized it. Memorizing your answer will make you sound like a robot, and you will sound very unnatural. Practicing your answer over and over and being able to use different words and expressions to describe your experiences in the moment will make you sound more prepared and professional.

The difference between memorizing and internalizing your answer is that when you memorize an answer, you are trying to memorize a script word for word. When you internalize it, you essentially practice it repeatedly and know what you want to say at each point. However, with internalizing, you don’t need to memorize every word. Thus, you become more comfortable delivering your answer and you will sound smoother. You will also sound more natural.

The biggest objection that we get to this is clients who say “But I am not a native English speaker, what if I make grammar errors?” It is much better to sound natural and make some grammar errors than to give a perfect answer grammatically but sound like a robot. Unless you are interviewing for a job as a grammar teacher, your interviewer will not care if you make small grammar errors. Forgetting which article to use, using the wrong tense in a complex clause, or using the wrong preposition will not make a bad impression. However, if you sound like a robot, this will not leave a strong impression even if your grammar is perfect. 

Thus, we strongly recommend our clients to not memorize their answers and instead practice them repeatedly to the point where they have internalized them.

This post should have helped you better understand the “Tell me about yourself” interview question. We explained how knowing what to say, having a structure, keeping your answer to 60-90 seconds, and not memorizing your answer can greatly improve your response. Although a good answer to this question requires a lot of practice and strategizing, making sure your answer does everything in this post is a good place to start.

If you would like help preparing for interviews and improving your answer to this question, contact us today for a free 15-minute consultation.