"So, tell me about yourself."
Are those not the five most horrifying words you could hear in an interview?
For some interviewees, talking about themselves and their accomplishments comes naturally—and they absolutely kill it when answering this question. For others, this question is a nightmare. It can feel uncomfortable, like bragging or, worse, humblebragging.
When faced with this interview question without preparation, a flood of questions might come up. Well, what do you want to know? How much can I tell you? What is interesting about me or my career so far? Did I leave something out? Should I tell this story?
This can be a tough question. It was so tough, in fact, that we already made a video about it. We also made interview flashcards to tackle all of your favorite interview questions. Now, let's talk about you.
Table of Contents
- What Interviewers Want to Know About You
- How to Prepare to Answer "Tell Me About Yourself"
- How to Answer "So, Tell Me About Yourself" in an Interview
- Using the STAR Method to Answer "So, Tell Me About Yourself"
- Dos and Don'ts of What to Say
- Examples of Interview Answers for "Tell Me About Yourself"
What Interviewers Want to Know
Almost all interviews start with this question. It's an icebreaker and a way to ease you both into the interview process. Additionally, if you answer it in a strategic way, it can help shape the follow-up questions.
While you might be tempted to share a longer answer to give the full "context," we don't recommend this, and it definitely isn't going to create the first impression you want.
For starters, you might only have 20 to 30 minutes with the interviewer, and you don't want to spend the majority of time on one question. You want to share enough about yourself in this initial question to humanize yourself, but the goal is for the interviewer to also know what your skills are, the results you've gotten in past roles, etc.
Think about it like this: share a little glitter and a lot of glue. Glitter is the personal stuff, and glue is the stuff that sticks for the job—your skills, qualifications, and how you're a fit for all of it.
How to Prepare to Answer "Tell Me About Yourself"
Open-ended questions are naturally intimidating because they can go a lot of different directions. It's essential to share information that is going to be relevant to the interviewer.
For example, maybe you're interviewing for a job in project management, and your first job out of college was in events. You could talk about that job you had five years ago or you could focus on talking about your current job in business development and your side-hustle running your own podcast, which requires a lot of project management.
Picking and choosing what to share and knowing what will be relevant can also be made easier when you prep the following:
- What made you interested in the job originally?
- What skills does the job ask for that you have or can connect dots between?
- What do you know about the company and company culture?
- What strengths do you have that are required for this role?
- Why are you interested in this company or industry?
- How does this job tie into your future goals?
- Is there something unique about your background that makes you stand out in the interview process?
As we start to discuss how to answer this question, keep your answers to the list above in mind. They will help you decide what parts of your professional story make the most sense to share.
How to Answer "So, Tell Me About Yourself" in an Interview
To prepare, start by thinking of three to five strong and relevant adjectives that describe you and your values.
Instead of telling the interviewer that you are a bold problem-solver, give real examples of how you embody those descriptors. Certainly, you can mention hobbies or interests in your explanation, but keep them relative to the job.
Here is our simple formula—a four-step process—for answering this question as it pertains to the job—and organization—at hand.
1. Mention your past experiences + current job
We're not talking about that amazing hike you did in Yosemite in high school (unless, of course, you're interviewing for a park ranger job!).
Mention your past experiences and current job as they pertain to the job at hand. You might be surprised to discover how many transferable experiences you have. Assess your skills, passions, and experience, and relate them to the job for which you are interviewing.
The goal here is to lay a foundation for the interviewer that showcases your relevant achievements and responsibilities up to this point.
For example, if you work as an administrative assistant but you are interviewing for a social media role, describe how you took over your company's Instagram and tripled the followers in a few months' time.
Share with the interviewer how you love to learn new things, so you took it upon yourself to learn all about Instagram growth trends.
2. Tie those learnings into what you want to do going forward
Any employer or hiring manager is going to want to take someone who has had experiences that led to real, quantifiable growth and/or results. When you're determining what past experiences to share, choose one that has a story attached to it—a story with a climax and a solution that you reached.
With this tip, you're building on the foundation you started in the first tip by summarizing the results you've gotten and how they helped prepare you for the job you're applying to.
And that's not all. When recounting your glorious tales of workplace wins, make sure to also recount one or two major learnings from it. If you can attach data, numbers, or percentages to your wins, do it.
3. Mention your strengths and accomplishments
The interview is not the place to be humble. If you're a "rockstar" at research and development, talk about it. Think of a story where you uncovered a lucrative opportunity through research and learning.
Share an instance where you problem-solved on your own to reach a conclusion that helped the entire team. Think about how your personality plays into how you work. For example, if you'd describe yourself as a creative problem-solver, expand on that. How have you used your creative problem-solving to save the day in the past?
4. Include a tidbit about you
Have a little fun in the interview (but not too much) by infusing a little bit about your personality off the clock.
For example, if the company has a mission statement that is deeply involved with education, consider mentioning how you recently learned how to throw clay in a pottery class or how you volunteer to tutor kids in math on the weekend.
By the end of this process, your interviewer should know what you do currently and how it's relevant to the job and company + your past results/achievements + why all of that makes you a fit for the current job.
Using the STAR Method to Answer "So, Tell Me About Yourself"
You can also use STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to answer more behavioral interview questions like, "So, tell me about yourself."
We love an acronym, and using the STAR method is a great way for you to package everything up into a great answer. We'd recommend packing your mental interview bag with a few STAR answers and story circles.
- Situation: What is the story you're trying to tell?
- Task: What was your role in the situation?
- Action: How did you apply your own skills to the situation?
- Result: What outcome did your actions achieve? Do not end your story without a result.
Here's an example of the STAR Method in action:
Interviewer: So, Caileen, ummm, tell me about yourself.
Caileen: Sure, (Situation) in my last role, my company was looking for a low-cost, high-yield way to develop promising leads and an engaged audience. (Task) As the Content Manager, I was tasked with building a sustainable content strategy from top to bottom. (Action) I researched low-cost ways to create a sustainable strategy for SEO-rich content around our lead personas' biggest pain points. (Result) It was a lot of work, but the end result was a huge spike in traffic for our entire site along with long-term growth through SEO and evergreen content creation.
Interviewer: Wow, you're amazing. Please take this job.
Talking about yourself can be uncomfortable, but it's necessary in an interview. By taking the time to isolate interesting stories and facts about yourself, you can shed some of the nerves that come with a job interview. Take the time to plan out answers to "So, tell me about yourself" along with other interview prompts and common interview questions—and kill it at your next interview.
Dos and Don'ts of What to Say
Here's a quick checklist of dos and don'ts to keep in mind when trying to answer "Tell me about yourself" in a job interview. This is not an invitation to talk about a particular job you hate or your weekend plans.
Rather, your answer should add color to your career path, your technical skills, your strengths, and what sets you apart.
Do:
- Keep your response concise and to the point
- Discuss your current role and connect how it aligns with the job for which you're interviewing
- Talk about your qualifications, strengths, and results with information you can quantify
- Avoid mentioning super personal information
- Showcase what makes you unique from other candidates
- Be specific about why this role and company align with both your skills and career goals
- Humanize yourself and let your personality shine through
- Practice and prep ahead of time
Don't:
- Share your whole personal life story in this one question
- Read your resume verbatim
- Ramble and spit out a bunch of jargon that you can't back up with details
- Be a robot and share your answer word-for-word
- Forget to review the job description
- Make this all about why you need the job—instead, focus on how you can add value to the role and company
Examples of Interview Answers for "Tell Me About Yourself"
We love examples and put together a few sample answers to help you get some ideas brewing.
Tell Me About Yourself Answer Example 1:
"I'm currently working for a family-run online media company where I wear many different hats. The hat that gets me the most excited is anything marketing-related. We recently launched a podcast to attract new sales leads to our SEO product.
I was tasked with launching the podcast and have been handling content development, project management, branding, editing, and producing. To help, I enrolled in a few online courses and interviewed a few podcasters in a similar field to get their best tips.
I'm happy to report that the podcast has been running for six months, and, so far, it has brought in $30,000 of additional sales. Launching and tracking the success of this project is why I was excited to learn about this marketing opportunity at Wondery Podcast Network.
Additionally, I love that Wondery produces scripted series and has moved into a subscription model. With my enthusiasm for podcasts and my skills working on multiple projects, I think I'm a unique fit for your project manager opening."
I was tasked with launching the podcast and have been handling content development, project management, branding, editing, and producing. To help, I enrolled in a few online courses and interviewed a few podcasters in a similar field to get their best tips.
I'm happy to report that the podcast has been running for six months, and, so far, it has brought in $30,000 of additional sales. Launching and tracking the success of this project is why I was excited to learn about this marketing opportunity at Wondery Podcast Network.
Additionally, I love that Wondery produces scripted series and has moved into a subscription model. With my enthusiasm for podcasts and my skills working on multiple projects, I think I'm a unique fit for your project manager opening."
Tell Me About Yourself Answer Example 2:
"When I was a kid, I used to go through the real estate section of the paper every Sunday. In college, I had an internship with a realtor and, most recently, I enrolled in some design programs to learn CAD so I could mock up interior design ideas for my friends. All this to say, I love good design and the quality behind how things are built.
In my current job, I'm working for a nonprofit where I help with fundraising. In the two years I've been there, I've grown our database of donors by 8% and created our first online fundraising event—a complete pivot from the in-person event we've done for 15 years—and I'm happy to share that we raised $100,000 more than our original goal.
Between my appreciation for design and my knack for building relationships, I believe I'm a great fit for this sales role at Kennedy Real Estate Agency. I have no doubt I can bring value to this organization and help break new sales goals with the team."
In my current job, I'm working for a nonprofit where I help with fundraising. In the two years I've been there, I've grown our database of donors by 8% and created our first online fundraising event—a complete pivot from the in-person event we've done for 15 years—and I'm happy to share that we raised $100,000 more than our original goal.
Between my appreciation for design and my knack for building relationships, I believe I'm a great fit for this sales role at Kennedy Real Estate Agency. I have no doubt I can bring value to this organization and help break new sales goals with the team."
Tell Me About Yourself Answer Example 3:
"I currently work in public relations for a large bank where I focus on product launches and work collaboratively with agencies, designers, product managers, and our internal comms team.
My biggest accomplishment was launching Marcus by Goldman Sachs, our consumer banking tool that got 1 million sign-ups in the first 30 days. Working on this consumer product launch excites me and makes me want to do more of them.
When I saw this job opening, I jumped at the opportunity to apply, and I think my past experience working at a large company can add great value to a growing startup."
My biggest accomplishment was launching Marcus by Goldman Sachs, our consumer banking tool that got 1 million sign-ups in the first 30 days. Working on this consumer product launch excites me and makes me want to do more of them.
When I saw this job opening, I jumped at the opportunity to apply, and I think my past experience working at a large company can add great value to a growing startup."
