1. How to Best Answer "Tell Me About Yourself" In An Interview

(upbeat music) - Hi, I'm Adrienne. I'm Lauren. We are sisters, recruiters, and business partners with the Atlas Group, an organization that helps diversify the tech talent pool for teams. And we also help job seekers draw the entire job search process. And we are here today to give feedback and advice. And our topic today is the dreaded question. Tell me about yourself. - Yeah. - People told me they hate this question. Have you heard that too? - Yes. What do you think about it? - Yeah, so I don't know about you, but when someone asks me to tell them about myself, I instantly forget everything about myself. And I have no idea who I am or what I've done ever in life. And I want to hide behind a rock. So, under the covers. So like instant panic, like sets in. And I feel like if you're especially in an interview process, and you're being judged for answering it, it just like really turns up the heat on that. So I can understand why. I think it's important to, I guess know that that's a scary thing. If you are interviewing, if you don't like that question, to just know how you're gonna answer it. So, when you're asking candidates, what are some things that you'd like people to know, when you're asking candidates that question? - Yeah, I think it's important to know your audience because you're, tell me about yourself, may change based off of who's asking the question or what type of organization it is. And it's interesting, some people bring up about interviews. It's like, oh, like having to be like fake or putting on a performance. But with this question, not definitely not asking on to be fake or put on a performance, but you can tell her your response specifically to who your audience is. So, say for example, you're interviewing with a startup company, you're, tell me about yourself, maybe about growing companies or dealing with uncertainty and really being able to jump in on things and working with larger companies, your answer may be different. And I actually have an example of this. I got hit up on LinkedIn for a director, a talent position with a larger company. And I said yes to doing the phone interview. And I shouldn't have known better. I did not research the company. I didn't look too much into it. And during the interview, I'm telling them about myself, telling them how much I love to build teams and create processes. Afterwards, the recruiter goes, you know, this company, we already have everything set in place. We're just kind of looking for someone to hope with some change management and move things over in a different way. And so I was like, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Yeah. I was just so unconscious about just getting into it. And then, and again, after looking at things, it definitely wasn't aligned with me. But if I did want that job, you know, and if that was something that did interest me, you know, I want to be more aware and spend the time of learning who this company is, what they're about, and then speaking to them. So it's important to know your audience for sure. And they're, you want to be succinct in answering that question as well. So A, just in a few senses. I'm going to put you on a spot here. So let's say you're interviewing for, I don't know, director, or talent role, and say it is for a smaller company. How would you answer that question? Okay. Yeah, my name is Adrienne. I have 15 years of talent acquisition experience and leadership. I've worked in both agency and corporate settings. I've hired and interviewed thousands of professionals. I've led teams from coast to coast. And I'm currently the head of talent for an ed tech company and founder of the Atlas Group where we helped diversify the tech space. And we also help women with tips and coaching throughout the entire job search process. And my favorite companies to work for are those that are in tech and healthcare that are in the growth stages. I love building teams. And when I like about this role, and then if I had the job description, I would say what it is exactly that I like about the role or the company. And then I would also say, and I think that matches me perfectly because XXXXXXXX, and I can bring XXXXXXX. So that's how I'd answer the question. You know, you have so much experience. And I love how it was shortened to the point. And I know exactly what you've done and kind of where you are today. And you were able to just really package it nicely. I have a story. So I was on a call one time with the candidate. And I asked this question, just tell me about yourself or your work experience. And I like know lie. Like I actually started to time this on my phone. But he went on for 16 minutes, non-stop talking. Non-stop talking. Like I didn't get the peep in. It was just like, this is what I've done here. And then this is what I've done here. And this is what I've done here. And it was just on and on and on. So not only are we looking for like a brief synopsis of who you are professionally, but we're going to pick up on that you may not have the best communication skills if you can articulate your experience well. So keep that in mind to your answer. I don't know. Should be no longer than a minute or two, I'd say. Yeah, I totally agree with that. And you know, they tell me about yourself. The question normally happens in the beginning, like in the very beginning stages of the interview. And so you have so much more time to go through your resume in more detail. So practice patience and know that you'll have time to explain more throughout the interview. People get nervous and like when people get nervous, you may, you know, like talk too much or just kind of go on and on and on. So it's definitely important, like write out what you're going to say, practice what you're going to say. And also know that, you know, we're humans and our attention spans are not a lot, right? So just know that if you are talking for like 16 minutes, even nine minutes, even five minutes, the just know that that person may not be listening, you know, at the end. So just kind of prepare, take the time to to prepare and come up with with your story for that for that for that question. And so Lorraine, I'm going to put you on the spot now and tell me about yourself. Same thing, small company, you're applying for a talent acquisition leadership position. - Okay, I'm going to go run and hide right now. No, okay, all right, I'm back. Okay, so I've been working in talent acquisition for the past seven years. So I started out doing agency recruitment, focused on tech and digital marketing roles across the US for all types of startups to really large well-known organizations. So when I was in agency that was for about four and a half years, I was about four million in revenue by the time I left agency for the corporate world. So the reason I switched to corporate was because I really wanted something different in recruitment. So I thought in-house was the way to go because I really like building relationships with the hiring managers. And I like to build things. So this company had zero recruitment process. It was perfect because I got to build everything from scratch. And it was just an overall exciting opportunity and experience for me. And now that talent acquisition is running successfully, I'm looking for a place where I can build again, which is what attracted me to this role and I were on the phone. What do you think? Great, I love it. I love it. It was so succinct, organized to the point. And I love that you were able to tell me about the types of companies that you've worked for in the past. You also told me the amount of time that you were in a position for. You shared numbers, which is amazing. And I was able to really hear what you love to do. And I was also able to hear your passion exactly what you did and why you're interested in this position. So A plus. Woo, awesome. So hired. Thank you. Woo. No, we're hiding under rocks. That's cool. So you know, when you're interviewing and you get asked that question, just translate into give me a brief history of your work experience and how that's relevant to this role. So you know, the role of some just to guide you, I don't think you agree with this, but I would say maybe, you know, go back to three jobs and how that ties into the job that you're interviewing for anality thing. Yeah, I think that's great. As long as you can keep it succinct, you know, if it's better for you to do like an overview and then pull out like maybe like your top three kind of accomplishments, that could be really, you know, good. Or if you're wanting to showcase, you know, the things that you've done, you can definitely use the three jobs. Love it. Love it. Yeah. And another thing that I want to bring up here, we've talked about this in other podcasts too, is that practice makes perfect. So, you know, when you're. when you're answering this question, you don't want it to be the first time that it's coming out of your mouth. So the more that you say it, the more that you feel comfortable. And you know, you can use your voice memo on your phone, practice with friends, families. Yeah, it'll feel uncomfortable, maybe to practice with a friend, but it will prepare you so much for the interview. And you'll feel a lot better, more confident. So if you're, you know, making sure that you're comfortable in that way, when you say it in an interview, it's, you know, you're not going to get that nervous feeling. Totally. All right, anything else to add, Rain? No, I think I'm all good. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining. Thanks for taking your time to listen today. If you like what you heard, give us a review or a download for the episode. I think that's the right wording of what I'm supposed to say. I think how I don't know, maybe. Just let us know. Just let us know. And you want to hear more or you want feedback, DM us. We're on LinkedIn, mostly. You know, you can also hit us up on our personal Instagram pages. I'm Adrienne Dinkalacher, my sister here. We're learning Dinkalacher. And don't worry, our names will be spelled out in the show notes. And our website is www.theatlasgroup.co where you can learn more information about us, some of the things that we offer and as well as our membership group. So just check us out. DM us. We're happy. We're here to help. You know, there's so much happening right now in terms of the job search process. And you can be so frustrating. We want to help to give some light to that. So let us know. Bye. Bye.