Tell us about yourself

gary the great

That question at the start of the interview - I hate it.

WHat do you actually say and from where do you start with this question (Like do you say were you went to school or do you talk about your sports straight away)?
What do they really want from you here?

Nody

gary the great wrote:

That question at the start of the interview - I hate it.

WHat do you actually say and from where do you start with this question (Like do you say were you went to school or do you talk about your sports straight away)?
What do they really want from you here?

A brief (and keep it brief, they will ask more questions if they want more information) summary of relevant parts of your CV and anything you left out from the CV that is relevant for the position. This should then be followed by why you want this job which should preferably play on your strengths from the previous discussion about your CV.

The point is to give the interviewer an easy start in on your CV and/or calm you down by allowing you to talk freely to get warmed up and calmed down.

Running Bing

I attended two interviews in the past week for summer work(I am a student) and each one started with "tell us about your education" They have a cv in front of them with my leaving cert results, My college course, the subjects studied on that course and all my results. You feel like a pillock just telling them things they obviously have already read.

gary the great

exactly babyring, i always feel like a pillock in this situation. I always end up panicing a bit and end up lieing about something totally irrelavant just for the sake of it, no matter how prepared i am! Then they always ask me about the lie!

rediguana

I find it to be a tedious opening to interviews too. I'm sure they must be able to actually hear my sigh after they ask me.

I don't think it's TOO important a part of the interview. Just try not to say anything incriminating. It's surprisingly easy to hang yourself when you're spieling off the cuff.

gary the great

Ye igunana I tend to hang myself here, always end up wafflin away and saying something untrue that i then regret. I really hate the question.

mick.fr

That's the killer question.
If you are not able to reply to it properly you are out.
If I may, train yourself at home in front of the mirror or a friend/relative.

Keep it short.
Give an overview of your career, how did you started, why did you started this career, what have you achieved, what are you planning to do in the next years.
3 mn max !

Nobody cares about the sports you do, the films you saw, unless they ask.
And this question has usually nothing to do with your hobbies.

WhiteWashMan

gary the great wrote:

exactly babyring, i always feel like a pillock in this situation. I always end up panicing a bit and end up lieing about something totally irrelavant just for the sake of it, no matter how prepared i am! Then they always ask me about the lie!

if this is the case, youre obviously not prepared.

you should be able to talk about every single piece of your CV.
the CV is not meant to give a prospective employer every single detail about your life.
its there to get you an interview.

and if you are regurgitating information that they have in front of them, so what.

if this question is asked so often, why have you not got a story to go with it? why have yo not prepared an answer to it? thats poor preperation, and i am firm believer in the motto

fail to prepare, prepare to fail.


so now, if they ask you about yourself what are you going to tell them.

they are not interested in hearing you read your CV, they are interested in hearing how you speak, how you react, if you are prepared or not.

there is nothing wrong with turning around and saying something like
'well, my name is x, im x years old and i live in x town. i have a degree in x and \or relevant experience from doing x,y, z.
the reason i m looking for at this position to further my career is because i am interested in the position, i feel my personal values are aligned to the company and im looking for a challenge that is going to take me away from my comfort zone and challenge me.
from a personal point of view, im the grandmaster flash at my local funkrap club, and i am part of the irish olympic gender reassignment volleyball team'


thats what they are looking for.
they are not looking for you to sit there and um and awww. that means youre unprepared, you have nothing to say for yourself.

dont worry about every thinking you are giving the wrong answer to an interview panel. if they feelyou are going off course, they will ask you something more pertinant and direct.

and what the above statement does, is allow the panel to ask you questions based on what youve just said. this is really important.

this is impornat because they are asking you questions, that you should have answers for. so for every statement you make, you should have something further to say. so they ask you about your relevant experience, you tell them youve worked in x company for 4 years. if they ask you about being your gender reassignment, hey, look, youve got something to talk about.

you are in control of the interview.

dont worry, they will eventually get back to asking you aout qualifications, and what the position actually entails.

Nobody cares about the sports you do, the films you saw, unless they ask.
And this question has usually nothing to do with your hobbies.

not true. an overview of you si an overview of you. unless specifically asked to keep to it your professional, there are no reasons why you shouldnt add in a personal touch. keep it to bland, and you end up being not standing out, being impersonal, and ultimately forgotten.

i once got a job based on the fact that i was a spurs supporter. so was the interviewer. the only questoins he asked about the role was could i do it, and give me an example of when youve done it'
i passed those questions with ease, and we spent an hour and half discussing how crap spurs have been for the last 20 years.

the personal touch is imporant.

infact, i know someone in the uk who got a job because he had a 3 hour conversation with his interviewer about british canal and waterway architechture.

im not kidding. that actually happened. dont underestimate what will turn someone on, and the worst that will happen is that someone will ignore it and ask you to talk about your professional side.

youcancallmeal

God I hate that question as well. I did an interview there recently where I hadn't really prepared at all and when they asked that question straight off I just sat there scratching my head trying to figure what to say. I didn't get the job

Next interview after that I had carefully prepared exactly what I would say if I was asked that question. They didn't ask the question, I was gutted and thrown right off track. Strangely though it ended up being a great interview and I even worked in some stuff I was going to use for my response to the "Tell us about yourself?" question. I got the job

As somebody else said, preparation is the key and it really does show in an interview.

mick.fr

WhiteWashMan wrote:

not true. an overview of you si an overview of you. unless specifically asked to keep to it your professional, there are no reasons why you shouldnt add in a personal touch. keep it to bland, and you end up being not standing out, being impersonal, and ultimately forgotten.

i once got a job based on the fact that i was a spurs supporter. so was the interviewer. the only questoins he asked about the role was could i do it, and give me an example of when youve done it'
i passed those questions with ease, and we spent an hour and half discussing how crap spurs have been for the last 20 years.

the personal touch is imporant.

infact, i know someone in the uk who got a job because he had a 3 hour conversation with his interviewer about british canal and waterway architechture.

im not kidding. that actually happened. dont underestimate what will turn someone on, and the worst that will happen is that someone will ignore it and ask you to talk about your professional side.

This is pure coincidence but I agree with you, I got a job a few years back because the recruiter went to the same military school as me.
He noticed some stickers on my folder and he begun to spoke about it.
But as I said, if they do not ask any personnal stuff, there is no point to talk about them usually.
But all depends of the situation of course, if you notice the guy has a tatoo of Liverpool Football team you could speak about this team but if the guy replies he actually hate them but can not get rid of the Tattoo you are bad lol, but this really depends of the circumptenses.

damnyanks

Standard interview questions should be a breeze if you are unable to answer them you have probably put very little effort into getting the job.

As far as questions on your CV go its also there to make sure everything is ok. Some people forget what they actually put down.

mad m

damnyanks wrote:

Some people forget what they actually put down.

Very True,always take a photocopy of what cv your sending in and go over it on the day of interview. Had same questions asked of me last week. Ahem: "Tell me your good points" "Tell me your bad points" Jaysus!!

Also tell me how to guage a slump in concrete!!! I want my mammy!!!

youcancallmeal

mad m wrote:

Very True,always take a photocopy of what cv your sending in and go over it on the day of interview. Had same questions asked of me last week. Ahem: "Tell me your good points" "Tell me your bad points" Jaysus!!

True but never have your CV sitting in front of you during the interview, makes them think you don't even know whats on your own CV.