How do I answer "tell me about yourself"?

Efri · 1 min read

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It's not your life story and it's not your CV read out loud. It's the answer to "why are you sitting here."

The shape: where you are now, the thread that got you here, and why this role is the obvious next thing.

Ninety seconds. Not five minutes. And it should point forward, at them, not backwards at you.

The version that goes wrong starts with university and works through every job chronologically, and by minute three the interviewer has stopped listening.

Practically:

Start with what you do now,. in one sentence, in plain language.

Give the thread, not the history. Two or three moves that explain how you got to this point. Skip anything that doesn't serve the story.

Land on why this. Something specific about this role or company. This is the part most people skip and it's the part that's actually being asked.

Rehearse it out loud, once or twice, not until it's memorised. Memorised sounds worse than rough.