Tell Me About Yourself…

From the desk of…
Erin Pittman | Optomi Consultant-Care Manager

The hardest interview question isn’t a question at all:

“Tell me about yourself.”

This question has become so ubiquitous to job interviews that I’m pretty sure it was originally part of hieroglyphic carvings in the Egyptian pyramid career center. We’ve all been asked it, and many of us on the other end have been doing the asking. So why does it still feel so awkward?

Intentionally or otherwise, over time, we create a go-to answer for most of life’s common questions, “How did you two meet?” (We worked together at a bookstore and it took me months to ask him out!) or “Emmit’s a cute name for a dog! Where did that come from?) (He’s named after an old Jim Henson movie called ‘Emmett Otter’s Jugband Christmas because he looked like a tiny otter when he was a puppy).

Adorable Muppet dog aside, you get the point- we have no problem quickly spouting off these answers. Why is it that when you are faced with explaining what you do for a living (the activity you likely spend more time doing than anything else) you don’t know where to begin?

Creating a narrative for your life’s accomplishments that is both compelling and succinct is key to knocking “Tell me about yourself” out of the park. Salespeople have long been the masters of the art of the elevator pitch- the idea being that you should be able to tell your story in such a way that within the span of an elevator ride, someone would be interested in learning more. This principal is easily applied to any industry and in plenty of places outside of an elevator.

I asked my colleagues at Optomi for their take on the subject. Ranging from recruiters to VPs, these are professionals who have built a career on getting people excited about working with us. Interestingly, their feedback boiled down to a few simple concepts:

Passion is Key

Every single response I received regarding the key to a successful pitch included the word “passion.” There’s just something about watching a person light up when they talk about their interests. The real trick is weaving that in with your own story. But its easier than you’d expect.

Start with why you love what you do and work your way towards when you realized you were in the right career. Tammy Hawkins, VP of the Western Region commented, “I got good at my ‘pitch’ when I finally realized why I like the industry, not why other folks told me what I should like about it. I truly like helping folks find jobs and that is what I say when people ask me what I do. This changed for me when we had the recession and there were no jobs to be had. We started weekly workshops for folks in OC and that is when I truly found my passion.”

Lets Be Honest

Credible, genuine, authentic, straightforward. This theme kept popping up over and over. Its instinctual to want to put your best foot forward any time you’re meeting with someone new, but the harsh truth is that none of us is perfect. Radka Winwood, VP of Sales highlighted the importance of honesty in her response: “Everyone has weaknesses and I prefer for people to be up front about their weakness, but have a desire to learn and put the time in to learn what they may not know.”

If you take the time to consider areas you’d like to improve, or even a time you made a huge mistake, you can create an opportunity to show that you aren’t holding anything back, while reinforcing your stronger skills at the same time.

Be Specific About What Makes You Different

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever gotten in my professional life was to never consider a job order complete until I’d asked the client “Why should someone quit their job and come work for you?” Being able to articulate the qualities you have that can set you apart from other applicants can make or break an interview. If you consider the amount of time and money that a company spends hiring a recruiting firm, explaining what they’re looking for, interviewing candidates and eventually training the new employee, you need to make sure they can see exactly why YOU are the one they should choose to invest in.

One of Optomi’s senior recruiters, Ria Matta said “ I don’t want to just hear what technologies they (the candidate) are proficient with, but something about themselves where I can go to the hiring manager and say you need to absolutely hire this candidate because besides the technical skills, he/she also has the following…Even if its volunteering/charity/social work over the weekend or in their free time.” Once you’ve nailed down what makes you different from the other candidates, you need to think of specific examples. Laura Chevalier, VP of National Accounts, remarked that “Rather than simply saying I have tremendous work ethic, tie it back to why and how that skill or attribute has been developed within you.”

Elevator or an interview room- you’ve got a story to tell. Make it a good one.