{"id":17,"date":"2014-10-15T11:46:01","date_gmt":"2014-10-15T10:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/?p=17"},"modified":"2025-10-22T15:59:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T14:59:05","slug":"tell-me-about-yourself-an-innocent-ice-breaker-or-nightmare-interview-question-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/2014\/10\/15\/tell-me-about-yourself-an-innocent-ice-breaker-or-nightmare-interview-question-2\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cTell me about yourself\u201d \u2013 an innocent ice-breaker or nightmare interview question?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A few days ago I delivered a workshop on Preparing for Interviews; during the workshop I asked the participants to share their nightmare interview question. It seems one of the most commonly asked interview questions <em><strong>\u2018Tell me about yourself\u2019<\/strong> <\/em>strikes fear amongst a number of us.<\/p>\n<p>On the face of it, <em><strong>\u2018Tell me about yourself\u2019<\/strong> <\/em>is an innocent question, designed to break the ice and put you at ease before the actual interview starts. Yet I think it is one of the most difficult questions to answer. At the Careers Service we always encourage students to consider interview questions from the recruiter\u2019s perspective; after all there is a purpose behind every question. When an employer asks, <em><strong>\u2018Tell me about yourself\u2019<\/strong><\/em> they want to get a sense of who you are \u2013 the person behind the interview mask. This is often the first question asked in an interview; employers will note how confident and articulate you appear. Your response will set the tone for the remainder of the interview.<\/p>\n<p>Our tips for a strong answer are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Be succinct:<\/strong> one way to approach this question is to prepare a <a title=\"60 second elevator pitch\" href=\"http:\/\/careersblog.warwick.ac.uk\/2014\/04\/30\/first-impressions-count-nail-that-elevator-pitch\/\">60-second elevator pitch<\/a>. Remember you do not need to provide a detailed chronology, just a summary of your experiences.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prepare:<\/strong> you know this question is coming so prepare an answer in advance. Review the person specification and job description, make a note of the qualities the employer is looking for and tie in relevant skills from your placement or other work experience to the job.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Consider your language:<\/strong> the language you use to describe yourself can create a picture in the interviewers mind about who you are as a person. Employers are consciously and subconsciously assessing whether you are the right \u2019fit\u2019 within their team and organisation. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.huffingtonpost.com\/greg-savage\/10-words-you-must-never-u_b_5904666.html\">10 words you must never use to describe yourself makes for interesting reading.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Interviews take skill and in order to perform well, you have to practice. You may want to consider booking a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bath.ac.uk\/students\/careers\/one-to-one\/index.html#practice\">mock interview<\/a> with a Careers Adviser; you will not only perfect your technique but also get valuable feedback and coaching on your performance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few days ago I delivered a workshop on Preparing for Interviews; during the workshop I asked the participants to share their nightmare interview question. It seems one of the most commonly asked interview questions \u2018Tell me about yourself\u2019 strikes...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[748],"tags":[4,6,44],"class_list":["post-17","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-archive","tag-advice","tag-careers-advice","tag-interviews","post_format-post-format-link"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/careers\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}