Interview.. tell me about yourself

[caggas]

Just did a practice interview with my husband and in the "tell us about yourself" I introduced myself, spoke about how long I've worked in this area, how long I've worked in this specific company and what excited me about the job / how I met the person spec.

My husband is saying I've told him nothing about myself as a person and that's what he asked, not about my work history.

I've always answered this question like this, is that wrong?!

I disagree with the idea that if you’re being interviewed, you don’t need to discuss relevant skills and experience. That is pretty much the foundation of the whole encounter. Sure, adding an interesting and more importantly relevant anecdote might help round out the impression you make on the hiring panel and make you more memorable, but it’s certainly not required; what they are primarily there to do is judge your suitability for the role based on your answers when asked to demonstrate your skills and experience.

OP, your answer sounds sensible and nine times out of ten a hiring panel will expect the candidate to answer that question in that way. Giving personal info about yourself, either on your CV or at interview, unless really relevant, is I think seen as a bit old fashioned and may also conflict with ensuring a fair process.

Done a lot of interviews and tbh never been asked about personal life and rightly so. I do usually hint at having children during interviews because if they are going to be twats about it i'd rather not get the job.

I said you don't need to labour the point about skills as quite often they are fairly obvious and add little to the discussion as you wouldn't have been asked there in the first place if they were inadequate.

If you are recruiting for senior roles you will already have carried out your own background checks anyway and you'll likely have personal contacts who either know of have worked with the person previously.

I suppose it depends on the level of role. If I'm interviewing for senior exec roles in a plc I already know their history and work achievements. I'm therefore keen to find out about character and personality to assess whether I think they're likely to be an organisational fit or not.

Either way don't fret over things too much. People recruit people they like. If they don't like you it's quite likely you wouldn't have liked them so no point working there. You'll soon find the right place for you.

Interview for Business Support Officer

Hi all
Just found out I've got an interview for the above in Children's Services. I've not had an interview for years and haven't worked for several either as been on a course.
Any tips for interview questions please ?
Apparently they are going to send me a task beforehand.
Thanks in advance
Saz

I said you don't need to labour the point about skills as quite often they are fairly obvious and add little to the discussion as you wouldn't have been asked there in the first place if they were inadequate.

Of course you need to ask them to go into detail about skills. Anyone can say they have experience of x, y and z - I've interviewed a number of people who turn out not to have experience (beyond googling) of x, y and z at all!

You are right op. That q is asked as a way to assess skills for the job and drawing out examples via career history is a great way to go.

Organisational fit is really important, and I understand that might be more important when you are interviewing for senior staff as their values and outlook can impact their area of responsibility perhaps more than junior staff (although staff who have a toxic outlook usually have a negative effect, whatever level they are at!)

But they do still need to be able to do the job, and basically they will have to reference their skills and abilities to demonstrate this. They might frame these more around achievements and deliverables but the skills they needed to make that stuff happen will inevitably be discussed.

I think successful interviewing involves the ability to translate experience into a set of qualities which the hiring organisation is looking for - skills will be in there, though they might be more or less prominent depending on the role/level.

Identify key skills for the role from the person spec. Then list examples from your experience which demonstrate these skills using the STAR or CAR technique. Practise your interview answers to questions based on these skills.

I commissioned advice from a professional interview coach once and we spent a lot of time on this "tell me about yourself" point.

It's really important to get this right because the question usually comes at the beginning of the interview so it's your first (and sometimes only) opportunity to sell yourself.

And yes, the focus should be on your work experience and highlighting the aspects of your experience that make you perfectly positioned to succeed in the job you're interviewing for. So you start by saying something like "As you will have seen in my CV..." and then go on to summarise the most relevant aspects of your CV and explaining how they are relevant to the job opportunity.

You can drop in some personal information at the end of your speech if relevant, eg "I should also mention that as a lifetime chocoholic, it has also been my ambition to take on a leadership role in the UK's largest chocolate factory" but if I were you I really wouldn't mention anything like age, marital status, kids or even hobbies.

Good luck!!

tell them your a Mum

I think your husband has just told you how he’s sees you.

Thanks all I didn't mean to hijack this thread. I thought I'd done a new post !

Look up STAR (Scenario, Task, Action, Result) method for answering questions, used widely in the Civil Service and similar public services, in the Action section use 'I' statements not 'We'. The follow up question is often "If you could have done the ...again what would you change", or they will ask you about a challenge during that scenario and how you over came it.

Thanks v much !

I've always answered this question like this, is that wrong

As somebody who does interviews from time to time I am looking to employ a person rather than a list of attributes and qualifications.

If you do not tell me anything about you on this question I will find it hard to decide if you are a person fit for the team. Your CV, cover letter and the rest of the interview will pick up if you are have suitable skills and experience for the job. As a general rule of thumb I like the answer for this question to be 50% personal and 50% work.

It does not matter too much about what you say for this question but the interviewers want to get to know the real you a bit better. Try to be positive and cheery about whatever it is you decide to tell them. It does not really matter if you tell us that your hobbies are ballet or monster trucks.

I think the right answer is a bit of both!

where you’re from
where you studied
why you ended up where you are now
a brief overview of your career
anything in particular you do outside of work

I interview, parents always refer to their kids - mums and dads. If the company has work life balance it’s not a problem

"Tell me about yourself" or "what are you passionate about" questions are also a warm up/ a way of benchmarking your enthusiasm/energy levels. If you're noticeably less sparky when you talk about specific skills or examples of experience compared with talking about your "passion" then they'd notice that

Pliplop, that's been my experience. My last interview,10 years ago, they have my references,they are aware of my experience, this was a nursing role. I had to do exams, multiple choice,math,wwyd in various scenarios. Write a 500 word essay on either your journey there (that was 8 minutes by car) or your hobbies and interests. They want to know what makes you tick,are you going to be a good fit in a team. Yes, I did get the job!

Depends on the role. Being a mom or hobbies are generally not relevant unless the interview was for a role that directly valued these attributes. Also depends on who is on the panel. Read up on the panel and how they present their formal profiles on their official web pages if available.

This is a great Instagram reel on how to answer this question, from a CPO in the US.

I deliberately never ask this as a question (it could only ever be an ice breaker and not marked in the civil service anyway) but it opens people, women mostly, up to discrimination. I dreaded this (and "what do you do in your spare time") question when I had a young family, I had no spare time, my life was work and children, I had a DH who was often deployed and none of these things are what I'd want to bring up in an interview, so I don't put others in that position. I prefer to keep the ice breaker to being something around why they like the role, that's more use to me and usually does the the job of getting people loosened up.