How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” (With Examples)
“Tell me about yourself.”
Why interviewers ask it
It’s usually the first question, and it isn’t small talk. The interviewer wants a two-minute summary of why you fit this job, and they’ll use it to decide what to ask next. A good answer sets up the rest of the interview on your terms.
What they want to hear
- A clear line from your experience to this role
- One or two concrete achievements, with numbers
- Why you’re interested in this job now
- That you can be concise
How to structure your answer: Present, past, future
- 1PresentWhat you do now, in one or two sentences, in terms the interviewer cares about.
- 2PastThe one or two experiences that best prove you can do this job, with a result.
- 3FutureWhy this role is the logical next step, tied to something specific about it.
Example answers
Made-up examples to show the shape of a good answer. Yours should use your own experience and numbers.
I’m a marketing lead at Pinecrest Gear, an outdoor retailer, where I run paid search and social with a budget of about $1.2 million a year. The work I’m proudest of is rebuilding our campaign structure and landing pages last year, which cut our cost per lead by 31%. Before that I was at Summit Outfitters, where I started the email program and grew the list from 4,000 to 38,000. What I want next is to own the whole growth picture and build a small team, and that’s what drew me to this role: it combines paid, email and leading two specialists.
I’m a registered nurse on the medical ward at Northside Hospital, where I’ve worked for four years, mostly on nights. Over the last year I’ve become the person the ward goes to for our electronic records: I helped move us off paper notes and trained 14 nurses on the new system. I’ve also been precepting graduate nurses. I’m applying to your emergency department because I want the pace and variety of ED, and your graduate teaching programme would let me keep doing the part of my job I enjoy most.
Mistakes to avoid
- Reciting your resume from the start. Pick what’s relevant to this job.
- Personal life story. Hobbies and family only if they connect to the role.
- Going past two minutes. Practise it out loud and time it.
- Ending vaguely. Finish on why you want this job.
Other ways it’s asked
- “Walk me through your resume.”
- “Tell me a bit about your background.”
- “Why don’t you introduce yourself?”
Practise it out loudAnswers that read well often run long when spoken. Practise in a mock interview and get feedback on content, pace and filler words.
See mock interviews