Answering the inevitable interview questions

Interviewing is stressful enough without having to answer stupid interview questions. Of those, one of the most challenging is the oft used “Tell me about yourself?” interview opener.

Why do interviewers ask this question? They want to know about you the candidate as a potential employee. They don’t want to know about your family, your last holiday, your hobbies, or that you like the Wallabies.

Interviewers also think it is improper for you to answer their “Tell me about yourself?” question with a question like, “What would you like to know?” If you are prepared, and seriously thinking about making a career change, you will have prepared a thoughtful answer to this question before you begin interviewing.

Why?

Here is one story about this opening interview question that cost a candidate a job. It perfectly illustrates why you must plan a response for this question whether you are asked it or not. The candidate was a senior lawyer, and the recruiter had a client that was looking to fill an in-house position with a 125k base. The candidate had an ideal background and skills set, and the client thought he was a perfect fit. The candidate knew the client and was thrilled to interview with him. The client joked that when the candidate came to the interview they thought they might make an offer on the spot.

You can more or less guess how the story ended. The candidate didn't get the job, but please pay attention as to why, because that is the part of the story that matters most. To start the interview the candidate was asked the dreaded, “Tell me about yourself?” question. Thinking that it was an inconsequential icebreaker question, he replied, simply intending to cause an opening chuckle, “Well as you can obviously see, I am 5-10 kilos overweight.”

They were only joking! Yet, due to the impact this answer had on the client, for all practical purposes the interview was over as soon as the candidate said this. That amusing” answer to what the candidate viewed as a seemingly innocuous question, convinced the employer that this candidate had an image or low self-esteem problem. Despite insistence that it was just a joke, the employer declined to make the candidate an offer. The retort was just a joke! But not really. It was no joke to the candidate who lost the job.

This whole situation could have been avoided if the candidate had just been taught a very simple formula for answering this question. We know this question is a stupid and unnecessary question with which to begin an interview. But because interviewers open with this question, candidates need to know how to respond to this question intelligently. The following formula has worked wonders for hundreds of candidates.

Many interviewers open with some form of the “Tell me about yourself?” question. It would be an easy question to answer if candidates answered with a prepared and well thought-out initial marketing statement of themselves and their skills, which are applicable for the job. This sounds pretty straightforward, but is rarely answered well.

Though it seems to be a logical approach, you must prepare to do better. Candidates must teach themselves to answer this question with a three-part pre-planned marketing statement that can more or less be reused from interview to interview:

Part one of that three-part marketing statement is always a one-sentence summary of your career history. For example,

“I am a five-year Commercial lawyer with top and mid-tier experience in a range of transactions and advice.”

You get the picture; your whole career needs to be condensed into one pithy sentence that encapsulates the most important aspects of your career that you want to leverage in order to make your next career step. Few candidates seem to be able to condense a career into one sentence, but it must be done. Ask any recruiter for help here - this is what we do.

Part two of the pre-planned marketing statement will be a one- or two-sentence summary of a single accomplishment that you are proud of that will also capture the potential employer's attention. It immediately follows your initial career summary sentence from above. This accomplishment should be one that the employer will be interested in hearing, one that is easily explained or illustrated, and one that clearly highlights a bottom-line impact. When done correctly this will build interviewer intrigue about the accomplishment so that they inquire further, giving you an opportunity to discuss a significant career success. The above candidate’s accomplishment statement was:

“As an employed solicitor with a mid-tier national firm, I noticed we had worked on a similar project for another client. We introduced the clients who ended up forming a joint venture and gave us all their legal work. They subsequently used us to list on the ASX."

Part three, is the most dynamic piece of the marketing statement. It needs to be one sentence summarising specifically what you want to do next in your career. The reason this third part is difficult is that it needs to specifically address what you want to do next, and it needs to change from interview to interview to make sure it matches exactly what the INDIVIDUAL employers will be interviewing you for. For example:

“For the next step in my career, I would like to move away from relying on being fed work by the partners and establish a practice using my contacts in the industry and networking.”

With some simple planning before an interview, you will quickly realise the benefit of a targeted third sentence in these pre-planned opening statements, as employers feel you are perfectly suited to do just the job they are interviewing you for.

These three simple steps - summarising what your experience is as a candidate, sharing an impressive career accomplishment, and then summarising what would be an ideal next career step for you, one that matches what the employer is looking to hire - is the key to beginning your interview with a competitive advantage.

Adapted from an article by Jeff Skrentny & Jeffersongroup Consulting