important to know how you're going to

answer what's often the very first

question they ask you an interview

tell me about yourself well there are

many schools of thought and how to

answer this question so let me share

with you three of the most popular

approaches so that way you can choose

the one that best matches your

personality and interview style know the

first approach is what i call the volley

that when the interviewer asks you tell

me about yourself

you respond with a question which

immediately puts that ball right back in

the interviewers court so for example

let's say you've just finished small

talk with the interviewer and then they

transition to the interview by asking

tell me about yourself

well at that point you could volley back

with a question which is where would you

like me to start now while this might

sound a little bit rude

it also allows the interviewer to direct

you to what's most interesting to them

so the benefit to this approach is that

if it fits your personality style he

quickly helps you align your background

to the employers goals

alright let's move on to the second way

the second way to respond which is

probably more common so what I call the

pitch the pitch is a very well-rehearsed

answer to this anticipated question now

the pitch does three things and it

doesn't very well first it connects your

work experience to the needs of the company

secondly it needs to be memorable and

third it takes about one to two minutes

in length to say so to prepare your

answer you're going to first want to

read that job description again in great

detail and then list out the company

needs then you want to write your

matching accomplishments from your own

work experience so that way you can

relate to what the job is asking for now

you're ready to begin your story so

let's just say that the company you're

applying for is looking to launch a new

product to share that's their big need

and you've got expertise in sales and

marketing so your story might sound

something like this your last year my

previous job we were behind in the

development of a new product and our

competitor took advantage of this

opportunity and launched their latest

product and started meeting our clients

to position themselves as the leader

now our sales decreased by twenty

percent that quarter and several of our

key team sales leaders left now in

response i led tｗo small teams of six

persons each one representing marketing

in the other one in sales to develop a

strategy to both protect and grow our

existing business in the following

quarters so what we ended up doing was

rolling out some fresh marketing

approaches we were used personalized

video and emails content marketing and

live webinars that revealed features of

our product that we're about to be

released now the combined effect of

these new marketing approaches is got

our customers to wait for our product to

be launched and they didn't buy from our

competitors and because we had engaged

them in a way that was very personal and

unique the relationships that we built

help drive our revenues fourteen percent

higher than our previous best quarter

now what will the interviewer infer from

this story well one I can handle myself

under pressure i can craft and execute a

product launch strategy and I was an

effective team leader this second

approach the pitch is a very effective

approach when outlined and rehearse in

advance of the interview now it's no

surprise that this is a favorite amongst

interviewers the third way to respond is

the and when I've seen this used

it makes the candidates stand out from

all others

it requires a bit of preparation for the

interview but the candidate and the

advanced has created three to six cards

each one about half the size of a sheet

of paper which is then printed on stiff

paper is what i recommend and on that

card was a need on the top that this was

found in the job description for example

lead international growth innovate new

products merge accounting systems each

one of these is a need that's found in

the job description now under each of

those headlines you could put a couple

of bullet points that relate to the

value that you bring to solving this

issue for them so when they asked this

question tell me about yourself

well you can respond with I'm happy to

tell you a little bit about myself but

first let me ask you what's most

important

to you and that's when you lay out these

cards on the table and ask them to pick

which topic is the most important to

them and which one they would like to

talk about now when you do this it shows

that you're well research prepared and

focused on the company's priorities i

like to call it the huddle because like

in a sports game this is where you get

together and strategize the next move

so in this example you've got your 6

suggestions on the table and then you

let the interviewer decide which

direction to go now this approach blends

the best of the two approaches that i

mentioned earlier so no matter which

approach you choose you should keep this

in mind when answering the question

tell me about yourself first you should

keep the answer focus on the company

needs and goals 2nd keep the answer

within about one to two minutes three

use facts stories examples or questions

even visuals to make your answer

standout. And four, prepare prepare

prepare all right what we've covered

here is the three approaches to

answering the interview question

tell me about yourself now no matter

which one you choose you'll be able to

answer with confidence and stand out

from the crowd if you'd like to stay

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