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in preparing for an interview it's
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
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