I have a job interview!
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OWhen they tell you tell me about yourself. The interviewer really wants to know your employment history and how you have developed . They arent really interested in much else0
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OWhen they tell you tell me about yourself. The interviewer really wants to know your employment history and how you have developed . They arent really interested in much else
Do not agree with this.
While an interview is about whether you can do the job it often is about if you are a fit as a person, too. I would do a mix - quick employment history and then a bit about you and what you do.
Agree with the comments about babbling and going on too long. Avoid.0 -
So, a fault - like well, I have to confess to being a bit of a perfectionist - which means that I can be pedantic and spend some of my time outside work planning and researching - I have to keep an eye on that....... the good news is that it means that I never miss a deadline and deliver projects that are well researched!
There are some things in an interview which would instantly stop me wanting to hire the person. This is one of them. Being a perfectionist is not a fault, it's a poor answer to the 'give us 3 weaknesses' question. Saying that the question itself is a pointless poor question to ask, I'd never ask it. However while I can almost understand why someone would give that answer to that question (even though it's the wrong answer) to come up with it off your own back, as a weakness (when it's not) is unforgivable. I think I'd actually have to walk off to be sick somewhere if you gave this answer.
Plus I've no idea why you'd wish to start providing weaknesses when you haven't even been prompted to.
Anyway in answer to the 'tell us about yourself' I normally keep it strictly professional. I know some will disagree but I don't really think they care about my personal life. Nor should they, I don't see what someone chooses to do in their own time has any influence on their ability to do the job.0 -
I must admit I would probably also take a dim view if someone started listing strengths as "weaknesses". And "tell us about you" is not specifically an invitation to discuss weaknesses anyway, real or otherwise.
But there are no hard rules, and exactly what they want to know by "tell us about you" will vary with the company, and I'd be willing to bet some who ask it don't really know what they want to know!0 -
I've taken this as an opportunity to show my personality, what I do in my spare time, things that make me real as a person and not just a number on the payroll. It also gives them an idea for how you'll fit within the team.0
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I must admit I would probably also take a dim view if someone started listing strengths as "weaknesses". And "tell us about you" is not specifically an invitation to discuss weaknesses anyway, real or otherwise.
But there are no hard rules, and exactly what they want to know by "tell us about you" will vary with the company, and I'd be willing to bet some who ask it don't really know what they want to know!
Think that is right.
We sometimes used to use it as an icebreaker. The theory was the person would relax at the start of the interview by talking about something they knew about and it would settle them down. It worked, if I am honest, and it can give you an idea of what the person is like. Which can be quite important.0 -
There are some things in an interview which would instantly stop me wanting to hire the person. This is one of them. Being a perfectionist is not a fault
Yes it is, potentially - as seanymph says it can mean you grate on colleagues by being pedantic or take too long on projects. As long as you follow it up by saying you are working on improving (e.g. better time management, being more tolerant of other points of view) it's a textbook answer to the stupid "what's your biggest weakness" question.
Only if the job was brain surgery or nuclear reactor safety or something along those lines is "being a perfectionist" a bad answer.0 -
So.....did they ask you to tell them about yourself?0
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There are some things in an interview which would instantly stop me wanting to hire the person. This is one of them. Being a perfectionist is not a fault, it's a poor answer to the 'give us 3 weaknesses' question. Saying that the question itself is a pointless poor question to ask, I'd never ask it. However while I can almost understand why someone would give that answer to that question (even though it's the wrong answer) to come up with it off your own back, as a weakness (when it's not) is unforgivable. I think I'd actually have to walk off to be sick somewhere if you gave this answer.
Plus I've no idea why you'd wish to start providing weaknesses when you haven't even been prompted to.
The reason for asking the weaknesses question is simply to see how well they have prepared for the almost inevitable weaknesses question. Someone who has thought about it and come up with a reasonable, plausible answer is more likely to be the sort of person who prepares for everything. The problem with the "perfectionist" answer is that everybody, certainly including the interviewer, knows that it is so much a stock answer that it was even used in "Trainspotting", and candidates ought to know better than to use it - it shows that you haven't thought about it at all, you've just used the stock reply someone told you.
In fact I normally preface my reply to this question by saying "Ah, this is the point where I say I am a perfectionist, isn't it", as a joke.0 -
So did you get the job?0
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