Tell me about yourself?

cashbackproblems

At the start of an interview you always get asked this but i never know how much detail to go into, do you talk about your experiences on your cv, do you include examples of things youv done/improved and how much of your soft skills do you talk about?

SnowyOwl_2

This is a sign of a bad interviewer...they might as well say "waffle on for ages because I don't know what to ask you".

They will get bored after more than five sentences. So perhaps structure it so that it's short eg:
1. I chose to go into xx profession because
2. I qualified in xx year
3. I have worked in this company and that company
4. I love the work
5. I am ready for a new challenge which is why I applied for this job.

Then smile sweetly and wait for the next question...probably something along the lines of "Where do you see yourself in five years from now?" - because we all have a highly accurate crystal ball...

If the interviewer was listening however they will ask specific questions based on what you said. So keep it short, it's just to get the conversation started.

Sambucus_Nigra

'We've only got an hour, what do you want to know?'

heretolearn_2

We do ask this as a sort of general warm up question just to get people to talk about something, anything, instead of sitting there like a rabbit in the headlights. It's also interesting to see what people think is the most interesting/important thing to tell us about themselves. I know it's not the best way to start an interview but I can't stop the boss doing it, so there you go.

But we only want a few sentences. An intro. We have a list of questions to go into all the details. Worst is if someone just starts reading out their CV. We are capable of reading.