Tell Me About Yourself - The Most Important And The Most Neglected Question

Whenever we attend an interview, or even if we have a normal conversation, we are or will be often asked this question, 'TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF'. This question is the most important question, yet neglected, not only by the recent college pass outs, but even by the experienced professionals as well as the veteran people. This question is asked everywhere, be it an interview for a job or a GD/PI for MBA or even for hi-tech courses.

But why this question is so important?

The reason that this question is usually asked first by the interviewer is that tell me about yourself is an ice breaker to initiate a conversation. Answering this question with readiness and in an articulated manner gives the confidence to the interviewer that the candidate has prepared for the interview and is serious about the job. Majority of the job interviews actually involves forming rapport with the interviewer. Candidates often think that by cramming the answers, they will get the job, where as the interviewer is checking whether the candidate has prepared for the interview, how well he/she handles the situation.

The purpose of the interviewer is to gauge whether the candidate has clear picture about the work he/she has done or still does, whether they understand the instructions,will they be able to understand and solve problems and how do they approach a problem or the work- meticulous, careful or carefree, always in hurry, are they good team player. Also, what do they do apart from their professional work. Here also, one should not say that they listen to music etc, but must tell that how does the candidate utilize the time. Tell me about yourself actually describes the candidate's true personality, both at the professional level as well as at the personal level, hence this question is the most important and must be prepared and articulated in a proper manner.

But  lot of people neglect this question. They think that tell me about yourself involves telling the entire history of their life. That's not the correct way to attack this important question. This question has to be finished in 2 minutes, and in 2 minutes, no person on this planet will be able to narrate their entire life history.

So how to tackle this question?

Well, I normally attend software engineering interviews, so my advice will be for software engineers.

First, tell from where you have graduated, in which year and the university name. Then, start with the first job designation with the firm's name, then the last designation with the firm's name. After that, tell them about the job responsibilities. Then, tell what have you done at the work, any leadership position etc.

After that, tell the interviewer  how do you update yourself and keep track about the latest technologies. And how do you achieve this? Do you listen to webinars, attend workshops and events?

Then come to the personal level. Here also, don't describe about the family details. Talk about learning, being updated with recent knowledge, any research kind of activities.

Since this is an important question, I have written my response to it. Here it is:

My name is Radhakrishna Rao L. After completing my bachelors of Technology from Guru gobind singh indraprastha  university in the year 2005 with IT as majors, I started my career as associate applications engineer with   Oracle Technologies Pvt Ltd and rose to the level of Senior Software Engineer  with PeopleTechGroup.My job responsibilities  included customizing Enterprise modules using Peoplesoft Technology. The work included communicating with team members and clients, gathering requirements, and creating solutions. I have designed and optimized application engines to automate and integrate processes of the HR systems  using sql and peoplesoft.
  
 I keep myself updated by learning new skills .I have finished a course on R and statistics from the coursera, an online MOOC platform, and also,have finished a course on MongoDB,a next geneartion of database from mongodb university.  I attend hackathons to meet new people and work in teams in order to solve problems out of my domain. I also attend seminars, and listen to online webinars which talk about new technologies and demonstrate workshops. I also write and maintain a blog.
  
Personally ,apart from spending time with my family, I like to learn languages, especially Sanskrit. I take keen interest in Indian politics, research on history of civilizations and empires, collect and store information from the newspaper articles and magazines, and like to keep myself fit. 


It is clear that I have covered everything, my education history, my job history, my work history, team player, how do I learn new things, and how I spend my personal time. Also, this answer will take less than 2 minutes to speak out.

I hope that this article will help the readers to achieve their goals.

Thanks for the read.