“Tell me about yourself”--one more time.

By Alex Freund
The Landing Expert

All of my career coaching clients go through “Tell me about yourself” during our first 10 minutes together. Why is this so pivotal? It is for several reasons. The most important one is that the first impression is a lasting impression. In a job interview situation, it is of utmost importance to make a good first impression. If you don’t make that good impression, it will be very hard--if not impossible--to dig out of that hole. “Tell me about yourself” sets the scene. If you answer it well, you’ll be riding a good wave, and everything you say after that will be viewed through a positive prism. Otherwise, the opposite is true. 

You may want to ask,” So why am I being asked this question?” After all, the interviewer (hopefully) has read your resume and knows everything about your professional past and respective accomplishments. Nevertheless, the test contained within the question is twofold. First, do you know what your accomplishments are? And second, if you do, can you recount them eloquently and succinctly? 

More important than everything I’ve said so far is your understanding of the reason you were called in for an interview. Think about it for a second. Oops, you’re wrong! It’s not about you having the opportunity to tell the hiring manager how great you are and to sell yourself. It’s clearly about one thing and one thing only: what you can do for the hiring manager. Now, if you agree with that contention, go back and rethink your personal marketing program. Your interview answers should universally focus on how your past experience and skills can help meet the hiring manager’s challenges.

How Long Should Your Interview Answer Be?

By Alex Freund
The Landing Expert

How Long Should Your Interview Answer Be?

I’m not sure whether you’re like me. I’ve stopped reading! I read no more. I skim and browse and hover over the surface of words, and when I find something interesting, only then do I dig in and absorb the content. Nowadays, because of ubiquitous electronic media, you can immediately suffocate from constant immersion in more information than you could ever deal with. 

Why is it that everyone’s suddenly become so prolific? Twitter came up with the brightest idea of all: 140 characters. Period. The answer to the question is because it’s so much easier to write in abundance versus to write eloquently and succinctly. Try this: think of a noun and describe it as if you’ve been asked to write a dictionary definition for it. Now look up the word in the dictionary and read what the dictionary says. Have I made my point?

So, how does this apply to job seekers? Hiring decisions are being made during the interview. The hiring manager asks questions, and the candidate answers the questions, but often--instead of giving a short summary--the candidate thinks this is the time for a lengthy answer, including the whens, hows, whys, why nots, and so on. The answer becomes an endless rambling that ends in complete failure. The candidate is not happy after realizing what happened, and the interviewer lost the candidate because of a much, much shorter attention span. Both parties lost. This is not a good answer.

The only way to create a win-win situation in an interview is for candidates to be prepared with short answers to a variety of job-related questions. And practice, practice, practice. Know why? Because practice makes perfect!