How to answer "Tell me/us about yourself" in interviews

Kaustubh Katdare · 2008-08-09T00:33:10+00:00

CEans, Most of the interviews start with "Tell me/us about yourself" - and most of us are not prepared to answer properly. I have seen lot of fresh graduates (and even the experienced ones) totally mess up their introduction. You can really make an impact on the interview panel with a well formed 'introduction'. We have a good bunch of experienced folks who have been on both sides of table in the boardroom. Let's discuss various points you should cover in your introduction. I'll start with few, from my experience: - 1. Don't mug up your introduction! :smile: It gives a VERY BAD impression! Let your introduction be a natural part of your conversation with the interviewer. 2. Don't start with 'myself <your sweet name>'. I don't know for sure, but its grammatically incorrect (English experts - please correct me!) 3. Its your chance to talk about yourself. Its an opportunity; not a punishment. Have a nice smile on your face while introducing yourself. 4. I personally believe one should talk about his/her family very briefly. Lot of people do not agree with me. Let's discuss this point further in this thread. 5. Don't repeat stuff already mentioned in your resume! <More To Follow Soon> Let's see what our experienced CEans have to share. If you have any questions, do post in this thread. We'll answer them!

How to answer "Tell me/us about yourself" in interviews

Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator

Updated: Oct 26, 2024

Views: 1.2K

CEans,

Most of the interviews start with "Tell me/us about yourself" - and most of us are not prepared to answer properly. I have seen lot of fresh graduates (and even the experienced ones) totally mess up their introduction. You can really make an impact on the interview panel with a well formed 'introduction'.

We have a good bunch of experienced folks who have been on both sides of table in the boardroom. Let's discuss various points you should cover in your introduction.

I'll start with few, from my experience: -

1. Don't mug up your introduction! :smile: It gives a VERY BAD impression! Let your introduction be a natural part of your conversation with the interviewer.

2. Don't start with 'myself <your sweet name>'. I don't know for sure, but its grammatically incorrect (English experts - please correct me!)

3. Its your chance to talk about yourself. Its an opportunity; not a punishment. Have a nice smile on your face while introducing yourself.

4. I personally believe one should talk about his/her family very briefly. Lot of people do not agree with me. Let's discuss this point further in this thread.

5. Don't repeat stuff already mentioned in your resume!

<More To Follow Soon>

Let's see what our experienced CEans have to share. If you have any questions, do post in this thread. We'll answer them!

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neelu.

Member • Aug 9, 2008

well the interviewer just sees our confident....and the most common questions are your strength,weakness,they little bit more highlight our hobbies,and so on...biggie told true never mess up there just be confident about whatever you tell

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sauravgoswami

Member • Aug 9, 2008

well,we shud be professional and we shud give only introduction of family if we are told do to so....you can elaborate from which place you belong if ur job requires you to be a localite or someone familiar with the place

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vegetablevn

Member • Aug 14, 2010

sauravgoswami
well,we shud be professional and we shud give only introduction of family if we are told do to so....you can elaborate from which place you belong if ur job requires you to be a localite or someone familiar with the place
Hi,

Thanks very much for this comment. It help me to think about my ideals.

Apart from that, this link below may be useful: #-Link-Snipped-#

Tks again and pls keep posting.

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vik001ind

Member • Aug 14, 2010

Myself <my name> is wrong English! Its much better to say - I'm <my name>!

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sushant005

Member • Aug 15, 2010

I think while expressing we have to talk briefly about our academic and work experience.Identify the strengths that make us qualified.

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bhargava.megha

Member • Dec 30, 2010

please share your experience with freshers.
Suppose you are in front of interview panel for company placement ,& they asked to you first Q "Tell me/us about yourself" then define seriously.......

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aj_onduty

Member • Dec 30, 2010

The_Big_K
CEans,

4. I personally believe one should talk about his/her family very briefly. Lot of people do not agree with me. Let's discuss this point further in this thread.
I agree with this point. but in the interview I had, the interviewer was more keen to know almost all things about my family. I diverted the subject a few times till he quit asking the questions. I don't know if this trend is present and/or is increasing.

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narayana murthy

Member • Dec 30, 2010

in my view i had to answer in a normal way to the interviewer this may be helpful
correct me if i am wrong please because till now i am entered to an interview

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mellowyellow

Member • Jan 28, 2011

I am not sure as to why you would include your family - not to say that you should or should not, but make sure that what you are talking about is in some way applicable to the work atmosphere. Talk about what you cannot put on your resume, i.e. personality traits, experiences, interests. Above all, act confident and comfortable. Remain professional, but don't make it sound like a script.

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Ella Pacey

Member • Sep 13, 2011

It’s the first questions in most of all interviews. The interview has a purpose: to see if you are the right person for the job.
This is your best opportunity to sell yourself. Show your interviewers, with brief examples, why you think you are the best candidate for the job, which is what they really want to know. Talk for two or three minutes and then stop. Give the interviewer a chance to ask for details or to move on to another question. If you need some samples, click on intreview answers. Good luck in your interview.

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*pushkar*

Member • Feb 4, 2012

nice discussion.

Well i am also confused to tell them about the family or not because the question is : Tell me about yourself not about the family.

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vinci

Member • Feb 5, 2012

including just a bit about family back ground in brief shows you are dedicated to family also and values them them (dont take it negative other wise) and it causes a good impression also

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vinci

Member • Feb 5, 2012

also we need to be calm and cool during interview .listen carefully and answer them accordingly

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Sarathkumar Chandrasekaran

Member • Sep 27, 2013

Tell me about Yourself?

This is a tricky question asked by the recruiters in an interview to dig our strength and weakness but many of them fail to impress the recruiters and get rejected. So this is a chance for you to train yourself, test yourself and analize analyze yourself. You can learn from your mistakes.

Post a small answer for the question “Tell me about Yourself?” if you are a student and If you are a employer or a experienced man, try to help the CEans to overcome the difficulty and answer this question. All are invited to flood in your comments. Lets unite to win the world…..

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madhu27

Member • Sep 27, 2013

I'm not sure,whether to say about family in detail....But when i completed my self-intro, they specified me to say about my family...so,what i feel is, after all information, strengths, personality traits, experiences,interests...one may say in brief about family...

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[Prototype]

Member • Sep 28, 2013

Be it "Introduce yourselves" or any other question, be very sure that you're speaking what the interviewer wants to hear and not what you want to say.

Coming to the actual discussion, start with your qualification. You may start with name if they are yet to read your resume. If you've some special achievements, speak it here, like you were University topper. Don't mention if you were organizer in xyz event or something. The very next moment to this, start with your skills and expertise, but only those which are relevant for the job.

For Ex. I am an Electronics engineer and have good know how about the PCB preparation as well as I am good in C++ programming. If TCS is coming for recruitment of software engineer, I'll just mention my programming skills. PCB skills is of no relevance to them. Be sure whatever you say as your expertise area, you better be expert of that. That's the point where you'll have the opportunity to drive the interview. You can add like, I've good command over pointers and there we go... I assure the next thing they will say, "Oh, pointers! Tell me what will happen if I do like ~some question written on paper~ this. And you'll answer them. This was my experience with the same strategy I discussed above. And if you'll notice, there's no rocket science in it. Its pretty obvious once you make them curious. But yeah, as I said, don't make false claims else they will take you to the good ride till the point you say, "I don't know it sir, please let me go".

To conclude your introduction, you just tell about your hobbies which does not includes watching TV or listening music, neither is playing cricket a hobby. Hobby is something like playing some musical instruments, reading, stamp collection etc. or some sports provided you've some good things to tell like representing college team etc. Galli cricket is not considered as a hobby. That's it. The main focus and time consuming area of your "Introduce Yourselves" must go boasting your skills. The interviewer isn't interested in listening that you have a dog and you like to take him for a walk.

As Kaustubh already mentioned, don't speak like you've mugged up. Be natural, take your time. Its not compulsory that once you start speaking you cannot stop in between. Take enough break, speak in normal pace. Use of polite hand gestures and eye contact is also very important. You've to speak at least 1.5-2 minutes so do a preparation of what you'll be covering properly. Don't think like I'll speak at the time of interview, you'll forget everything! Plan what are the points you're suppose to cover well ahead of time.

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Vikram S Bargah

Member • Dec 2, 2013

Self Introduction is the beginning of every interview. This makes our first impression in front of the interviewer hence, One should be well prepared for this particular question in advance. we should make a note of our expertise area, skill sets,hobbies. Speaking about family is never a problem , but should be precise. speaking confidently is the KEY to crack & IMPRESS in the very first question. Don't be superfast, pause for a sec. as the recruiter may ask you in between. JUST BE CALM EVERYTHING ELSE WILL WORK.

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Blv NAGABABU

Member • Dec 8, 2013

can I start with "This is blvn lakshman" or "I'm bl VN lakshman" which is good

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Kaustubh Katdare

Administrator • Dec 8, 2013

Don't make it look like you're playing a cassette. They already know your name so you need not repeat that. Make it more natural.

If the person doesn't know your name, "I am " is the correct way to start.

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Anoop Kumar

Member • Dec 8, 2013

Isn't the most awkward this is starting with "Myself <YourName>", even interviewer has the resume with biggest text as your name on it. ☕

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