Sadly, skilled and successful professionals fall victim to this simple interview question.
What jobseekers might not realize is that interviewing is a form of selling — you are selling a product, called “you.”
As the author writes, “Responses can range from strong to weak to irrelevant to fatal – and anything other than strong weakens your position and consequently causes you to give up control. Having a good response is as important as having a good tennis serve.”
Check out this easy 4-step approach to answering the “Tell me about yourself” interview question:
I’ve seen professionals who not only can appear confident, but who ARE confident, very successful sales professionals for example, fall flat on their faces in interviews. It’s a very different ball game.
Many of the most skilled and successful professionals are victims here. I only reference sales professionals because they are the people likely to understand the dynamics of an interview for it is like the sales call.
Unfortunately, even they may sometimes forget the basics of “selling”. So skilled they are that they forget the basics, and it is there, where the control in an interview is both gained and lost. When lost so are the “wits” of the so-called “confident and accomplished professionals” and they assume a more reactionary stance.