4 Steps to Crafting Your “Tell Me About Yourself” Pitch

“Tell me about yourself” is a common question not only in interviews, but at in-person and virtual events as well. So many things can go wrong when answering it, especially when you’re nervous. The last thing you want to do is ramble about all of your previous experience for 5 minutes. Your response should only be 60-90 seconds long. This article breaks down the 4 main points you should hit when answering this question. They’re split into 2 main categories - some background about you, and how you add value.

1 - Who Are You?

This is a quick one-liner intro that shouldn’t be longer than 10 seconds.
It can look something like,

My name is Vanessa, and I’m an iOS developer that enjoys building gamified apps.

Or,

My name is Vanessa and I’m a nurse turned product manager that loves solving healthcare problems.

The latter is a perfect example of how a career changer can mention they are a career changer without going off on a long tangent. That’s what the next part is for, a short tangent.

2 - Why Did You Choose This Career?

Why do you do what you do? This is where your storytelling skills get to kick in, BUT keep it under 20 seconds. When you shape your response consider including:

• What happened?
• When or where did it happen?
• Who was involved?
• How did it happen?

For example:

When I was finishing up grad school I knew I needed to find a job. My strategy was to connect with as many people as possible to learn about different industries and roles. Organization and working memory are not some of my strengths and I got inspired by the mobile apps courses I was taking that last semester.  So I built myself a Job Search Organizer app to help me keep track of when and how I was chatting with the people I was connecting with. I love that I can build anything to solve a problem.

If you are a career switcher, talk about what inspired you to step away from your previous career and what you’re looking forward to. Next, we move on to the second part, your value add.

3 - How Have You Added Value in Past Experiences?

Here you want to showcase your skills through specific experiences in a way that helps your interviewers understand what value you can add to their team. Try to keep this under 30 seconds.

If you are currently employed, you can focus on a significant contribution you’ve made at your current job. You want this to be in the form of:

The Setup

• What the project was about and who did you work on it with?

The Action

• What were the steps you took to complete the project and how you overcame any challenges you faced?

The Result

• Focus on the positive result and any quantifiable data you can provide.

If you don’t currently have professional experience or maybe you are in between jobs, this format can also work well with a current or favorite project you are working on. Now, onto the last step.

4 - How Do You Plan to Add Value?

How do you see yourself adding value at the company you’re applying to or the team you’re joining? Try to keep this under 30 seconds as well.

If you are a mid-level engineer interviewing for a senior position, maybe talk about how you’re looking forward to mentoring junior devs. Or, back to my nurse turned product manager example. Talk about how you plan on bringing your healthcare knowledge when you’re thinking about building for the user.

This last step is the part where it’s important to cater your response to the specific job you are applying to. You don’t want to sound generic. A custom answer will help you stand out if you can fill a specific need from the job description or for the company’s user base.

That’s It!

Those are the 4 steps to answering the “Tell me about yourself” question.

• Who are you?
• Why did you choose this career?
• How have you added value in /past/ experiences?
• How do you plan to add value at the company/team you’re applying to?

Try to get it as close to 60-90 seconds as possible. When we get nervous we tend to ramble, so keep practicing your response!

If you are thinking about changing jobs or switching careers, but are struggling to figure out what to make the switch to, check out my YouTube video on job search strategies 😀.