Using “Tell Me about Yourself” with Behavioral Interview Questions

ThinkstockPhotos-177017769Many interviewers use “Tell me about yourself” as an opening question. So, let’s make it useful.

We have spent decades teaching managers the fine art of behavioral interviewing in pursuit of quality of hire, and it does not seem to have worked very well.  But combining the perennial opening salvo of “Tell me about yourself” with a few well-placed behavioral questions, just might work better.

A Job Candidate’s Perspective

My son, who is in his 30s and highly marketable, recently found himself on the job market and doing a lot of interviewing. I asked him what type of questions he was being asked in his interviews. He said everyone asks him pretty much the same questions. And they almost all start with, “Tell me a little bit about yourself.”

A little surprised to hear that, I asked, “How do you answer that?”

He said, “I give them a practiced answer that includes the places I have worked, challenges I have faced, and my accomplishments over that period. Sometimes they ask questions about what I have just told them, but most of the time they start to ask me questions about technology and my experience with it.”

Continuing, he told me that the more senior managers sometimes asked him behavioral questions. Being my son, of course, he knows how to answer a behavioral question by responding with the problem he faced, the action he took and the results he achieved.

He said the most unusual question was from a manager who asked him to solve a riddle while speaking his problem-solving process out loud. The manager was more interested in his thinking process than in getting the correct answer to the riddle. (I’m not sure I would recommend this technique.)

Candidates Have Structured Responses

After that conversation, I found on my LinkedIn page a discussion on the topic of The Interview Trap: “Tell me about yourself.” The author, Howard Cattie, was putting forth a format for job candidates to help them answer this question.

He suggested that a candidate’s answer to this question include: “Mentioning relevant keywords for products, industries, technologies, tasks and titles that can easily be used to create the bullets in this summary. The first three to four sentences can include some of these keywords. Then add some statements about results.”

Make This into a Useful Opening Question

Even though “Tell me about yourself” can seem like the most natural thing for a talent acquisition manager to ask when meeting a candidate for the first time, I suggest resisting the temptation to ask that question alone.

When used as a foundation for the next few behavioral interview questions, it can be an effective approach.

For example, let’s say “Tell me about yourself” yields a piece of information about a project the candidate worked on. Follow up with “Give me an example of some of the challenges you faced getting and maintaining executive support for that project.” This follow-up question will lead you into a much richer conversation.

For the Best Quality of Hire

Regardless of which question you start with, have a standard one and stick with it. You will be surprised by the attitudes and opinions revealed in the first thirty seconds of the interview, so be alert early. Use behavioral questions to probe deeper into areas where you want more information. (And stay away from riddles.)

What is your favorite opening interview question and why? And, I’m curious, if you ask candidates to solve riddles, what is your favorite riddle?

John Boring

John Boring
John Boring is president and CEO of Accelerate Mobile Apps Inc, maker of Talentron.

John Boring

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