How to answer “tell me about yourself”
It is not an invitation to recite your CV. It is the interviewer asking why they should keep listening.
Citadel Editorial1 September 20263 minute read
Almost every interview opens with it, and almost everybody answers it badly — usually by starting at secondary school and working forwards.
Three sentences, not three minutes
What you did most recently. What you are good at that this job needs. Why you are sitting in this room.
“I have run the accounts for a forty-person distributor in Dar for three years. I am strongest on month-end and on getting VAT filings right first time. I am here because you are opening a second branch, and that is the part of the work I enjoy most.”
Then stop talking
The silence after a short answer feels much longer to you than to the interviewer. Let them ask the next question — what they choose to ask tells you what they care about.