Hi, I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident English
and welcome to your Confident English Wednesday lesson. This week we are focused on one of the most
popular topics on the Speak Confident English website. It's also one of the most common questions
I receive by email or from my students, especially those who are looking for a new job, trying
to advance their career, and use English. So today we are focused on: Tell Me About
Yourself. We're getting very specific on just this one
question because it's the most common question in a job interview and maybe even the most
important. Both native and non-native English speakers
search all over the Internet to find out how to best answer this question and there are
some fantastic examples and resources online. But today I want to focus on one specific
thing: 3 dos and don'ts of how to answer this question. Today's lesson actually comes from my own
experience. Yes, I've interviewed for jobs before in my
life but I've also been an interviewer many, many times. And in that experience, I've seen some really
wonderful interviews and some not so impressive. I don't want you to be in that second group,
so I'm going to share with you exactly what impressed me as an interviewer, what helped
make someone memorable, and what is important for you when you interview for your next job
in English. Now very quickly, before we get to the lesson
I do want to let you know that I have a super special download for you today. It's a step-by-step workbook that will help
you think about how to best create your unique answer to this question. We'll talk a little bit more about the workbook
as we go through the lesson. But after you watch this video, make sure
that you visit the online lesson so that you can download the workbook and prepare, practice,
and perfect your answer to Tell Me About Yourself. So the first don't in today's lesson is: in
this question, don't tell your life story. Yes, the interviewer is asking you to tell
her or him about yourself but they don't want to you know where you grew up or all of the
travels you've taken in your life. They don't want to know about all your time
at university studying. They want to know one thing: are you the right
person for the job. And they want to get an immediate idea about
whether or not you are. So this question helps them understand that
immediately if you answer it correctly. Now that doesn't mean there's a right or a
wrong answer. But it does mean there is a correct way or
method to answering it. The key is to think about this specific job
that you are interviewing for. And then thinking about your entire experience,
your work experience, your accomplishments, the skills that you've gained and choosing
the things that are most specific that relate directly to this job so that you can show
you are the right person, that you have the right qualifications, expertise, strengths
to perform well and be the best person for this job. Now if you've never talked about your accomplishments,
your strengths and that feels uncomfortable, maybe it's not something that's common in
your culture, that is okay. I know it feels strange and awkward at the
beginning but that is exactly why I created this workbook for you. To help begin the process of brainstorming
and thinking about what should you say, what could you say? What is part of your background, your expertise
that could be important to highlight in this question? Don't number two: don't repeat your resume
word-for-word. Honestly, this just isn't impressive. Your interviewer will most likely have a copy
of your resume directly in front of them and they've probably read a little bit of it,
so they don't need you to repeat everything to them. Again, remember, the key of this question
is are you the right person for the job. So everything you say in the response to this
question should be those skills, those areas of expertise that will make you the right
person for the job. They should directly connect to that position. Think of it as an opportunity to highlight
the most important things about you and what you want the interviewer to know the most
so that he or she can make the right decision. This is only the first question. There will be many more questions in the interview
where you will have the opportunity to expand your answers. But here you want to give an overview and
highlight the key points. Now in the online lesson, I have given you
some good and bad examples so that you can what I'm talking about when you answer this
question. And I've give you several more examples in
that step-by-step workbook. And don't number three: don't speak for too
long. Again, this is only your first question. You're just getting started with the interview. Your answer to this question should be about
2 to 3 minutes long, no longer. This is your introduction, so you want it
to be brief, you want it to be clear, and you want it to be succinct. If you know me, you know that I love that
word succinct. It means saying everything you need to say
and nothing more. Now the only way to make sure that you answer
this question in the best way possible is to prepare. Yes, prepare before you go to the job interview. Know what you want to say. Practice it. Say it out loud. Time yourself to make sure that it's not too
short (30 seconds is too short) but of course, you don't want it to be too long either. You want it to be just right and you want
to sound natural and free and easy you communicate in English. The best way to do that is to practice with
it, get comfortable with those words and the language and what you're going to say. So after you watch this video, after you download
the step-by-step workbook to help you create your answer, feel free to share it with me. You can do that in the comments section just
below this video. You can also read comments from others to
see their examples. And I do read and provide feedback on all
of them. It's a great opportunity for you to begin
that first step of preparing and practicing so that you have your perfect answer to Tell
Me About Yourself. And with that, have a fantastic week. Thank you so much for joining me. And I'll see you next week for your Confident
English Wednesday lesson.
