The Most Common Interview Question !?!

 

What if you knew the exact question that would appear in your crucial exam?

Wouldn’t you prepare the hell out of it and get it perfect? We often did that with school exams and most expected and repeated questions. Right?  

YET, when it comes to job interviews, most individuals take this very lightly and bungle up the most significant opportunity offered to them during the interview.

So today, we focus on preparing for the most common question that is asked in a Job Interview. There has hardly been an interview I have been in where this question wasn’t asked. And I am sure you have had a similar experience too.

Prepare for this question as if your life depends on it. 

In fact, It does. 

 

TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF.

 

Yep. That’s the question you are most likely to hear.

Not just that, it is almost the first question to be asked.

And right there, you are being given the power to set the pace and tone of the interview.

 

Depending on the length of your career, you need to tell your life story in a matter of 5 to 10 minutes – without being a bore and putting the interviewer to sleep and not going on and on for 15 minutes and beyond.

I put 10 minutes for those who are aiming for mid and senior management positions with a 15+ year career to talk about. If you are under 10 years of experience, aim for under 7 minutes.

Are these minute counts sacrosanct or scientifically verified? Not at all.

But let’s be practical, would you want to be in an interviewer's seat listening to the boring life and career story of an average person? And how long could you go on holding interest before giving up?

So,  the response needs to be well formulated, thought-through, and of course, interesting.

And yeah, a gentle reminder, they have asked about YOURSELF and not YOUR CAREER.

YOU are much more than YOUR CAREER so make sure you tell them about YOURSELF and not just your career.

 

As part of the preparation, once again, I am going to ask you to prepare a LIST.

I love asking people to make LISTS 😊

So here is the list you got to prepare which will serve as input to your answer:

a.      List everything interesting in your life.

b.      List highlights of your education journey

c.      List every role that you have played in all the jobs you have done to date (of course, in chronological order)

d.      For each job, write one sentence that you want to say. Make that interesting. Let me repeat that, DON’T Make it BORING.

e.      Now make a nice story weaving all of the above

 

For this one, better use a computer to make a list and not on paper. You will need to go back and insert things and add/delete/modify.

The story weaving is an essential part and needs time and patience to do. It is your story.

Make it an interesting story to ‘hear’.

Time yourself so that you are not going on and on. Practice with a few people and they will help you fine-tune it.

Don’t go unprepared on this one. It is disastrous.

Remember, YOU are the Hero of the story. YOU ARE THE STORY.

 

Make sure you don’t miss out on the “Cracking Job Interviews” event this weekend - a 90-minute rapid-fire session to cover the basics of preparing for and cracking a Job Interview.

Visit the link to learn more about it: https://www.linkedin.com/events/90minuterapidfirestrategiessess7031228133152280576/

#kmcc #takecharge #layoffs #coaching #jobinterview #job #interviewskills"

—---------------------------------------------------------------------- 

This is the 9th article in the "Job Interview Coaching" series. 

Check out the previous articles at the links below.  You can follow me to avoid missing out.  

Introduction - https://bit.ly/CJI00  - the inspiration behind the series

1st Article - https://bit.ly/CJI01 - Learned Helplessness and Job Search is like dating

2nd Article - https://bit.ly/CJI002 - Bears and Teddy Bears of Life

3rd Article - https://bit.ly/CJI003 - Career is a Box of Chocolates and You have a choice

4th Article - https://bit.ly/CJI004  - Don’t let too much time be a problem

5th Article - https://bit.ly/CJI005  - Match-making happens in heaven and the Interview Room 

6th Article-https://bit.ly/CJI006- Job Interviews are Story Telling Sessions  

7th Article - https://bit.ly/CJI007  - Fuel for Launch – Your Achievements

8th Article-https://bit.ly/CJI008- Weighing you down – Your Challenges

Like and comment on this post so that members of your network who are in job search mode can see it. Feel free to share the link to the post with family, friends, colleagues, or anyone else you care about who would find this useful.