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Interview Tips: The Right Way To Answer "Tell Me About Yourself"
Business Insider ^ | 06/10/2011 | Patricia Laya

Posted on 06/10/2011 11:37:53 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

There are a couple questions that everyone dreads in an interview.

"What is your greatest weakness?" "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "Tell me about yourself." It's the default question (and the first) in most interviews, and to many candidates, it can feel like a trap.

So we spoke with executive headhunters and career coaches about how best to answer this question. "They want to gauge how the person thinks," says Eileen Finn, president of executive search firm Eileen Finn & Associates in New York.

Even though there is no one right answer, focusing on the past, the negative, or the too personal can hurt your chances of making it through.

CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST

(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: employment; interview; job; jobinterview; jobinterviewtips; jobs; unemployment
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To: SeekAndFind
The Right Way To Answer "Tell Me About Yourself"

No.

21 posted on 06/10/2011 11:52:05 AM PDT by edpc (I disagree. Circle gets the square.)
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To: La Lydia

Ding Ding Ding!

I’m actually ashamed that I wasted that many electrons by clicking that link.


22 posted on 06/10/2011 11:55:00 AM PDT by PhilosopherStone1000
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To: SeekAndFind

Well....It all started when I was a Merc for a small Afician nation.This job doesnt have any branches in the Congo, because I am still wanted there.


23 posted on 06/10/2011 11:56:38 AM PDT by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
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To: SeekAndFind
I got this one in an interview: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

My response "In the black." I didn't getr the job ...

24 posted on 06/10/2011 12:00:22 PM PDT by frithguild
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To: seowulf

By the way, you’re out of milk.


25 posted on 06/10/2011 12:03:53 PM PDT by cripplecreek (Remember the River Raisin! (look it up))
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To: SeekAndFind

What is your greatest weakness?
Choking people who ask mundane interview questions.

Tell me about yourself.
Which one?

Where do you see yourself in five years?
I’ll be a billionaire because, according to you, I can see the future.

Who is your hero?
My dog. He can lick his own balls.


26 posted on 06/10/2011 12:04:41 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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To: SeekAndFind

I hate freagin tips. There are sooo many tipsters trying to tell me things these days from the media that it is nauseating. Granted, I like the ready availability of information from google and the like. But I like to pull the info, not have it pushed at me.


27 posted on 06/10/2011 12:05:49 PM PDT by ichabod1 (Nuts; A house divided against itself cannot stand.)
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To: WayneS

Oh, I totally sympathize. When I had to interview candidates for attorney jobs, the interviews were “thrown in” on top of an already busy day. It wasn’t as though my OTHER workload was somehow lightened that day to allow me to prep for the interview. :)


28 posted on 06/10/2011 12:06:25 PM PDT by pogo101
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To: blueunicorn6

My turn:

What is your greatest weakness?
Not being bright enough to avoid answer interview questions from HR drones.

Tell me about yourself.
I’m flattered, but I’m married.

Where do you see yourself in five years?
In rather vivid dreams.

Who is your hero?
(Seriously, on this one, I simply don’t answer it — I’m influenced by many who each have been influenced by many. How can you give credit to just one, or even a handful?)


29 posted on 06/10/2011 12:08:54 PM PDT by kevkrom (Palin's detractors now resort to "nobody believes she can win because nobody believes she can win")
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To: pogo101

Ahhhhh, so you DO understand...


30 posted on 06/10/2011 12:09:31 PM PDT by WayneS ("I hope you know this will go down on your PERMANENT record...")
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To: Puppage

Sometimes, I find myself giving so much it hurts, I say stop. I’m the only one that really knows the truth, I’ld love to share it with you, but, ...


31 posted on 06/10/2011 12:09:31 PM PDT by exnavy (May the Lord bless and keep our troops.)
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To: SeekAndFind

The best interview advice I received was how to deal with the dreaded “what kind of salary are you looking for?” question.

You turn it back on them by asking “what is the range for this position?”

It really works.


32 posted on 06/10/2011 12:11:16 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: pogo101

To me, this question has always just meant, “Go into your dance.” They don’t really care about learning the facts about yourself—the important ones are in the resume. What they want is to see how you express yourself, what your personality is like, and how you sell yourself. And whether you can deal with the ambiguity of an open-ended question.


33 posted on 06/10/2011 12:29:33 PM PDT by Bubba Ho-Tep ("More weight!"--Giles Corey)
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To: Disambiguator

“what is your greatest weakness?”
Chocolate

“where do you see yourself in 5 years”
Broke, diabetic and lacking health insurance because your company is going to cut it due to obamacare, right after you lay off half the workforce because operations moved overseas and you outsourced your entire IT department to a small company in India who sub contracted to a small company in Vietnam who was accused by Barbara Streisand of using child labor to write complex c++ programs for business applications that don’t work, but I digress. OHHHHHHHHH OHHHHHHH. What was the question again?

“tell me something about yourself”
I am pretty level headed.


34 posted on 06/10/2011 12:38:40 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Sarah Palin - SheÂ’s living rent-free inside the MSMÂ’s heads. Credited to Lurk)
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To: SeekAndFind

These are my favorite type questions to ask when interviewing candidates. In my case I usually put it this way.

“What’s up with you....what’s the (so and so) story?”

I find framing it in the third person tends to open some up to be more chatty and others, particularly those unable to think on their feet, it completely knocks them off their game because they have not scripted answer. Had one engineering candidate sit and stare at the table for two minutes before he could come up with something to say.


35 posted on 06/10/2011 1:05:01 PM PDT by kimoajax (Rack'em & Stack'em)
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To: SeekAndFind
_______ Next question — “And where do you expect me to be if you are in my chair?”

promoted because of how good I made you look.
36 posted on 06/10/2011 1:12:43 PM PDT by stompk
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To: seowulf

Answers like that are what a certain 50 yr old man-child asst. supervisor of a technical section wanted to know about me everyday. The guy had no home life, no friends, no gf or wife, a deranged sister, and was a big time liberal.


37 posted on 06/10/2011 1:12:52 PM PDT by wally_bert (It's sheer elegance in its simplicity! - The Middleman)
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To: SeekAndFind

I have a mental list of 5 things I want to tell an interviewer, reduced to sound-bites. If they give me that opening, I launch.

Works every time.


38 posted on 06/10/2011 1:13:13 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (0bamas PLAN is national bankruptcy. Our plan is to save Medicare and Social Security with reforms.)
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To: SeekAndFind

LOL. When I ask a question like that when I interview someone, its because I can’t think of anything else and I’m stalling for time.


39 posted on 06/10/2011 1:14:04 PM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: kevkrom

What’s your greatest strength?
Well, if you tie a cord around my ____, I can lift a bowling ball when I get excited.

Tell me about your favorite supervisor.
That would be Steve. He didn’t struggle much and tasted like chicken.

Tell me about a successful team that you were part of.
Well...I was on the 2002 NBA Champion Los Angeles Laker basketball team.
Really?
Sh_t no. I was hoping you weren’t a basketball fan.


40 posted on 06/10/2011 1:17:19 PM PDT by blueunicorn6 ("A crack shot and a good dancer")
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