What Color Is Your Parachute 2018 by Richard N. Bolles copy

Conversation Tip #5
Questions to expect from them, then questions you can ask. The
principal question, the first question, the most important question they are
likely to ask you is “Tell me about yourself.” How you answer that
question will determine your fate during the rest of the interview. So, here
are some key points to keep in mind about your answer to Tell me about
yourself:
a. With this question they are giving you a kind of test. They want to see
how you respond to an open-ended, unstructured situation, the kind of
unanticipated challenge that life (and a job) are continually presenting
to each of us.
b. Employers feel you have flunked the test if you respond with a
question instead of any answer. Every job-hunter’s favorite response
—Well, what do you want to know about me?—is every employer’s
least favorite. They interpret this to mean you have no idea what to
answer, and are stalling for time.
c. What employers are looking for here, is an answer to a somewhat
different question, than the one they posed. That unspoken real
question the employer has, is: What experience, skills, or knowledges
do you have, that are relevant to the job I am trying to fill? That’s
what you should try to answer here. Not your personal history, where
you grew up, your tastes, or hobbies. Employers want your work
history, and more particularly your work history as it relates to this
job that you are discussing with them.
d. Incidentally, it will help if you ask yourself, before going to the
interview(s), “What are the three most important competencies, for
this job?” If you haven’t a clue, then that’s what you want to ask
them, early on in the interview(s). Then, of course, during the
interview(s) you will want to emphasize and demonstrate that you
have those three—for the job that you are applying for.
e. But here we’re pondering your answer to “tell me about yourself.”
Employers expect you to have this answer at your fingertips, well-