How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” in Interviews – Recruiter vs. Hiring Manager

May 7, 2025

Two people shaking hands over a laptop and a coffee.

The “Tell me about yourself” question is a classic interview opener and a powerful opportunity to set the tone for your conversation. While it sounds simple, your answer can make a powerful first impression and establish your credibility from the start. Did you know your answer should change depending on whether you’re speaking to a recruiter or a hiring manager? Let’s explain why this matters and how to adapt your response for maximum impact.

Why Interviewers Ask This Question

This open-ended prompt helps interviewers:

Assess your communication skills and confidence
Understand your professional background
See how you connect your experience to the role

But not all interviewers are looking for the same details. The key is knowing your audience.

Recruiter Screening: Focus on Fit and Fundamentals

What Recruiters Want:
Recruiters are gatekeepers. They aim to determine if you meet the basic qualifications quickly and your experience aligns with the job description. They tend to be less interested in technical details and more focused on your overall fit, relevant skills, and career trajectory.

How to Answer:

Give a high-level overview of your career path
Highlight your most relevant skills and experience
Mention key achievements that match the job’s requirements
Keep it concise and jargon-free

Example:

“I have five years of experience in digital marketing, specializing in content strategy and SEO. I’ve worked with both startups and established brands, helping to increase organic traffic and lead generation. I’m excited about this opportunity because it aligns with my background and my passion for data-driven marketing.”

Hiring Manager Interview: Dive Deeper, Show Impact

What Hiring Managers Want:
Hiring managers want to know if you can solve their specific problems. They’re interested in your technical expertise, how you approach challenges, and what you can contribute to their team.

How to Answer:

Start with your current role and most relevant accomplishments
Highlight specific projects, results, or technical skills
Connect your experience directly to the team’s needs and goals
Show enthusiasm for the role and company

Example:

“Currently, I’m a digital marketing strategist at XYZ Corp, where I led a team to launch a content campaign that increased organic traffic by 40% in six months. My background in SEO and analytics has helped me identify growth opportunities and optimize conversion funnels. I’m excited about your team’s focus on innovative content, and I’d love to bring my expertise in data-driven strategy to help you expand your reach.”

Pro Tips for Both Audiences

Keep it concise: one to three minutes is ideal.
Practice, but don’t memorize: Aim for a natural, conversational tone.
Tailor your answer: Adjust your focus based on who you’re speaking with.
Sell yourself: This question is your opportunity to tell the hiring manager why you are the best candidate for this role
End with a connection: Briefly explain why you’re interested in this specific role or company.

Final Thoughts

The “Tell me about yourself” question is your chance to shine, but only if you tailor your response to your audience. Whether you’re speaking with a recruiter or a hiring manager, a thoughtful, targeted answer will help you stand out and set the stage for a successful interview.

Need help crafting your perfect answer?
Check out our interview coaching services at SoundInterview.com/interview-coaching for personalized feedback and practice sessions!

Answering Strengths and Weaknesses

June 5, 2019

What is your biggest strength? Tell me your greatest weakness? Answering the strengths and weaknesses questions in an interview can be difficult, especially when they catch you off guard. I am not convinced about the value of these questions in job interviews, but since my responsibility is to help people prepare for interviews, this is often one of the areas we’ll spend time on.

Unfortunately, these types of questions still exist, and applicants come across them. For whatever reason, hiring managers like to put candidates on the spot with these. The good news is that these questions are easy to predict, and with practice, you can have reliable answers.

How to answer Strengths and weaknesses at an interview

What is your biggest strength?

First- listen to the question. How many strengths does the hiring manager want? If they ask, “What is your greatest strength,” you only want to provide ONE. Please don’t talk about 15 talents if the hiring manager only asked for one. Rambling about your multiple skills will come across as overly confident and is a huge turn off for hiring managers.

The best strategy is to pick a strength that relates to the job posting and then provide a brief story that shows those behaviors in a positive light. The more you can demonstrate the strength, the more believable it becomes to the hiring manager.

What is your greatest weakness? How does it manifest at work?

How to answer what is your greatest weakness question

The weakness question is a bit trickier. For years the advice has been to pick a weakness that is actually a strength, like “I take on too much work,” or “I can’t say no.” Bad news, hiring managers are on to this trick, and they’ll keep asking for weaknesses until they’ve gotten you to cop to a deep dark secret, or they’ve written you off as a candidate.

I tell my clients to choose a real weakness, not one that is career-damaging, like an accountant with poor attention to detail, and go with it. Hiring managers are looking for a couple of things: first, can you acknowledge your weaknesses? What have you done to help mitigate them in the workplace? To help clients find this weakness, I’ll often ask them what they’d tell a friend over coffee. They tend to think that these weaknesses are too personal for an interview (hint, rarely they can be), but more often than not, they are the best ones for this type of question. A word of caution, however, don’t disclose any protected information (relationship status, religion, sexual preference, children, political beliefs, etc.) in the interview. There are, of course, exceptions to this rule, but generally, you want to avoid triggering any unconscious or conscience bias with the interviewing panel.

answer strengths and weaknesses during job interview

Finally, practice your answers. Anticipate Strengths and weaknesses questions at every interview and know what you’re going to tell the hiring manager. That way, you’re far more prepared and equipped to be successful. As always, please reach out with any questions to amie@soundinteview.com.

September 27, 2018

The Worst Interview Questions to Ask

Imagine you’re on a first date, and things are going pretty well. You feel the chemistry and are getting excited about a second date. Your partner stares deep into your eyes and asks, “Do you have any concerns about me that I can address?” or better yet, “How do I measure up against the other people you’ve met?” Lately, I’ve had several clients come to me asking if I recommend asking this question. My honest answer: It’s one of the worst interview questions to ask.

Interview questions to ask

The logic behind the question is that by asking it, you show the hiring manager that you’re open to feedback and it allows you to address any concerns that they have. Unfortunately, there’s a lot wrong here. First, asking a hiring manager if they have any concerns about you as a candidate, will more often than not, call attention to red flags that they may not have come to mind. You are literally asking them to think of your flaws, in an interview.

Your shortcomings are the last thing you want a hiring manager to focus on, especially at the end of an interview. Remember, once the conversation is over, they’re going to compare you to all of the other candidates, and if you leave them thinking about your concerns, that’s what is going to be freshest in their mind.

I’ve been in interviews where this question has been asked and it’s rarely gone well for the candidate. Most of those candidates didn’t end up getting the job. Putting the interviewer on the spot like that can make them uncomfortable and puts them in an awkward position. Often they are interviewing other candidates and still aren’t sure about who they’re going to hire. In an interview setting, hiring managers tend to be conflict-averse. They have a candidate slate of 5-6 people for this position, and rather than engage in an uncomfortable dialogue; it’s much easier for them to give a candidate a non-answer than provide critical or potentially negative feedback.

Interview Questions to Ask

Here’s my go-to list of interview questions to ask the hiring manager.

What are the next steps in the process? If they’ve already answered this during the interview, go ahead and skip this question.
What are the biggest challenges for this position? Show the hiring manager that you’re not afraid of a challenge, and ask about the problems early on in the question series.
What would success look like for me?/What would you like to see me accomplish in the first <time-period>? Helps the hiring manager visualize you being successful in the position
What do you enjoy the most about <the company/job/team/etc.>? End your question series on a high note. Remember, once you walk out of the room, they’re going to rate you. Keep it positive.

How to Get Interview Feedback:

Getting constructive feedback on your performance during an interview can be invaluable, and I completely understand that it’s hard to come by. While you might be tempted to ask the hiring manager in the interview, it’s not the time or the place. Instead, ask for feedback in your thank you note. By asking in a thank you note, you’re showing the hiring manager that you are open to feedback, but not putting them in an uncomfortable position.

Alternatively, if you are seeking honest, unbiased opinions on your interview performance, consider hiring an interview coach. We’ll partner with you and give you direct and immediate interview feedback you can use to improve your interviewing skills.

June 1, 2019July 17, 2018

The Seven Most Common Interview Questions

Most Common Interview Questions

How nice would it be to go into an interview already knowing all of the questions you were going to be asked? Unfortunately, most employers won’t give you the interview questions in advance. Today we’re going to break down seven of the most common interview questions that hiring managers ask.

Now, here’s the deal, we don’t recommend memorizing canned answers to these questions. The hiring manager can tell when you’re giving them a script and it comes across as insincere. Instead, use these interview questions as prompts to help you prepare. Keep notes on the topics you’d like to cover and practice talking about your accomplishments. Today we’re focusing on traditional interview questions, and next week we’ll concentrate on behavioral interview questions.

Tell me about yourself (Why should we hire you for this job)

notepad-691250_1920 There are a lot of ways hiring managers can ask this question. It’s a great first question because it gives you the chance to focus the interview on the areas you want to highlight. Think about this question like your executive summary. Focus your answer on work history, education, and training or certifications. Assume that the hiring manager or interview panel hasn’t had a lot of time to review your resume, so give them the rundown on who you are. Keep your responses professional and avoid providing a lot of personal details.

I got a Bachelors of Science in Accounting and Finance from UCLA and then went on to finish my MBA there as well. Once I graduated, I started my career working in accounts payable at GE. While I was there, I was recruited to participate in an accelerated employee development rotation program where I had the opportunity to rotate through four different organizations as a finance specialist. After the program finished, I was placed as a manager and received extensive leadership training. I worked at GE for two more years before I moved to Deloitte. I’ve worked at Deloitte for four years and had the opportunity to work in various leadership roles.

Why do you want to work here?

Here’s where doing your research on the company will pay off. Try to avoid the canned responses that applicants tend to give and come up with something creative. It’s an excellent opportunity to demonstrate your passion and talk about how you connect to the brand or company values.

I want to work here because I’m passionate about the outdoors and the environment. I’m an avid cyclist, and I’ve been skiing since I was six years old. Working at this company will allow me to use my technical skills as a developer while also supporting an industry that I love. Additionally one of the things that I appreciate most about this company is their approach to environmental stewardship and sustainability. I’m an active volunteer for the Nature Conservancy, and I want to work at an organization that aligns with my values.

What is your biggest strength?

Interview Questions: Your Greatest Strength I’ve seen this question go south for a lot of candidates who weren’t prepared. If you haven’t thought about a response to this question, it can catch you off guard. When you’re talking about your strengths, be sure to tailor it to the position you’re interviewing. Hiring managers don’t want to hear that you’re an excellent baker unless it’s connected to the skills you need to do the job.

Another pitfall is balancing humbleness and confidence. You want to avoid coming across as overly confident or arrogant, but still, give yourself enough credit to recognize the places you excel. To tackle this question, I recommend focusing on one or two specific strength and selling them well. Provide a brief example that demonstrates your strength as it applies to the position.

I am analytical and enjoy digging into data. Several months ago our team was trying to identify ways to improve our customer satisfaction results. I took the data from our customer surveys and cross-referenced it with the data from our vendors and noticed that the results were lower when customers had opted for a specific component in their product. When I looked deeper, it appeared that this product had a higher number of warranty claims when it came with this component. I took this information to leadership with the recommendation that we switch suppliers for this component. Since making the switch, our customer satisfaction results have increased by 15%.

What is your biggest weakness?

Ok, let’s admit it, everyone hates this interview question. Hiring managers ask it because they’re looking for people who can acknowledge their shortcomings, and find ways to make up for them. Prepare for this question, so you don’t just blurt out the first weakness that comes to mind. Don’t choose a flaw that’s completely unrelated to work, like “I’m a terrible cook.” The other one hiring managers are sick of hearing is the “I’m a perfectionist” weakness. Find a real fault that isn’t detrimental to the job and talk about what you do to mitigate it.

Coming from a technical background, I tend to get caught up in the details of a project. As a manager, I am aware that I need to trust my team and keep focused on the big picture, so I do a couple of different things to help me from getting too caught up in the small details. First, I’m very open about this with my team, and I ask to bring it to my attention when I get too deep. Second, Anytime I start working on a project I do my best to remind myself to stay out of the weeds. It’s something I am continuously reflecting on and trying to improve.

Why are you looking to leave your current position?

Regardless of how you answer this question do not badmouth your current or past employers. When a candidate badmouths an employer, it’s a huge red flag for hiring managers. Even if you’re in the worst possible job and you’re utterly miserable, think of a different approach. You also don’t want to lie to the hiring manager either. If you don’t have anything nice to say about your previous employer, you can focus the attention on how great the new position is

I’ve been in my current role for just about two years now, and I’ve had the chance to learn a lot about the industry. Since my current company is a small organization, my scope has been broad. Your position offers the opportunity to focus on a specialty within the industry that I find exciting.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

Hiring managers aren’t expecting you to predict the future here, I promise. This question helps them know that you’re thinking ahead and you have long-term goals. Again, be sure to focus on your professional life and avoid personal details like starting a family or getting married. It’s illegal for companies to use this information in their selection process, so they’d rather not know. Instead, tell them what kind of work you’d like to be doing, what problems you would like to have solved and whether you see yourself moving toward a path towards a technical expert or management.

Five years from now I see myself further developing my career as a subject matter expert. I enjoy the working with people. I want to build more skills as a to grow into a Senior Project Manager role. By then, I plan to have my Project Manager Certificate, and I would like to have completed the Six Sigma Black Belt certification as well. I feel like I have a strong grasp on project management and I would like to lead some large cross-functional projects. Finally, I trust my team and acknowledge that mistakes are a part of the process. By letting go of some of the control, they learn and become stronger employees.

Do you have any questions for us?

hands-460865_1920 At this point, the interview is almost over! It’s your turn to ask the questions of the panel. This the most important and most common interview question asked, so don’t get caught empty-handed. Here is where you get to learn about the organizational culture, day-to-day work and most importantly, build rapport with the hiring managers.

Stay away from questions about money and benefits of the position; the interview isn’t the place to discuss those topics. When you show up for an interview asking about salary, it tells me you’re only interested in compensation. Asking how you did in the interview is another awkward question that makes interviewers uncomfortable. Instead, ask the hiring manager open-ended questions to get them talking. A few of those might be:

What do you like the most about the company/job/role?
What do you see as the biggest challenges for this position?
How do you define success?
What would you like to see accomplished in the first 90 days?

Thanks for taking the time to read through our tips! If you found this information helpful, we’d love for you to share it with your network. As always, let us know if you have any questions or thoughts. If you’re interested in learning more about our customized resume and interview coaching services, please reach out. Stay tuned for next week’s post about the behavioral and situational interview questions as well.

January 30, 2018January 30, 2018

Behavioral Interview Examples

Behavioral interview questions are prevalent in large organizations. Employers use them because there is a belief that past behaviors are strongly related to how people behave in the future. So if you were able to drive results in your last job, chances are you’ll do the same in the new position.

Today we’re looking at some of the top behavioral interview questions and how to answer them. These questions are all about storytelling using the STAR model. In all of your examples, it’s important to stay positive. Sometimes the questions can be tricky and occasionally phrased in a way that seems to encourage complaints. Don’t fall into the trap. When you talk poorly about your people in an interview, it’s a HUGE RED FLAG for the hiring managers.

Remember that behavioral interview questions are driving towards specific attributes and behaviors that the organization wants. If you could peek into the hiring manager’s interview packet, you’d usually see a rating scale and maybe even some descriptors on the targeted behaviors they want.

For example, If the hiring manager asks a question about teamwork the book might contain something like this:

1: Did not demonstrate the ability to work as a member of a team. Hostile, negative or unengaged. The employee did not complete the task.
3: Worked cooperatively as a team member. The task was completed and met expectations.
5: Went out-of-the-way to help ensure team success. Put the needs of the team before personal agendas. Exceeded business goals.

Tell me about a disagreement with a co-worker?

This question is used to gauge how well you can deal with other people. Ultimately, hiring managers are trying to make sure you’re not going to be toxic in the workplace. When you think about situations for these questions, try to come up with times where you were able to work out a conflict amicably, and you weren’t the one responsible for creating the conflict or issue.

In my last position, I was a part of a team working toward a significant, high visibility deliverable. There were four team members including myself, and we all had different responsibilities on the project. One of my jobs was to complete our weekly scorecard and report status to upper management. One member of my team was consistently late providing updates, and it was reflecting poorly on the entire team.

I took him aside and talked to him about the problem. Initially, he was upset that I approached him. First I explained to him my concerns about his work and how his delay impacted the deadline. Then, I asked him if he needed any help and if there was anything I could do. He said he had a lot of work on his plate and it was overloading him. We talked about different options and finally settled on one that would help us meet our deadlines and allow him to feel under less pressure. Ultimately, we were able to meet the deadlines, and the leadership was satisfied with the work the team completed. I also built a healthy working relationship with him.

Tell me about a time you were spread too thin?

Call it multi-tasking or juggling; most employers want to hear about how you can manage your time. These questions are looking for prioritization skills, knowing when to ask for help and being able to deliver on critical projects. One of the most common answers I hear in these examples is, “I worked a lot of overtime and got everything done.” While sometimes that’s the truth, it’s not the answer an employer wants to hear.

I was working on two special projects for different business partners in my last role when my boss stopped by my desk with an important assignment. The Director of our group needed some reports and analysis completed for a high-profile customer meeting scheduled for next week. I sat down with my manager to make sure I had a solid understanding of the new project requirements and estimated that the project was going to take about 20 hours of my time. Unfortunately, between the other two projects and my regular statement of work, it quickly became apparent that something was going to have to give. I reviewed the timelines of the projects

I went over the schedules of the projects and spoke to my business partners about their plans. We found about a week of flexibility in one of the projects, and I was able to adjust that schedule. The other big project was time sensitive and needed my attention. I proposed to my manager that this could be an opportunity for a junior employee to take over my daily duties so I could focus on the two big projects. She was supportive of the plan. I was able to bring the junior employee up to speed on the daily processes and remained available for questions during the week.

In the end, I finished the reports, my business partners were taken care of, and both the director and customer were thrilled with the analytics. The company was able to book $150,000 in additional revenue with the client.

Tell me about a time you had to deal with an upset client?

In any job where you’ll be dealing with customers, you can expect to get a behavioral question around customer satisfaction. If you come across this question and can’t think of a particular client example, take a broader view of what a customer is. Maybe you’re in a role that has internal customers. You can use that as the basis for a story too. Do your best to avoid stories where you weren’t able to resolve the concern or the client wasn’t happy.

I was an account manager for a business selling B2B services, and I had just taken over some new accounts. One day I received a call from an upset customer. He had made several requests to the previous account manager for changes to her account and had yet to see the updates take effect. I was still trying to build strong relationships with this client as the new account manager, but I wasn’t familiar with his concerns. First, I apologized to him for the oversight and told them I would look into it and get back to them later that day.

I put my other work aside for the day so that I could focus on this issue. When I started looking into it, I saw that the requests had been made, but weren’t input correctly. I spoke with engineering and asked if they could make these changes a priority. Fortunately, the changes were pretty simple, and engineering was able to implement the change that day. We worked together to re-run the reports for the customer and later that day when I called the customer back, I provided the updated data. In the end, the client was very satisfied with the results and how quickly I fixed the problem. The next month the client called me to add additional services to their account, generating more revenue for the organization.

Describe a complex issue you solved with a single solution?

In every job, you’re going to have to do some form of problem-solving. This question looks at your ability to think outside of the box to solve problems uniquely. One of the common pitfalls is when you don’t explain the why the problem was so complicated.

One of my first roles outside of college was to collect and input transactions from a team of 15 people. I was working with one other person, and 80% of our job was getting them into the system. The transactions came via email from all 15 people, and they usually didn’t have the information we needed. We were spending an enormous amount of time going back and forth and searching to find the information we needed. Since we both received the emails, we also ran the risk of duplicating the inputs in the system

After doing this for about two months, I realized that there had to be a better way to streamline these transactions. I met with my partner and our manager to propose a process improvement. I suggested that we develop a file which we could use to input and track the transactions. After I had received buy-in, I developed an Excel spreadsheet and programmed macros to automate some of the functions. The partners would input the info into the database and could check the status of their requests. Initially, I had some pushback from the team. A few team members were resistant, but once they saw how much more efficient it was, they came on board. This initiative reduced our time spent tracking down data so much that we were able to focus on different work. The organization similarly adopted the process as a best practice.

Behavioral Interview Questions: Summary

All of the questions you encounter on a behavioral interview drive towards a particular competency or behavior. If you pay close attention to the job descriptions and the company values, you can anticipate the subjects that they’ll ask you about during the interview and prepare examples for those areas. Provide specific examples and be clear about what role you took on in each story. Stay positive, even if it was a challenging situation and address issues diplomatically. Finally, practice your stories as much as you can!

If you found this information helpful, please share it! We’d love to hear from you, so please tell us what you think and or are any topics you’d like us to cover in future blog posts.

Illegal Interview Questions

November 30, 2016August 25, 2016

Have shield-1020318 you ever been asked questions at a job interview that didn’t seem relevant or made you uncomfortable? Illegal interview questions are not job-related and target information about a job applicant that can be discriminatory. Generally speaking, HR teams do a lot of work to make sure that hiring managers don’t ask questions that are above boards, but these questions still get asked from time to time. As an applicant, encountering illegal interview questions should make you seriously consider if you want to work for that company.

One of my friends shared a situation where she was helping a team of managers does some significant hiring. She was the HR person partnering with a manager. They were interviewing their first female applicant when the hiring manager went off script and asked her if she had children. She told the interviewers, no, but the hiring manager continued down the path, telling the candidate that the position was for 2nd shift and that employees couldn’t leave work to go pick up their children. According to my friend, this hiring manager didn’t ask the male candidates the same question.

Fortunately, in this situation, everything worked out okay. The woman was very qualified for the position and ended up getting an offer from the company. As soon as the interview was over my friend reported the situation to the head of HR, who then removed the hiring manager from interviews until he was able to retake the interview training.

What are Illegal Interview Questions

The illegal interview questions below are off limit because they target information that is part of a protected class including gender, sexual orientation, national origin, race, religion, age, and disability. They are not job-related and will not help the hiring manager identify how you will perform.

Are you married?
Do you have children/want to have children?
How old are you/what year did you graduate?
What is your religious background?
Do you have a disability?
Do you have any arrest records?
Are you a union member?
Is English your first language?
Where are you (your parents) from?
Have you ever been hurt at work?
Do you have a car?
Do you own your home?

Hopefully, you don’t ever encounter any of these questions during an interview. If you do, there are a few ways that you can answer. First, it’s always okay to politely decline an illegal question. You could try: “I’m not sure I understand how this question relates to the Sales Manager position, can you please elaborate?” A more direct approach would be: “I am interested in this job, but I’m not comfortable answering that question at this time.” Yes, there is a chance that responding to a question like that could cost you a job offer, but ask yourself if that’s a company where you want to work in the first place.

November 30, 2016August 19, 2016

Three Common Types of Interview Questions

There are three basic styles of interview questions used by HR and hiring managers. Today, we’re going to explain them so you can prepare for your upcoming interview. We’ll start with behavioral interview questions since they are the most common and then discuss traditional and structured questions as well. When scheduling your interview with a recruiter, HR or the hiring manager, there’s no harm in asking what category of interview questions that you should prepare for.

Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions are by far the most common types of questions asked during a non-technical job interview. These questions are asking for candidates to tell a story about something that has happened in the past. The reason these are so popular among HR is because studies have shown that the way people behave in previous situations is a really good indicator of how they are going to act in the future. Because these behavioral interview questions are so widely used, it is where we focus most of our interview coaching practice.

A few examples of behavioral interview questions:

Tell me about a time you had a disagreement with a co-worker.
Describe a complex problem that you fixed with a single solution.
Talk about a time when you had to work in close collaboration with someone whose personality was very different from yours.
Tell me about a time you had to juggle multiple competing deadlines? How did you prioritize them? What was the result?

Behavioral questions can be simple or contain multiple questions that you need to answer. Take notes on the question to make sure you hit all of the questions the interviewers are looking for and answer the questions completely. The STAR format is an excellent way to organize your response.

Structured Interview Questions

Structured questions are very similar to behavioral interview questions except they aren’t asking about past performance. These questions are more forward-looking and ask ‘what you would do’ instead of ‘what have you done.’ These are beneficial for entry-level positions and internships where people might not have as much background to draw from.

A few examples of structured interview questions:

How would you handle a situation where your supervisor asked you to do something unethical?
Imagine you are very busy with a large company project, and your manager asks you to take on additional, unrelated work. What would you do?
A furious client walks up to your desk. He believes that his being over-billed for services your company provided. After reviewing his information, you learn that the bill was, in fact, valid. How would you handle this situation?

Traditional Interview Questions

We call these the ‘mirror’ questions because they are the answers that candidates can rehearse in a mirror and fine tune their answers. These are pretty straight forward and easy to draft an answer. There isn’t any particular formula for responding to these questions. Traditional interview questions also don’t add a lot of value to the hiring managers, so we are seeing a lot less of them in the interview process.

A few examples of traditional interview questions:

Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
What is your greatest strength/weakness?
Why do you want to work for this company?
Why do you want to be [insert job title]?
Tell me about yourself?

The one exception, is the ‘tell me about yourself’ question. In most interviews this question, in some variation is used to break the ice and move the discussion forward. Another variation of this question is ‘tell me about your work experience and education that has prepared you for this position.’ With few exceptions, we recommend that applicants focus on work history, education and any relevant training or experiences that relate to the job. This is not the time to talk about your love for the tuba, favorite cooking shows or your son in cub scouts, unless of course you’re interviewing for an orchestra, the food network or the forest service respectively.