The Best Way to Answer Tell Me About Yourself

Read Time: 6 Minutes

Your response to “Tell Me About Yourself” (TMAY) is the most important part of any interview. But most people answer it poorly.

I'll show you how to give a response that will blow your interviewers away.

Let’s start with the why. This question is asked in almost every interview AND it’s usually the first real question asked. It not only sets the stage for the rest of the interview, but it can invoke the Halo effect - a bias that basically means what you do at the beginning of an interview will colour the rest of the interview. A great start will carry you through an average interview and a poor start will give you a massive uphill climb for the rest of the grilling that is an interview. 

The impact of a GREAT response to this question is far beyond what you can imagine. 

So you know that you’re going to be asked this question and it’ll be the first one asked. That means you have control over this part of the interview, which can’t be said for the rest of it. It’s time to take advantage of that.

Tell Me About Yourself is your opportunity to paint a picture of yourself as the perfect candidate. Your delivery of this answer should feel smooth and effortless, even though the journey there will be anything but. TMAY should be a story that follows a logical flow, with the climax being the interview you find yourself in right now. 

You see, your interviewers are people, and people resonate with stories, not facts. Weave your answer into a story and they’ll remember you far and above your competition. And don’t think that interviewing isn’t a competition - it is. 

So here’s the TMAY that I used when I managed to land my dream role at a Vancouver tech company after working for an obscure company analyzing grocery sales. This was in early 2021 and I had been working as a data analyst for 4 years at that point. My exposure to tools on the job was limited to SQL and Excel, along with an analytics platform that only existed within my company. 

I first discovered Data Analysis in the final year of my undergrad in Economics, though I didn’t know what I had wandered into at the time. This was during a class with a sole focus on reading research papers and dissecting them. I started to see that data could be used for decision making and I got incredibly excited. Then I saw that all of the authors had a PhD - something that felt far out of reach for me. 

I agonized over the decision to pursue further education. I was eager to get into my first “adult job” and 5-7 years of additional schooling felt like a lot. More than I was willing to do. But I didn’t want to give up on my dream, so I started researching. 

I stumbled across a forum talking about similar topics and saw mention of Data Analysts - people who use data to make decisions. This was what I was searching for! I started applying to all the positions I could find and heard nothing for many months. So I started to upskill and learn what I could about the field. Taking intro SQL courses while working on my intermediate Excel skills. I just needed my big break. And it came, but not in the form that I expected. 

I found a job with Analyst in the title and figured I could force some level of data analysis in the role. Though I was unsure if my new title of Planogram Analyst would qualify, I was determined to do what I could. 

I looked for ways to use data in my role as much as possible, which was met with excitement from those above me. I had stumbled onto a team that believed in the power of data. And 6 months into the role, my time came. Two people on the team were already doing data analysis and they wanted more help!

I dove into SQL & Excel, and in a few months was able to join simple tables together and accomplish what I needed. It was basic but it got the job done. The next year saw me constantly working in these two tools at almost all times. 

Then a fresh opportunity came along to develop an analytics platform for our client, forcing me to go deep into business use cases while learning a new technical skill. I was sold immediately and went on to read a 200+ page PDF that I barely understood. It was too big to even consider printing out.

During that time I was exposed to the rest of the company. I was part of the Canadian division, with only 50 of us or so. The US group had around 5,000 - a deeper talent pool to learn from. 

Through those interactions I took a bigger interest in the overall company direction - something that up to that point didn’t feel like it would affect me much. In 2019 we were starting to make a push towards Machine Learning - a term that I hadn’t heard before. So I dove into the world of ML and learned everything I could. I attended conferences, listened to podcasts, read books, and, most importantly, started building my own projects. 

I felt a passion that I hadn’t felt since that final year of University. I knew this would be big and wanted to be part of it. I started exploring whether or not I could use it in my current role but found resistance. And for good reason - we weren’t set up to do ML on my team. I was new to the concept myself and was the most knowledgeable person there, which is a recipe for frustration. 

So I started looking for a place where I could further my ML education. I had specific criteria for a company and managed to find 1 place where this all fit. The company was Unbounce, a tech company in Vancouver. So I’d be changing industries while also hoping to get direct exposure to ML in production.  

That’s my full TMAY. It takes me 3-4 minutes to go through and I often leave out some of the small details I’ve written here. I also adjust it based on the audience. For example, when I was talking to the Director of Analytics, who I knew was heavily interested in ML, I added that I spoke as a Data Analyst at an ML-specific conference as part of an AMA. I wanted to signal my extreme interest in ML.

I also felt underqualified for this role, so I leaned on the advantages I could create for myself. I could out-research other candidates, especially given most would be applying to multiple companies. So that’s what I did. I read blog posts, and LinkedIn posts, scoured the company website, and even did some research on news releases to see what the company WANTED its image to be. And I used that knowledge to show how I’m here, interviewing for a company that I believe I’m a perfect fit for.

I’m sure you’re wondering how I came up with this flow and story, and the truth is that I didn’t plan my career out nearly as well as this appears. Everything I said is true, but I picked only the most relevant details. This leaves out 90% of my story and that’s on purpose. Talking about how I automated Excel reports wouldn’t have proven I was a perfect fit for that role because they didn’t care about Excel. So I left it out. I did the same with many other aspects of my career. With limited time I wanted to ensure they knew the most relevant details about me. They could learn more later if this initial “pitch” of myself went well.

To build this TMAY, I looked back at the large parts of my journey and how they fit together.

What were the pivot points that led to the bigger changes?

What ended up being more important than I expected at the time?

What thoughts did I have that pushed me to make changes? 

There were many more details in my change from Planogram Analyst to Data Analyst, some of which were impressive, but they didn’t contribute to how I was a perfect fit. So again, those were omitted.

The final piece is to start saying this out loud to as many people as you can. The reaction that a person gives will show you which information is important or impressive and which parts can be removed. I’ve given this TMAY at least 75 times by my calculations and I’m sure I’m forgetting many others. It takes time to get it down and smooth and that’s okay. It’s to be expected. But the sooner you start, the sooner you’ll have your own flowy response to Tell Me About Yourself.

I recommend you start right now. Just jot down a few bullet points of the current highlights of your career and education and see if you can link any of them together.

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Or you can book a call with me and we can do it together in just an hour during A Coaching Call.

If instead you’re trying to build a resume and cover letter that gets results, check out Data Analyst Launchpad. My new course where I share 7 years of data analyst experience, including interviewing and hiring for most of 2023.