45. Tell me about yourself..‪.‬ Pop Your Career with Bec McFarland

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45. Tell me about yourself... - Transcript

[00:00:00] This episode is brought to you by my brand new membership Win at Work. Imagine having your favourite career coach in your pocket for less than $10 a month, except that you don't need to imagine it. The Win At Work membership is designed to support you in feeling more fulfilled by your career. It includes a private podcast where I'll be answering all of your burning career questions as well as a library of resources that I am updating and improving every single week. When at work is the place to be, if you're a heart-centered human who wants to wake up feeling pumped up for the day ahead. Get into your web browser and go to PopYourCareer.com/waw for more information and to sign up. Are you ready to win at work?

[00:00:52] Hi, there I'm Bec McFarland the host of the Pop Your Career [00:01:00]Podcast. As a career coach, I'm most passionate about helping my clients to discover their own personal flavour of career fulfillment. In this podcast, we are going to be exploring ways that you too can feel more fulfilled by your work. So strap yourself in, get ready for the ride. The tips around here are fast and in abundance.

[00:01:21] Hello, hello, Bec McFarland here helping you do better and be better in your career. So one of the most common questions that you could be asked in a job interview is tell me about yourself. And so many people get confused about how to go ahead and answer this question really well. There's a couple of things that I would say to you just in preparation for this.

[00:01:51] The first is that you don't want to go all the way back to when you were born, okay? So ideally you want [00:02:00] to only talk about the last sort of five to 10 years of your experience, or perhaps highlight when you began working in this particular type of role or industry.

[00:02:11] The other thing is that interviewers are definitely looking for you to provide a really well structured answer to this question, and so if you keep this in mind and you use the formula that I'm about to share with you, then that will really help you to show the way that you can deliver a well structured and well thought out argument.

[00:02:36] So what is this formula? Well, it's the same formula that I use when I'm helping my clients to put together a professional profile section on their resume. And what this looks like is your skills plus your experience plus your relevant qualifications [00:03:00] plus your passions or your interests equal an exceptional professional profile or response to an icebreaker question, like, tell me about yourself.

[00:03:14] Each of these different sections allows you to communicate something that's going to add value to this employer and is potentially going to persuade them that you are the most ideal candidate for the role now. There are some nuances to this. The first is that you can go through any of these four things or all of these four things in any order that you like.

[00:03:39] You don't necessarily always have to deliver it as skills, experience, qualifications, and passions. I would suggest that in fact, you start with the thing that is going to be most relevant or most important to the position that you're applying. So if you know, for [00:04:00]example, that you are applying for a role where a specific qualification is mandatory and you can't work in that role without that qualification, then your qualification might be the first thing that you talk about. And from there you might go through and talk about some of the other elements.

[00:04:21] Another thing I'll say is that if you don't have relevant qualifications, you can leave this section out. You don't need to highlight that you don't have relevant qualifications, and you certainly don't need to talk about any irrelevant qualifications that you have. Just leave that question out and follow through with the rest of the f