The Most Frequently Asked (Worst?) Question

The most frequently asked interview question is “Tell me about yourself.” It’s considered by most knowledgeable interviewing experts as the “worst question.” But hiring guru Lou Adler says it’s not the worst question — rather it’s bad because most candidates don’t know how to answer it effectively.

For several years, I’ve been testing this question — and here’s the reality:

1. Most candidates, do not, in fact, answer this question effectively. 84% of over a thousand “candidates” gave poor, “C,” answers to this question. The lowlight: “I’m from Illinois, I have two sisters who I really love, and my cat…”  14% gave “B” answers — typically saying something like “I’m a customer service specialist looking for…”  That only leaves 2% who gave “A” answers!

2.  It’s not that hard to prepare a good answer to this question  — I know several cases where the following response has “knocked the socks off” the interviewer.  There will be other resources posted to this site that will address this.  You can already check out the video from Lou Adler on “Candidate Prep.”  But here’s the 212-Careers “express version:”

My current position is…, and in the last year, my most significant accomplishment was…