

Ask HN: In an interview, what do you answer when asked “tell us about yourself” - hemling

This is by far my weakest point in an interview. I usually do ok when answering concrete questions but when this moment comes, where I have to do some kind of general presentation of myself, I never really know what to say, or what the other side expects to hear.<p>What do you answer? Do you start from the end or from the beginning? Do you have a speech prepared? How long do you talk, how technical or detailed do you get?<p>Do you know any example (e.g. video) of what makes a good self presentation?<p>I feel I really need to prepare this, any pointers or stories appreciated.
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trjordan
This is my favorite question!

My answer is always something that ties together my entire career. That
changes over time (obviously), but my current answer is something like this:

"I like telling stories. I'm an engineer, for sure: my degree is actually in
physics, and I worked my way out of that, eventually ending up as the first
engineer in a Providence startup. When we were acquired, though, I found that
I was really good at explaining not only what we did, but _why_ we did what we
did. I moved into sales, closed our first 100 customers, and ended up running
the marketing team. When you're small, storytelling is explaining to one
person why your product is important. Marketing is just scaling that. No
matter what, I want to understand at a technical level what's happening, then
help close that gap to make it interesting to people, whether that's in code,
sales, or marketing."

It might be apparent that I'm not a straight-up engineer anymore, but I do
think it's hugely valuable to point out why you've taken a different path from
others, or what drives you. Making it a single truth that guides everything
you do (knowing that that's wildly untrue) makes it easy for the interviewer
to ask you more in that frame.

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Mimu
Reading this thread I actually answer VERY different this question.

I almost never say anything even closely related to the job I apply. I talk
about me, what I am as a person, what I like and also what I would like to do
in the future. These plans might not even involved the company I'm talking to,
I don't really see that as a bad thing.

In the end I'm just being myself, if it does not work I could probably have
sneak my way into the job by lying or whatever but in the end, I would have
probably ended up miserable so it's a win win.

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skylark
From sitting on both sides of the table, here's the gist of what I'm expecting
to hear:

"Most recently I've been working at <company> on <short summary of project>.
When I was there, I <two to three things I did which demonstrate that I'm
awesome>. In my spare time I've been <something related to programming>."

The point of the question is to get you comfortable with the interview and
give you the chance to say a few words on your own terms. The best thing you
can do is show me you're someone who can effectively execute on a project, and
give me some hooks that we can talk about in more detail.

Don't overthink it. It's an elevator pitch - it shouldn't take more than a
minute or two.

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vqc
I think you're struggling because the question is so broad. I'm pretty sure
that most interviewers aren't even sure why they are asking the question. Some
are probably using it in order to get the conversation going. A much smaller,
savvier group might be using it to see how you define yourself. Either way, I
tend to ask a clarifying question: "What do you want to know about? My
hobbies? Education? Work experience?"

Your answers to pretty much all interview questions should be tailored to the
specific job and the story that you want the interviewer to remember about
you.

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panorama
It depends on the company you're interviewing with.

If, for example, you founded a tech company, the way you described it would
differ whether you were talking to: your parents, a tech journalist, a
potential client, a potential cofounder, a potential engineer, a potential
product manager, etc.

Each company you talk to will be different and have different needs. No one
can tell you what those are—that's your job as the candidate. But to give you
an idea, let's say you were interviewing for a 4-person startup. A small
startup typically needs generalists who show a lot of passion for the company
and their work. Someone who can thrive in scrappy environments without a lot
of process and push the company forward in more ways than what you were hired
for.

Now your narrative should use any relevant experience, even if it were, for
example, working at your parents' pizza shop when you were 15 (in lieu of any
actual field experience). "I'm a naturally self-motivated worker who really
thrives in smaller, scrappier environments. For instance, my parents' local
pizza store was chronically understaffed so I developed a process that could
combine X and Y while doing Z so that individual productivity went up 3x. I
have a great deal of passion for what I work on and always own the result from
start to finish."

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drakonka
"I've been playing games since we were old enough to go to the old arcade
across the street in Ukraine and then fell in love with Warcraft 2 after we
moved to the U.S. and got our own computer. My favorite types of games to play
ended up being simulations, so I'm very interested in life simulation in
general and have been working on a browser-based snail simulation for several
years for fun. My first job in games was in Australia, at a then-AAA company
that went down and after that I went on to contract for smaller games
companies and businesses doing web development and software QA. Eventually I
wanted to move to a country with a better games industry and help to make
larger games again, so I arranged a move here while working on my own smaller
projects at the same time, which you may have already seen on my website and
GitHub [which I would have linked as part of my CV/cover letter]."

Or something along those lines, shortening or going deeper as in-between
discussion guides. Mostly I outline my experience with and attitude toward
games and making them.

Then again, the last time I interviewed was years ago, so it would no doubt
change now to account for later experiences.

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imauld
I give a pretty high level over view of things I would like to highlight. I
try to make a point to mention things that will elicit more "concrete"
questions. For example, I mention that I just recently moved to Seattle which
is usually quickly followed by "Where did you move from?" I tell them I moved
form NYC and almost always that is followed by "Oh wow NYC, That's a big
change!"

I mainly describe things I want to talk about so that I'm asked questions
about those things and I can elaborate on them. The interviewer isn't likely
to have an extended dossier on your life (I guess if you were interviewing at
the NSA they might) so you get an opportunity here to highlight the things
that make you sound best. They can only ask you about what you tell them so
tell them some cool things.

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vellum
1.) Start general ("I'm an x developer with y years experience.) You want to
tell them 2-3 selling points ( I have a lot of experience with x, I'm great at
y).

2.) Always be closing. Whatever you decide to tell them, put yourself in their
shoes and ask "Does this person sound like a great hire?"

3.) Don't be boring. Your 2-3 selling points should prompt them to ask you
more about those things. Don't recite your resume.

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thelittleyes
It's not really a question, more of a command, and it's a terrible one at
that, simply because it is so vague. I often will just ask the interviewer
"what are you most interested in hearing about?" and that generally will lead
to a more specific question from them, such as "tell me about your most recent
project or job" or "What do you find interesting?" or something to that
effect.

I'm a firm believer that an interview is a two-way process, and that if you
don't feel a question is a good one, helping the interviewer rephrase/reframe
it so you can have a more fruitful conversation.

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soham
At the tech interview bootcamp
[[http://InterviewKickstart.com](http://InterviewKickstart.com)], here is how
we think about it:

* The interviewer is looking to break the ice and also get to know what to ask you next.

* For you, it's an elevator pitch, and shouldn't take more than one or two minutes. Too short isn't good either.

* You can give an answer which falls into either of the three categories:

a) An answer that subtly sells yourself. Not blatantly, but subtly

b) An answer that leaves it neutral

c) An answer with which you shoot yourself in the foot

* The key is to prepare beforehand.

If you are __not __prepared, then there are high chances you 'll ramble for a
time that's too long or too short, and/or you'll pick words that shoot
yourself in the foot. e.g. "... and that project I did, failed. Man, I should
have coded faster". Not good.

Or, without preparation, you'll leave it neutral i.e. you'd have wasted the
opportunity to impress the interviewer, or lead them into a direction you want
them to go into.

You want to target the best outcome (a) above. To do that, best is to prepare
with someone (a friend, mentor etc) and choose your words carefully. A good
answer to that, has:

1\. Focus: Based on the position you're interviewing for, talk about related
work.

2\. A hook or two: A good company you may have worked for, a good OSS project,
a good school you went to, any stats on scale you've handled, anything that
led to broader recognition etc.

3\. End with what you're looking for

e.g.

1\. "My name is Mia. I am a graduate student at Carnegie Mellon, specializing
in Cloud Computing. I previously interned at Google and Microsoft. I'm looking
for a fulltime role at a company that interfaces with hardware and software"

2\. "Hi, I'm Praveen. I work as network protocol engineer at Ericsson. I have
deep interest in the area and have authored two papers on it. I'm looking to
branch out into application level engineering"

3\. "Hi, I'm Mani. I'm a DBA by profession. I held Oracle certifications back
in the day. My most recent experience has been with MongoDB in a 24/7
environment with a peak QPS of 25000. I am also very comfortable with managing
MySQL and have managed a hybrid environment of 150 instances. I'm looking to
go to a place which has a mix of NoSQL and SQL environments"

