Tell me about yourself

Here are three different examples of how to answer the question.

Model 1: Activity-geared answer

(This would be for students who participated in some really unique extracurricular activities that they’d like to focus their interview on.)

Interviewer: So, Kevin, tell me about yourself.

Kevin: Well, just to start off generally, I’m a senior at Somewhere High School, and in addition to academics, throughout high school I was really involved in three (or two) activities that I really enjoy and spend a lot of time on. First, I am really involved in music. I played the tuba in our high school band, and by senior year, now I’m drum major. Second, I’m really active with local politics. I interned for our state’s senator whose offices are located in my city, and I learned so much researching issues for the campaign. Also, I’m an avid soccer player. I’ve been playing since I was five, and I was really excited when I was voted team captain of our club team last year.

Interviewer: Oh, that’s great. Tell me more about being drum major. What does that involve…?

Other follow-up questions to expect:

What does being a drum major involve? What are your responsibilities? What’s your leadership style? What campaign issues did you research? What was the most interesting learning experience you had while working for the state senator? What surprised you about politics during your internship? How do you as soccer team captain handle a loss? How do you motivate your team?

Model 2: Personal traits answer

(This would be for students who want to be really general about themselves.)

Interviewer: So, Kevin, tell me about yourself.

Kevin: Sure. Well, I’m now a senior at Somewhere High School. I’m a really energetic person whose a real self-starter. What I mean by self-starter is that in the past I’ve loved being independent and taking on new projects and developing my fresh ideas. For example, last year I started an Internet-based company that sells cookie recipes and the site has increased in traffic by 20% since three months ago. But, sometimes I’m also more introverted too, and enjoy just reading and writing, and painting as well.

Follow-up questions to expect:

Tell me about your company? What has been your biggest success thus far? Your biggest failure? What did you learn from that? What are your goals for the future with your business? Do you see yourself continuing with that through college? What’s your favorite book, and why? What style or what genre or what form of writing do you do? What do you paint? Do you take classes or are you self-taught? What piece of work are you most proud of?

Model 3: Background information answer

(This would be for students who have particularly interesting personal or family backgrounds.)

Interviewer: So, Kevin, tell me about yourself.

Kevin: I just started my senior year at Somewhere High School. Actually though, I wasn’t always in standard schools. When I was younger, my mom was in the military so I spent most of my childhood on military bases going to school with other military kids. It was a really interesting way to grow up because we were moving around a lot, so it was really new and exciting for me to start school at sort of a standard, American high school. My mom was actually inspired to join the military because of her father, who was a general. And, by seeing my mom work in so many different countries, she’s really inspired me in what I want to study in college too.

Follow-up questions to expect:

What was the biggest challenge you had to overcome? What skills or qualities did you gain from your experiences? How have you learned from that experience? How has your experience shaped who you are today and what goals you have for the future? Who’s your role model? What’s your family’s background?

Note that these CAN and should be tweaked to fit your own personal needs. These are just the samples for the three styles that I think are best to answer the quintessential “tell me about yourself” question. For more about this interview-starter, refer to the post, “Ah, the quintessential ‘tell me about yourself.’”