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Talent Trade Tidbit - "Tell Me About Yourself" · The Talent Trade

• 0:00
  Hi, this is Stephanie Maas.
• 0:01
  Today I wanna talk to you about one of the most outdated, but still commonly asked interview questions.
• 0:09
  The tell me about yourself.
• 0:11
  I love when hiring managers tell me that that's their opening question.
• 0:15
  Stop asking it.
• 0:16
  It's so stupid.
• 0:17
  But let's just say that they still ask you how do you prepare and how do you.
• 0:22
  Effectively answer this question.
• 0:24
  First of all, keep in mind you are in an interview situation, so the answer has nothing to do with you personally.
• 0:33
  Not trying to be mean, but we don't care if you're a cat person or a dog person, or if you like long walks on the beach or sunsets or margaritas on Fridays.
• 0:41
  If we don't care, we're not interested.
• 0:44
  What we want to know is.
• 0:46
  What have you done specifically?
• 0:48
  What have you accomplished?
• 0:50
  How have you accomplished, and is that fit with what I am looking for?
• 0:55
  Now, it's gonna be tough to answer because what if you haven't had a chance to say, Hey, what are you looking for?
• 1:01
  What's gonna be important to you in the next hire?
• 1:03
  But you gotta do the best you can with your current.
• 1:06
  Information that you have, and it needs to be timely, meaning it needs to be concise.
• 1:12
  The reality of is after about two minutes, even the best listeners in the world get mental a, d, d, they just can't stay with you.
• 1:20
  So this should be an answer that you have rehearsed, you've timed, and always ends with a question.
• 1:26
  So for example.
• 1:28
  If someone said, well, tell me a little bit about yourself.
• 1:30
  Again, I'm not talking about if I'm on the dating market, which I'm not, but if I was in a professional interview situation, my answer would sound something like this.
• 1:38
  Well, I'm excited to say I just celebrated my 17th year in executive search with my firm.
• 1:43
  I have consistently been in the top five producers over the last five years, and I give a lot of that credit to a couple different things the firm has taught me.
• 1:51
  Number one, I'm very consistent with my follow up.
• 1:53
  I work a specific niche.
• 1:55
  Touch everybody in my database four times a year to see, number one, what's new in the market and has there been anything new or different in their personal situation that would change their professional situation.
• 2:05
  Number two, I'm also really excited that my firm has really taught me a lot about ethics and serving my clients.
• 2:12
  So when I do get a search assignment, I have a 94%.
• 2:16
  Fill rate.
• 2:17
  So when my clients put me to work, they can rest assured that I'm gonna bring them the best available talent to the market.
• 2:24
  And then thirdly, I'm also very thankful that as a top producer in my current firm, they have put me on a lot of special projects to better our current internal recruiting program as well as the future and the growth of our current organization.
• 2:39
  I'm just curious.
• 2:40
  You know, and this might be a weird how to transition to the question, but you should have three or four questions prepared.
• 2:46
  So after you give your spiel, then you follow up with a question.
• 2:48
  So that's a little bit about me.
• 2:50
  I'm just curious, tell me, as you look to fill this role, what are gonna be some of the most important aspects or attributes of the higher you're looking for?
• 2:58
  Does that make sense?