“Tell me about yourself”: how to answer, with examples

"Tell me about yourself." It is almost always the first question in an interview, and the one people prepare least. So many candidates walk the interviewer through their résumé (their CV, in the UK) line by line, hoping they will find what they are looking for. They won't: they have already read it.

This question is not a memory test. It is an invitation to explain, in two minutes, why you are the right person for this job. Here is a simple way to answer it when you are starting out, with examples you can adapt.

What the interviewer is really listening for

When an interviewer asks you to introduce yourself, they are listening for three things at once:

• Whether you can get to the point. Choosing what matters is already a professional skill.
• The thread between your background and the role. They want to understand why you are here, at this company, for this job.
• How you speak. Tone, pace, confidence: it is a preview of you in front of a client or a colleague.

The opening minutes carry weight. Researchers asked 166 interviewers at a university careers fair, after each of 691 real interviews with students and recent graduates, when they had made up their minds. Some decisions came very early.

Most took longer, which is good news: your introduction does not decide everything. But it sets the frame for the rest of the conversation.

The three-part method

A good answer lasts 90 seconds to two minutes and follows a simple thread: where you are coming from, what you have proved, where you want to go.

01

Who I am

“I just finished a degree in marketing at Leeds.”

02

One result

“Our click rate went from 2.1% to 3.4% in three months.”

03

Why this role

“Your loyalty programme is exactly where I want to grow.”

90 seconds in all

1. Who you are, in one sentence. Where you are now and what you specialise in: "I have just graduated in accounting and finance from the University of Manchester." No need to go back to your school years.
2. One result, with a number. Pick a single experience (internship, placement, project, part-time job) and say what you achieved. A concrete result beats three adjectives: "hard-working, motivated, a team player" cannot be checked; "I cut our monthly expense checks from two days to one" sticks.
3. Why this role. Finish by connecting your background to the job: what draws you to the company, what you want to learn, what you can bring.

Order matters: facts first (education, experience), motivation last. Opening with "I'm passionate about marketing" convinces no one; saying it after showing what you have done makes it believable.

A complete example for a recent graduate

Here is an answer for a junior marketing role, about 90 seconds at a steady pace:

"I'm Leah, and I've just finished a degree in marketing at the University of Leeds. I spent my third year on a placement at a software company, where I took over the email campaigns for existing customers. Clicks on our renewal emails were stuck at around 2%, so I split the list by how customers actually used the product and tested different subject lines and calls to action. Within three months, the click rate went from 2.1% to 3.4%. I also reported the results to the sales team every month, which taught me to explain numbers to people who don't live in spreadsheets. That placement is what made me want to work on keeping customers rather than only winning new ones. This role caught my eye because you're launching a loyalty programme this year, and that's exactly the kind of project I want to start my career on: I'd bring the testing habit I built on placement, and learn how a loyalty scheme runs at scale."

Notice what is missing: no list of qualities, no school grades, no hobbies unrelated to the job. Every sentence serves the last one.

Variations: internship, graduate scheme, apprenticeship

The structure stays the same; only the third part changes.

For an internship interview

You are still studying: present your course and what you want the internship to teach you.

"I'm in my second year of a business degree, specialising in finance. Last year I was treasurer of our university sports club, with a budget of about £15,000, and I set up a monthly bank reconciliation so we stopped discovering gaps at year end. I'm looking for a ten-week summer internship to see a range of clients, and your firm audits a lot of charities: that's the same careful, small-budget finance I did for the club, at a bigger scale."

For a graduate scheme

The employer is hiring you for one or two years of training and rotations: show that you understand the commitment and will see it through.

"I've just graduated in economics from the University of Bristol with a 2:1. For my dissertation I modelled three years of bus ridership in the West of England, and the regional transport team asked for a copy of my findings. Alongside my degree I worked fifteen hours a week in a supermarket, where I trained six new starters. I'm applying for your analyst graduate scheme because the rotations through pricing, operations and strategy would give me a breadth I couldn't get in a single role, and I want the full two years to follow a project from the data to the decision."

For a degree apprenticeship

"I'm applying for a degree apprenticeship in software engineering: four days at work and one day of study each week. I've already built two websites for local shops, one with a booking system that now takes around forty bookings a week. What draws me to your team is that apprentices work on real client projects from the first month."

No experience: what to put forward

"I have nothing to talk about" is the sentence recent graduates say most. It is almost always untrue. Experience is not just a full-time job: it is anything you have done that had a result.

• A university project: a dissertation, a group project you saw through, a case study presented to a real company.
• A part-time job: retail, hospitality, tutoring, delivery. You learn reliability, handling pressure and dealing with customers, three things employers look for.
• Volunteering or a society role: a club, a charity, a committee position, being a course rep.
• A personal project: a website, a channel, a small resale business, a translation for a cause.

Pick the one closest to the role and apply the same rule: what you did, and what came of it.

The mistakes that cost the most

The most common one is apologising for being new. "I don't have much experience yet" sets up a position of weakness in the first minute. The interviewer knows you are starting out: they read your résumé and invited you anyway. Talk about what you have, not what you lack.

Preparing your answer the night before

A good introduction is never improvised, but it should not be learned by heart either: a recited script is obvious straight away. Prepare an outline you can walk through instead.

Before the interview, check that your résumé tells the same story as your introduction: same summary, same experience up front. If it doesn't, rework it in a clean résumé template before you go. If you are unsure whether it reads well, the free ATS check tells you in a minute what recruiting software makes of it. And for the rest of the interview, prepare the tricky questions that come up most.

Frequently asked questions

How long should my answer be?

Between 90 seconds and two minutes. Beyond that, the interviewer switches off or cuts in. If they want more on something, give it afterwards, in answer to their questions.

Should I talk about my personal life?

Only if it sheds light on your application. A team sport played competitively can show you work well with others; your family situation has no place here, and in most countries an interviewer should not ask about it.

What about recorded video interviews?

Many graduate employers use one-way video platforms: a question appears, you get around thirty seconds to think and one to two minutes to answer, with no one on the other side. Your three-part outline fits exactly. Practise against a timer, and use any practice question the platform offers.

What about phone or live video interviews?

Same outline, slightly shorter: without a face in front of them, people lose focus sooner. On the phone, smile as you speak; it can be heard. On video, look at the camera rather than the screen when you talk.

Should I learn my answer by heart?

No. Remember the three parts and your closing sentence, not a word-for-word script. If you lose your place in a memorised text, you freeze; with an outline, you always land on your feet.