Should I use the interview question “tell me about yourself”?

“ You don’t build a business. You build people.
Then they build the business.”

         Zig Ziglar - CEO of Lead X

Hiring a new team member is an exciting time for your business. But once you get hit with the wave of applications, you’ll likely feel the pressure starting to mount. How will you find the candidate that’s the perfect fit? How will you find the time?

This is why we all reach for the classic interview question “tell me a little about yourself”. You want to get to know the candidates, to build an understanding quickly of their character and traits. But, you need to ask yourself:

“Do I trust the answer they’ll give?”

The internet has made prepping for interviews simple - with template answers available for all the standard questions. When committed to memory, these copied answers can be very convincing and attractive from a hiring perspective. But, what happens next? Candidates that aren't suitable clog up your hiring process. This will cost you:

1. Time
2. Resources
      And, if you’re not careful
3. Talent

Fortunately, there’s a simple workaround. Rather than asking this question outright, instead, try and structure your meeting around the interview question “tell me a little about yourself”.

Why build a structure around the interview question “tell me a little about yourself”

Every employer wants a quick, hassle-free hiring process, from application through to onboarding. The best way to get there is to prevent the process from being bottlenecked. In this instance, let’s focus on the first-stage interview.

First-stage interviews need to be:

1. Efficiently run
2. Strategically structured
3. Effectively managed

It’s the stage where you see the most people - and know the least about them. You need to whittle the meeting down to your bottom line. Does the candidate:

A) Fit into your company culture?
B) Have the competency levels to help your business?

Structuring your meeting around the interview question “tell me a little about yourself” will help you get answers to the above 2 points.

How to structure around the interview question “tell me a little about yourself”

Your first-stage interview structure to quickly highlight the best candidates for the job, is:

1. Introductions
2. Company culture
3. Competency
4. Q&A and close

You need to create a dialogue for each of these points that’s specific to your business. Here’s how to do it.

Step 1. Introductions

This will set the tone for the whole interview. We recommend planning 2-3 casual questions that help you suss out the character of the individual. For example, ask:

“How was your journey?”

Their answer will tell you a lot about their outlook and day to day perspective. Note whether they focused on positive, or negative.

Once seated, you should introduce the interview panel, give a quick summary of the business and role, then describe what to expect from the business (basically, we want to get to know you).



Step 2. Company culture

“The biggest lesson I’ve learned about creating company culture…is that no amount of dinner, drinks or team events will have as much of an impact as hiring the people that fit all of your company values does.” - Antonio Wedral, Co-Founder & Director at

Novos

For this part of the interview, you need to focus questions around ethics and values, to see if the candidate would fit in. You want to get the candidate talking, so ask questions that encourage storytelling. We recommend ~4 questions/conversation points.

Remember, if your core values are public knowledge, any serious candidate will have taken the time to memorise them (and potentially embellished examples for them).

Instead of
“Core value number 1 is creativity. Tell us about a time you’ve been creative”

Try
“Tell us about a time you had to think outside the box to get something done”

Listen to their answers, and engage.

Top tip - if you want to draw more information from the candidate, try repeating their last statement back to them. This is a subtle invitation to elaborate without pressure.

Don’t forget to include a non-work-related question/conversation pointer. What the candidate does outside work is a great indicator of their character.

We recommend:
“Tell us about a recent achievement you’re proud of outside work“.

Step 3. Competency

Here is where you start to get into the nitty gritty of the role. We recommend opening this step with a more detailed explanation of the position. Try to include:

1. Day-to-day expectations
2. Who they’d be working with

For this step, you should prepare a range of closed and open questions.

Closed questions - these should be based around the must-have skills for the role. Try and get a simple yes or no answer. If you get the answer you want, you can then open up to elaboration.

Open questions - these should be used for the desired skills and qualities you’re looking for. You need to see potential, so ask questions that give the candidate the opportunity to explain transferable skills.

Step 4. Q&A and close

Last be not least, finish up by welcoming questions from the candidate. This section tells you a lot about the person. Here are some things to look out for:

1. Questions driven by pessimism
2. Vague questions (suggest lack of research)

To close, you should thank them for their time and outline the next steps and timeline. For an extra opportunity to read their character, prepare casual questions as in step 1 as they leave.

Now, you have the information you need to make a decision about your next steps. The question we have is, what are your next steps?

How Hiringmaster helps your hiring process

We know first-hand how difficult hiring can be. Creating an optimised first-stage interview is just one part of the long list of to-dos that the process brings. And with limited time available to handle it, tasks can quickly build, becoming overwhelming.

But what if we told you there was a better way? One that’ll keep your candidates engaged and help you get organised with one simple, streamlined recruitment process.

Hiringmaster is a one-stop platform that integrates all your recruitment processes into one place leaving you with a sense of calmness and control.

With Hiringmaster you can:

1. Effortlessly gather candidates' applications in one place
2. Move candidates along a streamlined pipeline
3. Track and optimise your recruitment operations in real-time
4. Use our Chrome extension to source candidates faster
5. Save time and effort collecting candidates and recruiting them

All this, and much, much more.

Get started for free, today