Tell Me about Yourself…
This is usually the opening question and, as first impressions are key, arguably the most important.
Keep your answer to under five minutes, beginning with an overview of your highest qualification then running through the jobs you’ve held so far in your career. You could follow the same structure of your CV, giving examples of achievements and the skills you’ve picked up along the way. Don’t go into too much detail – your interviewer will probably take notes and ask for you to expand on any areas where they’d like more information. If you’re interviewing for your first job since leaving education, focus on the areas of your studies you most enjoyed and how that has led to you wanting this particular role.
You could also consider an alternative strategy, where you focus on the three major themes of your background. You need to keep the themes fairly broad and use the 60 seconds per theme to embellish a few of your skills.
In the medical field, I would advise medical interview candidates to pick one topic or theme out of three of the following four “buckets”
- Clinical
- Academic
- Generic
- Social
Using this structure, allows you to answer a variety of questions intelligently.
Watch this video for more help with ST interviews
