Tell us about yourself

[Ali2020]

Hi All!

I am trying to prep for the Simmons & Simmons VI and I was wondering if anyone could give some insight as to how to answer/structure my answer to the question on "tell us about yourself"?

Thanks!!!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Think about what you think are your USP and strengths and focus on those points. Ensure you talk about a range of things in very concise detail rather than focusing on one thing and talking about that for most of the time

 

[jan28]

Hi Jessica,

If you asked this question again during a face to face interview at the very beginning what are the things that you would typically want to hear? I mean like what I studied, why I studied, where I’m from etc. or anything else like that? Because last time I went straight into ‘I studied x and I want to do law because ..’ which I think kind of threw the partner off whilst at the same time I didn’t go into as much detail about why law since he didn’t ask me that question again! Or would I talk about my strengths as you mentioned above?

 

[Jessica Booker]

Hi Jessica,

If you asked this question again during a face to face interview at the very beginning what are the things that you would typically want to hear? I mean like what I studied, why I studied, where I’m from etc. or anything else like that? Because last time I went straight into ‘I studied x and I want to do law because ..’ which I think kind of threw the partner off whilst at the same time I didn’t go into as much detail about why law since he didn’t ask me that question again! Or would I talk about my strengths as you mentioned above?

exactly the same as above.

you can’t assume your interviewer saw your video interview (highly unlikely they did).

There is no set formula to this question. It depends on your USPs and strengths. For one candidate that may mean not talking about their academics, for the next it might mean doing so.

try not to be so formulaic about it. Try to think about what is YOUR best summary.

However, it sounds like you were trying to anticipate other questions here. The question was about you, not why you want to do law.

 

[Ali2020]

Think about what you think are your USP and strengths and focus on those points. Ensure you talk about a range of things in very concise detail rather than focusing on one thing and talking about that for most of the time

Thanks Jessica! Would this structure be suitable:
1. Snapshots of my work history up to now [the company/my role/responsibilities] - I have about 4, 3 paralegal roles and 1 retail position (is that ok?)
2. for those 'snapshots' state an achievement of mine from each
3. Tell them what I know about the role of a trainee at their firm e.g. main skills they're looking for
4. Finally, tell them why I am the right fit for the role of a trainee at the firm

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thanks Jessica! Would this structure be suitable:
1. Snapshots of my work history up to now [the company/my role/responsibilities] - I have about 4, 3 paralegal roles and 1 retail position (is that ok?)
2. for those 'snapshots' state an achievement of mine from each
3. Tell them what I know about the role of a trainee at their firm e.g. main skills they're looking for
4. Finally, tell them why I am the right fit for the role of a trainee at the firm

Sounds a little too detailed if anything - still think you are trying to fit in too much into the answer. You are trying to answer more the "why am I suitable for the job", and "what do I know about the job" more than providing a summary of YOU! The question is not asking you "can you summarise the whole purpose of this interview in the first question".

Imagine you only have 90 seconds to answer the question.... how are you going to fit this all in?

 

[Ali2020]

Sounds a little too detailed if anything - still think you are trying to fit in too much into the answer.

ahh ok, is there a certain point in that list that I could do without?

Thanks!

 

[Jessica Booker]

ahh ok, is there a certain point in that list that I could do without?

Thanks!

See my edit.

Ultimately you are not answering the question, you are trying to answer OTHER questions.

 

[Ali2020]

See my edit.

Ultimately you are not answering the question, you are trying to answer OTHER questions.

Thank you! I will rework this!

 

[Jessica Booker]

Thank you! I will rework this!

The key is to be exceptionally succinct - it is a summary or highlights, not detail. So try to put explanations in a sentence rather than a paragraph.

 

[Jessica Booker]

For reference for everyone, here is what my summary would be:

I am an experienced graduate recruiter with 15 years experience working across a diverse range of sectors. Three things sum me up. 1) I work hard and efficiently to get results - from holding down 4 part-time jobs during my A-levels, to now balancing 4 different clients with tight deadlines as a freelancer, I have had to learn to manage my time effectively to ensure success. 2) I am a people person: it’s why I naively started my career in HR 15 years ago. Despite being very independent outside of work, I love that my job centres around working with lots of different people, that have different expectations and requirements. That means my work is never the same, despite the processes being similar. 3) I am passionate about diversity. I could bore you to death with stats and research about improving diversity in student recruitment. It’s important for me to be in a role or company where that attitude is matched. I said three key things, but additional random things about me are: I worked as a Chef from the age of 16-19 before uni and still love to cook when I can; my most difficult job was working in a refugee centre in Manchester, and despite the memory of breaking my leg skiing at the age of 3, I’m at my happiest on a sunny day skiing down an empty piste.

With the above I am trying to get the interviewer to focus on three key things I want them to remember, but at the same time I want them to think about my personality, not just what I have achieved/done. I am also purposely giving my interviewer lots of different bits that they can hang on to and ask further questions about should they want to, rather than explaining things in detail so they think they don’t need to ask further questions about them. I’ve also tried to show an “attitude”, a “motivation” and a “want” and focused on the strongest thing in each of these instances, rather than trying to list out everything. The stuff at the end is just to show that I am multi dimensional and have some interesting stories to tell.

 

[Jessica Booker]

By the way DON’T just use the above format. Just because it works for me, doesn’t mean it works for you.