Interview Tips tell me about yourself

That question of, you know, tell me about yourself is so open-ended it can be intimidating

And so really a student can handle this question by thinking chronologically

Think back to high school, where they're from, and then get into their decision about coming

to Ohio State and why they chose Ohio State. I think it's also helpful to give some results

That's a big decision about choosing where you went to college. Give us some results

What makes you happy at Ohio State and why you're happy at Ohio State. I really want to get a big picture of who this person is

It's usually about the first question after we've had some small chit-chat and I want

to hear about their background. Usually if they put it in chronological order it's great

So walk me through, you know, where they're from, what they did in high school

That can be a building block to what they do here at Ohio State

I want to hear why they chose to go to Ohio State, why they chose their major, and really

it helps, you know, give me a bigger picture of who they are

It also can bring up some examples of things that where we might find connections

I want something specific to what they've been doing in college. Maybe something in high school that they had accomplished or a part of

Maybe they were on the golf team in high school and now they're doing that in college

And tell me what their interests are and where they're headed with their curriculum

and what they want to do when they graduate, some of their career interests

So not a lot of personal information. I don't want to know if they're married, have kids, their living arrangements

I don't want to know any of that. I want it to stay very much focused on accomplishments and things that are going to relate to the job

When I ask a student, tell me about your resume, tell me about yourself, that's really the

opportunity for them, in my opinion, to frame the interview. So I want them to not just walk through the components of their resume

I can read that, I read that, I understand that. I want them to pick the things that really links them from their experiences to my company

So the things in their experiences they're particularly proud of, the things in their experiences that demonstrates the leadership, the innovative creativity, the technical skills

that they know that I'm looking for, for a finance and accounting job within J&J

Well to start off, I grew up in Dresden, Ohio, which is a small town, and I went to Tri-Valley

High School. And I've always really pushed myself to work hard and be a good student and really get

involved with the opportunities that were out there. So in high school I was in National Honor Society

I was also elected for Student Council, which is where I kind of had some beginning leadership experience

Something also that I was really passionate about was learning about other cultures and languages

So I joined German Club, and actually my junior year I was able to travel abroad

I got to go to Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Something else that I was really involved in was band in high school

I was in marching band, pep band, jazz band, and I started that from an early age

In eighth grade I joined the marching band, and that was probably one of the best choices

I could have made because I had a lot of peers to look up to, and I saw that they were really

hard workers. And I learned how to work in a group, and most importantly I learned that I had to persevere

individually and make sure that my work was done in order for us to all succeed

And when we got to go to our state competitions, and we were all out on the field and we had

just finished our performance, it was so great to see that all of our hard work had paid off

So that's kind of really inspired me throughout my life to work hard and do well

As far as work experience goes, I was a little bit ambitious when I was 15

I tried to apply for my first job, and obviously I was too young at the time

So the next year I went back and I applied again at the Dresden Village Association

which is a visitor center, tourism travel, and also a gift shop

And I had some roles such as managing the gift shop on my own. I assisted visitors with travel information

I also helped set up for events. After that I was a senior in high school, and I had a 4.0 and enough credits to graduate

So I decided to challenge myself and take courses at Muskingum College, where I earned

a 3.95 GPA. And in my free time when I wasn't doing my college coursework or doing my high school

work, I volunteered at doing kind of like the election campaign canvassing and doing

the phone banks. And from that I was able to get an internship with Congressman Zach Space

And I did some office work, but what I feel like I learned most about that experience was I became a more compassionate person

I was able to have people that either came into the office or I'd listen to phone calls

of people that would have a concern, and I would get to basically hear their life story

how they got from point A to point B, whether it was good or bad, kind of see what our office

was doing to help with that. And then after my senior year I had to decide which college I wanted to go to, and I chose

The Ohio State University because it was very diverse. There were a lot of opportunities

And right now I'm an international business major, and I have a minor in economics

The interview candidate did several things well in answering the opening, tell me about

yourself question. First she provided structure and organization to her answer by discussing her experiences

and accomplishments in chronological order. Second she provides information on where she grew up and her involvement in school

and at work. Next she shared significant experiences and the skills she learned, such as leadership

and teamwork, developed through her activities in band. Finally, the candidate conveys a sense of confidence about her abilities through sharing

information about her work and academic experiences. There are two ways the student could approve upon her answer

First, as she progresses through college, she should add some examples of more recent

experiences at Ohio State. Second, her answer needs to be shorter and should be no longer than two to two and a

half minutes