Tell me a little bit about yourself...

So you landed an interview.  Congratulations!  You get to the interview and you seem to have made a good first impression - you shook the interviewer's hand with a confident handshake, you've been making strong eye contact, and you made small talk on the walk back to the interview room.  Now you are sitting confidently in the chair waiting for the first interview question.  And then you hear it - tell me a little bit about yourself.

Seems simple enough, doesn't it?  However, what exactly do they want to know about you?  How much should you tell them?  Should you go on and on for 5-10 minutes on all of the great things about yourself?  Or should you just talk for 30 seconds or less and highlight some important characteristics?  Is this the time to talk about personal attributes? 

This question is a very poor interview question.  Yes, I said it.  The idea behind it is to help break the ice, but often times the people who are using it really don't know what they want to get from this question other than to make you feel more comfortable without jumping right into the "tougher" questions.

The best way to answer this question is to imagine that the interviewer instead asked you what brought you here today?  Or why should we hire you? 

How would you answer those questions?  You need to focus on highlighting or summarizing your professional career history, mentioning your educational experience, where you have worked, and then talk about at least three qualifications or skills that you have gained from these experiences that set you apart from the rest of the candidates.  Be sure these are related to the job for which you are interviewing.

For instance, "As you can see on my resume, I just recently completed my Masters in Counseling from Loyola University in Chicago.  Through that program, I completed a year long clinical internship at Rush working with clients... [details of your experiences].  Through these experiences, I have gained skills in conducting group therapy sessions, as well as a certification in conducting assessments.  In addition, when working with the children in the unit, I was able to work with groups of children aged 3 to 10 in dealing with the loss of a parent.  This has given me the skills necessary for this grief counselor position here... [more details on how this relates to the position at hand]."

The idea here is you are being specific and are talking about how you demonstrate the skills that are needed for this position.  However, don't tell them too much - you want them to ask more questions about specifics - this is just a teaser for what's to come.

People always ask me the exact time limit you should have for this question.  To be honest, you are not being timed in the interview, so be detailed but concise.  Pay attention to your interviewer.  They will give you nonverbal cues (yawning, looking around the room, looking at their watch) if they are bored or no longer paying attention.

Don't be fooled by how simple the question seems.  Prepare for this question.  Don't ramble on - jot some ideas down beforehand because more than likely you will get this question in one form or another.  If you prepare for it, you will be able to answer it confidently.  (Don't memorize or rehearse it too much, though - you don't want to sound like a robot.)

Now, go ahead - tell me a little bit about yourself!