Interview practice
How to answer “tell me about yourself”
Say who you are professionally now, two or three experiences that explain how you got here, and why this role is the next step. That's present, past, next, and it works for freshers and experienced people alike. The question is often a warm-up and an opening at the same time: the experiences you mention may become the next questions you hear. So most of the work is choosing them. Below: how to choose, a weak and an improved version of the same fictional career story, and an exercise that tests whether you're ready for the follow-ups.
Updated · Loista team
What the question is for
Your CV lists what you did. This answer explains how it adds up, and why it leads here.
- It can shape the interview. The experiences you mention may become the next questions you hear. Pick two or three you'd be ready to discuss.
- It shows how you connect things. Anyone can list jobs. The useful part is the line between them.
- It's a chance to be clear and brief. Aim for an answer someone can follow the first time they hear it. About a minute is a useful target.
- It settles everyone in. Many interviewers use it as a warm-up, so a calm, organised answer is a good start.
In many interviews, "introduce yourself" means the same thing. If your concern is the speaking itself (where to pause, a 30-second version, what to do if you go blank), see how to give a self-introduction out loud.
Present, past, next
- Present. Who you are professionally today, in a sentence or two.
- Past. Two or three experiences that explain how you got here. For each: what you did, and what came of it.
- Next. What you want to do now, and why this role fits it. Then stop.
How it changes with experience:
- As a fresher, present is your degree and the thing you've put most effort into. Past is projects, internships, college responsibilities, competitions. "Past" doesn't have to be a job; it has to be something you did.
- With experience, present is your current role in one line. Past is the two or three moments that explain your direction, not every job since college. If you've had many roles, group them: "I spent six years in retail operations, first in stores, then in planning."
If you go blank halfway, the bare frame still works: "Right now I… Before that I… Now I want to…"
Choosing what goes in
You'll probably have more experience than fits in a minute. Three questions help you choose:
- Does it explain why you're applying? An experience that points towards this role is worth more here than a more impressive one that doesn't.
- Could you talk about it for five minutes? If it's in your answer, expect a question about it.
- Is there something you did, and something that came of it? "I worked on the billing module" is a topic. "I fixed the bug that was charging some customers twice" is evidence.
Numbers help when you can back them up. When you can't, describe the change in words ("missed handovers dropped noticeably") rather than guess a figure.
Before and after: the same career, told two ways
Fictional example: Shreya, five years in QA, applying for a backend developer role
Weaker
I did my B.Sc. in computer science and joined an IT services company as a trainee. After a year I became a QA engineer, and since then I've been testing banking applications. I'm hard-working and a good team player. I've always been passionate about development, so now I'm looking for a backend role.
Improved
I've spent five years testing banking applications at an IT services company. In the last two years I built the regression test suite our team runs before every release, which cut manual testing from about four days to one.
That work pulled me towards building things rather than checking them. I've been writing small tools for the team in Python, and I've built a backend project of my own that I'm happy to show you.
So I'm looking for a role where I build software instead of testing it, and I think my testing background will help me write code that breaks less.
What changed
- Dates become a direction. The weak version walks through Shreya's CV in order. The improved one picks the two years that explain the switch.
- A contribution replaces a claim. "Passionate about development" is something anyone can say. Building the test suite and the tools shows it.
- The switch is explained, not apologised for. The "next" follows from work Shreya already does, so it doesn't sound like an escape from testing.
- It invites follow-ups Shreya can handle: the test suite, the Python project, why backend. The answer chooses its own next questions.
Shreya is fictional, and so is the four-days-to-one figure. It shows the kind of detail that helps; in your own answer, use numbers you can support.
Two more examples
Fictional · about 50 seconds
I'm a final-year electronics engineering student, and most of my time in college has gone into embedded systems.
In my third year, I built a soil moisture sensor for my uncle's farm that sends a message when the field needs water. It started as a hobby and became my final-year project, and two farmers in the village now use it.
I also did an internship at a company that makes industrial controllers, where I wrote test programs for their circuit boards. That's where I saw how a product goes from a prototype to something that has to work every time.
I'm applying for this role because you build hardware that ends up in the field, and that's exactly the kind of problem I want to work on.
- Present (the candidate's focus), past (the project and the internship), next (this company's kind of work). No marks and no school history; those can come up if they matter.
Fictional · about 45 seconds
I've been in customer support for three years, first on email and now on chat, for an online travel company's international customers.
The part I'm best at is complicated cases: refunds that involve an airline, a hotel and a payment partner at the same time. My team lead started sending me those cases, and I wrote the checklist our team now uses for them.
I'm applying for this quality analyst role because I already spend a lot of my time looking at why cases go wrong, and I'd like to do that for a whole team instead of only my own queue.
- The move into quality follows from work the candidate already does. The checklist is the detail most likely to be asked about next, and the candidate wrote it, so it's an easy follow-up to answer.
Try it now: build the answer, then test the follow-ups
About six minutes, no sign-up needed
- Scenario
- The first question in an interview for a role you want: "Tell me about yourself."
- Prepare (2 minutes)
- Pick two experiences. Write three bullets, not sentences: now, the two experiences, why this role.
- Speak (about 1 minute)
- Answer out loud from the bullets.
- Test (2 minutes)
- For each experience you mentioned, ask yourself the obvious next question ("What exactly did you do?", "What went wrong?", "Why did you leave?") and answer it out loud in about 30 seconds.
- Retry (about 1 minute)
- If a follow-up stumped you, prepare that answer or swap the experience for one you can discuss. Then give the full answer again.
A practice routine we suggest, not a tested programme.
Common slips, and what to do instead
- Starting from childhood. Start from where you are now. Earlier history can come later if it's relevant.
- Only adjectives. "Passionate, hard-working, quick learner." Keep one and show it with an example.
- Forgetting the "next". Without it the answer stops without a point. End on why this role.
- Talking down your last job. If you're switching, talk about what you're moving towards rather than what you're leaving.
- Running long. If your answer runs past two minutes, check whether you're including details the interviewer can ask about later.
Questions people ask
How do I mention a career gap?
Briefly and plainly, as part of the story: "I took a year out to care for a family member, and came back through a course in data analysis." Then move on to what you did next. If they want more detail, they'll ask.
I'm changing careers. Where do I start?
Start with the present, then choose the experiences from your current work that point towards the new field. The "next" should follow from what you've already done, as in Shreya's improved answer above.
I'm a fresher with no work experience. What counts?
Projects, internships, college responsibilities, competitions, part-time work, anything you did and can explain. Choose the ones that point towards the role.
Should I include personal details?
Only if they connect to the job or the interviewer asks. A line about where you're from is fine in many interviews; a family history usually isn't what this question is after.
How long should the answer be?
About a minute is a useful target. With many years of experience, up to two can be fine. Treat it as guidance rather than a rule.
Build it, then say it out loud
Three bullets on paper are the easy part. The answer you can say smoothly is the one you'll give on the day. In Loista, interview practice starts with "Tell me about yourself": you answer out loud, get a score for clarity, structure and delivery with one thing to change, and try again. Add your CV and Loista writes interview questions from it, so you can practise the follow-ups too. Your first 10 practices with feedback are free.
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