Answering the "tell me about yourself question"
I'm always irked by this question cos of 2 reasons some interviewers treat this question as a short ice breaker question. However, some interviewers treat this question as the same question as "Why IB"; the problem is that my answer to why IB is about a minute long.
Why this is an issue is because if I gave my 1-minute-long "why IB" answer to the interviewer who is intending the "tell me abt urself" to just be an ice breaker, my answer would be a little strange or even worse, he would cut me short and probably make me repeat my answer when he intended to ask me "why IB" later on.
Now, if I treated the question as an ice breaker when the interviewer intended it as a "why IB" question, then my answer will be horribly weak and worst case, he probably will dismiss me from the start and will not visit the "why IB " question explicitly again because in his eyes I already used my opportunity to answer it. I say this because I have had this happen before.
What the hell do you do in this situation? I don't really wanna explicitly ask the interviewer, " Are you asking about my IB motivations?", cos then I just look rehearsed, which is standard, but I'd rather not bring that fact to light.
Would not recommend reciting your resume for sure
Definitely not.
But one feedback I get from interviews is that my answer dont have enough depth in them and my motivations weren't compelling, so I'd rather risk telling a descriptive novel answer than save time.
Do you not know what I mean ?
I have always treated both questions similarly. I believe your answer should be your story of your experiences that lead you to recruiting for IB. If they ask “Why IB?” in a later question, just politely point back to some of the things you already said and expand if necessary
This answer, as weird as it feels, is one that is 100% ok to have "rehearsed." Obviously don't want to sound like a robot but you don't need to act like you're coming up with it on the spot. Every interview has some variation of this questions so it's better to seem prepared but slightly unnatural than someone who got caught totally off guard.
Basic structure should be three parts, totaling less than 60 seconds.
Ideally, your answer to this question should capture your IB motivations along with broader background/skills. Some variation of this question is the only question you can be >95% sure you're going to get during any interview, so you should be ready to crush it every time.
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