Master “Tell Me About Yourself” for MBA Interviews

Picture yourself at an MBA admission, civil services or job interview.

You’ve prepared for every possible academic, professional and extracurricular question they can throw at you. You’re all gloved up and ready to box.

The first punch they throw is a feather-light “Tell me about yourself” that knocks you out because you don’t know where to start.

So you stammer and stutter and rehash your entire resume for 5 minutes.

By the end of your answer, two interviewers are dozing while the third is playing Candy Crush Level 750.

A solid 5 minutes of a 30-minute interview is wasted on an answer neither you nor the panel feels satisfied with.

Relax! This article will help you answer this question so well that you look like the sorted little business boy/girl you want to be.

Why do interviewers ask this question?

Because they can’t bother to read your entire bloody resume and application essays!

I’m not joking. You’re candidate #65067 for them. They’re exhausted from reading black-on-white resumes all morning and asking the same questions to every candidate. This opens up three opportunities for you to make a killer first impression.

Firstly, you can get some goodwill and brownie points for doing their job for them. You can avoid the five minutes of awkward silence wasted while they read your whole application to know your achievements.

Secondly, you can give them a brief window into your career, academics and personality without turning the interview into a therapy session with your life story.

Thirdly, this is your last chance to say things you’ve not mentioned in your application essays. Since they won’t read your entire application, you can even present new facts or modify existing ones in your favour. It may be as subtle as changing “I contributed to this project” to “I spearheaded this project.”

To sum it up, interviewers ask you this question to give them a compelling look into your personality, achievements, career progression, aspirations and motivation for being at that interview in the first place.

How to Answer “Tell Me About Yourself” During an MBA Interview

A good self-introduction is:

1. Relatable: Alums are looking for someone who will be useful to them tomorrow as a colleague or connection that they can count on. Your career and goals must align in some way with theirs.
2. Concise: Be very choosy about the events and achievements you want to highlight in under two minutes. Make your statements short, descriptive and powerful.
3. Structured: Choose a simple structure that doesn’t allow you to meander and over-explain while packing in enough detail to elicit follow-up questions and deep dives. I recommend the Am-Do-Want formula.

The Am-Do-Want Formula

Am: What are your background and relevant work experience? How did you get to your current role?

Do: What do you do for your company that makes you stand out?

Want: What do you want to do in the short-term and in the long-term? How will the MBA help you?

So, what does an answer using this formula look like?

Here’s an example:

Incorrect Answer

“My name is Arjun. I am a graduate of VIT University with B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering. I have 6 years of experience in automotive manufacturing. I currently work for Ford Motor Company as an Associate Engineer. I have worked in the body shop, engine assembly and TCF. I have improved downtime in the assembly line by 90% through a downtime reduction project I initiated in 2016. We did a time and data study across all three shops, and a root cause analysis. We found three key stations where there were extra movements . . .”

Correct Answer

“Sure! I’m Arjun, and I’ve lived in Chennai for two years.

For the past 3 years, I’ve worked for Ford Motor Company as an Associate Engineer in their manufacturing operations vertical.

I have a background in mechanical engineering, with a bachelor’s degree from VIT University. Working for Ford was a natural career, and I loved American cars.

Throughout my career, I’ve been interested in process mapping. I love charting how cars get made on the assembly line, digging out problem areas and developing feasible solutions with the plant personnel.

For example, in 2016, I was tasked with finding the source of defective paintwork on one of the lines. My investigation revealed that the paint shop was working flawlessly, but a welding robot in the body shop was throwing sparks onto freshly painted cars stored nearby. I implemented a simple fix that saved $3000 in monthly paint rework.

Moving forward, I want to use my technical background and analytical skills as a supply chain consultant for a top manufacturing consulting firm, like Roland Berger or the Big 3. I believe that the ISB MBA will help me achieve this goal because . . .”

What Should You Include in Your Answer?

Now that you know what a good answer should look like, let’s break down what elements your answer should include.

1. Introduction: Start with a brief, upbeat, and engaging introduction with information like who you are and where you’re from.
2. Professional Background: A quick few lines about your company, position, education, experience, and motivations that drew you to this line of work.
3. Key Skills: Name the key skill(s) and how you apply them in your day-to-day work.
4. Examples: Illustrate your key skill with a specific problem you solved for your company with data demonstrating the impact. Use the STAR format (Situation – Task – Action – Result).
5. Goals: Link your key skills and professional background with the short-term and long-term goals that you want to achieve.
6. Reasoning to do the MBA: Link your decision to do the MBA with the skills and knowledge you will need to achieve the goals that you’ve laid out. Spend time on this step since a superficial reason like “I want to learn finance” might scuttle your answer.

How Should You Explain Job Jumps?

I have jumped four jobs in six years. I was a consultant, a program manager, a product marketing manager and a manufacturing engineer. It takes a while to introduce myself and tie my experiences together so they make sense.

Here are a few tips on how to summarise a confusing job history.

1. Describe yourself as a generalist: Remember when people say they’ve had a “long and varied” career? When you’ve been working for a long time, wearing many hats is a badge of honour. Lean into that mindset when you phrase your answer.
2. Highlight a key skill: Squeeze out at least one key focus area you’ve worked on across all these jobs. More would be even better. Tie these experiences up, however loosely.
3. Make your jumps sound planned and sensible: People logically leave their current role to another department, domain, industry, profile or job title.
   • Same company, different department → “Transitioned to [new role] to cross-train in [new skill/domain], broadening expertise beyond my technical specialization.”
   • Same department, different company → “Moved to [company] to tackle new problem statements in [field], applying my expertise in [skillset].”
   • Different industry → “Made a strategic shift to [industry] to explore its emerging potential, leveraging my background in [previous expertise].”
4. If your jumps don’t make sense, own up: If nothing explains your move except dire circumstances, own up to them without shame or self-pity. If you were laid off, say so. Layoffs are less taboo than you might believe.
5. Skirt around PIPs: Unlike layoffs, PIPs or Performance Improvement Plans might reflect poorly on you, since you technically “failed” the PIP and were asked to leave. Mask your PIP as a layoff or a voluntary separation. Interviewers usually take your word for it.
6. Describe your commitment to your goals: Reinforce your commitment to having a plan to achieve your goals towards the end of your answer.

How Should You Practice The Answer to “Tell Me About Yourself”?

Okay, so you have an interview coming up in two days. You know who the interviewers are. You’ve researched their backgrounds and highlighted the skills and achievements in your resume that would resonate with them. You have an answer that follows the Am-Do-Want framework. Here’s how you practice your answer.

1. Find a partner: Interviewing is a discussion. Find people who will listen to you and give you facial, verbal and critical feedback on your answers. Ask them what excited them, what aroused curiosity and what bored them about your answer.
2. Don’t memorise: This is a conversation, not a recital. Jot down your points in the Am-Do-Want framework, but don’t memorise your answer to the full stop. This way, you won’t lose your flow if your interviewer interrupts your answer.
3. Don’t overstuff keywords: As you spend more time on the answer, new keywords and examples might occur to you. This might tempt you to add or swap out parts of your answer continuously. This will only muddle the answers in your mind in a pressure situation on interview day. Give yourself until three days before the interview to finalise an answer. Then, commit and practice!

Key Takeaways

This isn’t the only way to answer the question, “Tell me about yourself”.

You might find that another structure works better for your experience and personality.

But always remember one golden rule for your interviews – Even a bad structure is better than none.

Use a framework that allows you to explain your work experience, academic background, achievements and goals in a way that’s short, easy to follow and easy to understand.

Choose your discussion points in a way that is relatable to the interviewers while highlighting your strengths and omitting your weaknesses as best as possible.

More advice to help you prep for the MBA interview

Here are a few more resources to ace your MBA interview:

1. How to answer the strengths and weaknesses question in MBA admissions interviews
2. How to answer the why MBA question
3. How to write a 400-word essay for the ISB MBA