How do you all handle the boring but standard recruiter phone question “so tell me about yourself”? In the past I always do straight and honest answer. Thinking if I should try to be witty this time?

Posting as :
works at
You are currently posting as works at

If you’re going to be witty, it’s got to be really good and not come off like a theater kid. It might be better to use your powers to tell a natural story to sell yourself a little bit.

They mean work. So I typically highlight the places ive worked, cities I’ve lived in, different projects ive done and why they were good for me. If you know about the job, you could find ways to mention things that might be beneficial (Experience with foreign clients, particular categories, etc. )
Weave in some personal stuff. Inevitably find something in common and then chat about that a little bit. Ask them a question or two about themselves. A joke only if I’m sure it’s going to work and fall flat. Mostly straight and honest. Fun, not boring.

But I really recommend putting work into knowing your story like you would anything else that gets you paid. Answer this question well and the recruiter will know how to sell you to their client/organization

likehelpful

Thank you again, CD1! Very helpful 🙂

Be yourself

like

That is a horribly lazy interview question. If it’s over the phone, odds are good they asked it so they could multi-task for a few minutes. But you still need a good answer - I’d say focus on describing the kind of work you like to do, maybe illustrating that with a couple of examples, and then talk about what you’re looking for now. Practice out loud and see if you can keep it under 2 minutes .

helpful

“I’m as bad as you’ve heard. I’m as good as you’ve heard. The rest you’ll have to find out for yourself. Same as me."

funny

I start from the beginning. "On a mountainside village in northern Taiwan, there was an Ami tribesperson who just wasn't like the others. That was my grandmother..."

funny

Hahaha now I wanna hear the whole story! I’m also from Taiwan, maybe I can steal your idea lol

Related Posts

Some recruiter in Accenture lined me up for an interview for a role which was not in my skillset ( by saying that this is just an evaluation exercise and they will map me to the right role) and obviously I got rejected. Now I see that I am not eligible to apply the role which I was targeting for the next 6 months. Any idea how can I get this escalated so that the recruiter ( Accenture employee) should at least be careful in future before fooling a noob like me?

like

Can one of you awesome people please scan my resume for a ZS Associates referral?

like

Has anyone used indeeds resume writing service and is it good? If not what do you recommend below $100

like

Hi All, What is the overall interview process for 4 year experienced Honeywell ? I have competed two technical rounds. Need to know the complete process. Can someone help who have completed the whole process?

Any help / Tip to clear situational based judgmental test

What’s your take on Ackman’s CNBC interview in light of his bet on credit spreads?

like

Hi Fishes,
I have cleared L1 round interview with LTI, can anyone tell me what can I expect in L2? Is it going to be technical round again?
It's for Angular Developer position.

Thank you!

like

Hi guys I was working as application support engineer in my previous company and now I got java spring boot micro services project in cognizant but I getting scared to start working don't know why although I have cleared the interviews for cognizant as well as project .
How to overcome that fear please help

like

Anyone in the consulting industry willing to do an informational interview? I have 2 years of industry experience in corporate operations

How long do pwc take to schedule an interview. It’s been a week since I sent them my availability

like

Last week I got automated call from infosys and asked few details . After that I got call from hr and said my interview is scheduled on next week and very next day one person called me and asked few technical questions .she said she's calling from infosys and this is technical screening round . Today same hr called and said she will be scheduling a client interview.

My doubt is till now I didn't received any mail from infosys. So this is scam or part of infosys interview process?

like

Hello All, I have an interview for Salesforce Data & Integration Senior Consultant at Toronto. Can anyone help me with what kind of questions to expect?
10 YoE in the space.

like

Hi Fishes,

What is the interview process with UBS Pune for Java 3 years experience.

Facebook S&O PgM interview - does anyone know how it is? Case?

like

Anyone have experience transitioning from tech consulting to product manager? I’ve been applying/interviewing but getting rejected on the last couple round of interviews. Any help is appreciated!

like

Hi people,Does anyone have given visa hackerrank interview recently? May I know the kind of questions being asked and their level?

like

I have one query, i received survey mail from ey gds regarding joining date and location preference, so it mean iam selected or any other round happens? Because i give self recorded video interview on 7th feb and i recive survey mail on 7th March which i filled on same day and in joining date there are two options 25 March and 25 April ,wheres i select 25 april but there is no communication after survey mail so what should i do?

like

How likely is it that blanket L1 gets rejected? I will be having my interview soon and quite nervous that I don't get approved.

like

I have a senior business process manager interview next week, any tips? It requires 4 hour long interviews in which one is a business case study. What would you recommend while I am prepping?

like

Is there a professional/respectful way to decline a take home case study that doesn't automatically disqualify you from the candidate pool?

like

More Posts

Hi 🐟
Is anyone working as a Salesforce QA? Please let me know what are your daily tasks on a high level and what are the main areas a QA works on.. I'm planning to switch to Salesforce as QA.. Need some guidance..

like

Any downside to holding some funds from my Roth IRA in my vanguard federal money market fund until I can buy the dip? I’ve hit my max contribution limit for 2020 by having a few thousand hanging out in there until I’m ready to buy. I can buy with those funds after 2020 contribution deadline right?

Hi all,

I have 4.5 years of experience in .net technologies
Skills - Mvc 5, winform, Wpf, Sql server

Please let me know if there any vacancies

like

How does IT SOX audit in industry usually do during recessions?

likehelpful

Filed H1B COE petition today with PP at Vermont center, by when can I expect the result?

like

I am having an experience of 9+ years into analytics domain with hands on exposure to data science and machine learning.
Please can you refer me in your organization for any suitable position.
Thanks in advance.

like

Hi All,
Looking for job change .(Application /production support)
YOE :7+
Some one please refer me.

like

Hello ZS Fishes,
Can someone refer me to the ongoing recruitment drives at ZS for BTA, BOA or other roles?
YOE -1.6 years
Background- Software engineer
Please DM if you have any leads.
TIA. :)

like

So how worried should I be about NY not getting an extension for the Real ID Act? And not getting my passport renewed in time.. putting it out for rush now

like

A summer associate has a side hustle business. It’s ok until they are barred right?

like

Sinple advise those who are waiting for SA promotion... whatever package u r getting as A you will get only 15% hike for promotion to SA...so it's nt at well worth, Better switch.

like

Hello fishes,

I have 2.5+ years of exp in Firewall, Proxy, Endpoint Security and SOC operations environment.
Currently I am working in a Datacenter, and am looking for a switch in same domain.
Kindly help me with referrals.

My Notice period is 90 days.

like

Being a male and Asian really sucks.

like

Hi Fishes,

Can anybody please help me out with the market corrected salary of Associates in PWC India (Tax Tech Stack).

like

Any Sony Corporation, Epic Games, or Rockstar Games Producers here? I wanted to know a bit more about the development workflows and different teams involved in delivering features for live service games. I’m interviewing with a team working on a live service game platform and I’d like to understand the complexity and breadth of the work their live service teams do (Account creation/mgmt, UI/UX, Security, Content Mgmt, Social, Community, Art, Databases, Front-end dev, networking, etc.).

like

Someone please explain all these groups at Accenture. What service lines have the weird Associate Manager title? Is that CDO? What's the difference between business and systems integration vs CDO?

like

Someone reached out to me on LinkedIn about becoming an author on the side. Has anyone heard about such a thing?!? The person said she’s worked with 800 consultants writing their books and marketing it for them.

like

Best consulting firms for work-life balance? I know consulting is chaotic in nature, but just curious to see which ones are the best in dealing with this?

like

Additional Posts in Creatives

Which one would you pick?

Big name shop. Shitty account, but you get opportunities beyond that.

Shop with bad reputation that lacks PR and hardly enters awards but has a lot of book-worthy projects.

like

Do you ever get stoned before/during work? I had always steered clear during work hours but recently I broke my own rule and wound up writing what felt like some of my best work in months.

likefunny

Jeff Benjamin sup?

funnylike

I love Instagram, I really do! But sometimes I feel that as a creative the thought of "sticking" to an aesthetic makes me cringe! I feel that art & inspo should be free flowing - not confined to a box

like

My ECD keeps changing our work before it goes to client and it's cost us making good work. Our books are suffering because he can't get his hands off the tools. Our books are only full of spec now.

like

What's the best manifesto you've ever written? Are you comfortable sharing it to see if people agree?

like

Does anyone have a Getty easy access account they can share we me?

likefunny

Fallon NYC, how’s it like? Are there opportunities for creatives? Is there mentorship?

Hello!

I'm about to start a new job with my main account being a big beer brand.
I want to study and prepare as much as I can before it starts, and influence myself as much stuff as possible... Both from advertising and outside of it.

Can you please share your tips and recommendations?
Specially Art Direction focused - I really want to arrive and be prepared to perform to the best level possible.

Thank you!!

like

Hi. Can I bounce some ideas for a spot off one of ya?

Should I be concerned if the Coors spot “Official Beer if Drinking in the Shower” resonates with me?

likefunny

All this ghosting reminds me of asking girls to prom

like

Currently a Sr. Designer finishing my masters in marketing/pr and am being offered a job as a pr & marketing manager. Is it a bad move to leave the creative side for bit? My goal is creative director.

Where is the best place to look at inspo for directors / style for TVC/OLV?

like

For the 1st time in my career, I have it all: at an agency I respect, with CDs I like, on a brief with potential.

I have no excuse. But my ideas just aren’t as good as the other teams’. What do I do?

likeuplifting

Looking to move to New York - does anyone know which agencies are hiring these days?

like

Is there an online or college course which concentrates on the craft of Art Direction? Like the developer bootcamp, but covering visual story telling, photo art direction, animation, video, etc

like

Any senior level creatives or CDs from Fitzco here?

like

How do you judge if a headline is good or not? When I look at lines, I see an idea there but it’s petty straight forward, so I suggest to the writer to add a twist to it. Cont...

like

New to Fishbowl?

Download the Fishbowl app to
unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.
That was just a preview…
Sign Up to see all discussions
  • Discover what it’s like to work at companies from real professionals
  • Get candid advice from people in your field in a safe space
  • Chat and network with other professionals in your field
Sign up in seconds to unlock all discussions on Fishbowl.

Already a user?
Login here

Share

Embed this post

Copy and paste embed code on your site

Preview

Download the
Fishbowl app

See what’s happening in your industry
from the palm of your hand.

A phone with Fishbowl app

Scan your QR code to download
Fishbowl app on your mobile

Download app

Sign up for free to view this conversation on Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Already have an account? Log in

Sign up for free to continue using Fishbowl

By continuing you agree to Terms of Use(New) and Privacy Policy(New)
Messaging rates may apply

Already have an account? Log in

For account settings, visit Fishbowl on Desktop Browser or

General

Legal