Interview Question: Tell me about yourself.

[speranza]

I have my first interview at my state school in two weeks and in preparing for it, I find that I'm having a hard time trying to think of good ways to answer the most basic questions, such as tell me about yourself. So how have you guys been approaching this question? For some reason, I can't think of a response that doesn't sound stilted or awkward. Perhaps it's how open-ended the question is. What is the range of areas to cover? I guess I'm not sure how to begin an answer to this question. I know the things I want to say, but I'm not sure how to word them in a way that doesn't sound dumb (at least, to me).

Any advice would be very appreciated.

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[MoosePilot]

I have my first interview at my state school in two weeks and in preparing for it, I find that I'm having a hard time trying to think of good ways to answer the most basic questions, such as tell me about yourself. So how have you guys been approaching this question? For some reason, I can't think of a response that doesn't sound stilted or awkward. Perhaps it's how open-ended the question is. What is the range of areas to cover? I guess I'm not sure how to begin an answer to this question. I know the things I want to say, but I'm not sure how to word them in a way that doesn't sound dumb (at least, to me).

Any advice would be very appreciated.

Use it as an opportunity to tell him why medicine and why you're a good applicant for his school in the guise of telling him about yourself.

Generally walk him through who you are and how that impacts on you going to med school.

 

[Doc.Holliday]

hmmm... id be tempted to show em all my scars and tell them the stories for each

 

[rocketman]

I have my first interview at my state school in two weeks and in preparing for it, I find that I'm having a hard time trying to think of good ways to answer the most basic questions, such as tell me about yourself. So how have you guys been approaching this question? For some reason, I can't think of a response that doesn't sound stilted or awkward. Perhaps it's how open-ended the question is. What is the range of areas to cover? I guess I'm not sure how to begin an answer to this question. I know the things I want to say, but I'm not sure how to word them in a way that doesn't sound dumb (at least, to me).

Any advice would be very appreciated.

I was thinking about this as well, as I saw another post in which everyone recommended turning the answer into "why i want to be a doctor" or "why I am a good med school applicant." I don't think that's what I'm going to do. I'm actually going to tell the interviewer about myself--where I grew up; about my family; where I went to school; how I ended up where I am now. I'm sure the next question(s) would be more specific about medical school and being a doctor.

 

[Turkeyman]

I love this question...I have a lot to talk about besides medicine. It's not a hard question either way...just let it flow. Begin talking about where you were born, how frequently you might have moved, the size of your family, and what undergrad you attend/major. Keep it brief, but charming...after all, brevity is the soul of wit 😀. Talk about your interesting ECs(especially ones not relating to medicine, because I feel interviewers have heard that so much...you'd want to start off with something interesting!) and hobbies. Basically I would steer away from the "why I want to be a doctor" and give them some of the REAL "you." The stuff about medicine will be discussed thoroughly anyways...don't be a cookie cutter pre-med!

Of course these are just my views...and the ways in which the other reply-ees would approach it are just as good. There's no wrong answer so just be yourself and talk about what YOU feel might be interesting. If YOU are passionate about what you talk about, the interviewer can sense it...and it'll make a nice mark in their book.

 

[Fermata]

 

[Thundrstorm]

I asked my dad for advice on this b/c he's done a lot of interviews in his career as an executive in the computer industry... and even though it's a diff. field, he said the point of this question is to give a brief description of your abilities and experience... to sell yourself basically. I read similar advice in an interview book yesterday. I started practicing what I would say this morning, and I think I'm going to say where I'm from, where I went to school and what I studied, where I worked and highlight a couple of ECs, and then say what I've been doing since graduation. That way, I've brought up several points that the interviewer can ask me about.

 

[zurned]

I go with the boring timeline when I get asked that. Somewhere in that timeline, I throw in when I decided to go pre-med. After I finish, the interviewer always follows with why do you want to be a doctor. And it goes from there. Better safe than sorry.

 

[medstu2006]

Should the answer to tell me about yourself be similar to your PS? I is really hard to try to make it sound different. The PS is also the answer to the"why do u want to be a doctor." How do u make it sound different or do u just quote your PS?

 

[anystream]

I always answer this question with a "why I want to be a doctor" or "why I want to go to your school" speech, with relevant facts about myself sprinkled throughout. I feel like talking about the school in your answer is good, because it might make your answer more interesting to the interviewer. Anyway, that's been my experience. I usually get really interesting follow up questions from this, instead of the dead silence I would probably hear if I talked about my boring suburban childhood.