"Tell me about yourself..." -- can't find in search

[qweewq11]

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I thought this was covered before, but no luck using search, so:
How would you begin a closed file interview? I understand these frequently begin with a "Tell me about yourself" sort of question....

Thanks!

 

[Neuronix]

My personal answer is something like the following:

"I am a hardworking non-traditional applicant with a unique background"

and then I expand on my non-traditional status and my unique background. I could talk about those all day 🙂

So anyways, in your response to that, I would recommend that you stress how you may be unique from other applicants. The thing is though that your response to this kind of question totally depends on you, and that's why it's such a great question for an interviewer (and such a poor question for the interviewee, no right or wrong!).

 

[Iffy premed]

I had open file interviews where the interviewer still started with that "tell me about yourself" liner.
i think they just want to see how you are as a personal PR rep.
I usually start with a little of my background, mix in the "family person" perspective, hobbies are a must, and the most important pt, make sure to say that med school is very important to you, and you have been aspiring to be a physician for x number of years.

 

[jtheater]

That happened to me at UCSF, which is closed file. I was like.... Ok... what now.

I just started with... "Well, I grew up in the Bay Area... I went to high school in the city. It was kind of odd driving across the Golden Gate Bridge this morning and seeing kids in their cars heading towards (my high school). It didn't seem that long ago when I was doing it and well, it kind of frieked me out." Then I talked about why I chose my college, why I chose what i studied. Later on I talked a little bit about my childhood and the impact of growing up in San Francisco during the HIV epidemic. Talked about losing friends to AIDS and my mom being in the hospital at UCSF. As a kid, I thought the building we were sitting in was kind of creepy. [The ambulatory care building is all black glass and at night you can see people walking around the halls because the halls are on the outer perimeter of the building] I still do think it is creepy looking.

SO..... my point is, relax, be yourself, talk about what you think is important, but DON'T rehearse an answer because people can always tell. Interviews are conversations not rehearsed plays. I got in too so I think my tactic worked.

 

[batman123]

This is what I've been saying, but then again, I've had 15+ interviews over the past two years without an acceptance;

I start out with a basic ouline of who I am: where I live, my family structure, my school/major; then I go into the "Why medicine" response; it's a simple approach