Airline/Aviation Job Preparation: Tell me something about Yourself

You have submitted the resume and you waited patiently and finally, you got that phone call, and now you got the interview. You’re sitting across the interviewers and the hiring manager smiles and asks you the question…“Tell me about yourself”. And you panic. And you don’t know what to do. You don’t know what to say. You start to stutter. And halfway through the conversation, STOPPED. Usually, the hiring manager/recruiter or HR Manager whoever is there makes up his or her mind in the first two minutes during the interview.

REMEMBER! FIRST IMPRESSION IS THE LAST IMPRESSION.

So today I’m going to share with you from a recruiter perspective, from an employer perspective, what is the best response to the question “Tell me about yourself”. However, we can make a very impressive answer and response. This is not a theory. I’m also going to give you a little template, so next time when you are asked this question you know exactly what to say.

When the hiring team is asking you the question “Tell me about yourself”:

They are DO NOT want to know about your whole life story. They don’t ask about your parents, your background, and your car’s name, and what kind of pet do you have.

What they’re actually asking is what you can bring to the table? So now on, when you hear this question, “tell me about yourself” I want you to make your mind switch. What value could you bring to the company? What problems you can solve for the company? That’s what they are asking. And you should not go on and on and on about all your background and all of that. No. Don’t do that. Be yourself, but be your best self.

See, one of the most common mistakes people make here is they believe that it is okay that if I being myself. Yes, you want to be yourself, but you want to be your best self. You have to be authentic, you do not want to be fake. But it doesn’t mean that you just share everything. This is your first meeting with a hiring manager, it’s not less than a date. Right? Lead with your strong foot forward. So when you are asked the question, everything you share, any statement that you make, you always want to tie it back.

• Now here’s a script that you could use. “I have been…..” Or, “My background is …..” So, let me demonstrate. Let’s say it’s the same position, CABIN CREW that you’re applying. Here brag about your SUCCESS story. START with I has been.
•  I have been dreaming of this job of a cabin crew since childhood. In the last twelve months, I have improved my communication skills and learned a new LANGUAGE and working towards my dream continuously.
•  Now if the company is running operations in that destination which is your hobby language it will be turned into a WIN-WIN situation for both the employee and the employer.
•  Here you are talking about your success but without bragging. It’s more to demonstrate and showcase your skills. What are you good at? That’s that number one, success. Start with “My strength is” or “my real strength is” - I know what my customer/passenger want. I know the value of serving my guests with a warm smile. Offering them the same services with the respect that I would love to be offered
• Meaning, how you fit for the role with your strength and your backgrounds.
• What I’m looking for is a company that I could add value to, ( in case they ask what VALUE you can say that your company a certain achievement let us work as a team towards a bigger one.) that I could produce a positive return on investment. Where I could join a strong team. Is this what ABC Company is looking for?
• In the end, you ask a question. Whoever asks a question controls the conversation. Just because you are in an interview doesn’t mean that you don’t need to sell.

The next question 

you might have is well, does that mean that I have to memorize a script of some sort? And the answer is absolute YES. You don’t want to go in unprepared. In fact, you want to write it out, practice it, and rehearse it as many times as required. So when you are in front of a potential recruiter, you are ready to rock. You can memorize it and say it as many times and repeat it many times so it comes across very naturally.

Thank you for reading, will be back soon with more writings.