Tell Me About Yourself

In response to the types of questions below, point to artifacts that illustrate your problem-solving skills.

• Tell me about a major problem you recently handled. Were you successful in resolving it?


• Give me a specific example of a time when you used good judgment and logic in solving a problem.


• Describe a time when you were faced with problems or stresses that tested your coping skills.


• What steps do you follow to study a problem before making a decision?


• We can sometimes identify a small problem and fix it before it becomes a major problem. Give an example(s) of how you have done this.


• Describe a specific problem you solved for your employer or professor. How did you approach the problem? What role did others play? What was the outcome?

In response to the type of question below, show artifacts that illustrate your best selling points and why the interviewer should hire you over any other candidate.

• Given the investment our company will make in hiring and training you, can you give us a reason to hire you?

In response to the type of question below, show artifacts that illustrate successful team projects.

• How would you describe yourself in terms of your ability to work as a member of a team?

In response to the types of questions below, show artifacts that demonstrate the qualifications and personal characteristics that will enable you to succeed in your chosen career.

• Do you have the qualifications and personal characteristics necessary for success in your chosen career?


• What quality or attribute do you feel will most contribute to your career success?

In response to the types of questions below, take the employer through a success story illustrated in your portfolio.

• How do you determine or evaluate success? Give me an example of one of your successful accomplishments.


• What has been your most rewarding accomplishment?


• What is the most significant contribution you made to the company during a past job?

In response to the type of question below, show artifacts that demonstrate the skills and accomplishments that are keys to success in your chosen career.

• What do you think it takes succeed in this career?

In response to the types of questions below, show artifacts that demonstrate the skills and accomplishments that are foundational to reaching your goals.

• What will it take to attain your goals, and what steps have you taken toward attaining them?


• Describe what you've accomplished toward reaching a recent goal for yourself.


• Give me an example of an important goal that you had set in the past and tell me about your success in reaching it.

Next in the series showing how a portfolio can be used to tell stories in response to specific job-interview questions:

In response to the types of questions below, show artifacts representing the origins of your interest in your career, perhaps through a class, organization, project, or person.

• What influenced you to choose this career?


• Why did you decide to seek a position in this field?

With today's entry we begin a series showing how a portfolio can be used to tell stories in response to specific job-interview questions.

In response to the types of questions below, show examples of school projects with real-world applications, as well as other evidence of student success (transcripts, awards, descriptions of extracurricular activities, etc).

• How has your college experience prepared you for this career?


• How will the academic program and coursework you've taken benefit your career?


• Which college classes or subjects did you like best? Why?


• Are you the type of student for whom conducting independent research has been a positive experience?


• Describe the type of professor that has created the most beneficial learning experience for you.


• Do you think that your grades are an indication of your academic achievement?


• Give an example of how you applied knowledge from previous coursework to a project in another class.


• What are your standards of success in school? What have you done to meet these standards?

Interviewer: Are you a team player?

Lani: Yes. Let me show you an example in my portfolio. I was project coordinator for the Arizona State Lupus Control Program, and Arizona had never had a lupus grant. A $60,000 grant (including my salary) funded the 25-member advisory committee I formed to write a Lupus state plan. My vision was to integrate a team of professionals and heal lupus in Arizona by interweaving Western medicine with Eastern and Native American medicine. [opens portfolio and shows photos of diverse individuals collaborating with each other] I gathered, interviewed, and invited physicians, Native American healers, chiropractors, Reiki masters, orthopedic surgeons, the chief of military medicine physicians, senators, private researchers, professors, and physicians to join together to heal Arizonans by integrating healing and medicine [shows copy of the Lupus state plan]. I led the writing of the plan, which was distributed to the legislature and the U.S Congress. Our U.S. senator wrote a letter [shows copy of letter] praising the plan's philosophy.

Use your portfolio to tell stories in response to questions about specific problems and work situations, answering the questions while showcasing corresponding work from the portfolio. "The portfolio can be used more to highlight an example of a topic or question in the interview," states a career expert from the Quintessential Careers research. "The candidate should think of the individual parts of the portfolio as examples in the interview, rather than trying to incorporate the whole portfolio to be worked in somewhere. I think of the portfolio in the interview as a teaser. Once you pull out something as an example, then I might wonder, 'what else do you have in that portfolio' Then I want to definitely see it, or at least more of it."

Be proactive in presenting your portfolio to interviewers in response to interview questions. You can begin your responses to many interview questions by saying, "Let me show you an example in my portfolio of exactly what you're asking about..." Don't overdo it, though; time is often constrained for interviews, so limit your portfolio presentations to responses that illustrate your best and most relevant skills and accomplishments.

Job-seekers can use a print portfolio in job interviews to showcase a point and illustrate the depth of skills and experience using storytelling. Presenting part of your portfolio is especially useful at the beginning of the interview, particularly in your storied response to the “tell me about yourself” “question.

Example:
Interviewer: Tell me about yourself.

Keith: After graduating from high school, I began attending the local community college. After about a year I became very bored. I was also very lonely because all of my friends had moved away. I realized that I was growing restless and could no longer focus on my classes. I decided that it was time for a change. I withdrew from all my classes, and gave all of my clothing to my friends and the local thrift store. [opening his portfolio to a page of colorful travel photos] I bought a one-way ticket to Hong Kong and broke the news to my parents who understandably were dumbfounded. Within two weeks of making my decision, I was on my way to Hong Kong. I had no plan and no luggage except for a small school backpack. [pointing to photos that illustrate his adventures] For nine months I traveled around Southeast Asia and experienced adventure after adventure - from trekking in the Himalayas to appearing in a Thai movie and sitcom [pointing to photos that show those specific experiences], I experienced more then most people experience in a lifetime, all at the age of 18. Looking back on the whole experience, I still find it hard to believe that I did it. I now know that I am capable of doing just about anything I put my mind to and that I have no problem with stepping out of my comfort zone.

Be sure your Web site and portfolio look professional and avoid un-businesslike content. There’s a fine line between opening enough of a window into your personality to intrigue a prospective employer and turning a visitor off with inappropriate family photos or off-color humor. Still, you’ll often find some elements in a Web portfolio that you wouldn’t find in a typical resume - accessible language and, as mentioned, sometimes photos of the candidate, which facilitate a sort of virtual networking through which employers can get to know prospective employees better. The portfolio provides a great opportunity for the candidate and employer to build rapport before an interview even takes place.

See some portfolio samples that not only tell success stories but also illustrate the branding described in the upcoming Chapter 8. Refer to that chapter for more exploration of building an online presence through telling your personal branding story.

One of the hot topics in job-hunting relates to the degree to which recruiters and human-resource professionals are “googling” prospective candidates. (using whatever search engine they wish, though “googling” has become an accepted term for this practice). The point of this exercise is to see what kind of information is available online about the job-seeker.

According to a recent study by ExecuNet, almost 80 percent of recruiters said they conducted Internet searches on candidates, and more than a third of them have eliminated candidates based on the results of the search.

A professional resume writer in the Quintessential Careers study said, “I believe the importance of an online presence for job-seekers parallels the importance of an online presence for companies 10 years ago, when the Web was first gaining traction. In time, as with Web sites for companies, an online presence will be second nature to job-seekers; the presence is like a resume but better, as it continues to promote them 24/7, and can provide more and better information than the traditional constraints of a paper resume allow.”

A personal Web site with a portfolio provides a way to ensure that your name will pop up in an Internet search, manage your online presence, and put your best foot forward to employers. (Tip: For extra visibility, buy a domain name that includes your name - example: maryhhansen.com/. It’s an inexpensive and important thing do.) Employers may find your portfolio on their own while searching the Web for candidates. Or you may refer an employer to your portfolio after cold-calling about vacancies or responding to an ad, thus giving the employer the opportunity to review the portfolio before or after interviewing you. Having a portfolio presence on the Web shows employers that you are technically savvy, open to new trends, and poised on the cutting edge.

Consider the story you’d like to convey with your site and portfolio. Try this exercise: Think of three major trends or themes that have spanned your career, ongoing patterns; for example, you’ve always been a people person. Convey this story consistently throughout your portfolio.

A portfolio published on the Web enables you to include links to all kinds of items that tell more about your story and support it with evidence of your accomplishments like writing samples, graphic-design samples, ad campaigns, photographs, PowerPoint presentations, reports, graphs, charts, lists of accomplishments and awards, executive summaries, case studies, testimonials, project deliverables, and even multimedia items such as video and sound clips that employers can access 24/7.

Job-seekers learn more about their own stories and qualifications by preparing a career portfolio, thus boosting their confidence and preparing them for job interviews regardless of whether they actually use the portfolio in the interview according to the Quintessential Careers study.

Creating a portfolio generates self-confidence and self-knowledge of your skills and strengths. In a sense, when you create the portfolio, you are constructing your story. You give yourself an opportunity to review and interpret your accomplishments and achievements in a way not experienced by those who don’t create portfolios. By using your print portfolio as a resource to prepare for interviews, you become more comfortable and confident in telling your story. Even if you don’t get the opportunity to present your portfolio to the employer, remembering your success stories through the visual cues you absorbed while reviewing it will help your interview performance.

Career experts generally eschew inclusion of information about family, friends, pets, parties, hobbies, health, marital status, and religious, political, and social affiliations. Opinions are mixed about including photos in portfolios. Some experts feel they humanize the candidate, but others caution that including your photo can expose you to discrimination. But even if you decide to forego portrait-type photos of yourself, incorporating workplace photos that show you on the job in such situations as collaborating on team projects and winning awards can help you tell your story.

Craig Wortmann of WisdomTools, Inc. describes a “win book,” a central archive for your collection of accomplishments-oriented artifacts, especially those providing positive feedback about your work. While Wortmann suggests pasting the items into a book, a folder or box is the way to go to store these materials until you are ready to create or update your portfolio. Wortmann suggests archiving such items as notes on daily conversations and meetings, ideas about strategy and best practices, stories of how you’ve impacted the organization, to-do lists, notes you’ve kept on the professionally developing the team members who report to you, illustrations and models that apply to your industry. I used to use a large desk-pad calendar to plan my workload. I kept all the calendar pages because notations of meetings I attended and projects I worked on reminded me of accomplishments. Finally, Wortmann suggests going through your artifacts and constructing a Story Matrix about them. The top row of the matrix lists the most important skills for the job you seek. Along the vertical axis, the job-seeker documents successes, failures, fun, and legends. See an illustration of this Story Matrix in Wortmann’s article.

Items that a job-seeker could consider including in a career portfolio:

• Table of Contents, Index
• Resumes (traditional and text version)
• Career goals/objectives/summary
• Professional philosophy/mission statement
• List of accomplishments
• Success stories/narratives
• Project summary reports
• Resume addenda, such as those described in Chapter 4
• Samples of work, writing, and reports
• Performance reviews
• Leadership experience
• Transcripts, degrees, licenses, and certifications
• Awards and honors
• Volunteer/community service
• Professional-development activities
• Professional memberships
• Letters of recommendation, commendation, kudos
• Reference list
• Clippings about you from newspapers, magazines, company newsletters, and other publications
• Photos of you in action in the workplace
• Answers to common job interview questions
• Research job-seekers have conducted on the company. This information provides a great opening in an interview to tell a story while showing the employer the research materials in your portfolio about your (positive) experience with the organization's product or service.

Whether print or online, career portfolios should be filled with artifacts and information that clearly show your accomplishments and tell the story of why you are the ideal candidate for the position you are seeking.

In focus-group research with career experts conducted by Quintessential Careers, a career-development Web site, one respondent said of portfolio content, “I want to see items or artifacts that represent that individual and tell a story of accomplishments that relate to the job in question.” Another added that “the portfolio is an opportunity for the candidate to offer ‘proof’ of what is on the resume. Emphasis should be on skills, abilities, and accomplishments. The portfolio can be an opportunity for a ‘show and tell’ experience elaborating on the work history. Special skills could be highlighted.”

What is a career portfolio? It’s a job-hunting tool that job-seekers develop to give employers a complete picture that is much more complete than a cover letter and resume: experience, education, accomplishments, skill sets - and potential contribution to the employer’s organization.

In a time when many employers are skeptical of the claims many job-seekers make on their resumes concerning their experiences and contributions - lying and giving misleading information on a job-seeker’s resume ranked as one of the top recruiter pet peeves in a survey conducted by resumedoctor.com - a career portfolio can be just the tool to use to show your stories to enhance your telling them.

The two main delivery systems for career portfolios are print - a physical portfolio typically contained in a binder - and online - a virtual portfolio that resides on the Web. Each is best used at a distinct time in the job search. An online portfolio is most useful for enabling employers to find you online and for enticing them to invite you for an interview through its media-rich presentation. A print portfolio’s most effective use is once you are in the interview. It enables you to show the interviewer visible examples of your success stories, especially in response to specific interview questions.

Paulson and Paulson write that “a portfolio tells a story. It is the story of knowing. Knowing about things… Knowing oneself… Knowing an audience… Portfolios are [people’s] own stories of what they know, why they believe they know it, and why others should be of the same opinion.”

A career portfolio, also known as employment portfolio or skills portfolio, can be a versatile workhorse in job-search storytelling. As we’ll see in this chapter, a portfolio can help you tell your story in a number of ways:

• The simple act of creating a portfolio enables you to get to know your own stories better and develop new stories.
• An online portfolio can entice employers to contact you, in part, by presenting your success stories in an appealing manner.
• A print portfolio serves as a tangible and visual guide to describing your accomplishments in narrative form in job interviews.
• Either type of portfolio serves as a repository for all of your critical job-search materials.

Hansen, Katharine and Randall S. Hansen, PhD. (2001, Third Edition). Dynamic Cover Letters: How to Write the Letter that Gets You the Job. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Hansen, Katharine. (1998). Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates: Dynamic Cover Letters for New Graduates: How to write a dazzling cover letter that will get your resume read, get you an interview, and get you a great first job! Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press.

Matias, L., When cover letters get personal

Quintessential Careers: Cover Letter Resources for Job-Seekers

Sample 1

Sample 2

Sample 3

Many resources are available and listed in an upcoming entry at the end of this chapter, and you can find a handy checklist here.

The principle here is similar to the language-mirroring described above. In his book, Don’t Send a Resume, Jeffrey Fox calls the best letters written in response to want ads “Boomerang letters” because they “fly the want ad words — the copy — back to the writer of the ad.” In employing what Fox calls “a compelling sales technique,” he advises letter writers to “flatter the person who wrote the ad with your response letter. Echo the author’s words and intent. Your letter should be a mirror of the ad.” Fox notes that when the recipient reads such a letter, the thought process will be: “This person seems to fit the description.” In the following example, the employer playfully wrote in the want ad that the prospective new hire should have the characteristics of 1980s TV character “MacGyver,” who was highly resourceful in dealing with sticky situations with minimal tools:

MacGyver to the rescue! Armed with my trusty toothpick and duct tape — actually my exceptional facility with hand-coded, highly maintainable HTML — I am poised to create high quality, totally usable Web pages for your clients. My three years of experience with Web-development projects make me exactly the kind of value-added employee you need in the Content Architect position you are advertising. My solid communication skills, along with total proficiency in all the areas you require, will enable me to make a significant contribution to your team.

Go to the employer’s Web site or pick up print publications about the organization. Pick out buzzwords and phrases. Play these back to the employer in your story. Employers who read language-mirroring stories conclude that the job-seeker “gets it.” Decision-makers love to see the organization’s own words reflected back to them. Both of these examples are take their inspiration from employer Web sites. In the first example, the site stated that the company was staffed by people who could, like Superman, “leap tall buildings in a single bound.”

I’m ready to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Knowing that you surround yourself with people who care passionately about their work, I’m here to tell you that I am passionate about working for Henderson Partners. My solid experience in serving the administrative needs of busy offices in fast-paced environments would enable me to make a significant contribution to the Administrative Assistant/Receptionist position you are currently advertising.

The description of The Limited at your Web site leads me to believe that your company and I share a philosophy about creativity, fashion, and customer service. That’s why I’m eager to contribute my experience in interacting with all kinds of people, combined with a genuine passion for fashion and a tremendous admiration for The Limited, in an Associate capacity, particularly with Express.

Cover-letter stories should focus on the employer’s requirements, the problems you can solve, and the results you can achieve. If the relevance isn’t immediately obvious from your story, help the reader make the connection by pointing out the skills and qualifications the story illustrates. For example:

The exceptional organizational abilities and detail orientation I deployed to set up photo shoots are directly applicable to the skills needed to plan and coordinate events. I can enhance your profitability by prospecting new business opportunities, strategizing communication initiatives, successfully managing client relationships, delivering presentations, and much more.

Telling a story in your cover letter doesn’t mean describing your entire career; that’s what your resume is for. For example, the following paragraph is too long and contains too many ideas that are not only unconnected to the job the writer seeks as a computer programmer, but disconnected from each other:

For nearly three years I have been a student computer technician for Academic Computing Services at Bucknell University. I am responsible for the repair and maintenance of all faculty, staff, and computer lab machines on campus. My duties also include the maintenance of our network and servers. Parallel with these responsibilities, I am also a lab supervisor for Academic Computing Services. I am also responsible for designing and maintaining several of Bucknell’s home pages for the World Wide Web, experience that has provided me with a detailed knowledge of the HTML programming language. In August 2007, I will complete my bachelor’s degree in philosophy. My liberal arts background has equipped me with exemplary communication skills. I have taken several math and computer science courses in my college career. My mathematics background includes trigonometry, statistics, calculus I and II, linear algebra, logic, and discrete math. I have also taken several computer science courses. In these courses, I work with Assembly, Pascal, C/C++, and several other languages. I am currently programming using C/C++ in the Windows NT and Windows XP environments.

Here’s how that rambling paragraph might be rewritten to tell a better story that relates more closely to specific skills:

• Having overseen repair and maintenance of all faculty, staff, and computer lab machines on the Bucknell University campus for nearly three years also qualifies me well for your advertised Help Desk Analyst/Programmer position. I also maintain our network and servers. My experience as a lab supervisor bolsters my management skills.
• The strong liberal-arts background I’ve attained through my upcoming bachelor’s degree in philosophy (August 2008) has equipped me with the exemplary communication skills your organization requires.
• I combine both my HTML programming skills and communication talents in designing and maintaining several Bucknell Web pages for the World Wide Web. I offer a strong math background and the diverse programming skills you need through my coursework in Assembly, Pascal, C/C++, and several other languages in the Windows NT and Windows XP environments.

Stories for the sake for storytelling won’t get you far. Be sure the stories you include in your cover letter will grab the reader.

It’s always easier for the reader to picture you succeeding on the job when you describe a specific situation, and employers are always attracted to numbers that indicate results.

Even if only one paragraph in your letter is in story form, try to integrate the story’s theme throughout your letter and tie the letter together by briefly referring back to the story in your final paragraph. See example letters starting later in this chapter.