Behaviour Questions
Tell Me About Yourself
Alternatives
- “Can you walk us through your resume?”
- “Please describe yourself.”
- “What do you consider to be your biggest professional achievement?”
Strategy
- Start with a short summary of where you are now (which could include your current job along with a reference to passion or related course/certification).
- Describe how you got to where you are (mention education/side projects, or an important experience such as a past job, internship or volunteer experience).
- Transition into what you’re looking to do next and why you’re interested in this gig (and a great fit for it, too).
Template
Sure—I'm happy to give you a quick overview of my background.
I’m a backend-focused engineer with a strong CS foundation, and I recently graduated with a master’s in Advanced Computing from King’s College London. Before that, I studied Computer Science at Newcastle University, where I graduated in the top 3%.
I’d say what really defines my experience is that I enjoy taking concepts from theory and turning them into real, working systems. For example, for my dissertation, I built an algorithm visualization platform to help students better understand sorting and searching algorithms. I designed the backend execution engine and a scalable state management system, and built a React frontend to render real-time animations. I also focused a lot on usability, like adding playback controls and interactive feedback, and and it ended up improving learning efficiency by around 60% based on feedback.
As I progressed, I became really interested in how systems work under the hood rather than just using high-level abstractions. Recently, I’ve been working on an xv6 operating system project, where I implemented components like scheduling and memory management, and spent quite a bit of time debugging concurrency issues. In parallel, I built a compiler in Scala that translates a custom language into JVM bytecode, designing the full pipeline from lexing to code generation. These projects strengthened my ability to dive into unfamiliar areas, reason about performance and correctness, and system design from first principles.
I’ve also worked in team and real-world environments. At uni, I led a team of five to build a full-stack assignment management system, where I structured the backend to support parallel development, which reduced integration time by 40%. During my internship, I developed an A* pathfinding solution for Amazon's self-driving factory vehicles, where I was able to reduced unnecessary node exploration and improved routing efficiency under real-world constraints.
So overall, I’d describe myself as someone who enjoys diving deep into technical problems while staying focused on building practical systems that deliver value to users. I’m now looking to apply this combination of strong systems knowledge and product-focused development into a backend or full-stack role where I can contribute to building scalable, real-world systems.
Tips
Introduction是面试成败的关键，一定要对照职位解释写出来，Top sentence开头, 关键词提取，重要技能埋点，方便面试中间进一步讨论。
Tailor Your Answer to the Role and Company
- “Tell me about yourself” actually means “explain to me what about you & your experiences make you stand out from the rest interviewing for this role”
- Look at the job description, research the company, and figure out how you can show you are 100% the person who can fulfill the needs
Professional NOT Personal
- Don’t tell your life story
- Focus on being brief in your answer of how you are professionally equipped
Be BRIEF
- Don’t list your resume; covers important points without rambling
- Emphasize the most important experiences & aspects of you that address TECHNICAL skills from the job description