When Anita Attridge worked in human resources at Merck and Xerox, she frequently kicked off job interviews with a standard request: Tell me about yourself. A striking number of applicants couldn’t answer her coherently. “You’d get everything from, ‘Where do you want me to start?’ to their whole life story,” says Attridge, who is now a coach with GetFive, a career counseling firm.
“Practice until it’s as easy as saying your name,” says Attridge. Always rehearse out loud, in front of a mirror, or to a friend or into a voice or video recorder. Force yourself to sound enthusiastic. Too often job candidates recite their pitches in a monotone or rush through them without passion. “Often the content is very good, but the delivery is so bad you don’t hear it,” Attridge notes. [Read More]
