Things To Say About Yourself in an Interview

The primary reason interviewers ask you to describe yourself is to get to know more about you and then use the information as context for other matters. Many times, your answer to this question dictates the direction of the interview, leading to follow-up questions that you can use to explain your relevant skills and experience.

Interviewers and hiring managers can also use the introductory question to get information that isn’t on your resume. Hiring managers also use the opportunity to gauge your communication skills, interpersonal skills, and social skills, which is what your coworkers will be when you just start a job.

To prepare for the interview, extensively research the role and the employer to know the correct things to say when asked to describe yourself.

Here is a list of powerful ways to describe yourself in an interview with several example answers to convince interviewers you are the best candidate for their role:

Goal-oriented

Example: I am a humble, supportive and hard-working person dedicated to setting and achieving goals. I like to be actively pursuing a professional goal, and that is why I’ve had a very fast growth in my career. If employed, I will apply my unique goal-setting formula to help my team to increase productivity and efficiency.

Decisive

Example: I describe myself as a very decisive person, which I find to be important in leadership positions. Regardless of the situation, I have trained myself to always think long term and base my decisions on the bigger picture to ensure that my organization derives the most benefit from my actions.

Results-driven

Example: As much as I love processes, I love seeing results even more. And that is why my career record is full of setting goals and putting in the effort to achieve them. This commitment to adding value has helped me contribute immensely to the success of my teams and employers.

Leadership-focused

Example: I see myself as a person who can bring any situation under control. Regardless of the pressure, I don’t allow the situation to get the better of me. 

Positivity-oriented

Example: I am an optimist. When I set a task for myself, I always see them through even if I encounter difficulties. For me, difficulties are part of the process, and they help us get better at solving problems. I believe with the right team and resources, no problem is insurmountable. 

Pragmatic

Example: I am an optimistic person, but I don’t shy away from reality. In every project I handle, my basic approach is to identify the potential challenges we will encounter and put in place countermeasures to ensure we deliver results based on our timeline and management requirements. 

Personal values-driven

Example: More than anything else, I value integrity and strong character. These virtues have helped me to seek to become the best I can be because it is difficult for me to justify my salary without contributing immensely to the growth of the organization. Pursuing integrity makes me a better person at work and in my private life. 

Customer-oriented

Example: As a person with a sales background, I am most concerned with customer satisfaction. At every point in my dealings with clients and customers, my primary job is to find how best to solve their pain points. Knowing what my clients really want allows me to provide personalized solutions that will make their lives easier and earn their trust and business. 

Self-motivated

Example: I’m someone that is proactive. I like to take the initiative and don’t like being micromanaged. So far as my project briefs are detailed, I will deliver to specification without supervision. However, I always keep my manager and clients informed, just in case we need to change the requirements. 

Performance-focused

Example: I am aggressively competitive, and this drives me to deliver the highest level of performance. Despite my professional achievements and educational credentials, I prefer to be judged by the results I’m able to produce. I understand your organization rewards top performers, and I would like to be a part of your team. 

Long-term focused

Example: I like to have an overarching bigger picture as a guide. Since the beginning of my career, I get fulfillment from the understanding that I am contributing to a bigger cause. That, more than anything else, is what keeps me going despite the challenges of this job.

Revenue focused

Example: I consider myself adept at generating revenue for my company. Even in a highly competitive market, I do whatever it takes to win new clients and businesses for my company and expect to be rewarded for my efforts. 

Personal growth and development focused

Example: I’m someone who strongly believes in personal growth and development. And that is why I continue to learn new skills to help me perform at the highest level professionally. I also have several hobbies, most of which I developed by reading books and watching videos. My pursuit of self-development has really helped me become the all-around professional I am today. 

Excellence driven

Example: I am someone who thrives on excellence. I set very high standards for myself and more often than not, always exceed my employer’s, teammates’, and clients’ expectations. For me, average is just not good enough. So whenever I achieve a new goal, I challenge myself to do more. This has kept me on my toes and helped me become a better professional.

Communication-oriented

Example: To me communication is everything. And that’s why I’ve dedicated a lot of time and effort to perfecting my communications skills. This has helped me to win clients, quickly resolve office disputes, and identify trouble by reading people’s body language and nonverbal cues. In my training program for new employees, I have a popular writing course that has helped every new member of the administrative staff master my employer’s unique memo and report writing format. 

Misunderstandings often arise because people are not communicating effectively, and that is why I focus on getting information across the right way. 

Accountable

Example: When I was growing up, my family placed a lot of importance on taking accountability for our actions. The experience taught me that I’m in control of my choices and must own up to any outcomes from my decisions. This firm understanding has helped me to always hold myself accountable and made me more deliberate when making decisions or taking action. 

Proactive

Example: Experience has taught me to be proactive rather than reactive in this line of work. Before commencing any project, I always create a list of potential bottlenecks and issues that can derail our milestones and increase the budget. That way, I almost always have alternatives and solutions to problems before they arise, which has really helped me to achieve exceptional project completion rates. 

Team-oriented

Example: I am a people person and my greatest strength lies in my ability to collaborate and leverage the strength of others to achieve common goals. While I can work solo, I enjoy working in a team, especially if the project involves multiple teams from different departments.

Self-determined

Example: I have an unshakeable determination in my ability to provide favorable outcomes for my organization. That is why my supervisors have praised my exceptional negotiation skills. I just can’t take no for an answer, although I will meet you halfway if the terms are ideal for my company. 

Community-focused

Example: I believe in contributing to the collective. While I have big personal ambitions, I have a firm conviction that my interests and aspirations must not prevent me from giving my all to the company’s wellbeing.