A second-year postdoc asks—

I feel like every interview starts with a question like ‘tell me about yourself’ or just ‘please introduce yourself to the committee.’ What kinds of things should I talk about? Usually, when I meet new people, I like to talk about growing up in Ontario with four siblings, my favorite recent books and movies or, with the right crowd, how I spent last weekend LARP-ing. But that can’t really be what they’re looking for in an interview. Right?

They’re not trying to trick you, but it is kind of a trick question. The trick is it’s not as open-ended as it sounds. They really only want to know things about you that are relevant to the position you’re interviewing for. Just like how you cut stuff out of your CV to create a resume that’s shorter and only has stuff on it that’s relevant to the position you’re applying for, the same is true for this question. A good answer to this question does a few specific things:

• Addresses your background/training: you don't need to go back very far—usually only your work since finishing college is relevant. If you want to go back further than that, you have to indicate to them how what you are telling them is relevant to the position.
• Highlights specific skill sets/experiences that are relevant: this helps demonstrate your strength as a candidate.
• Explains what you are trying to do next in your career and/or why you are interested in this job: this helps demonstrate your understanding of the position.

That's not to say that they don’t care that you are a human with cool interests and a whole life story, it’s just not what they care about right now. What you did last weekend isn’t going to help them assess your fitness for the position. Once they’ve assessed that (after the interview process), they’ll be much more interested to learn more about you.

-Ray Care, Program Director, Career Development Team for Researchers