Shadowing Practice: How To Introduce Yourself as a Software Engineer: Tell Me About Yourself! - Learn English Speaking with Video
Les maken...
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So tell me about yourself.
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This is one of the most common questions you will get asked multiple times throughout the interview process
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and in this video I will explain why we interviewers ask this question
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and I will explain how you can prepare for this question in the best way.
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So let's start with talking about why we interviewers ask this question.
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We ask this question because we want to understand your professional background, your qualifications and your relevant experiences, not your full life story.
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It's better to keep this shorter to start a conversation about your experience instead of starting a long monologue.
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Interviewers also usually ask this question to transition from the small talk
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which we began the interview with to the actual main part of the interview.
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If you give us your experience
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and then room to ask questions we can also drive the
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conversations in a direction where we think you have the most relevant experience for this position.
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Let me give you a few reasons why it is so important to prepare your introduction properly.
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It is often your first impression and it really matters.
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You will get asked this question multiple times throughout the interview process.
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So having a good answer is absolutely essential.
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Third, it is your chance to drive the conversation in a direction you decide.
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Fourth, it is also your chance to talk about projects you are proud of
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or projects you are passionate about and want to share with the interviewer.
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It is really setting the tone for the rest of the interviewer.
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If you are well prepared here and deliver a great answer, you can set up the whole interview for success.
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So let's now come to the structure.
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How do you create your own answer to this question?
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One way to structure your answer is the past, present, future structure.
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You have probably heard that in other videos here on YouTube.
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Start by discussing your past experience, such as your education, your previous jobs.
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Then talk about your current role and your responsibilities there.
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And then talk about your future goals and why you want to work at the specific company you're applying at.
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Keep in mind that the recruiters or hiring managers who are talking to you
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usually have your CV open at the laptop or on another tab.
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and just going through your CV and repeating everything
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which is stated here is just a waste of time and you waste valuable time throughout your interview.
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So try to summarize your experience or add interesting additional information to it.
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Especially if you just read out your CV
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and don't give us anything we can hook into it is very hard for the interviewers to start a conversation
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and ask some follow-up questions.
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So you can immediately use this opportunity to loosen up the situation a bit and tell something interesting about you.
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It could be a private project or something you're working on, the open source library you're maintaining, or some just some fun facts about you.
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But be careful here.
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Even though I said it should be something unique or fun about you, it should still be somehow relevant to the job so that the interviewer can ask questions and learn more about you.
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So let me give you an example.
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You're probably asking yourself, how does that sound if you answer the question in the past, present, future format?
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So if the interviewer asked, tell me about yourself, you can answer, sure, after studying computer science, I had various jobs as a software engineer.
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I was always drawn to computers and already started programming back in school as a hobby.
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After starting my professional career with backend development and trying many different programming languages, I fell in love with frontend development and since stuck to it.
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In my current role as a senior software engineer, I lead the front-end development of a large B2B energy management platform.
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In this role, I mainly work on visualizations for energy data for international B2B customers.
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Being part of an interdisciplinary scrum team, my work includes gathering requirements from customers and other stakeholders, planning our work and working on architectural solutions for our large-scale system.
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Since I took a more leading role, I also interview candidates, help them to get onboarded and mentor more junior colleagues.
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Next to my role as an engineer, I also enjoy contributing to development communities, such as attending conferences or organizing our own meetup.
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Last week, I actually gave a talk on how we use TypeScript in our project.
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I now applied at your company because I'm interested in more end-customer-focused projects, app development and to grow in my role as a lead.
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I'm very interested in this opportunity because you develop an app used by millions of people, work on the scale I'm interested in, and I've heard about your great engineering culture.
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I believe with my experience, I can immediately bring value by developing new features for your app.
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And I'm also interested in growing into a leadership role in the near future.
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That was an example answer.
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And as an hiring manager, we listen attentively to all the details you give.
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And if we find something interesting, we can dig deeper into it.
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I could, for example, ask, which programming languages did you work with?
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And why did you stick to frontend development in the end?
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Or can you tell me a bit more about the B2B platform you're working on.
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Or can you tell me a bit more about the talk you gave last week?
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Or a question could be, could you describe the team you are working in and how you collaborate with your colleagues?
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What was the biggest challenge in this specific project?
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You get the idea.
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Everything you say can raise interest and will influence the next question the interviewer asks.
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This is great because it immediately gets the conversation going, we learn a lot about you, and it helps us to transition into the questions we already prepared.
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So remember to highlight your experiences and the skills you have
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and demonstrate that you can add value to the company you are applying at.
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I will probably say it in every video, but you really need to practice it.
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When you come up with your structured answer on a piece of paper
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and then try to say it out loud the first time to a friend, it will be very hard to get your points across.
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So definitely try and practice it beforehand because this will give you the necessary confidence and reduce your stress during the interview.
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Do it maybe two or three times
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and don't forget to reflect also on something like your body language or how fluent you can deliver this message.
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A quick summary.
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Focus on your relevant experiences and accomplishments.
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Use the past, present, future format and tailor your answer to the specific job and company.
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And practice them beforehand.
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The structure and a few examples to get you started you can find in the worksheet I will link under this video.
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I'm sure that if you follow these steps you will answer this question easily
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and already win the first step of the interview confidently.
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As always, if you got the job you're prepared for, write it down in the comments so that we can celebrate together.
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Thanks for watching and see you in the next one.
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Thank you.
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Woordenschat en spreektips bij deze les
Deze spreekles op niveau B2 is gebaseerd op de video “How To Introduce Yourself as a Software Engineer: Tell Me About Yourself!”. Deze woorden komen het vaakst terug: answer, interviewer, interview, experience, role. Deze video bevat 85 zinnen en 1257 woorden om na te spreken. Het gesproken deel duurt 5:46. De spreker praat snel, ongeveer 218 woorden per minuut, dus reken op verbonden en ingeslikte klanken. 89% van de woorden hoort bij de 3.000 meest gebruikte Engelse woorden, dus de woordenschat is goed te volgen.
Belangrijke woorden in deze video
De 15 moeilijkste woorden uit de video, met uitspraak en betekenis:
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| interviewer zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/ | interviewer, interviewster |
| beforehand bijwoord | /bɪˈfɔɹhænd/ | vooraf, op voorhand |
| colleague zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈkɒliːɡ/ | collega, medewerker |
| attentively bijwoord | oplettend | |
| interdisciplinary bijvoeglijk naamwoord | interdisciplinair | |
| loosen werkwoord | /ˈluːsən/ | losmaken |
| monologue zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈmɑnəˌlɔɡ/ | monoloog, alleenspraak |
| stakeholder zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈsteɪkˌhəʊl.də/ | belanghebbende |
| summarize werkwoord | /ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/ | samenvatten, opsommen |
| visualization zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/ | visualisatie |
| collaborate werkwoord | /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/ | samenwerken |
| fluent bijvoeglijk naamwoord | /ˈfluənt/ | vloeiend |
| tailor zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈteɪlɚ/ | kleermaker, kleermaakster |
| accomplishment zelfstandig naamwoord | /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/ | voltooiing |
| mentor zelfstandig naamwoord | /ˈmɛn.tɔː/ | mentor, leidsman |
Phrasal verbs die je zult horen
| Woord | Uitspraak | Betekenis |
|---|---|---|
| come up with werkwoord | bedenken, verzinnen | |
| set up werkwoord | /ˌsɛt ˈʌp/ | bereiden, voorbereiden |
Grammatica in deze video
De structuren die de spreker het meest gebruikt, met de exacte woorden uit de video:
| Structuur | In de video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect have/has + voltooid deelwoord — iets uit het verleden dat nu nog telt | have probably heard · I've heard |
| Lijdende vorm be + voltooid deelwoord — het gaat om wat er gebeurt, niet om wie het doet | is stated · was always drawn |
Uitspraak om op te letten
De spreker gebruikt 14 samentrekkingen en verkorte vormen, zoals you're, I'm, don't. Spreek ze kort uit, zoals je ze hoort.
- De klanken “sh” en “zh”: visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, qualification /ˌkwɑlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/
- Lange woorden — let op de klemtoon: confidently /ˈkɑnfɪdəntli/, visualization /ˌvɪʒ.ʊ.ə.laɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, collaborate /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, qualification /ˌkwɑlɪfɪˈkeɪʃən/
Klanken die Nederlandstaligen lastig vinden:
- Stemhebbende eindmedeklinker — /b/, /d/, /g/, /z/, /v/ niet verscherpen: beforehand /bɪˈfɔɹhænd/, colleague /ˈkɒliːɡ/, monologue /ˈmɑnəˌlɔɡ/, summarize /ˈsʌməˌɹaɪz/, onboard /ɒnˈbɔːd/
- /æ/ — opener dan de Nederlandse “e”: beforehand /bɪˈfɔɹhænd/, collaborate /kəˈlæb.ə.ɹeɪt/, passionate /ˈpæʃənɪt/
- /g/ — een harde plofklank, geen Nederlandse “g”: colleague /ˈkɒliːɡ/, monologue /ˈmɑnəˌlɔɡ/, organize /ˈɔɹɡənaɪz/
Zo oefen je met deze video
- Luister de hele video één keer zonder te spreken en noteer de woorden die je niet kent.
- Begin op 0,75× snelheid, spreek zin voor zin na en ga terug naar normale snelheid zodra het makkelijk gaat.
- Neem jezelf op en vergelijk met het origineel; let daarbij op woorden als interviewer, beforehand, colleague.
Wat is de Shadowing-techniek?
Shadowing is een wetenschappelijk onderbouwde taalleermethode die oorspronkelijk is ontwikkeld voor professionele tolkentraining en gepopulariseerd door polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. De methode is eenvoudig maar krachtig: je luistert naar native Engelse audio en herhaalt het onmiddellijk hardop — als een schaduw die de spreker volgt met slechts 1–2 seconden vertraging. In tegenstelling tot passief luisteren of grammaticadrills, dwingt shadowing je hersenen en mondspieren om echte spraakpatronen tegelijkertijd te verwerken en te reproduceren. Onderzoek toont aan dat het de uitspraaknauwkeurigheid, intonatie, ritme, verbonden spraak, luisterbegrip en spreekvaardigheid aanzienlijk verbetert — waardoor het een van de meest effectieve methoden is voor IELTS Speaking-voorbereiding en echte Engelse communicatie.