Shadowing Practice: Former Amazon Recruiter Explains the Perfect "Tell me about Yourself" Answer (2026) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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Hello, I'm Julia.

I'm a former Amazon recruiter.

Today I'm going to talk about how to answer the interview question, tell me about yourself.

Let's start understanding the reason for this question.

This is usually the first question that the recruiters ask on the interview.

So the idea of the question is to start the conversation.

So this question can come in the very first minutes of the interview, even before the company presentation

or the recruiter to explain about the job this is basically a beginning

and we are starting to have information about you as a candidate

so we are starting to feel the structure that your resume has created

so the idea is to start getting a little bit more information about you

and start painting the picture about your profile

and who you are as a professional keep in mind

that we already have your resume so we don't need you to read it

so we want a little bit more on the narrative you

want your story the way you tell about your professional experiences

and your career path i'm going to give an example for a software engineer

so one way that you can start answering this question is i worked for

this amount of years as a software engineer in this specific industry

and then you can mention the companies that you work with

so the industry basically is the specifics about the companies

and the environments that you're working on so

if you worked in big companies small companies

if you worked on tech companies marketing or anything

that specifies the company in the market and the industry

that you're working on

so after you give this first introduction using your job title the amount of years

and seniority that you have and the industry in the market that you work it on

then you can start describing your experiences.

And here, if you are a senior candidate, then I would recommend for you to ask the recruiter

if they want you to start from the beginning or to start from the most recent experiences.

If you have a lot of years of experiences, you're going to be like a lot of time describing your whole career

and you're going to waste time of the interview so

if you're a senior the recruiters

and interviewers would like to know more about your most recent experiences

if you're a junior you can start from the beginning it's

more important for the recruiters to understand how you started

and why you started in this specific field basically in this

moment it's for you to start painting the picture of your career trajectory

and your narrative as a professional so here it's really important

if you prepare beforehand and if you have a structure a career path

that you can describe and you have a very consistent

and coherent history about your career even if you have career breaks

or if you change it the path along you move to a different industry

or if you move to a different kind of position you can still create a linear

and coherent narrative about your career so it's very important

if you can prepare beforehand i really think that in 2026 the recruiters

and interviewers are being a little bit more specific about this question

so they are not necessarily asking tell me about yourself they

are being more specific like tell me about your career tell me about your most recent experiences but

if they are too generic you can also ask them to

be more specific like okay can i start with my most recent experiences

or where should i start if you are really interested in being prepared for this interview

which i think you are

because you are watching this video i have a very good

tip for you you can always research about the company before

and you can choose and highlight the experiences that make more sense for this particular opportunity.

So this will make you definitely ahead of most candidates

because you are going to highlight the specific experiences that you had

that will match this current job opportunity

or you will be able to describe your career path

and your journey as more specific to what this position is looking for.

So as much specific as you can get on explaining your story, the better.

This is like you are trying to understand what is important for this particular role.

This is very important when you're joining an interview.

If you try to think about what the recruiter might want to know with this question

or what the aspects and competencies that are more important for this particular opportunity or this particular company.

So if you can think about it before joining the interviews or during the process, this will help you tremendously.

You can think of what exactly are the experiences

that you have before that communicate better or they communicate the things

that you want to communicate that will be better for this specific job opportunity.

You can focus and highlight the skills

that will be more interesting for this company or for this interviewer

or for this recruiter so this will put you ahead of those candidates

so after this first question the recruiter

or the interviewer will proceed with the interview

and then ask follow-up questions few companies

and interviewers might ask you this question also in a personal side

so okay tell me about you who you are as a person

and you can always tell them a little bit more about

your hobbies what you like to do in your free time you can share about your passions

but you don't need to be super personal you don't need

to tell them about your personality anything like age relationship

if you have children

or not like this specifics about your personal life you don't need to talk about

and it can also be related a little bit more about the job

if your passion is related to your job in this part be yourself

if the company

and the interviewer are asking about you as a person they really want to know you

so you don't have to pretend to be something else,

you don't have to think about what exactly they want me to answer because then when they want to make it personal,

they really want to know you as a person so you can just tell them about the hobbies, but please avoid telling about other specifics about your personal life

that are not the goal of the interview if you have a feeling

that maybe you should talk more or you want to explain more about your experiences, you can always ask in the end,

would you like me to be more specific in any experience?

Would you like me to give further details?

You can always ask them to be more specific on what they want to know and this is actually very helpful.

Every time that a recruiter is too generic, you can ask them to be more specific.

You are not supposed to just try to answer the interview questions if they are not really well made.

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Your job is to answer the questions

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but their job is to make good questions and make you understand the question as well.

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Something that also some candidates do in this first question and I recommend is to share your current goal.

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So if you're currently already working or

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if you're looking for an opportunity you can end your answer telling more about your current goals

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and what you're looking for so you can say like i'm open to more challenges

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and now that i accomplished this and

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that i am currently looking for another opportunity

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because i want to grow i want to move to a different industry

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or i want to experience different things

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and this part of the current goals you can also align to the specifics of this job

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so you can say something

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that will align with what this job opportunity is offering to you

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so this will be also very good

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and will make you stand out from other candidates that it means

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that you are aligned to the goals

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and you are wanting the same thing as a company

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and you're aligned to the goals of this job and one thing

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that you can do in the end it's also to thank

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the recruiter for the opportunity to invite you for this interview

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thank the person for their time you can do this in the end of this question

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or you can do this in the beginning of the interview

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or in the end of the interview will also cause a very good impression

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so yeah this is the overall tips hope that it helps

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and i know that you're going to be prepared for your next interview you can subscribe

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and i will be posting more answers if you need more support feel free to reach out to me for mentorship.

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What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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