Shadowing Practice: Tell Me About Yourself - An Excellent Answer to this Interview Question - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hello lovely students and welcome back to English with Lucy.
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In today's lesson I'm going to talk to you about different ways to answer everybody's favourite part of an interview
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and that's sarcasm obviously.
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I'm referring to the dreaded question, tell me about yourself.
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And you don't just find this question in interviews, you might be asked to offer a self-introduction in a meeting,
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at a conference, in so many different situations, let's tackle it today.
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Before I share all of my wisdom on how to master this question, I would like to remind you that,
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as always, there's a free PDF that goes with today's lesson and it contains everything that we're going to discuss today.
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Lots more information so you can really plan a perfect self-introduction plus a quiz for you to check your understanding.
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If you'd like to download that, all you have to do is click on the link in the description box, you enter your name and your your email address, you sign up to my mailing list,
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and the PDF will arrive directly in your inbox.
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And then after that, you will automatically receive my free lesson PDFs every week, plus all of my news, course information, and offers.
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It's a free service, and you can unsubscribe at any time.
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Okay, let's get on with the lesson.
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So, tell me about yourself is one of the first questions or prompts that you'll be asked in a job interview.
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How you answer this question is really important, because what comes out of your mouth is going to be the first impression that the interviewer has of you.
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And first impressions are extremely difficult to change.
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Unfortunately, this question is a tough one to answer.
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Go ahead, give it a think.
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What would you say if I asked you to tell me about yourself?
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So does the interviewer want to hear about your childhood and what it was like to grow up with three brothers, seven dogs and an obsession with Britney Spears?
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Or do they want a very detailed point by point rundown of your CV?
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Which one did you go for?
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Well, in all honesty, neither of these is a good approach.
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So what do you say?
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Well don't worry, I'm going to tell you exactly how to answer this question
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and I'll also highlight some phrases you can use to really sell yourself.
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First things first, the most important thing to focus on is work, not your personal life, if you're answering this question in a professional environment.
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I know it might be tempting to try to impress the interviewer with an extravagant story about your life, but hold on to those fascinating anecdotes till after you have the job.
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What you should do is give the interviewer a brief overview of your employment experience
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and talk about the roles you've done in the past that relate to the job you're applying for.
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And and the key word here is brief.
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Just hit the highlights.
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Treat it as a synopsis or the blurb at the back of the storybook of your life.
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You want to get the interviewer interested, but you're not going to reveal the full story just yet.
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If most of your work experience is in jobs similar to the one that you're applying for, start at the beginning.
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Tell them your job title, the company you worked for, and what you did there.
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Let's imagine you work in HR, human resources.
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You could say my first job in the field was as an HR assistant with GoWork, a large company in Manchester.
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My main duties were to support the managers with recruitment and assist with monitoring staff engagement.
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After two years, I was promoted to HR manager with the same company.
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I led a team of three in that role, and I was responsible for ensuring we hit our recruitment targets.
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You can continue talking about your positions until you reach your most recent one.
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Now, let's imagine that you're applying for a role of a senior teacher.
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In this case, you've only worked as a teacher for two years and you had a different career before that.
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You should start with the most relevant position.
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For the past two years, I've been teaching business studies at the local high school.
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During that time, I've taken ownership of the two most senior classes and their exam preparation.
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I was drawn to teaching because I've always loved working with young people and I have a great rapport with them.
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But that was a career change for me.
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I began my career in marketing and I worked my way up to senior marketing director over the span of 10 years.
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I feel that I have excelled in my role as a business studies teacher, thanks to my real world experience in marketing, combined with my passion for teaching.
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Remember, if you're a new graduate and you're looking for your first real job, you don't need to talk about your paid work.
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Reflect on your journey through school, university, part-time jobs, and even volunteer work.
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Show off the gems that showcase your awesomeness.
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Additionally, for each job or experience you mentioned, you should talk about one major achievement that you had there.
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Focus on achievements that are relevant to the role you're applying for, and be specific if you can.
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see a theme here.
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Make it relevant.
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You could talk about your hard skills or hard achievements.
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And these are things like learning a new programming language or knowing how to operate a forklift.
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But you can also talk about your soft skills and soft achievements.
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And these things are harder to measure, but might involve using your communication skills or solving a problem.
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Let's look at some examples.
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One of my major accomplishments was implementing a new accounting system that saved the company approximately 70 hours a month.
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Or something that I'm most proud of is
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that I was able to learn to use a new software programme and then teach my team to use it too.
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Or even my greatest achievement in the past year was beating the sales target by 14% despite the difficult economic situation.
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Okay, to finish off your answer, you should talk about the job you're applying for and how your skills or experience relate to it.
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It's that relevance again.
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This is your opportunity to really knock the socks off your
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potential employer by showing them exactly why you are the only person for the role they're trying to fill.
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Here are two examples.
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The job post said that you're looking for someone with strong sales skills.
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My past achievements in not only meeting but exceeding sales targets mean
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that I'm sure I would be a valuable asset to the company.
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I did some research on the company before coming to the interview
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and I know that you value dynamic employees who make decisions quickly.
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I've I've had a lot of experience with that as I've worked in a fast moving tech startup.
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Now let's look at a full answer to this question.
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This person, me, is doing a job interview for the role of office manager and the interviewer has just said, tell me about yourself.
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Here's my answer.
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I've been working as an administrative assistant for two and a half years.
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My first job in the field was with Dorfshire Housing
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and my main responsibilities were organising and updating housing records for the local area.
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One of my greatest accomplishments was implementing an Excel model to automate updates to the database.
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This saved a lot of time each month.
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After a year I moved to Barksdale Housing, a private company where I've been working as a senior administrative assistant.
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I oversee the records management there and I look after a team of two.
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I'm proud of the development of my leadership skills during
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that time and I'm thankful for the support of my current employer who helped with this.
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I understand from the job post
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that you need someone who could update your existing records management and help lead a team of four through the changes.
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I'm sure that with my experience and creativity, I will be able to make positive changes for you.
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What do you think?
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Personally, I would give myself the job, wouldn't you?
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Okay, now I have a homework task for you.
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Firstly, I want you to think of your dream job position.
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Then I want you to follow the structure I've just taught you and answer the tell me about yourself question.
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It can be realistic or it can be a version of yourself in the future
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that you would like to one day become.
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Write it in the comment section.
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I would love to take a look.
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Downloading the PDF will really help you with that task and with practising for future interviews.
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Just click on the link in the description box to download that.
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Right, that's it for this lesson.
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I hope you feel more confident about that dreaded, tell me about yourself interview question in English now.
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Don't forget, if you would really like to learn English with me, I have launched my B1, B2, and C1 three-month English programmes,
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and I'm very biased, but they are awesome.
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If you would like to check them out and see if they're the right fit for you, visit englishwithlucy.com.
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I will see you soon for another lesson.
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Bye.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This video has 112 sentences and 1582 words to shadow. The speech runs for 8:25. The speaker talks fast, about 188 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 85% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.
Key vocabulary in this video
15 less common words from the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
- lesson /ˈlɛs.ən/ (noun) — A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
- skill /skɪl/ (noun) — A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
- achievement /əˈt͡ʃiːv.mənt/ (noun) — The act of achieving or performing; a successful performance; accomplishment.
- interviewer /ˈɪntɚvjuɚ/ (noun) — One who interviews.
- administrative /ədˈmɪn.ɪ.stɹə.tɪv/ (adjective) — Of or relating to administering or administration.
- impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/ (noun) — The indentation or depression made by the pressure of one object on or into another.
- relate /ɹɪˈleɪt/ (verb) — To tell in a descriptive way.
- employer /ɪmˈplɔɪə/ (noun) — A person, firm or other entity which pays for or hires the services of another person.
- highlight /ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/ (verb) — To make prominent; emphasize.
- implement /ˈɪmpləmənt/ (verb) — To bring about; to put into practice; to carry out.
- recruitment /rɪˈkruːt.mənt / (noun) — The process or art of finding candidates for a post in an organization, or recruits for the armed forces.
- accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/ (noun) — The act of accomplishing; completion; fulfilment.
- dread /dɹɛd/ (noun) — Great fear in view of impending evil; fearful apprehension of danger; anticipatory terror.
- refer /ɹɪˈfɜː/ (verb) — To direct the attention of (someone toward something).
- passion /ˈpæʃən/ (noun) — A true desire sustained or prolonged.
Phrasal verbs you will hear
- talk about (verb) — Used to draw attention to the speaker's characterization of someone or something.
- look at (verb) — To observe or watch.
- look for (verb) — To seek.
- work in (verb) — To find time or space for, amid other things.
- ask in (verb) — To invite someone to enter one's house.
- do in (verb) — To kill or end; to defeat.
- finish off (verb) — To finish completely.
- get on with (verb) — To proceed with; to begin or continue, especially after an interruption.
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 41 contractions and reduced forms, such as you're, I'm, I've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: impression /ɪmˈpɹɛʃn̩/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, passion /ˈpæʃən/, ownership /ˈoʊnɚʃɪp/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/
- Long words — get the stress right: administrative /ədˈmɪn.ɪ.stɹə.tɪv/, accomplishment /əˈkɑm.plɪʃ.mənt/, preparation /ˌpɹɛpəˈɹeɪʃ(ə)n/, examination /ɪɡˌzæm.ɪˈneɪ.ʃən/, creativity /kri.eɪˈtɪv.ᵻ.ti/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lesson, skill, achievement.
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on | I've been teaching · I've been working |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | you've done · you've only worked · I've taken |
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | might be asked · be asked · was promoted |
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.