This is the first question in most interviews and it decides the tone of everything after it. It is not an invitation to tell your life story, and it is not a trick. It is an opening they expect you to have prepared, and almost nobody does.
Answer in three parts and stop. Two minutes, not five.
Now. One sentence on where you are and what you can do. "I finished matric in 2024 and I have been doing weekend shifts at a car wash in Katlehong since March."
Then. Two or three sentences on what you have done that touches this job. Not everything you have ever done. The parts that matter here.
Next. One sentence on why you are sitting in this chair, connected to their job and not to your needs. "I want to be on a till full time, and this is a shop I can get to easily."
Then stop talking. The silence after a finished answer feels much longer to you than it does to them. Filling it is how a good answer turns into a rambling one.
"So, tell me about yourself."
What happens: This is an autobiography and it starts in the wrong place. By the time you reach anything relevant they have stopped listening. It also leads with what did not work out.
What happens: Now, then, next, in about forty seconds. It is specific, it is checkable, and every sentence is doing work.
I have never had a job. What goes in the middle part?
Anything where you were responsible for something and somebody else relied on you. Helping in a family business, running a stokvel's money, coaching a team, looking after younger children while adults worked, a school project you led. Do not call it nothing. Name the responsibility and what it taught you, in one sentence, without apologising for where it happened.
Two minutes feels far too short
Time yourself out loud once and you will find two minutes is longer than you think. Most people who feel rushed are trying to include everything. The middle part is where you choose, and choosing is the skill being tested.
Should I memorise it word for word?
Learn the three parts, not the sentences. A memorised paragraph sounds memorised, and if they interrupt you halfway through you will lose your place and your nerve. Knowing the shape means you can start again anywhere.
Before you move on
- Write your now, then and next in three lines
- Say it out loud once and time it
- Practise stopping when you reach the end
Check what you know
4 questions. Have a look at what this lesson asks.
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