Estate & Financial Planner, Chartered Life Underwriter at Amiko Benefits Inc
Answered 4 years ago
If someone puts the onus of guiding an interview on you, take advantage! When they say, ‘Walk me through your resume,’ or ‘Tell is a little about yourself,’ or any open ended question you always answer with agreement and a question. You want to come across as confident, intelligent and most of all you want this person to feel that you care about their needs. “Certainly, as you can see I have quite a variety of experience and I want to make the best use of my time with you, tell me, what are the 2 or 3 most important traits or criteria you are looking for so that I can highlight the stuff that will interest you?”
When providing a brief rundown of your resume, don’t linger on job responsibilities. Instead, focus on highlighting the skills you attained from your previous working experiences. These can be technical skills or soft skills depending on the job you’re applying for. When you highlight your skills, it gives the hiring manager a better idea of how important your current skill set would be at their company.
When you're asked this question, realize that the hiring manager isn't asking for a tour of your whole resume. What they want to hear about are the positions that prepared you for the job that you are interviewing for. Focus on your relevant experience, as this will help you keep your details as concise as possible, which makes the hiring manager's job easier. This is your opportunity to explain what you are bringing to the table and the professional experience that matters most, here, is relevant experience.
If an interviewer asks you to walk them through your resume, make sure to include metrics, data, and any stat while discussing your career up to that point. This can include new clients you acquired, an increase in profits, or anything that can quantify your work. Having the right data can make your resume appear more substantial and impressive. Being able to remember these metrics and share them out loud shows the hiring manager that you are serious about the position and have created real results.
When an interviewer asks you to walk them through your resume, it’s an opportunity to make a good first impression and lay a strong foundation for the rest of your interview. Consider the aspects of your professional experience that are most applicable to the role, and be concise with your response. No one wants your first answer to take up half the interview.
Please under no circumstances should you read the resume back to the recruiter. They have a copy, and chances are they can read. Whenever a recruiter inquires about having you walk them through your resume, what they're really asking is, "what highlights do you have on your resume that you'd like to tell me about?" This is your time to shine, talk about the key points of related positions, discussing key tasks that make you qualified or overqualified for the position in question. Treat it like a PowerPoint presentation where the bullet points are there to summarize what you're really there to say. If you're applying to a sales job, highlight any prior upselling you've done, any awards or records you've broken, share your metrics/KPI numbers (if you have proof), etc. Make sure you use this time to go over why you deserve the job without directly stating it. You don't need to prove you can read your own resume, recruiters will assume you can read it.
My best advice here is to start with an overall theme of how you got to this place and then fill in the details of the resume. That way it all connects and shows the interviewer that your life's body of work has led you to this place in your life. For instance, say the reason you were drawn to your first job and how that shows your interest now. Then, state how that job led to your second job and reiterate what you learned there that pertains to the job you're applying for now.
Since your resume tells the story of your professional life, treat your answer the same as you would if they asked “Tell me about yourself.” Chart your journey that led you to interviewing at this particular business. Start with your education and how you became interested in your career choice, then talk a little about your work experience and what you accomplished at each place. In each part of your resume you should mention a reason why that particular experience makes you excited for this new potential opportunity. As much as it sounds like you’re speaking about your past, you’re really speaking about your future.
Tell the interviewers the information that makes you a good candidate for the job position when asked this question. Tell them about the experiences and skills that you have gained over the years. Also, tell them what you have to offer and how hiring you help them achieve their goals. Every job vacancy means the person hiring has a problem that they are willing someone to fix, by showing how your skills and experiences help them fix these problems earns you extra points.
The majority of the time, when an interviewer asks you to walk them through your CV, they are trying to narrow it down to specific areas of interest that will either improve or lower your chances of landing the job in question. Ask the interviewer which part of your resume they would like you to walk them through and proceed to explain the same in plain language while highlighting your strengths in relation to the job description. Connecting these two will help the interviewers perceive you as invaluable and a must-have in their organization.
Most resumes are in-depth representations of one’s professional journey and it’s close to impossible to explain in one sitting. This is why, when an interviewer asks you to walk them through your resume, you need to prioritize and mention only the most relevant parts of it. The focus can change based on the situation at hand. Highlight only the parts of your resume that represent how you can add value to the job you’re currently interviewing for. Any skills, previous experience, or lessons that have prepared you for the role are worth mentioning. Even if it goes as far back as community service in college, you can highlight parts of the experience that prove you are a good match for the role.
This question is the ideal time to highlight the skills, experience and education that make you uniquely well-suited to this particular role or company. You don’t need to speak to every item included on your resume, nor do you need to tell the entire story of your career—that’s the most common mistake I see candidates making when answering this question. Assume the interviewer has already reviewed your resume and they don't need you to repeat the information included in it. The hiring managers wants to see that you understand the needs of the role, and your answer should reflect this by expounding on the skills summarized in the resume. With each item you highlight, it should be clear how that relates to or prepared you for the specific role you’re interviewing for. If you're able, include brief anecdotes or figures that reinforce your mastery of the skills you speak to.
This is a question that is giving you a chance to articulate your value to the hiring manager. What relevant professional experience can you bring to the team? You're at the moment in your job interview when you should be highlighting the features of your resume that make you look the strongest. Talk about the positions you've had that are relevant to this position, and what soft skills you have that allowed you to excel in them. Stand out by demonstrating your value through your quantifiable accomplishments, such as the amount of time or money you saved or the percentage or dollar value of increased profitability your company earned through your work.
The best tip to implement in this situation is to be proud of what you've achieved till today. Even if your achievements are small, take pride in them and bring it to the recruiter's knowledge. This way, you'll be able to convey a crucial personality trait about yourself to the recruiter and it is optimism. S/he will understand that you're someone who doesn't judge things too much and is giving your best to every assigned task. But, while you're doing so, make sure that you're not creating hype or sounding boisterous. This will break things instead of making them work for you.
Managing Director at Intrinsic Executive Search
Answered 4 years ago
This question gives you a great opportunity to tell the hiring manager your story as is related to the role you are interviewing for. While you may have diverse experience, stick to what is most relevant to the role. Ideally, you should not spend more than five minutes walking them through your resume. So, you quickly want to run down your list of the most relevant jobs and show how the experience you obtained will help you add value to the organization.
Can't the interviewer read?? A better question is tell me something someone would not know or assume about you? If you get asked - walk me through your resume, walk out the door. The interviewer is not skilled or the company does not do enough training to help their managers with good interviewing techniques. Either way, move on.