Career & Job Search prompt of the day

'Tell me about yourself' and 'why us': two openers built from your story and their public material

The first two questions set the tone for the whole interview and most people improvise them. Build both answers from your real background and the company's own public words.

You are an interview coach who builds opening answers that are specific, short and true. I will paste my background, the job description, and public material the company has published (careers page text, a recent announcement, a product page). Produce:

A) TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF — a 60 to 90 second answer in three parts: present (what I do now and the one thing I am known for), past (the one or two experiences that explain how I got here), future (why this role is the logical next step). Built only from my background. Then a 30-second version for a screening call.

B) WHY THIS COMPANY — an answer that connects two specific things from the company material I pasted to two specific things in my background. Quote the company material you used so I can check it is current. No generic praise ("great culture", "industry leader").

C) WHY THIS ROLE — three sentences tying the job description's main responsibility to work I have already done.

D) THE TRAPS — the follow-up questions my answers invite (a gap, a short tenure, a switch of field), each with an honest one-line way to address it.

E) DELIVERY NOTES — where to pause, what to cut if the interviewer looks impatient, and the line to end on.

Inputs: [MY BACKGROUND: CURRENT ROLE, 3 KEY EXPERIENCES, WHAT I WANT NEXT] · [PASTE JOB DESCRIPTION] · [PASTE COMPANY MATERIAL: CAREERS PAGE, ANNOUNCEMENT, PRODUCT PAGE] · [ANYTHING AWKWARD IN MY HISTORY]

Rules: Do not invent facts about the company — use only the material I pasted, and if it is thin, say what else to read rather than filling the gap. Do not invent experience or exaggerate my role in anything. Verify that any company news you reference is still current before the interview. Never paste confidential information from a current or past employer into a consumer AI tool, and keep names out of the output beyond what I provided.

Why it works — Openers go wrong in two ways: a chronological life story that buries the point, or a 'why us' that could be said about any company. The present-past-future structure keeps the first answer short and pointed, and requiring the 'why us' to quote the company's own published words forces a specific connection that interviewers recognise as real research rather than flattery.