What the hell is this? I don’t know, either.
I’m going to answer one of the most popular questions:
- Tell me about yourself.
Interview questions always get me, very deep into my soul, as if they are questioning my existence. “I don’t know” would be the best answer, and the second worst answer after staying completely silent. The best solution out of hesitation for this is to present myself as someone who they want me to be.
More questions come after:
- Are interview questions more of a guessing game?
- Am I myself or their want-to-be?
- Is it just a coincidence when I’m being myself fits/overlaps with their expectations?
Tell me about yourself.
One problem that I’ve always been trying to figure out is who I really am, not the unsolved philosophical type of question, nor the everyday existential problem, but how I, myself, views myself as a person. I believe that I exist even though I can’t prove it and I don’t want to go too deep into this topic either because my logical arguments are not strong or evidenced. I still remember I wrote something about “every human is born with a dictionary that has everything written and growing up is just a process of unlocking things that are already known” when I was 15. Does that mean eventually everyone is the same? Enough being said, I don’t know why I had that thought nor little did I know anything about philosophy, but there are still many questions that I can’t answer that, in the end, are somehow connected.
Myself, my whole world, seems always “not right” to me. I don’t mean doubting the realness of the world, but rather, my individuality. It has been bothering me for a long time when people ask me to “tell me about yourself.” I just don’t know how to answer it while it’s one of the major questions for any interviews. Should I describe my external traits or internal perspectives of myself? Whenever it comes to describing my external traits, objective truths, or uncontroversial facts, I have no problem. I can tell them the researches I’ve done, I can tell them everything that happened to me throughout 19 years, but I want to tell them more, more about myself, as a person who’s distinctive from the rest of population.
For example, I say that “I have a good personality: approachable, outgoing, and always helpful,” but those characteristics don’t define Me, Myself. Everyone could have that, or even this exact same combination. I still somehow assume that I’m different, not in the sense that I can make a remarkable contribution to the world and get remembered for centuries even though that might be the best result to live, but in the sense as an individual with my own thoughts. However, whenever I think I’m different because I have this particular thought of mine, I start questioning if there is any other human being who has similar or even the same thought as I am having this right now. The answer to that is probably yes. I am almost certain that there is at least one person who must have, or have had this same thought. So, should I say that I have a good personality and categorize myself along with other people who claim to be having the traits I mentioned above?
For interviews, I prepared to describe myself in advance, polishing my words to the best as I could; while inside, I felt quite conflictive, for being someone who I think I am but might not be, for not giving a completed answer, for an absolute answer that even I, myself suspect.
Are interview questions more of a guessing game?
Yes, in order to get a particular position, I’m constantly guessing what They want the answers to be.
Am I myself or their want-to-be?
I am still myself (hopefully) by switching, adapting, changing under different circumstances. Their want-to-be’s are just the products of my guesses in the beginning.
Is it just a coincidence when I’m being myself fits/overlaps with their expectations?
I would call it luck. I have made a good guess and then provide a good answer.
There are many questions out there with no answer. Even though I try to be myself and present myself in some ways, being myself and to prove myself having individuality is another problem. One of the choices I made for my finite lifespan is to study sciences and focus on what the world is presenting to us, instead of us to the world. I’m sure there will be more entanglements like this in my life, questioning everything and doubting the simplest but at the same time, the hardest truth of myself, but right at the moment, my priority is to watch lecture recordings and obtain my degree so I won’t get starved when I’m older 😷
In the end, wish everyone who’s reading this can ace their interviews in the future ❤
19til29 