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How to kick your interview off to a good start
Jasmina Mitrevski, Employment Brand Specialist
Your interview is coming up and you've heard plenty of times from plenty of sources
that preparing will give you an advantage – particularly when it comes to getting you in
the right mindset.
There are the obvious preparation tactics, like noting the skills relevant to the job,
recalling recent examples of how you've used them in your career, or researching as
much as you can about the organisation to demonstrate you understand the bigger
picture.
Something you might not anticipate however is preparing for the one question you’ll
invariably get asked – tell me about yourself.
It’s funny how when you’re put on the spot in a stressful situation you could forget
something as basic as your name – well not quite, but you get the picture.
As a marketer, I can’t tell you how important it is to begin your pitch on a positive note.
You’ll give yourself an instant boost of confidence and impress right from the get-go.
Here I’ll give you a sure fire way to prep for the one question that has the potential to
set you up for interview success.
In a nutshell, your answer will tell the interviewer in a minute or less:

what you've done

who you are

where you’re going
THE FORMULA
Most recently I've been working... Here you’ll list the fundamentals of your last role:
organisation, position held and a couple of great accomplishments.
But before that I... What journey did you take to get where you are today? This could
be your professional or personal journey.
careers.telstra.com
I really love ... What’s something you love about your career, or the industry?
I'm here today because... This could be anything – as long as it sells you. What is it
that sets you apart from the crowd? Why will you succeed in this role? What can you
bring to the table? What excites you about the position; or company direction?
AN EXAMPLE
Here is mine:
Most recently I've been working on uncovering the emotional and rational reasons why
Telstra is a great place to work and how we bring that to life. This helps position Telstra
as an employer of choice in the market, and speaks directly to the types of people
Telstra needs to take the business into the future to achieve their strategy.
Before that I was on the other side of the fence in ad-land. Working in a creative agency
is a world away from what I'm doing now, but it’s armed me with the skills and
commercial acumen I need to be a successful marketer – and it gave me a lot of laughs
along the way.
What I love most about Employment Branding is that I'm helping shape a big decision in
people’s lives – choosing an employer is not something you take lightly. I love that my
work plays a role in this decision making process.
I'm here today because I'm passionate about what I do – I really enjoy helping
employers tell their story and seeing the benefits of that come to life through the people
they hire.
For more career tips and advice, visit our dedicated careers blog at
careers.telstra.com/blog
careers.telstra.com