How do I answer tell me about yourself in an interview?

The question is an opening, not a request for autobiography. The interviewer is asking, in effect, why are you here and why should the next thirty minutes be interesting. A good answer is short, relevant, and ends by handing the conversation forward.

A structure that reliably works is present, past, future. Start with what you do now and the scope of it. Move briefly through the experience that got you there, selecting only what is relevant to this role. Finish with why this position, at this organisation, is the logical next step.

Ninety seconds to two minutes is about right. Longer and you are answering a question nobody asked; much shorter and you have wasted the one moment where you fully control the framing.

The common failures are recognisable. Starting at school and working chronologically forward spends the listener's attention on the least relevant material. Reciting the CV adds nothing, since they have read it. Personal biography, unless it genuinely bears on the role, misreads the question. And a memorised speech delivered verbatim sounds like one.

The most useful preparation is deciding in advance which two or three things you want them to remember about you, and ensuring the answer contains them. That turns an open question into an opportunity to set the agenda for what follows, because interviewers commonly probe whatever you raise.

Practise it aloud rather than in your head. The gap between an answer that reads well and one that speaks well is larger than people expect, and this is the answer you can be most certain of needing.