Guests on Air
Members login

What Candidates Get Wrong About Tell Me About Yourself

Answering Tell Me About Yourself: structuring the opening answer around the role instead of the CV

Liz Harris opens most coaching sessions with the question every candidate thinks is the easy one. Asked to tell an interviewer about themselves, strong professionals recite their CV in order, which tells the panel nothing it has not already read. Harris, an interview performance coach who has taken hundreds of candidates through simulated interviews, treats the answer as short positioning: what the role needs, and the two or three parts of a career that prove it. She teaches the same habit to people with no intention of moving, on her principle that you do not get ready, you stay ready. Listeners leave able to rebuild their own answer instead of memorising someone else's.

About Liz Harris

Liz Harris, podcast guest

Interview and Career Performance Coach

20+ Years coaching experienceHundreds Interview candidates coachedInternational Leadership workshops delivered worldwideInterview coach Mid-to-senior professionals

Liz Harris is an interview performance coach, learning and development specialist, and founder of Alchemy Training, helping mid-to-senior level professionals turn high-stakes career opportunities into confident, credible performances.

Her approach grew from an unexpected insight that changed the direction of her work: every interview is a presentation, and every presentation is an interview. After years of delivering leadership, influencing and presentation skills workshops around the world, Liz was asked to help two young women who were struggling to convert applications into job offers. Both went on to secure strong roles, and Liz realised she could use decades of presentation expertise to solve one of the most stressful and consequential moments in a person’s career.

Since then, she has coached hundreds of candidates through simulated interviews, competency-based questions, difficult conversations, presentations and the psychological pressure that comes with being judged in a competitive hiring process. Her strength lies in spotting what an interviewer is likely to probe, identifying where a candidate’s story is unclear, and helping them reshape strong experience into answers that land with clarity and confidence.

Liz is particularly passionate about helping people prepare before opportunity arrives.

View profile →

Book Liz Harris for your show

Request an interview →