Be yourself! I can’t say this often enough. I just read a popular work advice blog (to remain nameless) and I saw one of the first bits of advice for job interviews was to prepare a slick presentation of yourself and wow them with it. Ouch! While this might perhaps be useful if you are interviewing for a high-powered sales job or maybe an industry like entertainment or advertising (although even there they want to see who they’re really hiring), for most of you doing that will simply trigger a red flag, leaving the interviewer wondering if you’re all bluster and no substance. Now I’m not saying to be all shy and gawky either (see next section), but real and conversational trumps one-dimensional & slick any time. (Since most places do ask a version of tell me about yourself, it helps to think about your answer ahead of time. But when the time comes just tell it as naturally and 3-dimensional as possible.)