How to Answer: If I Asked Your Friends to Describe You, What Would They Say?

During an interview, hiring managers want to get a sense of who you are beyond your resume. The easiest way to do this is by asking questions designed to draw out your personality. One of these questions is, “If I asked your friends to describe you, what would they say?” This is a common question you may encounter during an interview for an internship or an entry-level job. When the interviewer asks this, it’s because they want to gauge how others perceive you, how self-aware you are and how you work with a team.

When preparing your answer to this question, you’ll want to highlight your positive personality traits and give concrete examples.

Pick a few of your best qualities.

There are many qualities that appeal to employers, including loyalty, hard work and leadership. When deciding what quality to highlight, make sure that it’s an accurate reflection of you and that you can back it up with examples how it has shaped your relationships with your friends.

Give specific examples of how you display them.

Are you the leader of the pack? Don’t be afraid to mention this. If you’re the go-to friend for making plans and executing them, this is definitely something you want to highlight to your future employer. Emphasize the leadership skills you possess and your experiences with being a leader.

Say something like: “My college friends would say that I’m the leader of the group, the life of the party and the caretaker. I’m always planning trips for us, including vacations to places we’ve never been before. Last summer, we decided to take a trip to Costa Rica and we were excited about it but didn’t know where to begin. I offered to research flights and hotels and managed to find us a great deal in a nice location. Once we got there, I made sure to look for fun places for us to go out and checked in to see how everyone was doing throughout the trip. We had a great time.”

Pro Tip: Keep your answer focused and concise. Now is not the time to reminisce about every experience you’ve had with your friends. Make sure you keep the conversation relevant to the position you’re interviewing for.

By talking about a great quality that your friends would praise, you’ll show the interviewer that you’re a team player and an asset to the organization.

Next, get more career tips for internships and entry-level jobs such as How to Turn Down a Job Offer and find answers to common interview questions such as If You Could Invest in One Stock, Which Stock Would it Be?