How to Answer the Interview Question:

"Tell me About your Educational

Background"
Imagine: it has been seven years since you completed your degree in biochemistry and
applied physics. Since then, a lot has happened; you’re not the environmental physicist
you initially intended to be.

Instead, you’re a self-taught web developer seeking your first web development role.

So, how do you answer the interview question, "Tell me about your educational
background"?

'Tell me about your studies' is quite a common interview question. This article will go
through what a potential employer is looking for when they ask it.

Spoiler: it is less a detailed history of your every achievement, and more an understanding
of your knowledge, commitment and decision-making skills.

How Else Might This Question Be Asked?

Before delving into interviewers' potential motivations and what makes a good answer,
first consider how the question might be phrased and what this tells you about the
employer.

Tell Me About Your Academic Background

When an employer asks for information on your academic achievements, they’re not
expecting you to list every subject you’ve studied and the grades you achieved.
Instead, they want you to highlight the academic achievements you are most proud of
and reference how they have shaped the professional you are today.

Tell Me About Your Studies

Now, this interview question is slightly different in that it is not necessarily talking purely
about formal education.

You could summarize your formal education before moving on to more recent studies,
which could be online self-study or government-funded courses.

The important thing to remember though is that you need to be able to evidence any
achievements.

How Does Your Education Relate to Your Career?

An employer may ask you this if there is no apparent link between what you studied at
university and the role you are applying for.

How to structure your answer is discussed in detail further down in this article.

But, in brief, what the interviewer wants to hear here is that there is a deliberate
connection between your past and present.

Why Do Employers Ask the Question?

You are more likely to be invited by an employer to tell me about your educational
background if you graduated not long ago or you’re applying for a role that requires
certain qualifications.
While the employer would have already selected you for an interview after reviewing your
resume, they may not know the intricacies of what you studied.

When they ask you to tell me about your studies, they invite you to evidence how your
academic knowledge will benefit their organization.

They are looking for clear indicators of how your educational experience has prepared you
for the job on offer.

For instance, you may have studied Advanced Engineering, which is an essential trait on
their job description, and therefore you were called to interview.

However, one of the desirables was ‘wind turbine engineering’. If you wrote a paper on the
subject, built a prototype or even studied the economics of wind farms, here’s your chance
to express your knowledge and impress them beyond your resume.

By asking you to "tell me about your educational background", an employer is also

seeking to understand how driven and targeted you are.

If you have four degrees in completely unrelated subjects, it could suggest to an employer
that you are flighty and perhaps unsure of what career path to take.

However, if you can join the dots in the interview and explain what motivated you to
embark on a course and how your choices have a logical purpose, you will show a strong
level of self-awareness.

Of course, quite often, the question "What is your educational background?" is often
company policy, especially during the graduate recruitment process where the employer
is looking for specific qualities.

Suppose they have shortlisted a dozen graduates to interview, all with virtually the same
qualifications.
In this scenario, they’re more interested in how you approached your studies and the
transferrable skills have rather than what you studied (more on this below).

How to Answer "Tell me About your

Educational Background"

When an employer asks you to tell me about your educational background, what they’re
really asking you is, "What skills have your educational studies equipped you with?
And how are these relevant to the job?"

Research the Organization and Role

Before you even attempt to answer the question "Tell me about your academic
background", you must research the employer and the role.

In your interview preparation, list the 'Essential' and 'Desirable' criteria on the person
specification for the role. Then, go through your history and find an example from your
educational background that shows how you meet these.

This will form the basis for your answer.

Start Recent

If you have an extensive educational background, you might be wondering where to even
start with answering the question "Tell me about your studies".

The logical place is with your most recent formal education.

For most, it will be either a university course or a high school diploma. For others, it could
be a doctoral degree.

However, do not just repeat what’s in your resume. The employer is looking for more
detail.

They want to hear you talk passionately about the studies that most appealed to you and
what they taught you.

How to Answer the Interview Question: "Tell me About your Educational Background"

Mention Relevant Placements

Remember, an employer is seeking to identify the most knowledgeable and experienced

candidate.

If you’re fresh out of university, you may feel you lack work experience.

Draw the employer’s attention to any practical experience you had. Make sure you
reference what you learned from your experience and why it is relevant to the role.
For example, you may have worked on a prototype for a company in the same industry or
spent a year on placement at a similar place.

Emphasise Your Strong Transferrable Skillset

You may need to dig deep with your answer and think about all the transferrable soft
and technical skills you acquired during your studies.

Here are some examples of some soft skills you could talk more about (be ready with a
real-life example of each one):

Teamwork
Problem-solving
Decisiveness
Ability to work under pressure
Public speaking
Self-motivation
Creative thinking

Likewise, you will also want to mention any relevant technical skills you acquired. These
could include things like:

Project management
Big data analysis
Programming
Content creation
Academic research
Building/designing

Show Commitment to Continued Learning

Employers favour candidates who have a thirst for learning.

If you can demonstrate how you have continued to advance your knowledge in a specific
field, you will stand out.
Continued education says to the employer that you are driven and committed.

Example Answers to Questions About Your

Studies

To help you structure your answers so that you can use your educational background to
its full advantage, here are three example answers. Each is to the question phrased in
different ways.

How Does Your Education Relate to Your Career?

This is a relatively direct way of asking what they want to know and is a good place to
emphasise your transferable skills.

“
Example answer:

I majored in History and Sociology with first-class honours,

which has directly prepared me for the role of a research
assistant.

Each subject I studied involved having an intense understanding

and application of quantitative and qualitative research.

I even studied behavioural science as part of my sociology

course, which enabled me to delve deeper into the psychology
of subjective interviewing to alleviate bias.
Tell Me Why You Chose the University That You Did

”
This is more focused on your academic education. The interviewer wants to hear about
factors when you make big decisions.

“
Example answer:

Well, I wanted to make sure that I chose the course that would
not only push me but specifically enable me to pursue a career
as a Blue-Chip Project Manager.

Therefore, I made a shortlist of three colleges offering similar

opportunities, all with a placement year.

Then, I visited each of the colleges, in turn, asked lots of

questions, sat in on lectures and spoke to others who had
majored that year before arriving at my chosen college.

I also explored the preferred colleges listed by the employers I

could see myself working at.

Why Did You Choose to Step Away From Your Area of Academia?
if you are making a career change from academia to industry.
”
This is an interesting take on tell me about your educational background. It may come up

The employer may also ask you if your degree is very specific, and the role you’re
applying for is seemingly unrelated. Therefore, you will need to form a strong answer.

“
Example answer:

Initially, I studied Data Science and Business Analytics because

I wanted to be at the forefront of using technology to drive
business change.

During my studies, I was placed within an HR team that wanted

to use data analytics to understand employee behaviour.

While working with the HR project management team, I

discovered that I was interested in understanding and
supporting employees to reach their goals.

Therefore, I chose to supplement my studies by taking various

Personnel and Behavioral Psychology courses, which makes me
quite a rounded candidate for the HR graduate position.
What to Avoid in Your Answer

about your educational background":

Talking about irrelevant studies – Keep your answer focused. Unless you’re
”
There are several things you will want to avoid when answering the question "Tell me

applying for a theatre hand, there’s not much point in discussing your drama studies.
Exaggerating your knowledge – You may have experienced a two-week educational
placement at a leading magazine and have several articles published. While this does
show that you are a promising writer, it does not make you an established journalist.
Saying so may have you come across as aggrandising and untruthful.
Comparing yourself to others – Try not to say, ‘compared to others in my year’. You
may be the only one to have arranged an overseas placement, but you won’t want
your drive to be mistaken for arrogance.
Overworking your answer – Your answer to "Tell me about your studies" doesn’t
have to be very long. It just needs to be relevant. You’ll tie yourself in knots if you
overexplain your background.

Final Thoughts

Remember just to be honest.

You can’t go wrong if you provide a clear answer that explains your academic decisions to
an employer.

If you started a course and realized it wasn’t for you and enrolled in a different one the
following academic year, explain the reasons to the interviewer. They’ll appreciate that
you know your own mind.

When an employer says to you, "Tell me about your educational background", they are
genuinely interested in your answer. After all, in part, you have been selected for interview
because you have the right qualifications.

However, they really want to know how you apply yourself, what skills you have and how
they can benefit from your academic knowledge. If you can answer all three of these
questions in one answer, you won’t go wrong.

Lastly, good luck – if you’ve been selected for an interview, you’re already part-way there
to landing the job!