The personal questions: not on your resume, three words, outside work
By SuperdayReps · Michigan Ross Undergrad | Wharton MBA · ex-Citi | ex-Greenhill · Former Head Mentor at a Leading IB Prep Service
9 min read · updated October 14, 2026
Most fit questions ask for a story. A handful do not. "Tell me something that is not on your resume." "What three words would your friends use to describe you?" "What do you do outside of school?" "What motivates you?"
These feel like the easy part of the interview, which is why people underprepare them. Then the question arrives and they freeze, or they reach for a safe answer that says nothing, or they accidentally recite their resume again.
They are not easy. They are short. That is a different thing.
What these questions are really for
The interviewer already knows your grades, your internships, and why you want the job. These questions are for the thing the rest of the interview cannot show: what you are like as a person. Would they enjoy sitting next to you on a long night? Are you someone they would want on their team for two years?
That is the airport test, and these questions are where it gets tested most directly. A good answer here does not need to impress anyone. It needs to be true, specific, and short enough that the interviewer wants to ask a follow-up.
Three rules hold for every question in this lesson.
Keep it to twenty to forty seconds. These are not behavioral stories. One idea, one good detail, then stop. A short answer invites a follow-up, and a follow-up turns an interview into a conversation, which is exactly what you want.
It has to be true. You will be asked follow-ups, and some interviewers will share the thing you mentioned. If you say you love cooking, expect "what is the best thing you make?" If you say you run, expect "what was your last race?" A made-up answer falls apart on the second question.
It has to be specific. "I like to travel" describes most people. "I've been to every state park in Ohio, and I'm two short of finishing Michigan" describes one.
The goal of a personal answer is not to impress. It is to be remembered as a real person. An interviewer who sees forty candidates a season remembers "the one who restores old motorcycles" long after they have forgotten whose GPA was higher.
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Frequently asked
- How do you answer 'tell me something that is not on your resume'?
- Pick one true, specific thing about you that is interesting enough to ask a follow-up about, say it in two or three sentences, and stop. A skill, a job, a place you grew up, something you built or kept doing for years. Avoid repeating anything from your resume, and avoid anything you would not want to talk about for five more minutes, because they may ask.
- What three words would your friends use to describe you?
- Pick words your friends would actually say, not words a manager would put in a review. Give one short piece of proof for each, and make at least one of them human rather than professional. 'Reliable, competitive, and the one who plans the trip' is more believable than 'driven, analytical, and hardworking', which nobody's friends have ever said.
- What should you say about hobbies in a banking interview?
- Something you actually do, with enough depth to survive three follow-up questions. A hobby you have kept up for years says something about commitment, and one with a specific detail makes you memorable. Never claim a hobby you cannot talk about, because the interviewer may share it.
- How do you answer 'what motivates you'?
- Name one concrete thing, give a short example of it driving you, and connect it lightly to the job. Learning fast, being trusted with something that matters, and finishing what you started are all real and all fit banking. Avoid 'success' or 'money', which are too vague or too thin, and avoid any answer the job will not satisfy.
- How long should answers to personal interview questions be?
- Twenty to forty seconds. These are not behavioral stories. They are a chance for the interviewer to see you as a person, and a short answer with one good detail invites a follow-up, which turns the question into a conversation. A long answer closes that door.