"Tell me about yourself." Four words that open 93% of job interviews. And most candidates still fuck it up.

Here's the trap: your interviewer already watched the movie. They've read your CV cover to cover before you sat down. So when you spend your ninety seconds narrating the plot back to them, job title by job title, you're basically hosting a recap screening for someone who wants to hit the 'skip' button (but can't).

I sat down with Alexander Meyer, a hiring mentor who's interviewed hundreds of candidates, and Mathis Lauckner, a career and UX mentor who coaches people through this exact moment, to find out what's actually being graded in those first 90 seconds. Spoiler: it's not your job history.

What we get into:

• The three-move structure that swaps the recap for a pitch: your opening scene (current role, one real result), the motivation behind it, and the sequel you're angling for

• Why explaining away a gap or a pivot before anyone asks is like tacking on deleted scenes nobody requested — it just tells on you

• Mathis's live demo: same guy, two takes on "tell me about yourself," and only one of them gets a callback

• The two-minute prep that isn't a script — three lines, said out loud, timed, and trimmed to a 90-second cut

Cut the recap. Pitch the sequel.