English - Prepare for a job interview in English

Arrival

Job Interview Step 1. At the reception

Hi. Good afternoon.

My name is / I’m Chris Nutter.

I have an interview scheduled with Jack Smith at 2 pm. / I’m here for the 2pm interview with Alex Smith for the assistant manager position.

Step 2. Meeting the interviewer

Hi Chris. I’m Alex.

Thank you for coming here.

Step 3. Saying goodbye

Hi. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alex.

My name is Chris.

It was a pleasure meeting. I really appreciate your time today.

Thank you for the great conversation. It was great to hear more about the position.

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Job Interview So, could you tell me a bit about yourself, please?

Well, I’m …..

About you (1) The simplest way to answer this question is using the “presentpast-future formula”.

Present

I’m currently an account executive at X company where I handle the top performing client. In my current position, I manage a team of 5 people.

My team includes …. My department is responsible for managing …..

Past

Before that, I worked as a …… where I was in charge of ….. . I successfully managed …… / I have spent the last 7 years developing my skills. I have been promoted twice (achievement).

Future

I am in charge of …….

I am responsible for ……

I handle ….

I deal with …..

I manage ….

I have …..

I believe this experience has prepared me for … / to take the next step and pursue a management position. Although I love my current role, I feel ready to move to a more challenging position.

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Job Interview

About you (2)

Describing strengths I am …

I have / possess …

My greatest strengths are …

I would say I am….

I’d describe myself as ….

I consider myself to be ….

I think I’m / I believe I ….

I possess …. strong communication skills. good managerial skills. strong analytical skills. superb command of x.

I am …. honest a good listener good at multitasking able to adapt to new situations flexible meticulous I can … stay focused. prioritize time. use x tools. perform a …. analysis.

Turn weaknesses into strengths

I’m always working on my communication skills. I’ve recently attended a workshop where I learnt ….

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Sometimes I have trouble delegating tasks. I’ve recently attended a session to learn effective delegation skills.

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Job Interview

Achievements

When an interviewer asks you about your professional achievement, they want to know how you behave in difficult work situations. First, identify a challenging situation, then describe how you solved the problem.

So, tell me about your greatest achievement.

What are you most proud of professionally?

The challenge

• • • •

to fail to hit targets struggling team increased customer complaints high staff turnover

What I did: • • • • • • • • • • •

to design a marketing plan to implement a plan / process to bring in additional revenue to sign on a new client to close a huge deal to build a team to improve a program to streamline a number of services to identify cost-saving measures to increase sales by x% to smooth over customer complaints

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Job Interview

Achievements

Recruitment professionals recommend that we should use powerful, active verbs to describe our achievement in a job interview. Which of the words below can you use to talk about your professional accomplishments?

achieved determined observed managed empowered allocated analysed validated enforced provided measured appraised diagnosed communicated mediated supervised persuaded calculated

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integrated demonstrated catalogued implemented controlled generated improved effected defined modelled researched facilitated advised undertook sorted wrote prioritized simplified

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Job Interview The star technique – Answering questions The star technique is a method that helps to prepare for and answer job interview questions. Follow the steps below and you will ace your job interview in English!

Step 1. Prepare

Research the company thoroughly. During the interview, listen to the question carefully.

Step 3. Task Step 2. Situation

Describe the background situation. What event were you involved in?

Step 4. Action Explain what action you took and how it solved the problem.

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Describe the problem and the challenges.

What was the objective and your task?

Step 5. Result Describe what benefits your actions resulted in for the company. What rewards did you receive?

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