Conversation: Job Interviews in English
Warm-up Questions
In this post we’ll be featuring some great videos to help you with job interviews in English! You can consolidate the information in the videos with some role-play exercises.
Do you remember your first job interview? How did it go? How did you feel? Did you get the job?
When was the last time you had a job interview? What was it for? How did it go?
Have you had a lot of job interviews?
What examples of questions that you’ve been asked in interviews can you think of?
Have you ever been asked an inappropriate question in an interview? Did you answer it?
Have you ever conducted a job interview? What tips would you give?
Common Interview Questions
Tell us a little about yourself.
How did you find out about this position?
What are your strength and weaknesses?
Tell us about a time that you overcame an obstacle or difficulty.
What are your career goals?
Where do you see yourself in 5 / 10 years from now?
Why do you want this position?
Why do you want to work for this company?
Do you have any questions?
It was my responsibility to…
I was responsible for
I collaborated with… to…
I took the initiative to…
I lead my team / department on…
I resolved this situation by…
This created measurable results such as…
Check out this guide to common interview question with some great suggestions for answers!
…and here are some weird interview questions?
How useful are job interviews?
This article in The Guardian argues that maybe interviews aren’t as useful as we think, what’s your reaction to this?
The STAR Method for Answering Behavioural Interview Questions
Situation
Describe when and where your anecdote took place.
Task
What was your role, what was the problem or challenge that you faced?
Action
What did you do to overcome the problem, address the situation?
Result
What was the result of the action that you took? Try to give facts and figures if possible.
Check out this article from The Guardian about the Star Technique.
Many students have told me that they don’t feel comfortable talking about salary at interview. Is this a cultural taboo? In British culture we don’t have a problem with talking about salary, in fact, salary is usually advertised on the job listing.
is talking about salary something that you feel comfortable with? How would you bring up to he subject?
