Hi! My name is Jason Palmer and I'm an
English teacher from Toronto, Canada. Today we're going to talk about ten
questions you can expect in an English job interview. Before we get started I
want to make a note that it's very important to prepare for an English job
interview. Of course any job interview is important to prepare for, but when you
speak English as a second language, you can be quite nervous I think in your
first interview. And confidence is very important. So, the more you prepare for an
English job interview - the better you will do. The first question that you're
likely to hear in an English job interview is the question: tell me about
yourself. So, this is a very open question, you'll hear this quite a lot, and you
expect that maybe this should be some kind of biography and maybe that's a
good answer for this question. The problem is that you don't want to really
bore your interviewer with details about your life and a long history. The focus
here should be maybe on the part of your life that relates to the job you're
going for. So, you want to express the experience that you've had related to
this position, you want to show your passion for this position. Maybe it's a
good way that you can show what you do outside of work, to show how passionate
you are about this this position or this industry, or this field. So, this is a
great way to kind of show that this is really what you are meant to do. This is
the right job for you and this is what you love doing. Okay, the second question
you're likely to hear is: how did you hear about the position? So, a lot of
companies are interested to hear this information. Quite often they want to see
how effective their advertising is for the position or maybe to
find out what you were doing, when you were searching for this position. So,
usually the best way to answer this question is by showing your knowledge
about the industry and maybe that company in particular. You could show
that you really know this industry really well and that you know all the
companies, you know what you're looking for and that you really had a desire or
goal, or aim to find a position in that specific company. It's a great way that
you can talk about the company as well in a positive light, to show how that
company is doing in the industry and why it would be a great place for you to
work. Ok, the next question you might hear in an English job interview is: why
should we hire you? This is a very popular question for employers to ask.
And here what they want to know is perhaps what skills or advantages you
have. So, what can you offer the company. Of course every employee wants to have a
good job and make a good salary, but when you're doing an interview it's very
important to show companies why you are good for that company, how can you
improve things at that company, what skills you've already developed,
perhaps, what advantages you can bring them. So, it's a great way to show that
you would be a good fit for their company. Interviewers also often ask the
question: what are your greatest strengths? Now, when they ask this
question again you should repeat maybe what your advantages are or your skills
are, but it's also important to focus on talking about things that perhaps the
competitors or the other candidates can't offer. So, if you have unique skills
and unique abilities this can go beyond your technical skills, this could show
maybe your interpersonal skills that would be a good fit for this position.
It's important to show any ways that you can be good for a position, so
not just technical, but soft skills and maybe how you work with people. Anything
that you think gives you an edge over your competition. Now, of course the other
question related to this is what are your greatest weaknesses and this is a
question that everybody hates to hear. And it's a very tricky question because
obviously you cannot tell them exactly what you are bad at - this could be a long
list, perhaps. And this could make you look like you're not a good fit for
their company. So, you have to find a way that you can be honest, but not too
honest. So, we have the word "to spin". So, you want to put a spin on any of your
flaws. For example, you could say that maybe your weakness is that you are a
bit of a workaholic. So, that you work too much. of course that isn't bad for a
company to hear but you could focus on that. Maybe that's something that you
could improve on. And another good example would be if you said that you
were a perfectionist. So, of course usually
a perfectionist shows that you really care about doing your job, but you could
tell them that sometimes you'd become too involved in this process and you
need to kind of restrict yourself from making things always be perfect. So, these
are just a few examples, but you have to think of any kind of weakness you might
have and how you can make that look like a good thing or look make it look like
it's not too difficult to fix or change. So, you want to minimize the damage of
this question, but also show that you are honest so you really want to kind of be
open with this too. Employers might also ask you: what is your greatest
professional achievement? So, this is a great way that you could show something
that you've done in your career, you are proud of and maybe that gives
you a feeling that you have accomplished something. Something that you can talk
about in a very passionate way, something that shows that you really like this
work that you do, you like this field you like this industry, but also shows that
you are a hard worker and that you accomplish things, that you get things
done. So, again it's good to associate this with the skills and
advantages you've already talked about that you can provide to a company. So,
this is a great example for you to sell yourself, really. So, think about your past
and it's important to prepare for this question, so that you actually know an
exact example that would be a good one to tell them. Next company might ask you
tell us about a time that you had a challenge in your job and how you dealt
with it? This is another very common question, this one again, this is a little
bit difficult but here you want to show them what kind of skills you have for
dealing with pressure, dealing with stress, how you deal with problems.
This could be very bad perhaps if you talked about how much you hate problems
and how much this gives you stress. A good answer here is showing that you
have a good method to stay calm under pressure and that you are confident that
you could fix problems. So, these are kind of the things you want to highlight in
an answer for this question. Another question that employers often ask is: why
are you leaving or why did you quit your last job? So, this again could be a little
bit of a tricky question. What they're looking for here is to show that you
left this job for a good reason, for a good purpose. One way where this could go
wrong is if you talk negatively about your previous employment situation. So,
it's really important that you never talk negatively about
your ex-employer because of course your new employer someday will become your
ex-employer. So, here you can show that you're trying to develop and increase
and maybe learn something new, face a new challenge to improve your career and
also a chance to talk positively about how that last company helps you in your
career. So, when you can look very positive and show that all of these
parts of your career are great and have helped you, then this company might feel
that you are a good candidate for the job. Okay, the next question you might be
asked is: how do you deal with disagreements? This is a question where
your employer wants to kind of see how you work in a team. They want to see if
you are a good team player, do you get angry easily, do you have a method of how
you deal with your colleagues. So, it's a great way to show off your soft skills,
to show that you're good at resolving problems, and maybe a way that you might
actually resolve a problem if there's a conflict. Maybe how you accept criticism
from your colleagues as well. So, it's a great way to show off your soft skills.
The last question that they will probably ask you, a very common question
for job interviewers and one that nobody likes is: where do you see yourself in
five years? So, this is one of those questions that might seem difficult to
answer because you really don't know what life will be like in five years.
Maybe your answer is to tell the interviewer that you would like to have
their position in five years. The trick to this question is not really to talk
about maybe your personal life or what position you want to have, but what's
better here is to show how you plan to develop yourself. Do you have some career
goals, how will you get your goals or how will you reach your goals,
what steps do you plan on taking to develop yourself. Maybe you already have
a career development plan, maybe you take lots of train
mean you have special courses or skills that you're currently working on. So, this
is a great way to show that you plan to develop and how you will become a better
employee in the future with the new skills that you plan on gaining. So, this
has been some questions that you might find on a common English job interview.
If you'd like to learn more and to see some practical examples please see
description for the links to our next video. This has been Jason Palmer, see you
next time.
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