11 Essential Tips

to succeed in your job interview in English

 Practice out loud
Speaking English is like playing sports. Or dancing. It’s one
thing to read about the movements, it’s a different thing to
do the movements. You must practice out loud to become
comfortable and confident. You don’t have to practice in front
of a mirror, but you should speak your answers
as if you were talking to a recruiter.

This allows you to “feel” what you say, to learn

any new vocabulary or expressions, to improve
your fluency, and to reduce hesitations.

If the interview will be in your native language and also in English, practice
making the switch between the two languages. This is not an easy task,
even outside of a job interview. Ask a friend to practice with you. They
can ask you a few qustions in your native language, then surprise you by
switching to questions in English.

RECRUITER’S ADVICE:
”Avoid taking 1 to 3 minutes to “warm up” if the first part of the
interview is in your native language, and then you switch
to English. If you can’t make the switch immediately, your
English will have lots of “uhhhs” and “ummms.” Practice
making the switch quickly. It seems obvious to tell people
to prepare for this, but I rarely see a candidate who can
”
do this correctly.

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 Be prepared
for a telephone interview
This is true if you apply for a job in a different city or country.
It’s especially true if you apply for a job in the United States,
where telephone interviews are common.

Telephone interviews create an additional challenge: You can’t see

the expressions, body language, or mouth movements of the recruiter.
When someone speaks a foreign language, all of these elements increase
your ability to understand. If you can’t see the person speaking,
it can be a real challenge.

Maybe you’ll be lucky and the interview

will be by Skype, but you never know.
It’s better to be prepared!

It’s a good idea to take telephone lessons in English before your job
interview, so that you can practice understanding and speaking English
on the phone. It’s excellent practice for your ear. If you can find someone
who has the same accent as the recruiter, it can really help you.

Even 2 to 4 practice sessions can make a big diffrence,

especially in your level of confidence.

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 Prepare the classic
interview questions
These are the questions you must know how to answer.

Here are some examples:

Tell me about yourself.
What are your strengths?
What are your weaknesses?
Why should we hire you?
Why do you want this job?
Why are you leaving your current job?
Why have you been unemployed for so long?
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Tell me about a difficult situation and how you managed it.
What are your salary expectations?
What do you do in your free time?
Do you have any questions for me?

You need to have the correct vocabulary. A clear structure will make your
answer clear, concise, and convincing. The course Get The Job shows
you, step by step, how to create solid answers in correct English for all of
these questions. You also learn what the recruiter wants to know, and how
to formulate an excellent answer: excellent content and excellent English.

RECRUITER’S ADVICE:
”Everybody knows the most frequent interview questions:
Introduce yourself, strengths/weaknesses, why should we
hire you, etc. If a candidate isn’t prepared to answer these
questions, I feel they won’t take the job seriously. These
questions are easy to anticipate and prepare. If a candidate
can’t take the time to prepare to answer the most common
interview questions in English, why should I feel reassured
they’ll be prepared for the job?
”

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 Know your strengths
Before you can describe your strengths in English, you must
identify them. How?

List the activities that you like to do in your job. If you enjoy an activity,
it’s probably because you’re good at it. Or ask your colleagues.
Sometimes they see strengths that you don’t see.

10 strengths to help you start:

1. Excellent customer service skills
2. Strong communication skills
3. Well-organized
4. Able to quickly adapt to change
5. Good at collecting and processing data
6. Enjoy working as part of a team
7. Effective at leading a team
8. Consistently meet deadlines and commitments
9. Self-motivated to complete tasks
10. Good at finding solutions and alternatives to solve problems

When the recruiter says “What are your strengths?” you can begin your
answer with “Based on my experience, I’ve noticed that I… / that I’m….”

Then, tell a story about a time when you demonstrated this

force. It’s better to have one well-selected example than
a long list of adjectives

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 Know your weaknesses
Again, choose a precise example and tell a story about an
experience you had. When you talk about your weaknesses,
it’s also important to describe what action you took to
improve yoursel.

10 weaknesses to help you start:

1. A tendency to want to control all steps of a project
2. Can be difficult to take criticism objectively
3. Sometimes have difficulties avoiding distractions
4. Not exactly comfortable taking big risks
5. Forget that I need to delegate tasks to be more efficient
6. Have difficulties saying “no” to requests
7. Can sometimes become frustrated when people move
slowly on projects
8. Feel I work best under pressure and can sometimes
wait until the last minute to do something
9. Delegate tasks, but sometimes forget to check
in often afterwards
10. Tend to lack confidence in meetings in English

To talk about your weaknesses, you can say “I feel that I… / that I’m…”
Then, talk about what you did (or what you’re doing currently) to improve
the situation. Maybe you’re taking a training course. Maybe you’re trying
to manage your time better. Maybe you have a mentor to help you
improve, for example.

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 Practice
talking about your past
It’s essential to show the recruiter your experience
and your accomplishments. Listen for questions like:
What responsibilities did you have in your previous position?
What kind of difficulties have you encountered in your work,
and how did you handle them?
What is the thing you’re most proud of in your career?
What did you enjoy the most about your previous job?
What did you enjoy the least about your previous job?
What was the most interesting project you’ve worked on?

To respond with correct English, you’ll need to use different past tenses.

Here are the tenses that we use most frequently

to talk about the past:
PAST SIMPLE: for finished actions that happened at a specific time
EXAMPLE: In my last position, I managed a team of 15 people in 3 countries. I also
checked that quality was satisfactory and reported any irregularities.

PRESENT PERFECT: to describe experiences that you’ve already had in the

past, and that you could have again in the future

EXAMPLE: “I’ve worked on product design projects, and product testing projects,
mostly. But I’ve also led production planning.” These actions are indeed finished, but
you could have an opportunity in the future to work on product design projects or lead
production planning.

PAST CONTINUOUS: to describe an action that was in progress at the moment

when another action happened.

EXAMPLE: While I was working as a product manager, we lost a contract with our
principal supplier in China.

If you have any questions or if a comment is

not clear on the PDF, please ask! Thanks!

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 Be prepared
to talk about money
The recruiter wants to understand your motivation for the job,
your skills, and your personality, of course. But salary is also
important in a job interview. Your salary expectations will also
help the recruiter decide to hire you, or not. It’s not always
easy to discuss money. If you have to discuss money in a
different language, that’s a bigger challenge.

Here are some phrases to help you:

What sort of compensation package is offered
for this position?
Is the salary fixed, or does it include variables like bonuses?

If the recruiter asks “What are your salary expectations?”, you can
feel more confident by connecting your salary expectations to your
experience and value.

“Given my experience and skill level,

I’m focusing on positions in the $60 K range.
Does this correspond to what you’re offering
for this position?”

Plus, you can open the discussion for negotiation if necessary

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 Structure
your responses
In a job interview, short, clear responses are more effective.
The recruiter can better understand your ideas, and you’ll
avoid confusion and errors in long, complex sentences.

It’s a good idea to have a clear structure in your head.

The STAR structure is especially useful for situations where you
had to take action. This structure also allows you to present your results in
a clear conclusion.

STAR stands for Situation - Task - Action - Result.

SITUATION: Briefly describe the context in which the action took place so
the recruiter knows the context

TASK: Explain the challenge. What was the task you had to do, or the
result you needed to achieve?

ACTION: Detail the action you took to overcome the challenge or

complete the task you described in “Task”

RESULT: Conclude with the result of your actions. If the result was not
positive, explain what you learned from the experience and how you
improved afterwards.

STAR stands for Situation - Task - Action - Result.

You’ll see examples of responses in this Speak English with
Christina lesson: http://bit.ly/Starint

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 Relax
The recruiter knows English is not your native language.
Speak slowly and clearly. Don’t try to go beyond your current
level by speaking fast or using complex structures. You won’t
impress the recruiter...you’ll do just the opposite!

If your English level is not as fluent as you would

like, don’t panic. Do the best you can with the level
you have. Stay calm, try to appear confident,
even if you’re very nervous.

Take the time to formulate your sentences. Articulate clearly,

even if you’re not sure of your grammar structures or a precise expression.
Your objective is fluid, natural speech, not perfect academic discourse.

Remember, you want to show the recruiter that

you can do the job in English. Show them what you can do.
Relax, and you’ll be more fluent. It’s a fact.

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 Listen to the recruiter
It seems obvious, but several recruiters have told me that
candidates don’t always listen in a job interview. If a recruiter
asks you to send extra “proof” of your English level, do it with
pleasure.

A recruiter may ask to see examples of your written English, like emails,
commercial letters, reports, etc. that you wrote. Remove any confidential
information, and send these documents as soon as possible after the
interview.

If the recruiter asks you when you are available to take an official English
test, make an effort to find time in your busy schedule.
“I can’t, I have gym class on Tuesdays” will tell the recruiter that this job is
not so important for you.

ASK ABOUT THE NEXT STEPS

At the end of a job interview, a recruiter almost
always asks “Do you have any questions for me?”
In addition to questions you have about the job,
remember to ask about the next steps in the
recruiting process.

Here are some questions you can ask:

What are the next steps in the hiring process?
How soon will you contact successful candidates?
Do you contact all candidates to inform
them of your decision, or only successful candidates?
Is it ok if I follow up with you in 2 weeks
if I don’t have any news?

With these simple questions, you can avoid a lot of

incertitude and doubt as you wait for news from the recruiter.

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 Send a Thank-You note
It may seem old-fashioned, but in the United States,
it is a custom to send a thank-you note to thank the recruiter
for the time they took to meet you. The recruiter expects it.
Even an email is sufficient.

Your sincerity is the most important thing. Don’t hesitate to mention a part
of the interview that you found particularly interesting. You can even briefly
add extra information about one of your responses in the interview.

Send your thank-you note at least 24 hours after your interview, so that
the recruiter will have a better chance of remembering who you are.
If you send an email, it can also be a good idea to include a photo of
yourself as part of your signature. This will help the recruiter remember
you even better!

SOME INSPIRATION FOR YOUR THANK-YOU NOTE

Dear Ms. Jones,

Thank you for taking the time to meet me last Thursday.

I appreciated you taking the time to give me more details
about the Executive Assistant job at Unicorn Inc.t I was
especially interesting to learn about your project to expand
into Brazil. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn
more.

Thanks again for your time,

Sophie Elabbaya

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 In conclusion...
If you follow this advice, you’ll already be ahead of 90% of
other candidates who are also applying for the same job.

Do you want to improve your chances even more, to be sure that you have
the absolute best chance to use correct English, clear structures, and
impressive ideas in your responses?

Join my course Get The Job. So many students

who have taken the course succeeded in their job
interviews. They got the job. You can too.

More information at
https://christinarebuffetcourses.com/
join-get-the-job

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