Learn English Professionals

My Qualifications

My Experience

My Personal qualities

Always remember to make these points relevant to the job you are applying for.

	Question	Advice
	Why do you want this job?	Think carefully about this question. Stress the positive aspects that have attracted you to applying for this position. NEVER mention the negative aspects of your current job.
	Why do you want to leave your old company?	Be very careful not to say anything negative about your present employer. If you do, your new company will wonder what you will say about them when you leave them. Instead, say that you want opportunities for growth, you want new challenges and opportunities to improve your skills and experience.
	What has been your biggest success?	You should pick an achievement that is tied to their needs, preferably one that didn't occur years and years ago!
	What has been your biggest failure?	Try to pick a weakness, such as a personal characteristic, that you were later able to correct (for example `difficulty in accepting criticism', which is a difficulty that a lot of people face!)
	Do you feel you are ready to take on greater responsibilities?	Show how you have progressed throughout your life and how you have accepted and taken on responsibility for the actions of yourself and others. If you haven't really had many work related responsibilities you can mention other responsibilities you have had outside work.
	Why do you want to work for this company?	Stress the positive reasons why you want to join their company. Don't mention things like more money or shorter hours! And don't say `for better prospects', as this doesn't mean anything.
	What can you contribute towards the company?	Tell them about your achievements in your previous position that are relevant to the new position you are applying for.

	Where do you see yourself in five years time?	No-one expects you to really know the answer to this. Say you don't know exactly, but you hope that the skills and experience gained with this company will help you to progress further in the field of etc.
	Tell me about yourself.	Don't be afraid to ask the interviewer to clarify if the question is about your personal life or your professional life.
	Aren't you a bit too old for this job?	Tell them that you feel that your extra experience would enable you to make a bigger contribution sooner than someone with less experience.

Look at these questions and decide if they are appropriate for an interview situation. If they are not appropriate, say why not.

		Appropriate (Yes/No)
3.01	What would you do if you didn’t get on well with your line manager? Hypothetical. Depends on the circumstances, therefore difficult to answer honestly.	No
3.02	What extra responsibilities would you be prepared to take on? OK. Open question that gets the interviewee to offer ideas and information.	Yes
3.03	What do you enjoy most about working in a team? Good open question. Much better than ‘Do you like working in a team?’ It forces the interviewee to give reasons and examples.	Yes
3.04	What are your strongest qualities? Open question that will help you to get an idea of the interviewee’s self-awareness.	Yes
3.05	Are you married? There is normally no valid reason for asking this question as part of a job interview. The job should not depend on your marital status.	No
3.06	Could you give an example of a work problem you were able to solve successfully? Good clear question that gives the candidate the opportunity to provide examples of their experience and achievements.	Yes
3.07	How often do you go to the pub after work? Obviously a completely inappropriate personal question!	No

Questions for people with previous work experience
4.01	What are your main responsibilities in your present job?
4.02	What are the most satisfying parts of the job?
4.03	What do you think will be the main challenges of this job?
4.04	Why do you want to leave your present job?

Questions for people with little or no previous work experiemce
4.05	How do you think your education has prepared you for this job?
4.06	What did you most enjoy at college?
4.07	What do you do with your time outside studies?
4.08	Why did you choose to study the subjects you are taking at university?

Candidate 2
Enthusiasm	Very outgoing personality – perhaps a little overly keen to please – but motivated and full of energy.
Handling difficult questions	Ignored some questions that were obviously not expected by giving answers that were often not directly relevant to the original question.
Self-awareness	Doesn’t seem to accept any weaknesses. Talked at length about achievements.
Confidence	No problem with self-belief. Very confident personality.
Overall impression	Enthusiastic, confident and positive. Needs to be more aware of areas that need to be developed.

Now decide which of the two candidates you think performed better based on these notes.
What advice would you give each candidate to improve their performance in future interviews?
Are any of these issues relevant for your own performance?

Answers

You could make a case for either candidate. The important points for development, however, are:

Candidate 1

Need to plan in a way that does not seem like you are reading from a script; being natural creates a very positive image.

Need to prepare more examples and show how they are relevant. Expand on the important, positive achievements

Need better control of voice i.e. a stronger more confident image

Use the positive points e.g. awareness of strengths and weaknesses and ability to think carefully before responding, to prepare in a more positive manner for interviews.

Candidate 2

Must listen to the questions and give relevant answers – dealing with difficult questions is an important part of an interview. Giving responses that do not answer the questions will count against you.

We all have weaknesses – it is NOT a weakness to admit this. Think of an example of a weakness that you have successfully overcome or an area that you are OK in but want to improve.

Use your enthusiasm and self-confidence, but make sure it does not appear as arrogance.

In this lesson you have:

	prepared notes about yourself for an interview situation
	examined possible questions you might face in an interview and looked at how to respond to them
	looked at the types of questions to include and those to avoid when preparing to interview someone for a job

In the next e-m@il lesson you look at the issues that can arise when your company asks you to re-locate i.e. move to a different city or country.

Question

Advice

What would you do if you didn’t get on well with your line manager? Hypothetical. Depends on the circumstances, therefore difficult to answer honestly.

Questions for people with little or no previous work experiemce

What would you do if you didn’t get on well with your line manager?
Hypothetical. Depends on the circumstances, therefore difficult to answer honestly.