Job Interview Guide and Practice for ESL Students

In this extended job interviewing listening selection, youll hear the first few moments of a job interview. Before you listen, there are a few things you should note about standard job interview behavior, speaking forms used, and more. Breaking the Ice Youll notice a few questions in the beginning of the interview that concerns how the job applicant arrived and the weather. This is commonly referred to as breaking the ice. Breaking the ice is an important way to begin the job interview, but it shouldnt take too long. Generally, job interviewers will break the ice to help you feel comfortable. Make sure to give positive, but not too detailed answers to these ice breakers. Give short, positive answers to questions.Dont go into too much detail.Expect questions about the weather or how you arrived at the job interview.Its a good idea to make a pleasant comment yourself to break the ice. Keep it short, positive and simple. Referrals Sometimes, you may have found about a job opportunity through a referral. If this is the case, make sure to use the referral to your best advantage by mentioning it at the beginning of the interview. Mention the name of the referral at the beginning of the interview. Ideally, this should be done when asked about how you found the job opening.Provide the name of the referral, but dont go into too much detail about the relationship, unless asked.Give the name of the referral only once. Dont continue to repeat the name during the interview.Dont assume the job interviewer knows the person you are mentioning. Language Relating your job experience and how it relates to the specific job for which you are applying are the two most important tasks during any job interview. Make sure to use lots of descriptive verbs and adjectives to describe your responsibilities. For example, instead of the following job description: I talked to customers about their problems. A more descriptive phrase with better vocabulary might be: I counseled customers documenting their concerns, and coordinating our response to their individual needs. In the listening selection, you will hear the present perfect, present perfect continuous and present simple used because the person is speaking about his current projects. Take some time to prepare descriptive sentences concerning your responsibilities.Use a dictionary, or this handy job interview vocabulary page to improve your vocabulary selection.Make sure to connect your past experience to the position by using lots of present perfect.Quickly review appropriate job interviewing tenses for describing experiences. Now that youve reviewed some basic interviewing technique, open this link in a new window and listen a few times to the job interview listening selection. If you have difficulties understanding, go to the next page to see a transcription of the job interview. Interviewer (Ms Hanford): (opens door, shakes hands) Good morning†¦Job Applicant (Mr. Anderson): Good morning, Joe Anderson, its a pleasure to meet you Ms Hanford. Hanford: How do you do? Please take a seat. (Joe sits) Its quite the rainy day outside, isnt it?Anderson: Yes, luckily, you have a nice underground parking lot that helped me avoid the worst of it. I must say this is an impressive building. Hanford: Thank you, we like working here... Now, lets see. Youve come to interview for the position of e-commerce manager, havent you?Anderson: Yes, Peter Smith encouraged me to apply, and I think Id be ideal for the position. Hanford: Oh. Peter†¦ hes a great sysadmin, we like him a lot †¦ Lets go over your resume. Could you begin by telling me about your qualifications?Anderson: Certainly. Ive been working as the regional assistant director of marketing at Simpco Northwest for the past year. Hanford: And what did you do before that?Anderson: Before that, I was a Simpco local branch manager in Tacoma. Hanford: Well, I see you have done well at Simpco. Can you give me some more detail about your responsibilities as assistant director?Anderson: Yes, Ive been in charge of in-house personnel training for our Internet customer service reps over the past six months. Hanford: Can you tell me a little bit about what youve been doing in your training?Anderson: Weve been working on improving customer satisfaction through an innovative e-commerce solution which provides real-time chat service help to visitors to the site. Hanford: Interesting. Is there anything in particular you feel would be useful here at Sanders Co.?Anderson: I understand that you have been expanding your e-commerce to include social networking features. Hanford: Yes, thats correct.Anderson: I think that my experience in customer relations via the Internet in real-time puts me in the unique position of understanding what works and what doesnt. Hanford: Yes, that does sound useful. What difficulties and challenges do you think we might run into?Anderson: Well, I think well continue to see consumers spend more of the shopping dollars online. Ive been studying how sales directly relates to customer satisfaction with online services. Hanford: Would you mind giving me a bit more detail on that?Anderson: Sure ... if customers arent satisfied with the service they receive online, they wont come back. Its much easier to lose customers online. Thats why you need to make sure that you get it right the first time round. Hanford: I can see youve learnt quite a lot in the short time youve been working in e-commerce.Anderson: Yes, its an exciting field to be working in †¦