SEVEN TRICKS AT A JOB INTERVIEW

In today’s world, looking through a candidate’s resume and having a standard interview with them is not enough in the quest for the perfect employee. That’s why employers have to use some tricks and most of them are so simple, that an applicant could fail one of these psychological tests and not even notice the test itself.

1. You are offered a cup of coffee for a reason.

After the interview, the employer carefully watches what the candidate will do with the cup — will they ask where to put it, will they simply leave the cup on the table, or will they wash it by themselves in the kitchen.

This trick speaks volumes about a person’s character and their manners, more than their answers to the actual interview questions. It can also show how fast the candidate will fit into the team. The best decision, in this case, is to go to the kitchen after the interview and wash the cup by yourself.

2. The boss deliberately keeps you waiting.

This trick can show how emotionally stable the candidate is in stressful situations and how much they want to get this position in general.

3. The interviewer suddenly starts to shout.

It's a chance to check the candidate’s ability to resist stress. Experts advise you to remain calm and answer these questions as calmly as possible.

4. The interviewer makes a strange request and asks you to jump out the window.

Another unpleasant surprise for a job seeker might be hiding behind an eccentric request. The employer wants to see the candidate’s ability to use “out of the box” thinking.

You can shock the boss by asking the counter-question with a win-win option: “How will the company benefit from my jump?”

5. The employer suddenly starts to behave weirdly.

This trick can show how the candidate is going to re-focus the interviewer’s attention or what ways they are going to use to get out of this situation. One of the most effective options is to ask the interviewer to reschedule the interview for another day.

6. The candidate is introduced to the whole team.

This is the employer’s way of finding out their employees’ opinions about the candidate.

7. The boss drops their pen on the floor.

If the candidate instinctively bends down and picks the pen up, they’ll likely be hired for the job. If the applicant lets the interviewer do it, likely, they won’t.

                       Adapted from Bright Side, 7 Invisible Tricks Job Interviewers Use to Test You

Sample of Cover Letter

How to Write a Great Cover Letter

• Include your contact information in the top right hand corner.  Put your name in bold and or larger font to let employers immediately know who you are.
• Include the date you are submitting the letter.
• Address the letter to the contact person/department/company from the job posting.  If possible, call the company and ask for the name of the person responsible for hiring the position you are applying for, or ask for the name of the Human Resources Manager and address the letter to them.

First (Introductory) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “This is what I want to do!  This is why I want to do it with you!”

Introduce yourself, mention the position you are applying for and how you heard about it.  Demonstrate you have done your homework on the company/organization; know who they are, what they do, and how good they are to determine what you can do to make them better. Indicate in a sentence or two what you know about that company. Convey your excitement for the opportunity to be a part of their organization and that you really believe you have the qualifications they are seeking.  Then explain that this is why you would like to introduce yourself.

Second (Marketing) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “This is what I can do for you!  This is why I am the best candidate for the position!”

Inform the employer of the degree you have obtained and give details about your background and experience, specifically the experience highlighted on your resume.  Match your skills and qualifications with the ones that are required and preferred in the job description. Give specific examples of accomplishments that demonstrate your ability to meet the needs of the employer.  This proves that you will be successful at the position you are applying to.  Use keywords relevant to the job posting and the industry.  Remember to keep all information relevant to the position you are applying to. Refer the reader to the enclosed resume, which will give additional information concerning your background and experience.

Third (Closing) Paragraph:

Tells the employer: “I want an interview!  This is what I am willing to do to get it!”

Close by saying you would like to meet with the employer to further discuss your qualifications, the company/organization, or the position.  State when you are available for interview and provide the easiest way to contact you to set up a meeting.  If you would like to initiate the next step, you can mention that you will follow up in a certain amount of time to determine if the employer has any questions and to set up a personal interview.  This is not required, only say you will do this if you actually intend to follow up! If you do call, tell the secretary that the employer is expecting your call.  End by saying you look forward to hearing from them.

If you intend to print out your cover letter and hand it to someone, leave room between your closing and your printed name for your signature.

                                                                 https://studentaffairs.unt.edu/content/cover-letters

A Job Interview. Listening. C1

Listen to the job interview to practise and improve your listening skills.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/advanced-c1-listening/job-interview

Words to describe yourself!

 Positive adjectives to describe yourself in an interview, a date or to write on the resume (CV) 

https://eslforums.com/words-to-describe-yourself/?utm_campaign=meetedgar&utm_medium=social&utm_source=meetedgar.com#Words_to_Describe_Yourself_Infographic

Talks to watch before a job interview

Click HERE to go to the site TED TALKS

Job Interview Questions and Answers

Tips for a successful job interview

• Speak clearly and vary your tone to show you are interested and enthusiastic.
• Take time to think about each question before answering so that you can give a good response.
• Listen to questions carefully and let the interviewer lead the conversation. If you don’t understand a question, ask for it to be explained or repeated.
• Be diplomatic and discreet, and don’t criticise previous employers or co-workers.
• Give examples from your experience that demonstrate your knowledge and skills.
• Show confidence in your skills and be positive about what you have done. For example, instead of using phrases such as “I only have…” or “I don’t have…” tell the employer what you do have to offer.

Questions and suggested answers

Some other tricky questions:

1. What is your greatest strength/ greatest weakness?

• Your greatest strength is something they need. Don’t choose something irrelevant to the job or the employer.

2. Tell me how you’ve handled a difficult situation.

• The key to this tricky interview question is to make sure that you talk about a situation that wasn’t your fault. If you’re handling a difficult situation, but it’s obvious that you created your own troubles, it doesn’t look good.
• The interviewer wants to see how you handle difficulty and if you are able to think outside the box and keep the company’s big picture in mind.

3. How did you find this job?…

• Make sure you go into a little detail on what you found in your research.

4. Do you have any questions?

• This is your chance to “interview the interviewer.” Those who don’t ask questions give the impression they’re “just kicking the tires” or not really too concerned about getting the job.
• When given the floor to ask questions, you should realize the interview is not over yet. Good candidates know this is another time to shine.

From ESLBUZZ

JOB INTERVIEW: Questions/Responses

An Internship Interview

 A minimum of preparation is required and expected from the candidate’s side. Here are some basic points:

First impression, this where all begins, it has to be put in mind: formal clothes + strong (not too much !) handshake + confident friendly eye contact, these are the basics !
A perfect self presentation, “So can you tell me a little about you?” This is usually the first ice-braking question of the recruiter.Follow the  3 W’s: Who, What, Why.

•             “Who” for telling your complete name, age and your current status (final-year student, graduate, …).

•             “What” is for what have you done in your life: 2 words about education, 1 word about extra-curricular activities and 1 word about your main interests. Don’t talk about your projects and technical background. That will come later.

•             “Why” is of course why did you specifically apply for that company. Some standards always-working arguments are that the company works in a field that you are very interested in, the company has a distinguished learning environment, the company has a good supervision strategy (how did you know that? From an acquaintance working here)… The perfect conclusion is when you end your speech with “and this fits exactly my short-term career objectives”. This small speech shouldn’t exceed 3 minutes !

    Then the recruiter will ask you to talk about the projects that you have done. It’s obvious that you should master what you will be talking about, that you should provide a non-technical, complete, global and short description ! A strategic pedagogic way of explaining will make you distinguished (when you for example link your sentences with: firstly, secondly, that’s why, in order to, finally).    

Later, the recruiter will present you the topic in which you will eventually work on. At this moment you have to be very focused and try to pick up interesting questions for later. If the recruiter finished and you still don’t have any questions, then you are screwed !

Usually, the interview ends here. But some recruiters go further and carry on with some harder parts and questions like: “Tell me a moment in which you had to convince your team (for example which you made the P2M with) with your idea and how it went”. or “Tell me one obstacle that you have encountered during your project and that you succeeded to overcome with another solution”. Those are ones of the hardest questions in an interview. Ideally you should be prepared. But this happens very unlikely in an internship interview.

At the end of the interview, the recruiter will certainly ask you “Do you have any questions?” You must have at least one ! “Try something like how long it takes to process your application”…

I advise you to practise frequently at home. Stay in front of the mirror, turn on the recorder, speak then listen to yourself later, or give a try in front of a friend. It may be stupid, but believe me it really works and it really helps.

Adapted from How a graduation internship interview really goes

                       Posted by Achraf on November 8, 2012

The secret of an excellent Cover Letter

The cover letter is –coupled with the CV– one of the first-contacting and first-impression papers through which an applicant has to get in touch with a recruiter. It’s important because it’s the candidate’s show case. It’s delicate because it’s the candidate-company’s first contact.  

Some of the best practices which a candidate should follow to make his application intrigued:

Structure: 
On the top right of the page:

•  your name and you personal address only, no email no phone, nothing else

On the top left:

• the date. 
• the full name of the company followed by its address 
• mention only the last name of the person to whom you are addressing.

Layout: a cover letter should contain 3 visible, well-separated, main parts

• an introduction
• a body (that could be divided to 3 sub-parts as well)
• conclusion. 
• At the end, your full name (on the left or on the right, it doesn’t matter).

The introduction:

• First thing’s first, a typical good introduction usually begins with how you knew the company and how you found the job position (the company website, through an alumni, during a career related discussion…). 

• Then you should mention why this position is interesting and exciting for you, and what makes you motivated to work for this the company as well. Here comes the part where you should mention some key-details about the company. Numbers are preferred, because they are concrete and easily-memorable. This is a typical good stream of a cover letter introduction.

The Body: the main part of the cover letter.

• The first part is useful for a brief introduction of the applicant (newly graduated, final year, current position…) and what he/she is planning to do in the near future (acquire more experience, get better in a specific field…).  
• 
  The second part should contain a brief overview of your technical background (what type of school you are from, main points of strength, and the aim and caracteristics of the eventual most important internships fulfilled. No details, this paragraph should be an appetizer to push the recruiter and trigger its curiosity to go to the CV to see what you are talking about. 
• 
  The last part should be dedicated to your extra-curricular activities, it’s the best place where to mention what positions you have held and what soft-skills you learnt.

The conclusion:

• You should mention something related to getting an opportunity to introduce yourself better through an interview and discus more how you will be useful for the company. 

• Invite the recruiter to know more about you through taking a look at your CV. 
• Finally, don’t forget to mention that you are available through any contact data mentioned in the CV and thank the recruiter for his/her time and consideration.

Some fatal typical mistakes that applicants usually make, like: mentioning your own name, evaluating yourself (I am good at… I have excellent knowledge about…) that is the job of the recruiter not yours. Or also mentioning too much details about your education or your internships and activities. That would be boring an that will make your CV obvious, predictable and not worth to see. Remember: a cover letter should push the recruiter to check the CV, not the other way around.

Adapted from The secret of an excellent Cover Letter
Posted by Achraf on February 10, 2013

The Anonymous CV Concept

An anonymous curriculum vitae (CV) includes a summary of our professional and academic backgrounds as well as research experience, publications, awards, honors, affiliations and other details. However, our names and other personal identifying information are not included in order to avoid choice-based discrimination by recruiters.

Who has never heard of discrimination during a job search? Given the vast typology of situations it covers, (seniors, gay, pregnant women, disabled, “unionized” people surnames or physical original inhabitants in badly-reputed neighbourhoods …) and its foundation which is often subjective (perception, beliefs, unspoken), discrimination can potentially affect all of us.

This idea emerged when some worries-raising figures appeared: in 2009, 16% of Europeans said they had been victims of discrimination, while 25% mentioned have witnessed such an act over the past year. Then in this case, what about non EU-citizens? In fact the concept started even before, in 2006, in France with the adoption of the law of “equality of chances“. This law caused a lot of talks and debates between pros and againsts. UK Companies like Tesco, Barclays and Coca-Cola have agreed to apply this policy, others stayed non-responsive.

This topic seemed to solve discrimination problems in hiring. At the beginning, people thought that the recruiters will not have any discriminative choices anymore. However, this policy has caused a bigger threat, which had reduced even more the chances for immigrants for example to get hired. According to a study conducted by the Centre for Research in Economics and Statistics (CREST) ​​between November 2009 and November 2010 over a thousand companies, the anonymous CV fight effectively against gender discrimination but not against those of ethnic issues. The opposite just happened: the immigrant candidates have only one chance in 22 of getting an interview, against a 10 chance if their resume were not anonymous.

This seemingly surprising result is due to the tendency of recruiters to “relativize” the shortcomings of the resume immigrant when they are registered. Spelling mistakes are more tolerated, the non-respect of the conventional national CV form and layout are not badly seen. Indulgence disappears then otherwise. “Recruiters forgive more ‘holes’ in the CV or spelling mistakes when they know the social origins,” says CREST.

The question at then end stays the same: how can it be guaranteed that companies will not make discriminative choices when recruiting? How can immigrants, despite their outsanding technical and academic profiles, find challenging positions without getting faced to descrimination? After all, this idea of the anonymous CV is not that efficient, as the recruiter will get to know the candidate once he/she is invited to a job interview.
                                                            Source:https://achrafaouadi.net/2013/03/03/anonymous-cv-reasons/

Your CV (Europass)

Curriculum Vitae

A document to present your skills and qualifications effectively and clearly
And you CAN CHOOSE DIFFERENT LANGUAGES in case you don't understand one of the requirements

• Create your CV (+ cover letter) online
• Update your CV (PDF+XML) online
• Template and instructions
• Examples

Does your CV shine? BBC Learning English (Listening)

6-Minute English                                 Intermediate level

Does your CV shine?

 

CV (BBC Learning English)

 

This week's question:
When you go for a job interview, how long do you have on average to make a good enough impression for an employer to hire you? Do you have...
a)      Less than 3 minutes
b)     Less than 5 minutes
c)      Less than 10 minutes
Listen to the programme to find out the answer.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/6-minute-english/ep-150205?ocid=socialflow_twitter

Vocabulary

CV (curriculum vitae)document in which you list your work history, education, your interests and abilities
viralvideo posted online which becomes popular very quickly
to stand outto appear more than others in the same group
get your strengths acrossmake your abilities clear to somebody
confidentself-assure, believe in your own capacity to do things
modesthumble
concisebrief, give the information in few words
accurateprecise

Phrases for a Job Interview

English for Job Interviews

CV or Resumé

Some Tips for a Job Interview

The job interview in English contains specific questions and appropriate answers.

When you walk in the room the very first impression you make on the interviewer can have a great influence on the rest of the interview. It is important that you introduce yourself, shake hands, and are friendly.

The first question is often a "breaking the ice"  type of question. Don't be surprised if the interviewer asks you something like:
How are you today? 
Did you have any trouble finding us?
 What do you think of the weather lately?

Don't be surprised by the friendly tone. The interviewer wants to put you at ease (help you relax). Answer the question without going into too much detail. The language you use should be simple but polite, for example;

How are you today?

GOOD                                                      
I'm fine thank you, and you?
I'm well thank you.
BAD
So, so
OK
Not so well

What is most important?
Talking about your experience and credentials (qualifications) is the most important part of any job interview. Your qualifications include your education from High School on and any special training you may have done in the past.
Your experience is any work that you have done that is directly or indirectly related to the job you are applying for.

Education
Remember that your education took place in the past. Therefore you need to use the past tenses, for example:
I attended the University of Helsinki from 1987 to 1993.
I graduated with a degree in agricultural planning.Etc.

If you are currently a student you should use the following present tenses:

I am currently studying at the University of New York and will graduate with a degree in Economics in the spring.
I am studying English at the Borough Community College. Etc.

Remember to include any training you may have had when talking about your education. This includes any computer training, correspondence courses, etc. Make sure to mention your English studies. This is very important as English is not your first language and the employer may be concerned about this fact. Assure the employer that you are continuing to improve your English skills by any courses you may be taking, or by saying that you study a certain number of hours a week to improve your skills.

Experience and Qualifications
Work experience is by far the most important topic of any job interview. Therefore, it is important to explain what experience you have in detail. Generally, employers want to know exactly what you did and how well you accomplished your tasks. This is not the time to be modest. Be confident, and talk freely about your accomplishments in past employment.

The tenses you should use are the following:

When talking about current employment be careful to use the present perfect or present perfect continuous. This signals that you are still performing these tasks at your current job, for example:
Smith and Co. have employed me for the last 3 years as a salesperson.
I have been creating customer contacts for 6months. Etc.
When talking about past employers use the past tenses to signal that you are no longer working for that company, for example:
I was employed by Jackson's from 1989 to 1992 as a clerk.
I worked as a receptionist at the Ritz while I was living in New York.Etc.

Talking about Responsibilities
Most importantly, you will need to demonstrate your qualifications and skills, which are required for the job you are applying for. The job skills that you have acquired in the past may not have been for the same exact job. Therefore, it is important to show how the capabilities you do have relate to the job you are applying for.

A list of appropriate vocabulary to use in the job interviewing process. Good luck!

accurate            active                 adaptable            broad-minded        competent        conscientious      creative              dependable     determined       diplomatic          discreet               efficient         energetic          enterprising        enthusiastic         experienced    
fair                   firm                     genuine               honest    
innovative       logical                 loyal                    mature 
methodical      motivated            objective             outgoing   
pleasant          positive                practical              productive      reliable           resourceful          self disciplined    sense of humor    sensitive         sincere                successful            tactful      trustworthy

JOB INTERVIEW

JOB INTERVIEW 

1. Job Interview Advice

a. Example Job Interview Dialogues In English

b. Job Interview Questions And Answers

c. Job Interview Vocabulary

2. Job Interview Useful Links

3. Job Interview Quizzes

4. Job Interview Videos

 ( onlineenglishteacher.org)

What NOT TO SAY at an Interview

 Taken from  languagelearningbase.com

A Job Interview. Tips and Vocabulary

Have you got a job interview?  Keep calm and prepare it.

Tips

1. Think ahead: Think about your personal and professional qualities and experiences from other jobs, and be prepared to tell a story or two about them. Back up your statements with real life details and remember, the best interviewees always go from the general to the specific.

General: “One of my greatest strengths is problem solving”.

Specific: “For example, when I met a challenge in a recent project, I managed to… and from this experience I learnt that…”.

2. Listen and Understand: Listen carefully to everything your interviewer says. Use eye contact when you speak and if there is anything you would like them to explain or repeat – ask. You don’t want to talk about something they didn’t ask!

3. Prepare set vocabulary: It’s a good idea to develop your vocabulary and learn as many common industry terms as you can before the actual interview. This shows genuine interest in what you do as well as a desire to progress.

4. Use appropriate tenses: When you are asked you about your current position, answer in the present tense (I am working at… etc.). When you are asked about your past positions use the past tense (I worked at…, etc.).

5. Short but sweet: Your answers to interview questions should be direct and precise and you should avoid using too many interjections to fill gaps in conversation.

6. Breathe: Take a moment to relax and keep things in perspective.

Useful Interview Vocabulary 

Work environment – the conditions in which an employee works. (Physical conditions, equipment, processes and procedures, etc.)

Management style – how a company manages its employees and their work activities.

Colleagues – people who work with you.

Background – the type of career, training, or education that you have had

Self-disciplined – the ability to make yourself work hard or behave in a particular way without needing anyone else to tell you what to do.

Great attention to detail – able to ensure information is complete and accurate and all details have been taken into account.

Salary requirements – the financial compensation you would require to accept a position.

For more tips and advice for your first job interview in English, watch 

                                                                                                                             Adapted from Your First Job Interview in English by Cat Symonds

Click here for questions and answers