Hello! Hello! Hello everybody! My name is Steve Ford and
welcome to Learn Business English 16
today, we're doing a special video on job interview tips
now for those of you who have been with us for a long time
we did a video back in 2007, my wife and I
about job interview tips
now, the market has changed so much that a lot of the answers the interviewee used to give
are now considered to be cliche
so we're going to take a look at what would be more appropriate to say
what would be more appropriate to use
and of course we're going to do it in a very, very laid-back
and humorous way
so let's go to our lesson
question # 1: tell me about yourself
I'm really hardworking
I'm a workaholic
warning! cliche answer detected: give another answer to avoid job interview failure
so saying that your hardworking or a workaholic nowadays is considered overused
everybody uses it
so you really want to make this your own
and make this your own means that you want to make this your own story
and you want to make sure that you talk about details of previous work experience
maybe you had a tight deadline
and you had to work extra hours
maybe it was the year-end closing
and you had to work Saturday or Sunday
if you don't have any work experience, maybe you can focus on
some internship you did
or maybe some work project that you had from University or high school
What are your strengths?
I'm a total team player
I'm a team leader!
team player? team leader? is so passe as the French would say.
it's so out-of-date
so you really want to once again focus on your work experience
or maybe even when you were an intern
or some part-time job
where you had the chance to be part of a team
to work with a team
allowed my team to tailor to the local market
my greatest task was
bringing the teams together by bridging the cultural differences
I'm dedicated and motivated
dedicated and motivated sound meaningless because they're so overused
so if you're gonna use those words, make sure you back it up with experience
I'm the perfect fit for this job
that sounds pretentious, a little cocky
and it's actually up to the interviewer to decide
if you are a perfect fit for the job
I will do whatever it takes to get this job
I'm open to anything, I'm willing to do anything
both of these sound like the person, the interviewee, is desperate
and I wouldn't advise saying something like that
you have to give yourself credit
you have to value all of the qualities that you have
in terms of work experience and skills
I'm a perfectionsist
I'm too detail-oriented
I'm a perfectionist? I'm too detail-oriented?
that's not going to fly
try to find another weakness
for example, it's hard to keep up with new technology
software, operating systems
since there's always a learning curve
which can be very frustrating and time consuming
where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?
now this might sound obvious, but there are some interviewees
that might let it slip out that they're not interested in their current field or industry
now if you aspire, if you really want to climb the corporate ladder in the company that you're interviewing for
then i suggest that you go to linked.com
find some of the employees that have been working there
to see how long they've been at their present position or previous position
so you have a good idea of how many years it would take to reach their position
I wasn't appreciated at my last job
well, this shows that you weren't happy at your last job
that you didn't get along with your boss most likely
and it could lead to some really bad feelings
you're opening up Pandora's box
focus on the positive
so the interviewer is looking for genuine interest in the company
not just some surface research
of the company
try to describe where you first found out about the company
maybe a personal experience you had with an employee or product from that company
well everybody I hope you enjoyed our lesson on job interview tips
there was a lot of vocabulary there, so I hope you were able to learn some more
and I look forward to our next Learn Business English lesson
Bye for now!