Have you ever made a mistake at work and how did you resolve it?
Me? No, of course not. I never make mistakes.
Sure, you don't.
Hi everyone, welcome back to VT English!
Today we're going to talk about two types of questions you need to know how to answer for English interviews.
The first type of questions are behavioral questions.
These are questions that ask about your past experiences.
Many will ask about a difficult situation and how you dealt with it.
One example of a behavioral question is:
Have you ever made a mistake at work? How did you handle it?
This is the question that you heard at the start of today's video.
Note the phrasing of this question: it starts with "have you ever..."
This is a common way to begin behavioral questions.
Other common ways to begin these questions are:
"Tell me about a time when..."
"Give me an example of..."
or, "Describe a time when..."
They might also follow up with "How did you handle it?" like our first example did.
Now, let's look at another example.
Give me an example of a time you were able to successfully persuade someone to see things your way at work.
When I was working as an editor for VT magazine,
I had an idea that I thought would make our editing process more efficient.
My manager thought that we should stick with the old ways at first,
but I prepared a presentation to tell her why I thought this idea would work,
and I managed to persuade her.
Now that you know what behavioral questions sound like,
let's talk about how to answer them.
A good way to make sure that you include all the right information in your answer is by using the PAR model.
P is for problem.
Start by explaining what the problem or situation was.
A is for action.
Describe what action you took.
What did you do to address the problem?
R is for result.
End your answer on a positive note by talking about the result you got.
Here's an example:
Tell me about a time you were under a lot of pressure to meet a deadline.
How did you get through it?
In my last position, I was put in charge of an important project.
Halfway through the project, my manager let me know that he needed it two weeks early,
which put me under a lot of pressure.
It seemed impossible at first, but I managed to reorganize my schedule and get everything done.
If you're asked a question about a situation that you haven't been in,
don't just say that you haven't had that experience,
so you can't answer.
Either think of an experience that's similar and talk about that,
or if you really haven't been in that situation,
you can tell the interviewer what you would do if you were in that situation.
Have you ever had a conflict with a supervisor and how did you resolve it?
I haven't been in that situation before,
but if I did have that problem, I would talk to my supervisor about it.
I think it's important to address issues as soon they come up.
In an interview you may also be asked questions about what you would do in some imaginary situations.
These types of questions are called situational questions.
You can spot these questions by looking out for the word "if".
Situational questions often begin with "If..." or "What would you do if..."
Let's look at an example.
If you were a team leader, and one of your team members was not doing their job well,
what would you do?
I would talk to that team member and find out why they were having problems and how I can help.
For example, if they didn't know how to complete their tasks, I could teach them.
To answer situational questions, you'll need to explain what you would do if you are in those situations.
How would you handle them?
If you've had similar experiences you can also mention them.
This will show that you already have experience dealing with these types of problems.
What would you do if a customer got upset even though you did nothing wrong?
I would stay calm and try to understand why the customer was upset.
I actually had to deal with a lot of upset customers when I worked in customer service,
and I found that letting them know that I cared and I wanted to solve the problem really helped.
What else would you like to see us make a video about?
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