hey what's up Stefanie the English coach here from EnglishFullTime.com
in this video we are gonna talk about 5 mistakes that people make in interviews
when they are trying to get jobs this is a video that I have been wanting to make
for a long time and I was recently inspired to do it because I posted a job
opening for English Full-Time and I got a lot of applicants who responded to it
and I noticed lots of mistakes that people were making so I started taking
notes and I decided to make this video once and for all
ok so that brings me to my next point for those of you who don't know I run an
online business called English Full:Time we help students all around the world
make real progress and transformations with their English through the courses
and programs that we create and run so I don't just run a YouTube channel I'm not
just a youtuber I have a team that I work with around the world and we have
thousands of students in countries all over the world so it's a huge project
it's a business and I've learned so much through this business through creating
this business starting at running it etc about how to hire people who to hire
what to look for how to do the interviews when I first started I did
not know how to run a business but you learn by just doing it right and my
experience with interviews before running my own business was just the
experience that I had you know applying for jobs getting jobs etc but you really
learned so much about interviews and what companies are looking for once you
run your own business because then you see everything from a totally different
perspective and I want to share some of that perspective with you guys today
because when you are able to understand what a company is looking for and what
their expectations are in an interview setting then you will be able to perform
better and showcase your a talents and abilities better and hopefully get the
jobs that are best suited for you ok now before I get into these five mistakes
I just have a few announcements and updates that I want to make the first
one is that on July 1st we are starting a new fluency breakthrough challenge
this is a 30 day challenge that helps you use your English actively so you can
quickly get some major breakthroughs in your fluency and confidence I have done
this challenge twice already we've had thousands of students sign up from
around the world they've gotten phenomenal results we cannot wait to
start so again the challenge starts on July 1st but registration closes on June
28th so if you're interested if you want more information if you want to join us
check the link that I'm gonna leave in the description it's gonna have all the
information and it will take you to the registration page where you can sign up
and join the challenge next this is the first video that I'm making from our new
home and my biggest announcement of all I am going to be a mom so Renzo and I
are super excited our baby is due in September and yeah it's gonna be a huge
life change but we are going to carry on with everything at English Full:Time
because this is what we do so that is it without further ado let's get into the
video 5 job interview mistakes that people
make and how to avoid them ok so the first mistake people make when they are
applying to jobs and doing interviews is that they come in with an attitude of
desperation they are super needy and it's like please give me the job please
just give me this opportunity I really need it I'll prove to you that I can do
the best job in the world and and this attitude ok I know where it's coming
from it's coming from the fact that you really want the job okay but neediness
is not attractive it's actually a turn-off it does not make people want to
hire you and it actually makes you look inexperienced because when you have to
beg for something it makes it sound like you don't actually deserve that thing
right so you don't want to appear as needy or desperate even if you are in a
situation where you're like oh my gosh I don't know how
I'm gonna pay rent next month I really need this job or I want this job you
don't want to come at it from that perspective and that attitude of
neediness and desperation imagine you're at a park or a bar or a random place and
a total stranger comes up to you and it's like oh my gosh please go on a date
with me I really need a girlfriend or I really need a boyfriend
that would be super awkward right you're like what I don't even know you you're
asking for this huge thing from me this is weird right like that neediness that
desperation it's not attractive in anyone at any time so instead what you
want to do is when you approach an interview with your application with
your cover letter in the interview itself you want to approach it with the
mindset of hey this sounds like a cool opportunity I'd like to learn more about
it and see if I am a good fit for your needs right because you understand that
the business has certain needs this is why they created the job position in the
first place the business has a problem and they're looking for something very
very very specific and you may be the solution to the problem where you may
not right and so you want to go into it with that attitude again hey this sounds
like a cool opportunity I'm interested and I'd like to see if I'm a good fit
for your needs this means that you are acknowledging that you understand that
the business has specific needs and again you may or may not be a good fit
but you want to dig in a little deeper to see if it could work out and
employers like that and they respect that and it will make them want to talk
with you okay so the next mistake that I see people doing when they are applying
for jobs and going to interviews preparing for interviews or anything
like that is they try to act with a type of
persona that is professional or whatever they think professional is and they end
up portraying themselves as a person that is actually boring and fake okay so
first of all being professional does not necessarily mean being overly
and stifling your personality right people want to work with other people
they don't want to work with robots so for example if in your cover letter you
write something that you think sounds super professional right like to whom it
may concern it is with great pleasure that I write to you today to submit my
application for the position of blah blah blah that is all grammatically
correct and that might sound wonderful to you but to the person reading it
especially if they've been reading a hundred different applications they're
just gonna go oh my gosh this is so boring please somebody entertain me make
me want to read your cover letter make me want to call you in for an interview
so again the mistake is simply being fake right trying to be professional
being overly formal and stifling your own personality and coming across in
just a very bland and boring and vanilla kind of way so again realize that when
people are interviewing you for a job they're interviewing many people and you
need to stand out so show your personality this doesn't mean that you
have to be super over-the-top and energetic especially if that's not how
you actually are you don't want to be over-the-top you also don't want to
downplay your personality you just want to be yourself and remember that being
professional is an attitude it's a behavior it's hey you have great work
ethic you show up on time you are reliable dependable that's what it means
to be professional it's not this sort of suit and tie kind of I don't know formal
image of yourself or some way of being that you actually aren't okay so the
third mistake that I see people making is they sometimes are just super
arrogant when they apply for jobs and they come out and they literally say hey
I'm the person you've been looking for and this is why and it's just kind of
like hold on you just heard about this job opportunity you don't know me you
don't know anything about my business you really don't know if you're a good
fit I don't know if you're a good fit for this so like calm
a little bit a simmer down and let's talk let's actually have a discussion
let me see some samples of your work let me see what you've done show me that you
are what I'm looking for don't just tell me that you are what I've been looking
for because again that comes across as arrogant and arrogance is not attractive
so really you have to stay humble you may be really good at what you do you
may even be a genius you may be the best in the world but you can't say that and
I think that some people do this because what they're trying to portray is
confidence and it is good to be confident and have confidence and
display confidence through the job interview process but you have to
understand the difference between confidence and arrogance and what will
come across as confidence and what will come across as arrogance so instead of
saying hey I'm the person for the job you could say hey this sounds like a
really interesting opportunity and then you can explain your experience in the
field and demonstrate your ability you can show samples of work that you've
done you can quantify your past results you can talk about your past experience
you can provide references and another really good tip is you can simply ask
questions about the problem that the company is having to demonstrate your
knowledge and your ability to solve those problems right rather than coming
in and assuming that you know and understand what the problem is and
exactly how to solve it ask questions about the problem because this is what a
true professional does actually they don't just assume that they can figure
everything out barely knowing anything about the problem they ask lots of
questions they might spend half an hour or an hour or even longer really digging
into what is the problem that you're having and why is it a problem and what
kind of solution are you looking for and what is your budget and how can I help
and you know they really dig into problems before they provide any kind of
solution because there's so much information that they have to weigh and
figure out what the best solution is right so actually from the employer
perspective anytime someone comes up starts offering solutions before they
fully understand the problem that's a red flag right there and we know ok this
person's not truly experienced because a person with real experience isn't gonna
start offering solutions before they truly understand the problem ok so the
next mistake that people make and this is really specific to people on my
channel is in a job application or an interview saying but I'm not a native
English speaker as if that is some kind of disadvantage first of all there are
so many people in the world who are successful who are non-native English
speakers so being a non-native English speaker is not a disadvantage in any way
actually it can be an advantage because that demonstrates hey I had the ability
to learn a foreign language master a foreign language I can now work in this
language that shows that you are dedicated that you know how to learn and
apply yourself you can overcome obstacles so instead of seeing it as
some kind of disadvantage you have to realize that it is an advantage and it
really demonstrates a lot of your abilities to learn to grow to overcome
etc and you should never be bringing this up in an interview like in some
kind of way that's going to disqualify you
especially if nobody is asking so a few days ago I made a job posting and I was
looking for something very specific but nowhere in this job posting did I say
it's a requirement to be a native English speaker yet I got a bunch of
responses from people and in their responses they said hey I'm interested
and here's my experience etc etc etc but I'm not a native English speaker and I'm
like thinking why is that even a problem I have hired so many non-native English
speakers and whether they're native or not has never been an issue for me
because I'm looking to find out if people can do the skill that I need them
to do and if they can do it well and if they can be professional and have good
work ethic it's not about what your first language is or is not and actually
in my particular business being a non-native English speaker in working
with us is advantage because that means that you
understand my audience the same way I understand them and I don't have to
explain anything to you I don't have to explain why the work that we do is
important you already know why it's important okay so after hearing this
some of you might be thinking that sounds great Stefanie but what about
those job postings that say native English speakers only or we are only
looking for native English speakers or something like that
here's the deal usually when companies specify requirements and qualifications
what they're really looking for is someone who is super competent because
maybe they've had the experience where they've created job postings and then
they get people who don't communicate well in the English language and in
order to work with that company and with the clients that they work with a high
competence in the language is necessary so it's not enough to be an intermediate
English learner or maybe even not enough to be an advanced english learner maybe
they need someone with native like competency in the language now a lot of
people have that and they are non-native English speakers so I would say go ahead
and apply anyways and prove that they would be lucky to work with you several
years ago there was a job that I applied for and I remember the requirements for
that job it said I needed a bachelor's degree I needed four years of experience
and all kinds of other things that I didn't actually have but the job was to
be a sales representative and I thought a sales rep I can do this it doesn't
matter if I don't have a bachelor's degree or four years I can learn I can
work hard and I had other experience that was related not exactly the same
not exactly what the company was looking for but similar enough for me to feel
confident in applying for the job and confident doing the interview and saying
hey I can do this and I would really love to work with you guys
anyhow in that particular situation I did get the job everything worked out
wonderfully and the moral of the story there is I was not qualified okay I
didn't have the requirements that were laid out in the job description but I
applied anyways and I proved to the company that
I could handle what they were asking for so if you do see a job description that
says native English speakers only or something like that realize that what
the company really really needs and wants is people who are competent in the
English language at a native-like level okay so my final tip for you is don't
get angry rude or offended if you get feedback constructive criticism or if
you just simply get rejected for the position altogether so I told you
earlier that recently I posted a job opening and I received a lot of
applications we are looking for a writer for our company and I have very specific
requirements in mind so anyways I'm going through all the submissions and I
wrote back to one guy I thanked him for applying but I let him know that his
writing was not the type of writing that we were looking for and his response was
oh well can you tell me more about what you mean so I wrote back and I gave him
feedback about his writing and he got super offended and he got really nasty
with me and he was just like peace out your loss like you don't get to work
with me too bad and I was just like wow disaster averted
I am so glad I didn't hire that guy so anyways you don't want to leave people
with this impression I have a background in writing I know what I'm doing I know
what I'm looking for and his writing was simply not at the level that we needed
he needs more experience but he did not like hearing that he did not like my
feedback I took my time to help him to give him constructive criticism that he
really could have used to improve his skills but instead he shut down didn't
listen to it and got rude with me so instead of doing that when someone gives
you feedback or constructive criticism or if they reject you all together and
say hey sorry this isn't what we're looking for or we need someone with more
experience or better skills or whatever it is don't take it personally
say hey I realize that I didn't think of it thank
you for taking the time to give me your feedback I really appreciate that then
you can go on and you could say maybe I'll come back in a year and my skills
will be improved by then and I'll have more experience and perhaps we can chat
then right so if you have that kind of attitude you know people might say hey
maybe why not you know try again next year we'll see what happens at least
that way you leave the door open for yourself for the future the other thing
you can do is you can say hey do you know of any other opportunities that
might work better for me right now where I'm at with my experience and my ability
and perhaps the people will send you on to a different opportunity okay but this
is how you can keep doors open for the future and open new doors right again
rather than getting offended getting mad because we're all learning we're all
growing we're all going to improve and again when a company is hiring someone
they have something very very specific in mind you might be the solution you
might not but your job is to figure out what they need and if you are a good fit
okay so that's it I hope these tips were helpful and I know that there are lots
of successful professionals who follow this channel so if you have experienced
positive negative experiences getting hired or hiring other people feel free
to share those experiences in the comments maybe you made some mistakes in
an interview process but you learn from those mistakes maybe you've hired other
people as well and so you now know what to look for when you're hiring people
and what are some red flags you can share those with us what are your tips
so that is it again I hope you enjoyed this video if you're interested in the
fluency breakthrough challenge go ahead and check out the link below we start on
July 1st and I will see you in another video take care bye