hi everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is alicia and today
we're going to talk about english for
job and school interviews today's lesson
is going to focus on some very common
questions you hear in job interviews and
school interviews and i'm going to talk
about some sample responses and give you
some ideas for how to respond with your
information so i hope you can find a lot
of useful stuff i'll talk about some
important vocabulary words you'll hear
in job and school interviews too so
we'll begin in a couple of minutes as
you join please don't forget to hit the
like button and share the video too so
other people can find today's lesson
hello hi leah i see a few people in the
chat as it's loading lots of people on
facebook hi everybody christian marab
pierre jameson masaya hello
hi everybody okay uh as we wait
two announcements as usual uh first one
as always don't forget to check the link
below the video for these free pdfs that
we always have for you for many
different topics i'll show you the job
and business and school ones a little
bit later but as always these are free
so please check the link below the video
on youtube or above the video on
facebook if you're watching on instagram
please check youtube or facebook and
sorry i cannot see your comments in real
time uh that's announcement number one
announcement number two is uh as usual
this week please don't forget if you
have some little questions about english
or about your studies please send them
to me this is a picture a screenshot
from a recent episode of our weekly
question and answer series on english
class 101 this is called ask alicia so
you can send me your questions and i
will choose maybe i would choose maybe
your question and answer it like this
and this is one sample question from one
of our viewers so if you have a question
please send it to me at
englishclass101.com
ask hyphen alicia you can find a link on
the youtube channel if you want to send
it as well so please make sure to send a
few questions along there we are making
new videos all the time so i hope that
we can answer your question
okay lots of people are here now i see
eric hello eric i see emilio hi there
and vishal senis madrista andre uh
pradhuma and barbarus and amin hello hi
everybody and more people on facebook
reynan and julio and maria julieta soar
hello hi everybody thanks for joining
i'm going to share the video now and
then i'm going to begin
uh so today
we're going to
uh kind of have the same pattern for
each part of the lesson i'm going to
introduce the question
and some points about your answer
and while i'm preparing please send in
the chat please send your sample answers
to the question i will try to check uh i
will try to check your answers there are
lots of points there are lots of things
to check in the chat though so if i miss
yours i'm sorry but please send your
example sentences in the chat and i will
try to check them live if i can't i'm
really sorry so
let's begin i have shared the video so i
want to start with this question this is
uh maybe
the most common
first question in a job interview and
you'll hear something similar so uh it
will be very close to the same in a
school interview the question actually
it's not a question it's like a command
so this is
tell me
tell me a bit about yourself
tell me a bit about yourself and at
native speed this question sounds like
tell me a bit about yourself tell me a
bit about yourself so this is something
the interviewer i am asking you the
question
the interviewer asks you this question
so tell me means please talk to me
a bit a bit means a little
about yourself
so this command is actually a request a
command it means please give a short so
a little
please give a short introduction
so this does not mean you should tell
your life story so don't share just a
lot of information
like where you were born where you grew
up all of this
when you answered this question
give a short introduction
so you should share your focus if you're
a student
or if you want to go to a university or
a college what is your study focus
if you are applying for a job
what is your work focus or what is your
career focus so share your focus
share like your goals what things do you
want to do in the future or maybe what
were your past goals
and
share important accomplishments
important accomplishments so this means
in your study experience or your life
experience or your work experience
what are maybe like two or three really
important points for you important
points for your studies or for your
career so for example like did you win
an award or did you have a really great
success at work so what's something that
was really key really really important
for your career so this should be a very
quick introduction
so some examples are coming in i'll use
your examples from the youtube chat
uh
uh amman says my name is aman i finished
my grad i graduated maybe i graduated
from such and such university i am such
and such years old okay i come from a
fam okay so there that's very focused on
your personal life that example is very
personal information focused
keep it focused on your studies so what
did you study
what are your career goals so try not to
share a lot about like personal personal
stuff but share about your goals your
goals so it should be career or study
minded
so for example
if i wanted to talk about mine like i
could say
for example like uh i studied
communication in college and i wanted
past tense i wanted to work in media so
i did an internship with abc company and
now i want to create my own project so
that gives some key information what is
my study focus what is my experience a
key experience where did i work what do
i want to do next so that's a very very
short example but those are the kinds of
points you should be sharing
okay
uh
oh nice one i just there's one on
youtube if you're in the youtube chat
you can check out christian's comment he
says i'm a software developer and i've
been working
in the in the field for around three
years i've worked in different teams
projects and programming languages i'd
love to be a tech lead so that's a very
short nice one very very short
introduction you could in a real
interview you could give some more
details but that's a nice example
okay
so the second question you may hear
second or another very common
introduction or a base question
is this one
why
do you want to work at this company why
do you want to work at this company or
for schools
why do you want to attend
this school so attend means like go to
this school like become a student at
this school
why do you want to work at this company
why do you want to attend this school
so
be specific specific means you give
detailed reasons for something so don't
say oh your company seems interesting or
oh this school seems nice like
specifically give detailed information
why do you like that company or why are
you interested in this company this job
specifically
so don't say also money that's generally
not a good answer so
show
that you understand the values or sorry
the schools or the companies
values and goals so values and goals
means what is important for the company
is the company really uh interested in
like environment or like social
responsibilities uh is the school really
uh like focused on technology is there a
specific department that's interesting
for you about the school so why that
school or why that company explain
specifically why
and
how do
the companies or the schools values
match your values so in other words like
they want to see like does this person's
like uh values or does this person's
goal match our goals are they the same
so be specific to prepare for this
question
read the website of course read the
website
what is the company about what is the
school's focus so you need to understand
that
and you need to think about your own
focus so how do those two match how do
those things match
uh
okay
let's see so send some examples if you
can i'll try to check there's some good
examples coming in here uh for this
question i'll come back to that in a
moment so please make sure to be
specific specific here and generally
it's not a good idea don't mention
salary don't mention money in this
question so
the company wants to know the school
wants to know are do we have similar
values and similar goals
okay
uh some examples so okay daniel on
facebook says i want to work in your
company because your company is the best
okay so the best what so your company is
like the top company in
uh this field or your company is the
best with like social responsibility so
the best what so give some more detail
share something uh specific about why
you're interested in that school or that
company
okay uh nakhorn on facebook has maybe a
better example i want to study mba at
nida business school because
i want to start my own business okay
nice start then then this business
school has a great program to learn how
to do that so match your goal to the
school you want to attend so put a
connection in there when you answer this
question what's your connection to the
school or the company
okay
uh let's continue to the third question
here this is another very typical
question maybe you need some explanation
though uh so the last one for this part
where do you see yourself
in five years where do you see yourself
in five years this see yourself
means
imagine yourself so
in five years means five years from this
day so from the interviewer from today
as well
imagine yourself imagine you in five
years
so
what's like what's your vision for
yourself
so what are your goals what are your
goals what do you want to do
and again how do your goals match the
company's goals or the school's goals so
again you're making a connection this
one is about a future connection so the
company wants to see is this person
going to continue working with us in a
positive way or will they
contribute something positively so again
it's about matching imaging
okay
uh
let's see
there's a lot of good examples coming in
let's see
i don't know where to see myself next
week says leah okay
i'm looking for a couple of and specific
answers to these questions i see some
very general questions about where
you've been working but you need to
think about how to answer these
questions specifically so in five years
this is a future question i'm seeing
some past tense some past tense
questions this is a future or some past
tense answers this is a future
question in the future so
like you can think over the next few
years in the year 2020 in 2021 and 2022
what do you imagine for yourself what do
you want to do
professionally or for your studies so
not like maybe your personal goals
necessarily but what are your career
goals again tie it connect it to your
career
uh k lao has a nice example on youtube
in the youtube chat i want to join your
company because your company provides
free services to disabled people which
matches my goal my life goal to help
people i would like to develop empathy
towards those in need nice nice great so
that's a great way to connect your goals
to the company's values okay sounds good
uh let's take one quick break then
and then we'll continue to kind of the
middle the middle part questions so
today is very focused on school and work
english so i want to share with you
these pdfs if i can find it from the
file here where is it uh we have a
couple i think new ones that i haven't
shown you in a while
uh there's a business pdf which i have
lost just a moment uh here it is there's
the business these are the two that i
wanted to show you
for those of you for those of you for
those this one okay for those for those
of you who are studying for
for work we have a business english pdf
this has vocabulary words for the office
yes but on the back i've shown this
before are phrases you can use in a
meeting so these are
business and work related expressions
for meetings and there's some other
stuff here job titles so how to express
your job title or how to talk about the
job you want so check this out you can
download this
for uh for business for work the other
one if you're studying for school is
this this is back to school i know but
on the back again
these are expressions to use in your
class so how to speak to your instructor
or how to speak to your classmates these
are some phrases to use in class and
some other vocabulary words too so you
can get this and you can get the other
one i just showed you can get both of
these for free
from the link below the video on youtube
or above the video if you're watching on
facebook if you're watching on instagram
please check on youtube or facebook and
again i cannot see your comments live
i'm very sorry okay
so with that let's continue to part two
for today these are the kind of like
middle part of the interview questions
so if you have not already please make
sure to like and share the video so
other learners can find today's lesson
all right
uh i see some examples coming in by the
way uh let's see um
i saw a couple
oh move muthamil i think on youtube says
uh i'm from malaysia making doing my own
business and i'd like to improve my
english to make sentences okay so maybe
that's like a school goal or something
like that so try to try to make it
specific specific to the place that
you're applying to
okay let's go to
this part i'll stand over here so
these two are very
similar questions they're very simple
questions really but they're hard to
answer they're difficult to answer for
some people so
first is what are your weaknesses what
are your weaknesses so weaknesses plural
weaknesses means this question means
what are you
not
good at doing what are you not good at
doing
so
the interviewer asks this to understand
like because nobody is perfect right
nobody's perfect so the interviewer asks
this to understand like your personality
a little bit uh so
you should be honest you should be
honest yeah exactly you should be honest
when you answer this question don't say
i have no weaknesses
that's not a good idea so be honest with
the interviewer so
try to be honest but
you should explain that you know
how to
manage your weaknesses so for example
you could say like um
uh
it's
difficult
for me
to speak
in front of
big groups it's difficult for me to
speak in front of big groups so maybe
like meetings are scary for you
so you could say this is this is
something that's difficult for me it's
scary for me
and but
i practice a lot so i take a lot of time
to practice before a presentation and
that helps me a lot so this is maybe a
very common weakness speaking in front
of lots and lots of people maybe like
now so
so this is difficult for lots of people
so explain the problem explain the weak
point that's okay honestly and explain
how you fix the problem too so don't
just say like
i am not good at being organized
explain give some information how do you
fix that problem how do you fix that
problem
okay uh then the other half of this
question may be the opposite type of
this question is what are your strengths
what are your strengths so strength your
strength means what are you good at what
are you good at so again be honest yes
but
don't be over confident overconfident
means you have too much confidence you
sound arrogant arrogant is a bad thing
you sound like you like yourself too
much that's not good so be confident so
you know i can do this i can't do that
so but just be honest about it too
okay uh tang on youtube says why did you
add e s because this is the plural form
weakness is the singular form weaknesses
is the plural form so usually people
have more than one weak point e s is the
plural form so weakness ends in an s we
make the plural form here by adding the
s
so what are your strengths what are your
strengths so maybe you can say
uh
i'm good
i'm good at
planning
events
you can say i'm good at planning events
and i'm really good at sharing the
information so maybe company events or
maybe planning meetings and so on maybe
you're really good at that
so you can share
uh specifically your point and maybe
give an example of that strength that
can be really helpful
a couple points here then one i'm good
at your present or your presence your
preposition should be at here i'm good
at this thing i'm good at noun phrase
here your preposition it's difficult
for me to
verb it's difficult for me to plan it's
difficult for me to stay organized it's
difficult for me to speak in front of
big groups it's difficult for me to
something to something
okay
uh
let's see
other examples
ah myat on facebook has a very common
weakness yeah my weakness is i want to
do everything alone i am weak on
teamwork so you can say maybe
teamwork
is difficult for me teamwork is
difficult for me
teamwork is difficult for me great
example then you can explain like how do
you fix that problem how how do you fix
that problem of teamwork so that's
another very common one i think
okay let's go to the next question the
next interview question
is for jobs this is a this is a job
specific question maybe you don't really
hear this one in schools so much so for
jobs why are you leaving why are you
leaving your current job why are you
leaving your current job current job
your current job means your job now so
why are you leaving why are you quitting
why are you going to stop working at
your company now
so again
be honest in this question don't try to
change the information don't try to
create some story be honest but
be positive be positive so don't
disrespect
your job your previous job don't
disrespect your co-workers don't
disrespect the people you worked with
your bosses it's going to sound very
negative so don't be disrespectful when
you answer this question
so for example you could say
maybe
my contract
my contract is going
to finish
soon
and
i want
new
challenges
so you could explain like now is a nice
time and you don't want to get a new
contract because you want to find
something new and challenging to do
so you could say something like this my
contract is going to finish soon i'd
like to explore some new challenges so
again be honest but be positive also
if you were fired so fired means uh your
boss uh
let you go so you
lost your job you did not choose to
leave you were removed from your job in
that case explain why you were fired why
you were fired so maybe you had a
medical issue or something like that but
now it's solved or there is some other
situation but it's good to be honest
it's good to be honest and positive
okay
uh some examples are coming in
ah 0-1 on youtube has a really nice
example i'm leaving because my job
duties or my responsibilities
have been reduced so i have fewer things
to do and i felt that the job was not
using my abilities to the fullest or
challenging me enough nice answer really
nice answer great great great
uh chris why always positive why uh so
if you if you come to your interview and
you talk negatively about your
co-workers or your company
your the impression is that you are a
negative person and you might be
difficult to work with so you want to
make it clear that you can communicate
with other people you can solve problems
and you can like get over
issues so of course no workplace is
perfect of course but you need to show
that you can you can resolve issues and
work forward not just stay in like a
negative mindset
so yes if a negative thing happened
that's okay
but you should show that you learned
from that thing so i don't mean you have
to only say good things i mean you're
thinking you should be thinking in a
positive way
okay uh some other examples ah
uh uh i missed one on facebook but but
niko nakorn nikon sorry again has
another example uh i have worked for the
same company for many years so i want to
try some new things good good good uh oh
sharif on youtube has a good question
what if i am fired because of
disciplinary issues should i tell them
about that uh yes but you should make it
clear what happened like you were maybe
late
like two hours late every day or i don't
know what it was
but you should talk about how you fixed
the problem so maybe the problem was
because of maybe personal issues and now
you fixed that and now you're ready to
start again you made the change
necessary so again show how did you
learn how did you grow because your
interviewer might contact your previous
job so you need to make sure you're
telling the truth
okay
let's go to
the last section the last section is
very brief uh because it's very open
this is up to you but this is a very
important thing to prepare for
this is
the question from the interviewer
do you have any questions for me
do you have any questions for me so yes
in a job interview or in a school
interview you get many many questions
sure but you should be prepared to ask
the interviewer some questions so this
is your chance to learn about the
company or to learn about the school
so for example some things you could ask
are like if you want to ask the
interviewer directly like
what
do you like it's amazing what do you
like
about
working here
what do you like about working here
means why do you like this place
eric says when am i starting what do you
like about working here so eric control
desk has has sent a joke response when
am i starting but if you want to be a
little direct you could say another
question is
uh
if
i if i start working here
uh
or rather if i started working here or
maybe let's simplify it even what
what would be
my first
project
what would be my first project so here
we're using what would be unreal
situation yes for grammar there what
would be my first project so this makes
the interviewer think it makes the
interviewer imagine you in the job like
okay if this person joins my team
his or her first project would be
this thing so the interviewer can tell
you uh probably this project or these
would be your teammates so what would be
my first project what would be my first
project
what do you like about working here
and you can ask some specific questions
to the interviewer about their
experience
uh other questions i don't see any other
ones
someone says is it okay to ask about
perks and benefits yeah you can um you
kind of have to feel a little bit during
the interview what's the feeling of of
this part of the first group of
questions of these questions if you've
made like a nice relationship and you
can kind of talk naturally it's a little
easier to ask that question
but you can ask things like does the
company provide health insurance for its
employees or maybe uh what are what's
the calendar like for employees is there
a lot of overtime you can ask those
sorts of things
so yeah i'll add those
is there a lot of overtime
or uh
does
sorry it's noisy does the company
does the company
offer
health insurance
oh it's amazing okay does the company
offer health insurance something like
that you can't ask if you ask too many
questions about like paid holidays
though it can sound a little not good so
try to try to have a little bit of
balance there it's generally a good idea
yeah so uh so kong says should we ask
about benefits you can a a little bit a
little bit um maybe you can ask like i
said here about uh health care uh and
maybe other uh maybe facilities that the
company has so generally you'll you'll
get a little more detail of after after
the interview like uh and depending on
the case sometimes
okay
um
oh man i just lost my comments okay
that's okay okay
that's all right all right i have to end
anyway uh so i have to wrap up i have to
finish up today's lesson there
but i hope that you found some good
vocabulary and some good maybe ideas for
how to answer these questions i know
that interviews are kind of a scary
experience uh whether you're giving the
interview or you know
asking people questions so
uh
we'll end there for today but if you
missed today's lesson don't worry it has
been recorded so you can check this
lesson on youtube or on facebook uh on
instagram please check youtube or
facebook the instagram live video is
only 24 hours so please check it out
elsewhere uh let's see next week we will
be back next week's topic
is how to report speech how to report
speech so how to report speech means
using the verbs like say and tell and
talk and speak and ask and those verbs
that like so many people ask questions
about i've gotten a lot of questions
about
about this topic so next week we're
going to talk about reporting speech he
said or she said or what did he tell you
or i spoke to that person we're going to
focus on those speech reporting verbs
next week so please join us next week uh
10 p.m eastern standard time that is new
york city time please google your local
time if you don't know or just set a
notification on youtube or on facebook
so please join us again next week to
practice those speech reporting verbs
that'll be a really good one uh where we
talk about verb differences and don't
forget to get your free stuff i showed
you the business and school pdfs today
yes but we have many more i still
haven't shown you all the new ones there
are lots and lots of new ones here i
have not shown today please check the
link below the video on youtube or above
the video on facebook to see all of the
free things you can download from
english class 101.com
all right we'll finish there today thank
you so much for liking the video and
sharing the video we really appreciate
it so enjoy the rest of your week enjoy
your weekend and we'll see you again
next time bye-bye
you