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Tips for feeling confident in job interviews | Improve your listening with Real Easy English

BeginnerBritish accentEasy English6 min

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  1. 0:00 Hi Neil.
  2. 0:01 How are you?
  3. 0:02 I'm very well, Becca.
  4. 0:03 How are you?
  5. 0:03 Yeah, I'm very well as well, thank you.
  6. 0:06 Today on Real Easy English, we're talking about job interviews.
  7. 0:10 Job interviews...
  8. 0:11 they're quite hard, aren't they?
  9. 0:13 They are.
  10. 0:14 They're a little bit stressful.
  11. 0:16 Very stressful.
  12. 0:16 But first, before we get started, we need to remind our listeners and our watchers that there is a transcript and a worksheet
  13. 0:25 and activities over on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
  14. 0:34 So, Becca, job interviews - how do they make you feel?
  15. 0:39 Ooh, they make me feel a little bit nervous, Neil.
  16. 0:43 Nervous?
  17. 0:44 Is that because it's an important thing and you really want it to go well, so it's that feeling of being worried that it won't go well?
  18. 0:53 Exactly.
  19. 0:53 And I think it is natural to be nervous and natural to worry a little bit, because if you're not worried, it means that you don't care.
  20. 1:02 That's true, yeah.
  21. 1:03 And it's actually...
  22. 1:04 it's a really strange situation, a job interview, because you meet these people, who you don't know, and you have to be friendly and smiley and show that you're a nice person,
  23. 1:16 but also that you are serious and you can do the job.
  24. 1:19 And it is difficult to find that balance between being very friendly and also seeming very confident in yourself.
  25. 1:28 What are some common questions that you might be asked in an interview?
  26. 1:33 So, a really common interview question is, Why do you want this job?
  27. 1:38 and it's a good question because if you don't want the job, it means that you're lying immediately and that's not a good sign.
  28. 1:48 So, I think that's a really good question, but it can be difficult to answer so you should probably be prepared and think about it before the interview.
  29. 1:59 I think with that question as well, it's really important to be confident in your answer, because there will be lots of people who are answering that same question as well.
  30. 2:10 Yeah, absolutely.
  31. 2:11 And also, it's a little bit false when you are talking in an interview because you are answering the questions, but you're also trying to display lots of things,
  32. 2:23 so you're trying to tell someone about your skills and your experience, for example.
  33. 2:29 Yeah.
  34. 2:29 Your skills are the things that you can do that will make you good for the job.
  35. 2:34 And the experience, of course, is if you have done this kind of thing before.
  36. 2:40 Yeah.
  37. 2:41 And usually you'll give the interviewer your CV, your cover letter, which is a piece of paper that has your skills and experiences,
  38. 2:50 but they'll still ask you about these things, and they'll want a little bit of a more detailed explanation so that they can get to know you a bit more.
  39. 3:00 Yeah.
  40. 3:00 And what they really want is examples.
  41. 3:03 So, I think it's very easy to say, Oh, you should do this or you should do this in this situation.
  42. 3:13 But if you can say, I did this in a previous job.
  43. 3:17 I did this and then it was a successful result, then that is what people want to hear.
  44. 3:25 Absolutely, yeah.
  45. 3:26 And on top of that, another way to prepare for a job interview is to research the company or wherever it is that you're interviewing
  46. 3:38 because if you can give them examples that fit, maybe with the job that you're interviewing for, then they'll really like that.
  47. 3:46 Yeah, that's really good advice on how to prepare for a job interview.
  48. 3:51 Now, job interviews don't always go well.
  49. 3:55 Can you think of a time you've had a really bad question?
  50. 3:59 What's the worst question you've had?
  51. 4:01 Ooh...
  52. 4:02 often the interviewer will ask what your weakness is.
  53. 4:08 So, you have your strengths - those are the things that you're really good at - so, like, your skills.
  54. 4:13 And then your weaknesses are the things that you might not be so good at, so you don't really want to tell the interviewer what you're not good at!
  55. 4:23 But it is important, I think, to be honest.
  56. 4:26 Yeah.
  57. 4:27 Maybe it's difficult to balance me saying what my weaknesses are, but also, you know, kind of making that good for the job.
  58. 4:39 Yeah, it's really...
  59. 4:40 it's really tricky to answer because you don't want to be completely honest and say, Oh well, my weakness is I really hate working
  60. 4:50 and I can't get up on time.
  61. 4:53 Yeah...!
  62. 4:54 But you also don't want to pretend that you're perfect because nobody believes that somebody is perfect.
  63. 5:01 Absolutely, yeah.
  64. 5:09 Alright Neil, it's time to recap some of the vocabulary that we used in this conversation.
  65. 5:14 And the first is an adjective that we all probably might feel in a job interview and that is 'nervous'.
  66. 5:20 So, 'nervous' is when you feel worried about something.
  67. 5:24 Yeah, we also heard, or we used, the word 'confident'.
  68. 5:29 If you are confident, it means that you are fairly sure that you're going to do well at something.
  69. 5:35 And you can be confident in your skills, for example.
  70. 5:39 So, your skills are the things that you can do.
  71. 5:42 And when you're in a job interview, you need to tell the person interviewing you which skills you're good at.
  72. 5:49 Yes, and it's best if you use examples - examples of real things that you've done that you can tell people,
  73. 5:59 so it doesn't sound like you just took these examples from the internet.
  74. 6:04 Well, that's it for this episode of Real Easy English, but we have a worksheet on our website.
  75. 6:09 That's at bbclearningenglish.com.
  76. 6:12 Join us again next week for another easy conversation.
  77. 6:15 Bye for now.
  78. 6:16 Bye!

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