LIVE LESSON Job Interview Questions

testing this in my studio I look kind of

jerky my movements are not smooth I

assume that’s what you see as well

unfortunately if you see that please let

me know in the chat but what I’m really

hoping for is that my voice is not

choppy the audio is normal whoa that is

my alarm you know what it’s telling me

to do is telling me to put in my

eyedrops

I’ll have to remember to do that later

how is everybody today so great to see

you guys here I’m seeing Taiwan Brazil

Russia Egypt Costa Rica I saw Germany

earlier so awesome to have you guys here

so what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna do

what we’ve been doing for the past two

weeks we’re gonna watch a video together

and I’m gonna look at the chat answer

your questions we’ll stop the video

we’ll talk about things that are

happening and we’re just gonna have fun

it’s a watch party live lesson what

could be better and today I chose the

topic of interviewing for a job in the

u.s. it’s such a strange and difficult

time right now in the US and all over

the world so many people are losing

their jobs and going to start looking

for work and it’s a crazy time some

places are hiring but a lot of places

aren’t and so I thought well talking

about interviewing for a job could be an

interesting way to talk about what’s

happening in the world right now with

jobs with employment but then it’s also

a great way to talk about American

culture because maybe the way an

interview is handled is way different

here than the way it’s handled in your

own country so before we get started

here watching the video my first

question for you is is anyone out there

currently looking for a job out of work

did anyone out there lose their job

because of the corona virus and the

shutdown in their region if so I’m I

feel for you sending you love and

support right now and you know let me

know also in the comments if you’re

looking for a job if maybe your

taking this time as a break you need to

be with your family just let me know

what’s going on with you and we’re gonna

get started with this video watching

this lesson together and I’ll keep an

eye on your comments and chat I’ll pause

the video and we’ll talk about things so

ask me anything anything about a job

interview but also anything about

American English or pronunciation or

American culture

I’m gonna do my best to keep my eye on

the chat and to try to pick up as many

questions as I can okay let’s get

started with the video mock interviews

so we’re going to be watching people

answering questions and we’re going to

talk about what makes a strong answer

and what makes an answer a little bit

weak a little bit less interesting

so something you’ll want to keep in mind

if you’re ever interviewing for a job

anytime soon okay let’s get started oh I

have to shrink myself don’t I I always

forget

I don’t want to get in the way of the

actual video okay here we go to help you

ace your next job interview we’re going

to study for mock interviews to see what

works well and what doesn’t work well in

an answer we’ll see four people a

teacher a doctor a social worker and a

marketing expert interview for a job

we’ll take some standard interview

questions and study how they answer them

to figure out how you can form your own

compelling answers today we’ll study

three prompts first tell me a little bit

about yourself then tell me about a

conflict you had at work and how you

resolved it and finally describe a

meaningful experience you’ve had at work

for my non-native English speaking

students I’m going to go over some tips

to keep in mind while practising your

interview answers that lesson will be at

the end of the video for the first

prompt tell me a little bit about

yourself keep your answer brief let’s

listen to an answer my name is Dan I’m a

father of two little girls I’m a social

worker I love playing guitar I love

music in my spare time if I’m not

playing guitar I’m jogging I’m out in

the yard with my girls I love camping

that

all you need it’s about 13 seconds okay

guys let’s pause that let’s talk

together about it let me so the first

question is often tell me a little bit

about yourself and you can choose to

make that about work

oh I graduated from whatever University

and I’ve been working in whatever job

for a few years or you can choose to

make it personal - that is often what it

means because they will get more into

your job history later in the interview

it might feel strange culturally from

where you are to talk about personal

things in a job interview but in America

it’s okay to give some general things

about yourself like Dan jested I have

two girls I like to play the guitar

anything like that that can that the

interviewer can use to relate to you is

good because the interviewer is probably

not just looking at your skills because

the interviewer can know a lot about

that by not meeting with you in person

meeting with you in person they want to

know more about you they want to read

you and understand you and feel you and

so they might ask you a question and

just see what you do with it answering a

few things about your personal life it

doesn’t even really matter what you say

don’t get too personal but they’re

really just looking for your personality

and how comfortable you are with

yourself so someone says the movement is

this consistent inconsistent with the

sound I do apologize I know that the my

video isn’t syncing very well and I

don’t actually know how to fix it but I

will fix it before I go live again

that’s why I haven’t really been

announcing these things I’m still

learning a lot about how it all works

Haiti hey love it so many different

countries here Senegal wonderful to see

you guys all here someone in the u.s. a

awesome I’m in Philly where are you so

good to see you guys so someone said I’m

married and I have one child that could

be a great way to answer the question

tell me a little bit about yourself

now I don’t think it’s I think it’s

probably against the law

ask if you’re married or to ask if you

have children but if someone says tell

me a little bit about yourself when you

choose to share that that’s great

there’s no problem with that does any of

this feel different from what it is what

a job interview would be like in your

country would you never mention anything

personal would it feel strange to share

something a little bit personal let’s

keep going if you have children and you

want to mention them great but you

certainly don’t have to he says a couple

of things he loves I love guitar I love

playing music he also uses the phrase in

my spare time to list a couple other

activities jogging playing in the yard

with his daughters come up with one or

two sentences that begin with I love I

enjoy or in my spare time I you can

elaborate a bit for example I love going

to the ballet I studied dance for 12

years when I was a kid think of your

answer and practice it in a mock

interview time your answer aim for

something between 10 and 20 seconds if

you say something that your interviewer

can relate to he or she might pick that

up for conversation many okay so I’ve

seen one person in the chat say

something about maybe an answer they

would give tell me a little bit about

yourself so now I went everybody who can

think of something to put something in

the chat in English it’s a good time to

practice that tell me something about

yourself

now I’m gonna answer the question I live

in Philadelphia I have two small boys

and one of the things that we love to do

is travel we recently went on a trip to

Italy and had a fantastic time something

like that short not too long put your

answer in the comments I’m gonna read

them I’m gonna learn about you guys okay

let’s keep going further on with the

rest of the video other questions you

might get asked and watch some pretend

answers mock interview that means it’s

not a real interview but a practice

interview these days will ask you about

what you have done not what you will do

or would do asking a question about a

conflict at work

would be a common interview question

conflict is inevitable employers want to

know how you handle it you might get

asked about a time where you had to

resolve a conflict with a co-worker

think of a very specific time and tell

the story of it what the conflict was

how you worked it out let’s listen to an

example answer in my last job I remember

when I was working on trying to change

some ticket pricing for our events I had

a colleague who was very comfortable

with the old way of doing the pricing so

we had a huge conversation about the

benefits of rethinking things and trying

to improve the system and he had agreed

but then later on he sent me an email

that he was really uncomfortable and

really didn’t want to do it and and

really frustrated there was there was a

tone coming through to the email that it

was something that he just really didn’t

want to do and was very unhappy Adrienne

told us her story she set us up with the

details and now she’s explicitly using

the phrase to resolve the conflict I

okay so this is an important one to be

able to talk about things and work that

have not gone well like conflict with

the person it’s definitely something

that people are going to ask you in an

interview and you want to be prepared

with specific stories know them ahead of

time and know how you’re going to talk

about them so you can use the

opportunity to talk about a problem or a

conflict as a way to showcase one of

your strengths and if you’ve planned

ahead for that you would definitely be

able to do it now I’m gonna ask you

everybody put in the chat for me now

tell me about a conflict you’ve had at

work it can just be one sentence for

example let me think of when I had okay

one time my boss asked me why I wasn’t

doing more of a job running the

restaurant where I was working and I

said because I didn’t know that’s why I

was hired as that I was hired after the

other guy so I thought he was more

senior and I said I’d be happy to do

that can you give me a little training

on it so this person assumed I was going

to take more of a leadership role I

didn’t understand that and I owned that

I said I’m sorry I didn’t understand

that this is why and then

I threw out an invitation I would love

to learn more could you give me some

training on that showing willingness I

think is something that people really

really like to see they like to see

you’re willing to try something new they

like to see that you can say I did that

wrong or I’m sorry I didn’t realize what

can I do to make it better there is a a

show called Daniel tiger and it’s a

spin-off of Mister Rogers neighborhood

and my son watches it and one of the

lessons they taught there is it’s not

enough to just say I’m sorry the next

thing you say is how can I help and so I

love that we don’t just stop there I’m

sorry but we say I’m sorry what can I do

and in that situation I said I didn’t

understand that was the expectation what

can I do is there training I can get in

management in the way you want me to run

things I would love to know that so tell

me in the chat about a time you’ve had

conflict so so far I’ve been doing as

much comment reading as I can and I have

only seen one person say an answer to

one of these interview questions so take

a minute see if you can think of one and

put it in I have seen lots of other

countries here India England

I saw Slovakia Iraq so wonderful

Japanese living in Singapore China via

VPN so wonderful to see you guys all

here it’s so fun to be doing this with

you okay let’s keep going and as I said

this is use this as an opportunity to

think of something that you would say

either one or two sentences about

yourself or one or two sentences about a

conflict you had at work that you

resolved let’s keep going with the video

so to resolve that conflict I made an

appointment with him the very next

morning and went down to meet with him

in his office and had a really clear and

direct conversation I love the details

she’s giving here she spoke with him the

very next morning that says to me she

didn’t let this conflict sit there and

get worse right away she went to him in

person to have a conversation about it

she took the time to do this face to

face

she talks about having clear and direct

conversation that’s great disagreeing

with someone can be hard and trying to

talk about it even harder communicating

clearly in these situations is important

and had a really clear and direct

conversation about what his concerns

were and what he was thinking and and

how we could move forward and okay

Algeria Vietnam so wonderful to see you

guys here so basically what she said

there and she’s she’s awesome this woman

Adrienne I love her she has a YouTube

channel I’m not sure she updates that

much anymore she works in the arts but

she just talks about when there is a

conflict conflict being very direct with

the person you’re having a conflict with

that can be hard some of us don’t have

that kind of personality where we want

to be very direct and talk about a

problem we’re having with somebody but

often especially in a work situation

that’s going to bring about the best

resolution the quickest way isn’t it so

if you’ve ever had a conflict with

somebody and you felt like you handled

it in a very direct and reasonable way

that would be a great thing that you’d

want to highlight also someone in the

chat was talking about a conflict they

had and they said I’m still salty about

it and I loved that word do any of you

guys know that word the use of that word

so salty means a lot of salt on food for

example this this pasta is too salty

but it can also be used to mean a little

bit bitter I’m still salty about it oh

he got that job when I wanted it and

it’s been a year but I’m still kind of

salty about it so great use of that word

I just wanted to point that out because

I think it’s a great one and a lot of

people probably don’t know it they’ve

probably only ever heard salty used to

describe food but you can also use it to

describe how you feel about something

all right let’s keep going

and I’m just going to keep an eye on

you guys in chat Morocco Sudan wonderful

to have you guys here compromise that we

could address his feelings but also I

brought him on board with the ideas that

we had come to and made him feel

comfortable with how we were going to

resolve the situation the way she

describes it it sounds like she really

listens to her co-worker and cared about

his thoughts and feelings why he

disagreed with her that’s a really

positive trait sometimes when we

disagree with someone it’s hard to see

their side but she listened to his

concerns addressed them and ultimately

they were able to come up with a

compromise here’s another person

answering the question she talks about

working on a project with a supervisor

he okay hold on I have to stop here

someone in chat said I actually really

liked to disagree and I like to disagree

because that means that we’re gonna

maybe find new ideas or I like it when

someone disagrees with me so I love that

perspective that would be a great thing

to bring up in a job interview if

someone just agreed with you you had a

disagreement with somebody at work but

you felt like it led to a new idea or a

new path or something that would be a

wonderful thing to highlight of course

everyone likes to think that something

positive can come out of conflict and it

can so if you have an example of it I

think that would be a great thing to

highlight in a job interview

Poland hey Greece we got a couple new

countries here Brazil yep Oh someone

asks what time does this class start

every day well I’m not going live every

day right now I’m still I’m going live

about once a week let’s see I think

twice it’s been on Saturday and once

it’s been on Friday I’m still figuring

out technically how to do everything as

you can tell I’m having some issues with

my camera so once I get things smooth it

out and I’m feeling really confident in

live streaming I’ll be announcing it and

I’ll be doing it at a more regular time

but for now I’m I’m still just I feel a

little bit shy about it I feel I don’t

feel very confident in it yeah

so I’m just doing some of these to get

more comfortable with it and to figure

out what issues I still have like

whatever is going on with my camera

right now

but definitely I think it’s an important

way to be in touch with you guys

especially during this time of the

corona virus and shutdown and all of

that so I’m definitely going to try to

do it more we have Guatemala we have

Syria Colombia Mexico Algeria Argentina

Spain Kurdistan you know I was just

Argentina

Poland Spain Ukraine I was just in

Mexico in January and that feels so far

away now but I had a lovely time and I’m

actually planning on going back again in

January depending on the travel

situation I had a lot of fun I had a lot

of fun exposing stoney and Sawyer to

another culture another language stone

II really had fun working on his few

Spanish phrases that we were teaching

him okay let’s keep going with the mock

interview video me one morning I think

we’re going to have to possibly go in a

different direction and use something

completely different

okay I was angry I felt upset I wanted

to react I was sad but I made myself go

very slowly and I was calm and then what

I decided to do was ask him questions

and one question I okay so this person

talked about being angry at her

supervisor and that might feel like

something you wouldn’t want to mention

in a job interview being angry your

supervisor but I actually think it’s

okay because you know she took a deep

breath she didn’t show anger towards him

it’s a very human thing to feel anger

when something isn’t going your way when

you’ve been working on a project and

someone shuts it down so by showing that

by saying she felt angry and then she’s

about to describe how she handled it

it kind of makes me trust her and think

she’s interesting so don’t be shy about

saying things that on the surface could

seem negative in a job interview if

you’ve practiced ahead of time you can

always spin things positively asked him

was can you help me to understand why

Lisa talked about the reaction she had

but how she stopped herself and began to

ask questions this is just like what

Adrienne said she did asking questions

is a great way to resolve conflict when

you better understand what the other

side is thinking and feeling it can help

you figure out exactly how to come to an

agreement and as he spoke I realized

that he really didn’t have enough

information I wasn’t quite sure how to

point that out to him but I did say you

know before we leave this idea and just

change I would like a chance to present

to you why I think we should keep what

we have and it turned out that he was

willing to look at it

he admitted he hadn’t read some of it

and yes okay so this is great she’s

talking about she resolved the conflict

she was having by asking questions and I

think that can always be a benefit if

you’re just joining me I do apologize I

know that there are some issues right

now with my camera believe it or not

it’s not this stream the stream is okay

it’s actually the software that I’m

using on my computer because it’s

happening right here on my own computer

screen and I I’m gonna very much so try

to fix that before our next live stream

and I apologize for these technical

difficulties and these technical issues

it’s frustrating I feel frustrated but

you know what I’m going to learn from it

I’m going to do some research and I’m

gonna make sure that my camera is

functioning better before I attempt

another live stream I just I had this

idea that I wanted to go over this video

with you guys just because of the times

and because I think job interviews can

really reflect the culture of a country

and so I thought it would be an

interesting thing to livestream with you

so I admit I got ahead of myself

I went live knowing that my camera was

maybe not working I was like hoping when

I went live all of a sudden it would be

totally normal

I don’t know why I thought that it’s

never how that is but keep it coming and

chat guys I’m enjoying reading what

you’re saying and let’s continue on with

this lesson so we’re studying a video

where we’re studying some mock interview

questions this is a mock interview is

when you practice an interview this is

actually part of a very big series I

think it’s like 10 or 12 videos 10 may

be about interviewing for a job in the

u.s. from the beginning about networking

and resume and cover letter and all of

that through a lot about interviewing

and negotiating your salary it’s an

awesome playlist I’ve linked to it in

the video description so check it out if

you haven’t already you can settle in

just let it play video after video and

if you don’t have time to finish come

back okay let’s keep going coming back

to me and saying you’re right I think we

should keep what we have she asked to

present her side in the end her

supervisor understood and agreed with

her think of a work conflict you can

talk about did you ask questions

did you really listen to the other party

make sure you highlight this as you talk

through the resolution both Adrienne and

Lisa told stories about a specific

conflict interviewers want you to do

this they don’t want to hear how you

handle conflict in general listen to

Jeff’s answer here first of all I would

say that working within teams invariably

there’s going to be conflict that that

arises one of the ways that I’ve found

very helpful to deal with with conflict

within teams especially in the

leadership position is to sit down with

both parties provide them a forum to

talk to each other have them listen to

each other and then try to find common

ground

and ways to move on essentially in a

team what you’re trying to do is allow

team members to function at the level

that they should be functioning and the

other team members have to allow those

team members to do that if not then

conflict will arise but if you kind of

help okay so he’s done a great job

talking about not necessarily conflict

he had with somebody but talking about

how he mediated do you know that word

mediated conflict he wasn’t one of the

people in the conflict but he stepped in

to help both sides communicate with one

another listen to one another and that

can be a really important skill in a

leader because it might really be that

people on your team have a big

disagreement about how something should

work well it’s going to be your

responsibility to figure out how to do

that how to mediate conflict resolve

conflict and make things happen okay a

couple people are saying okay someone

says on your wall is that a door or a

window that’s a window but it’s actually

not my wall this is a green screen that

I’m in front of so that when I switched

to the video you can’t see the

background and so this is just an image

that I chose is my background this isn’t

actually where I am this is a nice

looking empty co-working space maybe but

I believe that’s a window over there

okay someone else asked the question

what do you call it this problem you’re

having with your camera it’s a good

question I would say there’s a delay I

would say my camera is jerky it’s not

smooth we’re having all sorts of

problems if you’re just joining us now I

am having problems with my camera it is

not smooth it is jerky there’s a bit of

a delay I apologize I’m definitely going

to figure it out the next time before I

go live but right now we’re watching a

video mock interviews talking about

things you might want to mention and say

about yourself in a job interview you

know there’s a lot of preparation you

can do ahead of time you can make that

interview be anything you want depending

on how you prepare for it alright let’s

head back to the video the doctor

talking about mediating conflict people

understand what their role is within the

team and what they should be doing that

goes very far to helping reduce conflict

he talks about why conflict arises and

how to handle it it’s an articulate

answer and it makes sense but he doesn’t

tell a specific story about a conflict

now he’s going to basically say the same

thing but use a specific example so one

particular conflict that I helped to

mediate among our team was among a

provider and a RN care manager or

registered nurse care manager both felt

responsibility for taking care of a

patient both had an understanding about

what they thought needed to happen in

order to move forward and both thought

that the other person was standing in

the way of their ability to do that so I

think one of the biggest issues with

working within teams is sometimes even

though you’re working together day to

day you’re not actually talking to each

other

so when they were able to actually talk

to each other and explain how they

wanted to move forward with the care of

the patient then conflict was able to be

resolved that’s something I can more

easily remember there were two parties

involved in caring for a patient they

both had their own ideas about how to do

that when Jeff brought them together to

talk it through a resolution was found

and the conflict was resolved employers

okay so he did something really

important he gave a specific example you

never want to talk about things

generally in a job interview you always

want to have a specific example and if

you’re interviewing in English and it’s

not your native language that could be

harder it can be harder to think in the

moment and formulate your thoughts and

express them in English so especially

for non-native speakers especially if

you are interviewing for a job in a

language that isn’t your native language

you will want to prepare you can always

find mock interview questions online but

watch this whole series I have we go

over some of the most important ones we

go over how to answer those questions

and if you take the time to practice I

guarantee it will go better it will go