Common English Interview Questions and How to Answer Them Well

welcome back to our weekly live stream

my name is Alisha 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

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other people can find today’s lesson

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for joining I’m going to share the video

now and then I’m going to begin so today

we’re going to 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 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

alive if I can’t have really sorry so

let’s begin I have shared the video so I

want to start with this question this is

maybe the most common first question in

a job interview and you’ll hear

something similar so 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

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 answer 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 Aman says my name is Aman I

finished my Gretsch I graduated maybe I

graduated from such-and-such University

I am such

such years old okay I come from a family

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 goal 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 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 oh

nice one I just there’s one on YouTube

if you’re in the YouTube chat you can

check out Christians 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 next 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 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

that 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 all 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 this is generally not a

good answer so show that you understand

the values or sorry the schools or the

company’s values and goals so values and

goals means what is important for the

company is the company really interested

in like environment or like social

responsibilities is the school really

like focused on technology is there a

specific department that’s interesting

for you about this school so why that

school or why that company explains

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

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 okay

let’s see so send some examples if you

can I’ll try to check there’s some good

examples coming in here 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

this question so the company wants to

know the school wants to know do we have

similar values and similar goals okay

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 this field or your

company is the best with like social

responsibility so the best what so give

some more detail share something

specific about why you’re interested in

that school or that company ok knock

Lorne on Facebook has made me a better

example I want to study MBA and ID a

business school because I want to start

my own business ok 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

ok let’s continue to the third question

here this is another very typical

question maybe you need some explanation

though 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 matching okay let’s

see if there’s a lot of good examples

coming in uh 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 and 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 to connect it to your

career kay 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

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 you

can find it from the file year where is

it we have a couple I think new

ones that I haven’t shown you in a while

there’s a business PDF which I have lost

just a moment here it is there’s the

business this excuse of it to that I

wanted to show you for those of you for

those of you for tho okay those for

those of you who are studying force 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 from 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 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 videos or

other learners can find today’s lesson

alright I see some examples coming in by

the way let’s see mmm

I saw a couple mm-hmm some Oh move

without Milla I think on YouTube says

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 so you

should be honest you should be honest

you know exactly you should be honest

when you answer this question don’t say

I have no weaknesses it’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 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 mmm 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

organised explain give some information

how do you fix that problem how do you

fix that problem okay 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 strengths

means what are you good at what are you

good at so again be honest yes

but don’t be overconfident 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

hang on YouTube says why did you add es

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 es is the plural

form so weakness ends in an S we make

the plural form here by adding yes so

what are your strengths what are your

strengths so maybe you can say ah I’m

good

I’m good at planning events hmm you

could 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 specifically your point and maybe

give an example of that strength that

can be really helpful a couple of points

here then one I’m good at your present

are you president your preposition

should be up 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 let’s see other examples

ah me at 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 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 isn’t 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 your boss 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 some examples are coming

in ah 0 1 on YouTube has a really nice

example I’m leaving because my job

duties are my responsibilities

I’ve 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

Chris why always positive why 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 staying 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 some other

examples I missed one on Facebook but

but Nick knack or Nick or sorry again

has another example I have worked for

the same company for many years so I

want to try some new things good good

good Oh Sharif on YouTube has a good

question what if I am fired because of

disciplinary issues should I tell them

about that yes but you should make it

clear what happened like you or maybe

late like two hours late every day or I

don’t know what it was but you should

talk about how you fix 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 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 can ask are

like if you want to ask the interviewer

directly like what do you like what do

you like about working here 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

controlled us because has sent a joke

response when am i starting but if you

want to be a little direct you could say

another question is if I if I start

working here 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 grandpa 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

be this thing so the interviewer can

tell you probably this project or these

would be your team mates 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 other questions I

don’t see any other ones

ah 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 just the company provide

health insurance for its employees or

maybe 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 does sorry it’s noisy does

the company does the company offer

health insurance okay does the company

offer health insurance something like

that you can 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 and so generally a good

idea yeah so so so gong says should we

ask about benefits you can a little bit

a little bit maybe you can ask like I

said here about health care and maybe

other for maybe facilities that the

company

he has so generally you’ll you’ll get a

little more detail after after the

interview like and depending on the case

sometimes okay ah oh man I just lost my

comments okay that’s 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 many ideas for how to answer these

questions I know that interviews are

kind of a scary experience whether

you’re giving the interview or you know

asking people questions so 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 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 10 p.m. Eastern Standard

Time that is a 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

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

have

showing you all the new months 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 dot-com alright so 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

you