What to say at your job interview English Phrases Tips
dad oh right so welcome back to our live
stream this week everybody thank you for
joining us as always we’re beginning
today’s episode today we’re going to
focus on job interviews we have a lot to
talk about
I planned a lot of things to discuss
we’re going to look at some sample
questions of course and what those
questions mean I tried to choose some
questions that I thought would be kind
of common questions but that maybe the
meanings aren’t always so clear for you
so we’re going to talk about that and I
wanted to talk about some sample
responses to those questions so that’s
what we’re going to do today it’s a lot
of things to do so I want to start as
quickly as possible I know that YouTube
is up great hi YouTube hello everybody
good morning good afternoon good evening
from wherever you are I looked it up we
have all kinds of different time zones
joining at different times of day I
suppose so welcome
Facebook is up - great so as we wait
just a couple minutes for everybody to
join us I want to of course introduce
something that’s actually a connection
to what we talked about last week last
week for those of you who joined us we
talked about like exchanging your
contact information and how to do that
politely um so I did actually usually I
try to do something like on Twitter or
Instagram to show kind of like how I use
those points in my everyday life this
week though I wanted to connect kind of
this week’s topic with last week’s topic
so as you’ll see in a second here I
actually I tweeted a poll a quick poll
yesterday about how you choose to use
social media how you exchange contact
information with your work colleagues so
this is what I think we’ll see in just a
second here the poll that I tweeted
yesterday ready to go it’s coming up
okay good so I tweeted this yesterday
asking um
like essentially I said we talked last
week about sharing your contact
information like do you have facebook or
do you have Twitter or Instagram or
whatever but this week because we’re
talking about job interviews and lately
like social media connections and your
job can kind of raise some questions in
the workplace I asked everyone on
Twitter this question do you exchange
social media contact info information
with your work colleagues this was a key
question that I raised so the results
came in this morning I checked this
morning actually here so 58% of you said
you’re close colleagues only you
exchanged your contact information with
38% of you said absolutely not so this
is from like I had like 40 people
respond it was a very short poll but
this is something to think about perhaps
when you are looking for a job when
you’re having job interviews when you’re
going to meet people and talk about your
work some people choose to be very
careful about their social media
presence so maybe this is one thing to
think about today kind of in the
background as we discuss okay so with
that I want to get right into today’s
topic it looks like Facebook is up good
morning let’s see site though son hello
someone from Vietnam Hong Sean hello
and Joe hello someone from India yeah
mooch son hello good okay and all right
Harley hi I see you in YouTube welcome
back a Francisco blur Juan from Brazil
fantastic okay let’s get into today’s
topic then there’s a lot to talk about
so today I’m going to talk about three
things as I mentioned today we’re going
to talk about three primary or a couple
of things one sample questions and then
sample answers for that and then we’re
going to talk about sort of the end of
an interview as well so I’ve broken it
into really three parts that I want to
look at so first I’m going to talk about
the questions we do at the beginning of
an interview second will be kind of some
common questions in the middle of an
interview and third
we’ll be questions to ask the
interviewer yeah this part right here
right here so this is the our kind of
agenda for the day so first we’re going
to do this bit questions at the
beginning of an interview this will be
the first thing I want to talk about so
good so and if you’re just joining of
course as always please make sure to
like and share the video it is very
helpful for us so I hope we can share a
lot of really good information yeah
please hit the like button on Facebook
or on YouTube okay but let’s begin with
the first part so some typical questions
that you get at the beginning of the
interview I want to start with a very
typical initial a very typical first
interview question which is tell me a
little bit about yourself tell me a
little bit about yourself so this is a
small question however this is a
question that’s inviting you to give
kind of a general introduction so you
should give a short history of yourself
when you hear this question essentially
so when you are answering this question
depending on the place you are at in
your career or in your life you should
include in this in your answer to this
question your studies what did you study
maybe have you lived in different
countries what languages do you speak
maybe where have you worked in the past
so you can use probably past tense and
let’s see present perfect tense to
answer some of these questions so maybe
share some key things some key points
that you learned what are your interests
what are your achievements so you would
you should probably give a general
summary of yourself in this question
when they say this is this isn’t really
a question you’ll see this is sort of a
general statement that the interviewer
makes tell me a little bit about
yourself so that’s the first one that’s
a very common one to begin I think
interviews so that’s the first one I
want to talk about second another common
question you might get in an interview
near the beginning of the interview I
have a couple
paired here is how did you learn about
the position or how did you hear about
the position so how did you learn about
or how did you hear about the position
so sometimes an interviewer will ask you
where you got the information about the
job so did you find this from an
advertisement on the Internet
did you find it on the company’s website
or maybe you were introduced by someone
in the company if you have a
relationship with someone in the company
you can explain that here so sometimes
interviewers will ask how you found out
about the position maybe their
advertising in in different places and
that can help the interviewer
understand maybe your connection to the
position or to maybe someone else in the
company so you can just you can give a
short answer to this like I saw the
position I advertised on like ABC web
site or I heard about the position
through a friend who works at this
company or I was referred so if someone
like recommends you or refers you to a
position you can mention that here too
so this is how you found the job opening
essentially how did you find that so
these are common questions you might
hear one of these in the beginning
towards the beginning of an interview
but I want to go on to maybe one of the
most common questions one of the most
common interview questions that might
not be so clear the meaning of this
question might not always be so clear
but it is a very common one and it’s a
con it’s a question that you may hear at
job reviews or like it performance
reviews - so this is an important
question to know not only when you are
hired for a job when you are applying
for a job but also after you’ve been at
that job for some time so this question
and a please think about your answer for
this this is going to be our first kind
of chat response answer is the question
is where do you see yourself in five
years
where do you see yourself in five years
so the meaning of this question is what
is your vision of yourself in five
so here reviews the verb see where do
you see yourself but it’s in your mind
what is your goal for yourself
in five years so what do you imagine you
will be doing in five years so this
should be a professional a professional
situation so what do you imagine your
life will be like in five years so some
things to think about when you answer
this question in five years what do you
want to have achieved so in the past
five years what do you want to have
achieved or what do you want to have
learned and think about in five years
what’s going to be the next step for you
what do you think is the next thing you
want to work on so when you’re answering
this question though especially during
the first interview you’re applying for
a job it’s also important to think about
this question from the company’s side so
of course you have your personal goals
but you also need to think about how you
can match the company as well so be
thinking like okay how can I achieve my
goals but also how do my goals meet the
company’s goals so think about what the
company is working to achieve and what
you are working to achieve and try to
connect those think about how to connect
those when you answer this question so
think about how you can succeed but in
doing so in doing your job at the
company then how are you going to help
the company so this is a really
important question so think about how
you can kind of plan to grow along with
the company then too so this is a good
one to to practice so I want to practice
with this one to begin today so this is
our first question some of you are
already answering it that’s amazing
so imagine then in a job interview your
interviewer asks where do you see
yourself in five years so to answer this
question here’s one pattern of we can
use I see myself plus I have the verb
here in the progressive form so in five
years what is the thing what is the
or what is the activity you will be
doing in the future the activity that
will be in progress that will be
continuing for you so for example I see
myself teaching English in another
country for example or I see myself Oh
or I see myself studying in the UK for
example or I see myself working on
independent projects so imagine in five
years what are you going to be doing and
how can you explain that so if an
interviewer asks you this I see myself
what activity like so think of this
professionally I see myself building my
own company or starting my own company
or I see myself I don’t know developing
a new product for example so please
think of this in terms of your
professional goals your workable so some
of you like Denari says I can see myself
living in a big house that’s good that’s
fine for grammar but think about it for
a job interview Deena hey Deena welcome
back I saw you last week Deena has a
great answer on YouTube I imagined
myself in five years as I am an
independent woman who has careful aha
who has her own company or my own
business nice very nice very nice so
your professional goals
just remember also though to like when
you are making these statements for an
interview think about how to show your
goals match the company’s goals to
Sharlee says I see myself becoming the
manage something of a field ah ok thanks
I see myself becoming the manager a
manager in my field nice ok great I see
myself he day says I see myself teaching
Japanese using English on the Internet
oh very nice ok good norito says I see
myself traveling around the world okay
that’s a nice maybe personal goal
personal goals too so think about this
for professional goals for a job
interview yeah
Harley says I see myself building my own
car company ok great
MB I see myself working as a me
okay Oscar says I see myself teaching
physics in a university in my home
country fantastic you guys have really
interesting goals on Facebook manna says
says I see myself speaking English
fluently and learning Spanish fantastic
garrison hey I see myself working hard
as a computer technician great um
Minh on YouTube I see myself working as
a tour guide great
it was so fact I see myself working as
something for the company but sorry I
missed it oh good I see myself working
very hard for the company okay that’s a
good one however if you want to use that
answer if you’re in a job interview if
I’m here like I’m interviewing you and I
say where do you see yourself in five
years and you say I see myself working
very hard at this company that’s nice if
you want to say that I think you should
include specifically a goal for your
time in the company okay so that’s
something to think about
all right great answers to this first
question but it’s time to take a break
and today we have an exciting break
because we have something totally new
for you guys it’s time so we have a
brand new cheat sheet and this is
something that might be really useful
for you as you apply for jobs and as
you’re trying to work on improving your
English to apply for jobs we have a new
TOEIC taking the TOEIC cheat sheet here
so this is our special new cheat sheet
that you can download for free from the
website if you would like this it is
free it is in the link below the video
on youtube and above the video on
Facebook please check the links there so
this is actually a guide for how to take
the TOEIC test so what things can you
think about that will help you succeed
or help you improve when taking the
TOEIC test so for example trying to
answer the questions right away or
trying to kind of like predict or get
some previews of questions if you have
extra time so this
is a whole guide there are actually 10
points here about how to kind of change
your strategy a little bit in taking the
TOEIC test so for example I just
mentioned like you know for years like
marking the right answer immediately so
like if you know the answer like just
just go for it because you’re not
penalized in this case on the TOEIC test
so if you are working to improve your
English like for job interviews like
we’re talking about today or there’s
something else you would like to take
the TOEIC for of course just just to
challenge yourself as well this could be
a good resource to help you as you work
on improving that test score so please
go download this you can get this this
is Brandt this is a totally new one it’s
two pages it’s a good one so please
check it out you can find the link below
the video if you’re watching on YouTube
and above the video if you’re watching
on Facebook so check out this new toad
cheat sheet we’ll talk about it again a
little bit later okay so you can
download this you go to the website from
the link and you just sign in with your
account log in with your account if you
don’t have an account you can make one
really quickly like 15 seconds or so so
please check that out it could be a
really good resource for people taking
the test all right great
so let’s get back to today’s topic I am
talking too much so let’s get back to
today’s topic today we are talking about
job interviews job interviews talking is
goods as the producer so we’re talking
about job interviews if you just joined
us of course please make sure to like
and share the video I hope this can be
really helpful for a lot of people but
we’re going to move on to some questions
you might hear near the middle of an
interview so in the beginning of today’s
lesson and if you missed it you can
always watch this back later in the
beginning of today’s lesson I talked
about the question how did you hear
about this position or where did you
hear about where did you learn about
this position I want to move on to
another question that’s sort of related
it could be related in some cases the
question is why are you interested in
working for our company why are you
interested in work so in other words why
did you choose this job to apply to like
why do you want to work here so this is
a question that you should probably have
done some research to answer like when
you answer this question it’s a good
idea to show that you understand or are
at least interested in learning more
about the company’s goals so does the
company have goals that match your
professional goals so like you said you
gave some great answers to that where do
you see yourself in five years question
think about your professional goals and
the company’s goals and maybe explain
well they match really well or maybe you
think you can learn a lot from the
company and in learning from them you
can help them as well or maybe you
really admire that company’s work and
you want to work with them because you
feel like you you have a nice like
personal match with the companies like
social policies for example so why are
you interested in working for our
company so I’m interested in working for
your company because the company’s goals
match my professional goals and give
some examples example a or example B for
example okay so this is a question you
might hear well maybe in the middle or
maybe in the beginning of the interview
why do you want to work here in other
ways okay so I want to go on to another
one or actually there’s one more thing
that I wanted to mention about this
point though if you are interested in
working for a company that has that you
know has like good benefits maybe or
good pay that’s great congratulations
but when you answer this question if you
say I want to work at your company
because I heard the pay is good that’s
typically not the best response to this
question so maybe that’s a good thing if
perhaps the company has benefits that
would be beneficial or good for your
family maybe it’s appropriate to mention
that like as but as sort of like a side
point perhaps typically it’s not a good
idea to focus on like
or benefits as the first reason to be
interested in working for a company okay
so let’s go on to the next question I
want to talk about or the next maybe
issue that an interviewer might ask you
so a little challenging maybe this one
is tell me about a time you encountered
a problem at work how did you deal with
it so this first part tell me about a
time you encountered so encounter it
sort of means like meet meet so in other
words tell the interviewer about a
problem you had at your job and how this
how did you deal with it means how did
you fix the problem so when the
interviewer asks this question they’re
asking how do you solve problems so like
what’s an example of a problem you had
in the past and how did you fix it so if
for example like here like for example I
could say I had a new project called ask
Alicia where I needed to edit videos
regularly but I didn’t know all of the
details of the software that the company
used so I studied myself I studied with
online tutorials I asked advice from my
colleagues and then I gained more
familiarity I became able to use the
software and now I’m confident that I
can do my my recycle take care of my
responsibilities for example so give an
example have have this in your head
before the interview this is something
to prepare so what’s a problem that you
had what’s something that you struggled
with maybe and how did you fix that
issue so this is another one okay but
the next one that I want to talk about
is your neck your next question to
consider this can be a tough one to
answer Oh actually Luis in YouTube says
what happens if I don’t have any
experience if you don’t have any work
experience like if you’re a student for
example you can use an example from
University or perhaps if you are part of
a social group or you’re part of a club
for example at your university you can
describe an experience you had there so
this if you’re just starting out if you
don’t have work experience you can use
experi
from a different community group to
answer this question so a good point
thanks for that question okay
but I want to move on to the next
question for you guys to answer in the
chat so this is it this is kind of
tricky so the question from the
interviewer is what do you consider your
strengths and weaknesses so in other
points or in other words what do you
think you are good at your strengths and
what do you think you are bad at so this
part especially is difficult to talk
about because you don’t want to say in
an interview really like I’m not very
good at this I’m not very good at that
but everybody has weaknesses so when you
talk about this you should explain these
are some kind of patterns you can use to
explain these things so when you say
like explain your strengths you can say
I’m good at bla bla bla
I’m good at like in my case like I’m
pretty good at multitasking and I can
handle many different projects at the
same time when you talk about your
weaknesses so things you are bad at or
not so good at things you are weak with
you can use this pattern sometimes it’s
difficult for me to verb so sometimes
it’s difficult for me to make plans or
sometimes it’s difficult for me to do a
lot of research for it I don’t know so
something that’s difficult for you to do
you can explain here finally after you
explain your what you’re not so good at
talk about how you fix this problem so
in my case for example like sometimes I
get like stuck like I want to I want to
do things perfectly every time and then
I take way too much time to research or
like to fix small points so how do you
fix this problem in other words so in my
case I can say I have learned to ask my
colleagues for advice or I have learned
to set a time limit for myself when
working on projects so I’m good at this
I’m not so good at this and here is how
I fix this problem that I have
identified with myself so these are this
is kind of a pattern we can use so think
of
for you then so the question here what
do you consider your strengths and
weaknesses what do you consider your
strengths and weaknesses so like I said
like I’m pretty I’m good at multitasking
and I can handle many things at
different times but like if I don’t know
that sometimes it’s difficult for me to
know the next step in the project and so
I spend a lot of time to think about all
the different steps take too much time
sometimes so I’ve learned to avoid this
by consulting or by talking with
colleagues or with managers for example
okay producer says so she has a funny
example sometimes it’s difficult for me
to stay awake
I’ve learned that a lot of caffeine
helps great great very nice and simple
example there good one good one thanks
ice okay good so a lot of you are saying
I’m good at building motors for example
I’m good at fixing computers so but
remember when the interviewer asks you
this question you can’t only say I’m
good at I’m good at I’m good at its you
need to explain like I am not so good at
this other thing so what aren’t you so
good at sometimes it’s difficult for me
to memorize everything nice fun okay
sometimes it’s difficult for me to
memorize everything absolutely so how
have you learned to fix that
lluís Wow nice one he has a paragraph I
would say that I’m a perfectionist yeah
that’s it that’s a common one I’m a
perfectionist as that’s so that’s a weak
that’s a weakness because usually I’m
trying or I’m looking to do everything
in the best way and for that reason I
waste a lot of time right right okay
good so many people are explaining like
they’re good at something or they’re not
so good at something it’s difficult
remember when you explain what you’re
not so good at how do you fix it okay
you says I’m good at learning new things
but sometimes it’s difficult for me to
socialize with other people I have
learned well I don’t know well so okay
so maybe if it’s difficult for you to
answer one of these questions maybe this
is that’s a good one to focus on how can
you answer this question so please think
of it
okay mmm
all right taking notes says Roberto on
Facebook so maybe something you’re good
at doing all right so please think about
it if you see one of these questions and
you’re like I don’t know how to answer
this maybe that’s a good question for
you to focus on all right I’m going to
just go to my last question for the day
if that’s okay because time is running
out quickly so the last question I want
to talk about today is kind of maybe it
could be confusing sometimes actually
the question is is a question to you as
the interviewee however it’s a chance to
ask the interview or something so the
question here is often the last question
in a job interview is do you have any
questions for me so if I’m your
interviewer I will maybe finish the
interview I’ll say do you have any
questions for me this is your chance to
show you research the company that
you’re thinking carefully about the job
and that you want to know more so this
this is gonna show maybe that you’re
taking initiative that you’re really
trying you you yourself are starting to
investigate are starting to research the
company and care about the job so this
depending on how formal the interview is
you can ask maybe some more general
questions or sometimes they can be a
little more casual like maybe you know
the interviewer or maybe it’s a company
that’s you know close to your family for
example so the response might be a
little bit different but I want to look
at a few examples that you could use
some very very general ones if you don’t
have any ideas these might give you some
hints so one question you could ask in
response so someone says do you have any
questions for me you might want to ask a
few things about working there so one
example that you can use is could you
tell me ah oh sorry I just realized in
my notes I have extra I didn’t finish
somehow that’s my mistake sorry
music I left some half written text
there so yes that’s my bed my my bad
means it was my mistake my bad it’s a
very casual expression anyway my bad but
this is a answer and answer do you have
any questions for me means could you
tell me a little bit about the work
environment here work environment so in
other words this is a formal question
meaning what is it like to work in your
company so please tell me like alright
what I was going to say is our employees
like quite connected do people like
spend a lot of time working together or
ours is is the company very independent
are many people kind of working
separately so tell me a little bit about
the work environment here maybe is there
a lot of overtime work or what can I
expect in other words about work
environment another question that you
can ask the interviewer is about the the
actual work the actual projects the
actual things that they’re working on
with a question like what kinds of
projects are upcoming upcoming needs in
the future next projects for the company
or for the department what kinds of
projects are upcoming for the company
what kinds of projects are upcoming for
the department so this is a question
about the next thing the company is
going to do you want to know the future
what is the company thinking about what
is the department thinking about in the
future
so this can show you want to know maybe
how you might participate in those
projects finally another good one to do
that I’ve seen recommended many times is
of kind of a very I think a very I don’t
know if if I were asked this question I
think I would be I would be very
interested anyway the question is if I
were part of the team what project would
I be working on so here you can see
we’ve talked about it in live streams
before if I were part of the team this
is the future potential situation what
project would I be working on this is a
good question because one it helps you
understand the work you would be
starting with in the future if you get
the job this is this would be the
project you would do so that’s one but
two people say this is a good question
because this gives the interviewer a
chance to imagine you as part of the
team so there are two parts to this
question this is a good one
for the interviewer and a good one for
the interviewee so this is a nice
general question to ask okay great so I
hope that that was useful I know we only
have 30 minutes it’s not a long time to
talk about all of these all the
questions from job interviews but I hope
that that was a nice overview a nice
summary of some common questions and how
you can answer them and of course you
can google you can Google search a
little bit for some more sample answers
to those questions but we have to finish
up for today unfortunately so thank you
so much for joining us for this week oh
yes I should say Pierre Medina high gear
welcome back on the YouTube chat says
what will be my salary that is a
typically question to avoid at the end
of the interview it’s typically not such
a good idea to directly ask that
question many will just say it’s it’s
for negotiation so typically it’s hard
to do okay that question but anyway we
have to finish today’s lesson
unfortunately so I’ll end here but we’re
going to of course be back again next
week so this week was job interviews so
kind of in a continuation in continuing
sort of this theme of like you know
goals and job interviews and working
hard next week’s topic we’re going to
talk about in English of course ways to
stop procrastinating so if you don’t
know the word procrastinating means like
putting things off or delaying your work
delaying your activities so I want to
talk about that topic specifically for
like your studies your English Studies
so how kind of some way
that you can motivate yourself when
learning English so we’ll talk about
some strategies for that so please join
us next week that will be Wednesday
January 23rd at 9 p.m. Eastern Standard
Time that’s New York City time I looked
it up I think it’s like 7:30 a.m. in
India maybe and like for Peter no like
9:00 in maybe Vietnam and I think I
think so and maybe midnight in Brazil I
think I have to check I have to check
there’s a lot of different time zones so
please join us next week we’ll talk
about some ways to help stop
procrastinating so in other words to to
Inc like motivate you as you work on
your studies so that will be next week
please check it out and of course you’ll
see in just a minute as we talked about
earlier please check out this the new
cheat sheet the TOEIC cheat sheets so we
talked about job interviews today of
course but this is I know many of you
are working on tests so of course this
is a TOEIC test cheat sheet so if you’re
taking to–if these could be some good
strategies to help you with the TOEIC
test but in general for testing in
general these might give you some good
hints so please check this this is the
link the link for this is below the
video if you’re watching on youtube and
above the video if you’re watching on
facebook so please go download this the
lessons going to finish soon check this
out this is great this is totally new so
this is a good one for you and then of
course as always thank you so much for
joining for sending your questions for
sending your example sentences thank you
so much for liking the video and for
sharing the video and for all your
comments and everything it’s great so I
have to finish up today but I hope you
enjoy the rest of your week enjoy the
rest of your day and I will see you
again next time bye bye
you
you