Hello, English learners.
Welcome back to EnglishPod.
My name is Marko.
And I'm Erica.
And today we're going to be bringing you the second part of our job interview series.
That's right.
So this is an advanced lesson and we're going to be talking about educational background and experience.
Right.
So in the first part, we saw preparing for a job interview.
Now we are at the job interview and we're just going to be talking about your educational background and your job experience.
That's right.
And the language we're going to learn is going to focus mostly on these two areas.
Okay, perfect.
So let's take a look at some of the difficult words before we listen to the dialogue in Vocabulary Preview.
Vocabulary Preview.
Alright, so we're going to talk about a few common words that have to do with education.
Now, the first word, I think we might know this one, but there's a little trick to it.
So, the first one is major.
Major.
Major.
Major.
So, yeah, I guess everyone knows what a major is, right?
Yeah, it's the main subject that you study in university.
Right, so you can study business as a major or... History.
Exactly.
Yeah.
So, but you can also use it as a verb, right?
That's right.
I majored in history.
Majored in.
So usually it's followed by the preposition in.
Yes, always.
In fact, when used as a verb, I majored in science.
I majored in business.
Yes.
Okay.
So you can say my major is business administration or history, or you can say I majored in business.
Yeah, and the same pattern applies to minor.
Okay, so minor.
This is really interesting because this is more common in English-speaking countries, right?
That's right.
So what exactly is a minor?
Well, just like your major, but smaller.
Okay.
So if you major in history, maybe 60 of your classes are in history and you minor in French, maybe 30 or 40 of your classes are in French.
So basically, you can have two subjects in your degree.
You can have a major in business with a minor in art.
Yes.
Okay, that's interesting.
Alright, and another two simple words, a bachelor's degree.
Bachelor's degree, okay.
A bachelor's degree is what you get after going to university for four years.
Okay, so a bachelor's degree after four years, you get that.
After that, you get a master's degree.
Right.
So that's another two years after your bachelor's degree.
Okay.
And I guess a master's is more focused on an area, right?
Yes.
More specialized.
More specialized.
And then the highest degree you can get is a PhD.
Exactly.
Which is a philosophy doctorate, right?
Uh-huh.
But you're not actually getting a degree in philosophy.
No, it could be in international relations.
Okay, but this is really hard to get.
You have to go to school for another five or six years, right?
Yeah.
And it's a lot of research and not many people have it.
Yeah.
Anyway, some simple words, but you know what?
It's quite unique to the English-speaking world, this system, so we thought we'd bring it to you now.
Right, perfect.
So now let's listen to this guy who is at an interview and he's going to be talking about his education and work experience.
Thanks for coming in today.
Did you have any trouble finding us?
Please, take a seat.
Thank you.
So, let's get started.
Tell me a bit about your educational background.
Sure.
Well, I graduated with honors from Chesterton University with a major in business administration, with a specialization in information management, and I minored in psychology.
I chose this course of study for two reasons.
I wanted to gain some practical, marketable skills, which the information management track provided, and I also feel that the interpersonal skills are essential for professional success.
Hence the minor in psychology.
Interesting.
And your postgraduate studies?
Well, I am really passionate about consumer behavior, so I pursued a master's in that area.
I also strive to keep my professional skills current, so I continuously attend seminars and conferences related to management and customer service.
Very good.
Now, tell me a little bit about your work experience.
I see here that you previously worked at Oracle.
Yeah, I worked as their customer support manager, which brought me a breadth of experience in both client care and process management.
I supervised and coordinated the customer support team, as well as implemented new strategies to achieve better customer satisfaction.
Interesting.
Yes, in this position I was able to make some pretty significant contributions to the overall success of the company.
With the different initiatives that we implemented, we lowered our churn rate to about 5, which had a direct impact on revenue.
Well, those are some pretty good answers to those questions, but I don't know, Marco.
There was a little awkward moment.
I don't know if you guys heard it.
Natural body... Functions.
Functions.
Yeah.
Oh, dear.
Well, making the interview a little bit more interesting, right?
It doesn't have to be boring.
Exactly.
But what is really interesting is some of the language he used to describe his educational background and work experience.
So let's look at that now in Language Takeaway.
Language takeaway.
Okay, so in language takeaway today, we have seven words that we want to focus on.
Before we give you some tips about doing well on a job interview.
So let's take a look at the first word.
Course of study.
Course of study.
Course of study.
A course of study.
So what is a course of study exactly?
Basically, it's like a plan of study or a path of study.
Okay, so his course of study was business administration.
Exactly.
So that is his course of study.
Now let's take a look at our second word track track track track.
So he said he wanted to gain some practical, markable skills that the information management track provided.
Exactly.
So what does he mean by this track?
Again, basically, the track of study is like the path of study.
Okay.
So the direction of your study.
Okay, so I guess it would be like, think of a train and the train tracks, right?
Exactly.
Where the train travels.
So that's where it's taking you.
That's the path that he followed or you should follow or you want to follow.
Yes.
Okay, that's pretty interesting.
Mm-hmm.
Now let's take a look at our third word, and it's a really nice conjunction hence hence hence h-e-n-c-e hence, hence.
So it sounds fancy, but yes, what does it mean?
So therefore yeah right, so you can use it as a conjunction between two ideas.
So he said what would be an example of how you could use hence?
You could say the economy is doing poorly, hence people are losing their jobs.
Okay, hence, so therefore, in consequence, so.
Right, exactly.
But it just sounds a lot more like professional.
Informal.
Formal.
Yeah.
Okay, so try and use this conjunction hence, right?
Instead of saying so, therefore.
Yep.
Use it.
Okay, our fourth word.
Pursued.
Pursued.
He pursued a master's.
Okay, so to pursue.
To chase after something.
To chase after.
So you can pursue a master's degree like he did?
Yes, you can pursue a promotion.
A dream.
Nice one.
Can you pursue a girl?
Yes, you can.
All right, so pursue to chase.
Yes.
Okay, now let's look at our next word, strive.
Another great word you can use in talking about your experience.
To strive is to try really hard.
To try really hard.
Yeah.
Okay, so I know we have some examples for strive.
Yeah, let's take a listen.
Example one.
At our company, we are always striving to improve our services.
Example two.
He really strived to get a new job, and his work paid off.
Okay, great examples of strive to fight, to try really hard.
Yep.
All right.
Okay, now the next word, I didn't really know what it meant, so this is really interesting.
Breadth.
Breadth.
So it's kind of like saying bread, but adding a th at the end.
Yeah.
Breadth. breadth of experience.
Okay.
So, so this basically means it's wide.
Exactly.
So when you have a great breadth of experience, you have a wide variety of experience.
Okay.
So maybe in different fields or in different jobs.
So you can have experience, like in marketing and in a little bit in finance and a little bit in management.
Yes.
A breadth of experience.
All right.
All right.
And now for the last word, it's actually three in one.
A three-in-one deal.
A three-in-one deal.
That actually they are very related.
Okay.
Right?
So when he talked about his work experience, he was saying he supervised and coordinated the customer support team.
Okay.
So he watched over, right?
And made things work together well.
To coordinate.
Yes.
So these are really great verbs that you can use when you're talking about your job responsibilities.
Yes.
I supervised.
I coordinated.
And here's another really great one that said to implement.
Implement.
To implement, to make something happen, to put it in place.
Right.
So he implemented new strategies.
Implemented new policies.
Okay.
To set in action.
Exactly.
All right.
So a lot of great vocabulary, a lot of great stuff.
And well, you can use it for when you are at a job interview.
So let's listen to this dialogue again.
And when we come back we're going to give you some tips so you'll do well in this part of the job interview.
Thanks for coming in today.
Did you have any trouble finding us?
Please, take a seat.
Thank you.
So, let's get started.
Tell me a bit about your educational background.
Sure.
Well, I graduated with honors from Chesterton University with a major in business administration, with a specialization in information management, and I minored in psychology.
I chose this course of study for two reasons.
I wanted to gain some practical, marketable skills, which the information management track provided, and I also feel that the interpersonal skills are essential for professional success.
Hence the minor in psychology.
Interesting.
And your postgraduate studies?
Well, I am really passionate about consumer behavior, so I pursued a master's in that area.
I also strive to keep my professional skills current, so I continuously attend seminars and conferences related to management and customer service.
Very good.
Now, tell me a little bit about your work experience.
I see here that you previously worked at Oracle.
Yeah, I worked as their customer support manager, which brought me a breadth of experience in both client care and process management.
I supervised and coordinated the customer support team, as well as implemented new strategies to achieve better customer satisfaction.
Interesting.
Yes, in this position I was able to make some pretty significant contributions to the overall success of the company.
With the different initiatives that we implemented, we lowered our churn rate to about 5, which had a direct impact on revenue.
All right, well, I want to talk about two main things.
And the first thing I want to talk about is how you address this question about your educational background.
Like, what is the interviewer looking to find out?
Okay, perfect.
So when you are talking about your educational background, you shouldn't only talk about your college degree, right?
You should also talk about any type of training that you've had.
Yeah, I think it's really important to let the interviewer know that you're continually trying to update your skills and improve your knowledge.
So any sort of courses or seminars that you might attend, this is a great chance to highlight those.
And that's what the interview is looking for, right?
Also any trade publications, any magazines that you read related to your job, is a great way to sort of highlight your desire to keep learning.
Well, I think that's really important, because it's good that you went to a good university, you got this degree and everything, but continuously training yourself and maybe just by listening to business podcasts or reading specific magazines or stuff like that that is demonstrating that you care about what you do and that you are continuously learning, right.
Exactly.
Okay, so those are the main things to talk about in your educational background.
Now, when this work experience question pops up, what should you really say?
When you're answering this question, I think there's something really important to keep in mind.
What's that?
You want to make sure that you're being as specific as possible, right?
Right, so giving examples of what you've done.
Like really specifically what you did, all of the sort of the main achievements you have.
Okay, so like, for example, we saw in our dialogue that he talked about specific strategies that he implemented to improve customer support in that company.
Right, and then he gave some numbers.
Right, he said, yeah, he lowered the churn rate to about 5%.
So it's so important, whenever you can attach a number to your success or your achievement, to be able to do that in the interview really demonstrates your achievement.
Yeah, I think that's really important.
And another thing, when you're talking about previous jobs, is make sure you keep it on a positive note.
Yeah, yeah.
Even if your experience was not very good or you didn't like the company or you had problems, you should avoid talking about that and always keep it on a positive note.
Right.
So if the interviewer asks you why you want to join this company, why you're looking to leave your current job, you want to give these positive reasons.
Right.
You don't want to say, well, because my boss was a jerk or, or I didn't like the company anymore.
You know, you should answer it with something positive.
Like well, I think I need a change, or this job opportunity is more aligned with what I want to do in the future, et cetera.
Yeah.
So positive always on your interviews and, just again, prepare for these questions that are always going to be there.
Yes.
So Erica, I know that you've done a lot of interviews and I understand that you've had a really weird question.
Yes.
In an interview, I once got this question.
If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be?
Really?
Yeah, I'm not kidding.
I really was asked that question.
What did you answer?
I think I said that I would want to be a willow tree because they're really beautiful.
Was that the right answer?
I don't know.
Like, what are you supposed to answer to that question?
I really don't know what the right answer was.
Well, some people yeah, they'll ask you just I don't know random questions just to see what your response is.
I think also maybe it's just how you deal with the pressure.
Or with the unexpected questions.
Right.
So it's like, that is pretty unexpected.
But I guess you handle it pretty well.
Okay.
Well, I mean, I got the job, so.
Oh, nice.
All right.
All right.
I want to know from our listeners, if they were a tree, what kind of tree they would be.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And also tell us about, well, your job experience or your educational background.
Well, I know, for example, that I've had a lot of different types of jobs.
I've even been that person that gets on the bus and charges people the money.
I know.
You've had every job under the sun.
But it's great.
So tell us, what's the weirdest job you've had?
What's the craziest or the best job or any experiences?
Yes.
So visit our website, englishpod.com.
Leave your questions and comments there on the website.
And we'll definitely be there to answer them.
And we hope to see you there.
Thanks for listening and goodbye.
Bye.
