This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 521, Karen's Expert Interviewing Advice, Three Tips.
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Hey, Kieran, welcome back to All Ears English.
How are you doing today?
I'm doing good.
How are you doing, Lindsay?
Good.
It's good to have you back on the show.
We had you on the show back in September for episode 411, where you shared your smart framework that you use with your interviewing students.
And I heard you have a really nice success story that you want to share with us today.
An interviewing success story.
Yeah.
Yeah, I got a few students, I guess, who found me from your podcast.
And one of my students was she was applying for residency programs in the U.S. to get in.
And there's a lot of competition for them.
There's a lot of competition.
So we did a lot of classes together.
We were both worked really hard.
And I heard a few weeks ago from her that she finally got into the program she wanted.
Awesome.
That is so exciting.
So it sounds like students that work with you over on italki have a very high success rate in terms of getting the jobs that they want.
I think you last time we talked you said you had like nearly a perfect success rate or perfect acceptance rate for your students.
That is so cool.
Yeah.
In the beginning, it was it was perfect for about nine or 10 students.
And it's not it's not perfect anymore.
But I mean, it's still it's very good.
And I just I just feel so great when they get in, because I mean, getting into a residency program is tough.
Oh, my gosh.
For someone who's not a native speaker, I think it's twice as hard, you know.
Oh, yeah, and there are a lot of traps, especially when we're interviewing in a new culture.
So that's why we've brought you in today Karen, to talk a little bit more about just some general interviewing tips that our listeners can kind of take and run with if they're getting ready for an interview.
And then towards the end of today's episode, we'll find out how we can work with you personally.
If our listeners might have you know, they want to put together a little program for an interview.
They have coming up next month or in a couple of months.
OK, so let's just dive right into it.
Karen, what's your first tip in terms of how we can win that job when we're in a job interview?
OK, so my first one is pretty simple.
And a lot of my students already have this done when they come to me, but some of them don't.
OK.
And this one is prepare your answers to the general questions beforehand.
But what I suggest they do is don't.
Don't write them out.
First, just answer them.
Record yourself.
Record yourself so you get your natural answer kind of on record.
Then you want to write them out and you want to change some of the keywords that maybe they aren't the best keywords that you chose.
How do we know if they're good keywords?
Okay, well, let's say you and I were doing a role play here, okay?
And you say, Kieran, what are some of your greatest strengths?
And I haven't planned this answer.
I just say, well, I'm a really patient person.
I'm really good at organizing my time.
And I'm really good at blah, blah, blah.
OK, I'm using the same word every time I'm using really good.
And that doesn't that doesn't sound really good.
You know, it's kind of.
If I thought about this beforehand, maybe I could have said I'm proficient at organizing my time.
And you just sound better when you plan it a little bit.
Yeah, exactly.
Because you can't go and tell someone you're articulate.
You have to prove it.
You have to show it.
Right.
And that's really what they want.
I mean having that, you know, being articulate.
People see that as a sign of intelligence and that you can do the job well.
Whether that's true or not.
So that's really...
Really important.
And that's really key.
Really important for our listeners too, as English learners.
I love that.
I love that.
So where can our listeners find words to replace, you know, with the common words that they're using?
Where should they go to find new words?
Well, I mean, I think the easiest way to do is just to use the thesaurus.
I think sometimes that's trickier for people who aren't native English speakers because you can use the wrong word by accident on there.
Yeah.
And that's where having a native friend or a tutor really comes in hand.
Okay.
Okay.
So is this an exercise that you typically do in your interview classes for your students?
I mean, it depends on the student.
Some students are at different levels, right?
So, depending on how well someone is prepared, I will do this for the students who need it, but it's not all of them.
Okay.
Very cool.
Very cool.
All right.
So I like that.
So find out what the common words are that you're using.
If you're overusing something, find a new word to replace it with.
Is that the first tip, Karen?
Right.
There you go.
Okay.
Excellent.
What would be number two?
What's your second tip?
Okay, so this one I like and I tell all my students to do it.
And the general tip is confidence takes its time.
So what I suggest to anyone listening to this is go on YouTube, go on TEDcom, go look at TEDtalkscom and find a speaker you really like.
And you're going to notice that most of them, the vast majority of them, they don't rush.
They take their time and that's you.
I mean, confidence is attractive and people are going to hire confident people.
It's so funny that we're talking about this, because sometimes you know, the most confident people speaking might not be the best person for the job.
Right.
Hey, you can control that.
Yeah.
I mean, the point is to get the job right.
And then, you know, whether or not we're qualified for it, that's kind of the company's issue.
And that's a problem moving forward.
But we just want to try to get ourselves in the door.
Right.
Sometimes we need that job to get started in a certain field.
So confidence takes time.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Confidence takes its time.
So don't rush through your interview.
It's your interview.
Remember that.
You earned it and use it well.
What are some things that we can do during the interview to remind ourselves not to rush?
I mean, it's...
I think, you know, just breathe deeply before the interview.
Try to stay calm and then use the silent pause every once in a while.
Just you know, you say like half of your sentence and then if you've rehearsed it, you'll know when to do it.
But you just stop to kind of draw the listener in to really get them to pay attention to you.
Yeah, it's so powerful.
I think this may have come up in our last discussion or last episode, but silence can be so powerful and mysterious and it can really build a good sense of tension, right?
Right.
Um, and even if you really don't know what to say, just being silent is much more persuasive than maybe, fumbling around with your words or saying um or like or other filler words, right?
Yeah, of course.
Uh, what's, there's a, an expression like, is that the, the less, the, what is it?
The less you say, I forget it.
The less you say, the more powerful it is or I forget right now.
But like the more people listen, maybe right.
Like something along those lines.
Or the less you say, the more it means, I think.
I like it.
I like it.
So so kind of using using the pause and slowing down.
I like that idea.
Okay, cool.
So what would be the third tip?
Was that your third tip right there, Karen?
Or was there a third idea?
No, that was the second one.
So the third one is one I started doing recently.
I didn't do this in the beginning, but I had one student who was preparing for an interview for an airline.
And I mean it's a serious job because you have the responsibility of anywhere from 70 to hundreds of people in your life, right.
If you're a pilot.
Yeah.
And he asked me.
He said can you?
You know, when I do the interview there's going to be two people and they kind of do good cop, bad cop.
So can you purposely, you know, throw me off and try to maybe be a little unfriendly with me?
And I started doing that with other students because the truth is not all interviewers are friendly.
That's right.
That's right.
Yeah.
So yeah, if you have someone to role play with you and be a little cold to you or cut you off once in a while, this helps you just prepare yourself mentally in case you get that unfriendly interviewer.
Oh, I like that.
I like that because I feel like a lot of English teachers who do help students prepare for interviews might not think to do that.
For whatever reason, they want to provide a supportive, encouraging environment for the student.
So the student never gets a chance to see a realistic type of role play for the interview.
Right.
Yeah.
And what does that do?
Like this kind of does it kind of thicken people's skin?
Yeah.
Oh, totally.
Totally.
The first time I do it with some of my students, they're just shocked.
They don't know what to do.
They lose their train of thought and they get nervous.
And I think I'm also really good at it, because I worked in a call center and we were calling Fortune 500 companies and trying to get a hold of the directors or the VPs.
Okay.
And these people hate being harassed.
You know so they were, so they're often not the friendliest people to talk to.
And it's just great interview practice to do this to do this drill with someone.
Yeah.
You really need – if our listeners are getting ready for a job interview, we really need to set up that intentional opportunity to practice these kinds of things.
So what kinds of things do you throw out there to the student in this kind of bad cop role play to throw them off?
Like you said, you cut them off.
What else do you do?
Is it like body language or you really intimidate them or what?
Yeah.
Yeah, I do try.
I mean, I try not to be too mean.
I think there's a level of professionalism that even the interviewers should respect.
But sometimes I'll say, you know, these are all second... They're not speaking English.
They're not native English speakers.
So I'll say...
So, you know, I've noticed that your English isn't very good.
I don't know if you're going to be able to fit into our work environment.
These are all and they'll just.
The first time I do this there's like well, I'm practicing.
You know, when you see them kind of crumble in front of.
And that's good that they crumble there because you don't want to crumble in the actual interview.
Yeah, no, I like that.
I like that.
And so for your student, who was able to get that job that she was looking for, were these some of the things that you used in the classes with that student?
Yeah, we did do this.
Awesome.
We did do this.
And it's good that we did this because I think it toughened her up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Toughened her up.
Do you think there was one kind of overarching thing that she did in general that was kind of the key to her success, that made her different from other students who maybe don't get the job?
Oh, man, I just I just think that we we both she really worked hard.
I mean, we really worked hard.
I worked hard for her.
And she she always listened and took she took the criticisms well.
And I think it's it's hard work and preparation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Go ahead.
Yeah, she just put in the hours.
You know and we.
I think if you prepare yourself it's 80 or 90 preparation.
And there's keys, but you got to use them all together, right?
Yeah.
No, you've got to put it all together.
And so I would imagine that you have like a framework that you really run students through.
I mean last time we learned about your start or star sorry, smart framework for getting your dream job in English
So I would imagine that in your classes it's quite structured and you have all these kind of best practices that you've used on students where they've gone out and they've actually gotten the jobs that they wanted.
Wanted based, you know, based on their work with you.
I love that.
So, Kieran, do you have any room in your schedule for some of our listeners?
I know a few of our listeners have already gone over there to work with you, but would you be willing to take a few more?
Yeah, I mean it's there's always.
It's always better to schedule it ahead of time than the students can get their pick of when they want to, when they want to have the class.
But yeah there's, there's a few hours here and there, but you gotta, you gotta schedule them ahead of time.
Now I am a lot more busy than I was last time we had this, uh, last time we did the podcast.
Right.
You're in demand now because the students have seen that your classes actually work.
So guys, if you want to book, if you have an interview coming up, I really encourage you to book a lesson with Kieran and go try his frameworks and work with him, because clearly a lot of the students who have done this have gotten the job that they were going for.
I love that.
Guys, to find Karen's profile, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash Karen.
That's allearsenglishcom.
Forward slash K-E-I-R-A-N.
After you go and register at allearsenglishcom, forward slash I-T-A-L-K-I.
See you there.
So guys, I highly encourage you to go over and work with Kieran.
Check that out for your next job interview.
And Kieran, I want to say thank you so much for coming on the show.
I really appreciate it.
And thanks so much for having me, Lindsay.
Yeah.
I will hope to have you back again soon.
Good luck.
All right.
Bye-bye.
Thank you.
Bye.
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