This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 75.
How to show your passion and commitment in a job interview in English.
Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.
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Offer ends August 10th. Hey, Michelle, how you doing?
Hey, Lindsay. Pretty good. Pretty good. How are you?
I am super excited because we got a really interesting question.
SpeakPipe voice question from one of our listeners from South Korea who's actually living in New Zealand.
Lucky, huh? No, that's awesome. There's supposed to be some amazing natural beauty out in New Zealand.
So you're very lucky if you're living out there.
So cool. So cool. So the question that this listener had was about job interviews.
So he said that he's been on five high-level job interviews in New Zealand.
And in every single interview, they've asked him about two things that have been kind of strange to him.
Do you want to know what they are? I do.
Okay. So they are passion and commitment.
So I hope that I understood his question correctly, right?
Because this was a voice message. But if I understood it correctly, they're asking him about his passion for the job, for the trade, for the skill that he's applying for the job and his commitment to the job, to the work.
Right. Um, and apparently this was surprising for a listener, but to me, it's not surprising.
Is it surprising to you that he would be asked about those things?
No, no, not surprising. Not surprising, right?
I mean, I think that's number one. Well, we have a huge narrative around this and I don't want to go off on this too much, but you know, I love to talk about this.
I mean, this is a big deal, right? In the US when, or in New Zealand, obviously, uh, I think in a lot of English speaking countries, um, You know, it's a big deal when you choose your career passion.
Right. Why? Why? Why is it such a big deal, Michelle?
Um, because, you know, in the US, it's kind of I don't know, it's kind of a big deal.
Like, oh, people want to have their career be their passion, like have them be one in the same almost.
Exactly. I mean, I can speak from, if I can just share a personal example, when I was looking for a co-host, Michelle, I mean, I could tell that you were very passionate about this possible, about working here with us.
I was so excited. I know. And I actually asked everyone, you know, we got, if I could be open here, transparent, I think we got about 50 applications. for people to come and be a co-host here at All Ears English.
And I had people make a video because I wanted to see their eyes when they talked about the job.
And I could see in your eyes that you were extremely excited.
You were a little nervous on the video, I could tell, but that was fine because I knew that that was something we could work through.
But I could tell that there was real interest and genuine passion.
And that's why I wanted to work with you, whereas other people got behind the video and it's kind of just every day.
Oh, yeah, this would be good. And I could fit this into my schedule.
No, no, no, that's not good enough for All Ears English.
We need a true passion. Thank you so much.
Yeah, I know. I was just thinking about that video earlier.
I got to go back and watch that. I bet it'd be very embarrassing.
Yeah. So, you know, I mean, and like we're a bit of a like non-traditional company, but I think a lot of hiring managers definitely look at passion.
OK, so that's the point. So, guys, we do talk about passion in the charisma equation, the course that we're creating here.
We have an entire tactic that's devoted to how to voice your passions.
So if you want to get into that course, you can still get into it at allearsenglish.com forward slash charisma, C-H-A-R-I-S-M-A, and we'll give you the phrases.
But we'll talk about a few of the phrases here today, and we'll give you more depth in that course.
But what's the number one tip that we could offer for our listeners, Michelle, around passion?
Okay, so the number one tip is work in an area you're passionate about, right?
Clearly, yeah. I mean, it's hard. Not everyone can do this, you know.
You might need to really find something.
But if you can, try and find something that you're passionate about.
Oh, yeah. I mean, we're spending 40 hours at minimum of our lives a week doing this thing.
I mean, we have to try. It's not easy for everyone, but we have to try to work in an area that we're excited about.
Okay. So how could we say that if we're in a job interview, just like our listener here, how could we say that we're passionate about our job?
Right. Well, you could say, oh, this work satisfies me because then you have to make sure you have a good reason and make sure you're not just saying this.
Like, don't use these phrases if you don't mean it.
Right. Right. People can tell. Like, I mean, like Lindsay said, right, on the videos.
That's why I asked for video. Right. People can tell when you're just saying things that sound good, but they're not true to you necessarily.
Right. You know, the person who's hiring you wants to know you're going to show up for the job with a smile on your face and you care about the work.
You're not going to call in sick when something is due the next day.
These are really important things for somebody who's trying to run a great company.
And if you want to get in and become part of the team, you need to feel the same way.
So here's another thing we could say. We want to be specific.
The thing I'm most passionate about in my work is getting behind the microphone.
Michelle, what about you in terms of this show?
What are you most passionate about? I would say also getting behind the microphone and thinking of new exciting ways to help our listeners.
Yeah. Using your voice to project energy and things like that.
Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. So those are kind of some good phrases.
And the third one, Michelle, what would that be?
Yeah. Well, you could say I'm passionate about, right?
Like I'm passionate about social justice or I'm passionate about fine dining.
Right. If you're applying for a job at a restaurant as a chef, right?
Right. Sure. And the second piece was the question about commitment.
Now, again, we don't know the exact question that our listener had, but what would be some phrases that we could use in an interview, Michelle, to talk about our commitment to something?
Well, one is, as you can see from my previous work experience, I am committed to my work.
Yeah. So we want to let our job or our project history.
A lot of people nowadays, you know, your career history is more about projects that you've worked on, like freelance projects or things like that.
It's not necessarily nine to five jobs that are clearly like a career path.
It's rather interesting projects that you've done.
And those can speak volumes about you. It's not that you've gone and you've just punched the time card.
You've created something of value, a body of work.
So show your new employer what you've done to speak about your commitment.
Right. For sure. Definitely. Yeah. What's another thing we could say?
Okay. Well, you could say, when I start a project, I commit to it 100%.
Woohoo. I like it. I like it. Sounds good.
Hopefully it's true, right? For sure. For sure.
You might even say 110%. Yeah. I like that.
Yeah. Just overemphasize. We do that sometimes in English, right?
Yeah. Definitely. We overemphasize. Another thing, I like the expression, the phrasal verb for our listeners to see something through.
What does that mean? To see it through.
To watch it be completed. It's like to complete it, right?
Yeah, it's to complete it, right? To really complete something.
So we could say something like, I like to see things through to completion.
That's important to me, right? So these are just very strategic phrases to use to show that we are committed to a job.
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And then, guys, if you want to hear more about this topic of passion, way back when we started this podcast in 2013, my former co-host and I, we did an episode, episode 74, about how to argue in English.
But the topic was, should you choose a job based on your passion or based on your strengths?
And it's not always the same thing, right?
Michelle, can you see? They could be a little bit different.
They could be different, right? We could be passionate about something but not necessarily good at it.
Or we could be strong in an area but not necessarily passionate about it.
Right, right. Definitely. That's interesting.
I'm going to listen to that one. You should.
And then there's another great episode, episode 220 by Laura Garnett, where she came on and she talked about the zone of genius.
So there's plenty of material, guys, if you want to dive deeper into this concept of passion because we believe it's important.
Well, what's the takeaway from today, Michelle?
What do you think? I mean, what can we leave our listeners with here?
Yeah, I mean, the takeaway is that commitment and passion are both important to the workplace, right?
And you want to be able to show that you have both when you're at a job interview.
Yeah. Yeah, just prepare the phrases. Understand what aspects of your job you're passionate about.
It doesn't have to be the whole area, but it could be one specific thing.
Maybe you're not passionate about language learning, but you're passionate about acting or something, voice acting, for example.
That could be an example. So go ahead and just be specific.
Prepare your answers to these questions.
Anticipate it. And I think one of the other big takeaways is that the types of questions you're going to get and the values of the hiring manager are going to be different in new cultures.
So if you're from South Korea, don't go into a job interview in New Zealand expecting the same questions you get in South Korea, right?
Right. That's a really good point. Yeah, that's the most interesting part to me, I think, guys.
So, guys, if you have any additional questions about job interviews and what questions to expect, at least in the U.S., I can't answer for New Zealand, but for the U.S., you know, we've been on a few job interviews, right, Michelle, here and there?
That's right. come back to 471 type in the search bar and ask us your question and we want to have a conversation with you guys yes awesome well good luck yeah good luck on that job interview in New Zealand very cool alright Michelle let's cut it off for today I'll see you next time alright see you Lindsay bye bye bye Thank you for listening to Business English, a podcast just for you, the high achieving global professional.
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