You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Congratulations.
You were successful in your first round interview and you have been called back for a second.
What should you expect?
The key word is more.
There will be more questions, more pressure and, of course, more likelihood that you will get the job.
An important function of second round interviews is to find out whether we fit with the employer's company culture.
In this episode, we'll study how to demonstrate that we are a good match with an organisation.
In addition, we'll review some other useful second round interview skills, such as summarising the previous discussion and referring to something you forgot to mention earlier.
We'll listen to Sherry's second interview with a big international accounting firm, Grimshaw & Keene, commonly referred to as GK.
The interviewer is George Tan, an Asia-Pacific key account manager.
As you listen, pay attention to how George and Sherry establish that she is a good fit for the organisation, and try to answer the following listening questions.
1.
George describes GK as both high pressure and tremendously rewarding, but he is concerned about whether or not Sherry is ready to take the plunge.
What does he mean by that?
2.
What does Sherry say is one of the things that most attracts her to GK?
3.
What is George's major concern about Sherry's work experience?
Well, Sherry, you probably already know that GK is a high-pressure place to work.
Yes, I've heard about that.
But it's also tremendously rewarding for the right person.
And I was just wondering whether you're ready to, what's the word I'm looking for, take the plunge.
Actually, the work culture at GK is one of the things that most attracts me to the company.
I am a highly focused, very energetic person, and I am ready to excel in a fast-paced environment.
Okay, that's great.
Sounds like there could be a fit there.
Now, Linda has briefed me a little on your background, and I see that you interned at Armstrong.
Yes.
Could you perhaps just give us some more specifics on what you were doing?
Yes, sure.
To recap briefly, I was working in a team to employ a new statistical approach for assessing Internet security risk.
Basically, the client was developing a new internet retail strategy and we were in charge of examining possible and visible costs.
Okay, thanks for that.
I can see that you bring a lot of quantitative experience to your work.
Thank you.
But in addition, you know, this is a management trainee position and it's going to involve a significant amount of client-facing work.
Uh-huh.
So what do you bring to the table in terms of skills in customer interaction?
To start with, I'm a people person, and I've always been proactive in building relationships.
I think this has really borne out in my personal and professional activities.
For example, I was a co-founder of my college debate club and we went on to participate in a lot of regional competitions.
Yes, I can see how that would hone your skills.
Oh, and there's something I forgot to mention earlier.
During my work at Armstrong, I was involved closely in a series of meetings where we communicated our results to the customer.
One of the most important functions of a second round interview is to determine how well you fit with the company.
And that's the main theme of this episode.
Focus on fit.
At this stage, employees already know that you are a good candidate.
Now they want to determine whether you are a good match for their organisation.
In other words, it's not enough to be qualified.
We also have to be someone they can work with.
At the same time, we should remember that it's OK not to fit.
If there's not a good match between us and their organisation, now is a good time to find out.
How does George, the interviewer, start off a discussion of fit?
He begins by talking about the company culture at GK.
He tells Sherry that it is a high-pressure but tremendously rewarding place to work.
In other words, the right people, only the right people, will be happy there.
Next, he asks her a probing or exploratory question that aims to find out whether she thinks she is the right person for the job.
And I was just wondering whether you're ready to... What's the word I'm looking for?
Take the plunge.
Plunge means a fall or dive.
To take the plunge is an idiom that refers to bravely and boldly entering a new situation.
George is trying to find out if Sherry is ready for GK's high pressure environment.
How does Sherry respond?
Actually, the work culture at GK is one of the things that most attracts me to the company.
I am a highly focused, very energetic person and I am ready to excel in a fast-paced environment.
Sherry expresses that she is a good match for GK by saying.
She reinforces this statement by describing positive personal characteristics that fit well with GK's culture.
She is highly focused, very energetic and she excels in that is she does well in fast-paced environments.
Let's practice some more expressions that we can use to indicate a good fit.
I'm someone who naturally seeks to foster mutual understanding among my friends and colleagues, so the culture of collaboration at this company really appeals to me.
Because of my natural inclination towards open and frank relationships, I think it would be a great fit for this style of teamwork.
I feel a strong attraction to the way of doing things here.
From everything I've learned about your operation, I'm confident my personality would be a great match with your team.
The company mission statement, innovating for tomorrow, really resonates with me.
In the last example.
A mission statement is a short slogan or motto that sums up a company's or organisation's basic approach to business.
To resonate with something or someone means to move together or vibrate in harmony with.
Idiomatically, this is another way of describing a close fit or a good match.
After their discussion about fit, George and Sherry move on to talk about her skills and experience.
What kind of questions should she expect George to ask her in a second round interview?
Second round interviews present both new and old challenges.
On the technical side, we should be prepared for more detailed queries about our work, our skills and our experience.
We may be given case studies, what-if problems that we have to analyse and solve.
But don't be surprised if we hear many of the same questions we were asked in the first interview.
Another person is likely to be interviewing you this time.
Don't expect them to know everything from your first discussion.
For instance, George starts by asking Sherry about something that already came up in her previous interview.
Now, Linda has briefed me a little on your background and I see that you interned at Armstrong.
Yes.
Could you perhaps just give us some more specifics on what you were doing?
At this point it will be useful for Sherry to summarise her previous discussion before she goes into more detail.
Let's see how she does this.
To recap briefly, I was working in a team to employ a new statistical approach for assessing internet security risks.
Sherry starts her summary by saying, to recap briefly.
Recap is short for recapitulate, which is another word for summarize.
Specifically in her internship, Sherry developed many new approaches for assessing internet, that is, measuring the security risk to companies from the Internet.
Recapping on our previous discussion is something we can expect to do in a second interview.
Let's study some more useful expressions for this.
Let me just briefly go over what I mentioned last time.
To sum up what I said before...
In brief, there are several important factors that make me a strong candidate.
As I mentioned in our previous discussion, I've been working in the manufacturing field for 15 years.
George praises Sherry's response to encourage her.
He says that she obviously brings a lot of quantitative expertise, that is, knowledge of numbers and math, to her work.
But he has another concern.
What is it?
But in addition, you know, this is a management trainee position and it's going to involve a significant amount of client-facing work.
Uh-huh.
So what do you bring to the table in terms of skills in customer interaction?
Here George is probing or asking Sherry about her skills in another important area client-facing work or situations in which there is actual face-to-face interaction with a customer.
The management trainee position for which Sherry is interviewing will require a significant amount of such direct communication with the customer.
So George wants to know that Sherry can bring the required communication skills to the table.
In this idiom, table refers to a business situation.
What we bring to the table refers to the skills and knowledge that we have to offer.
This idiom is one useful way for an interviewer to probe whether a candidate's skills match our requirements.
Let's explore some more useful expressions.
What specific experiences do you have in conflict resolution?
I'm hoping to get a clearer picture of your approach to customer relation management, since this is a particular priority for us.
Can you tell us about a specific time when you had to solve a problem under high pressure?
How does Sherry highlight her communication skills in response to George's question?
To start with, I'm a people person and I've always been proactive in building relationships.
I think this has really borne out in my personal and professional activities.
Sherry says that she is a people person.
That is, she is the kind of person who enjoys being around and interacting with other people.
Furthermore, she is proactive in building relationships.
In other words, she takes the first initiative to make contact with other people.
Finally, she emphasises how these qualities are borne out in her personal and professional activities.
To be born out in means to be proven by.
So Sherry is saying that her interpersonal skills are demonstrated or proven by her activities.
To back up her claim, she provides an example.
She recalls how she co-founded her college debate team.
George responds positively to Sherry's statement.
He says he can see how her participation in a debate team would hone her skills.
To hone one's skills is a common collocation that means to sharpen or improve one's abilities.
Now let's review some more useful language and expressions for highlighting how our skills match the job's requirements.
I think my interpersonal skills are strongly evidenced by my years of involvement in school government.
My work in this project testifies to my ability to think analytically and to solve problems.
This experience really embodies my approach to dealing with conflict in the workplace.
My active involvement in organising after work activities provides a great example of my commitment to building strong teams.
When George brings up communication skills, it reminds Sherry of something she forgot to mention earlier.
What is it?
Oh, and there's something I forgot to mention earlier.
During my work at Armstrong, I was involved closely in a series of meetings where we communicated our results to the customer.
During the previous discussion of her internship at Armstrong, Sherry neglected to mention the client-facing work she did there.
So she takes advantage of the opportunity presented by George's question to highlight this key point.
Often in an interview, a new discussion topic reminds us of a point we should have made earlier, and in a second interview we may want to bring up points we forgot to make in our first interview.
Let's review some more useful language for dealing with this kind of situation.
I forgot to mention my time in the army.
Regarding our previous discussion about my technical knowledge, let me just add something to what I was saying before.
There's something I should have said earlier.
That reminds me.
I also encountered this kind of situation in my previous job, which I was discussing earlier.
Now it's your turn to practice.
First we'll review mentioning something you forgot earlier.
Imagine you are in an interview.
The interviewer has just asked you a question that reminds you of something you should have said before.
In the queue you'll hear the subject you should have mentioned.
After the beat use one of the phrases we studied.
For example, if you hear My experience as team leader.
You can say, for example, That reminds me.
I should have mentioned my experience as a team leader.
Other useful expressions include I forgot to mention, and Let me just add something to what I was saying before
Are you ready?
Let's give it a try. a major project I worked on.
I also worked as a volunteer.
My second Masters degree Now listen to some example answers.
Of course, your responses may differ from these.
Answer That reminds me.
I forgot to mention a major project I worked on.
Answer Let me just add something to what I was saying before.
I also worked as a volunteer.
Answer.
That reminds me.
I should have mentioned my second master's degree.
Next, we'll review some useful vocabulary and collocations that we studied in this episode.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a verb blanked out or replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence saying the missing word.
For example, if you hear... You will say...
Each question will be followed by an example answer.
Are you ready?
The culture of collaboration at this company really... to me.
Answer.
The culture of collaboration at this company really appeals to me.
The company mission statement really... with me.
Answer.
The company mission statement really resonates with me.
In... There are several important factors that make me a strong candidate.
Answer.
In brief, there are several important factors that make me a strong candidate.
My work in this project... to my ability to think analytically and to solve problems.
Answer.
My work in this project testifies to my ability to think analytically and to solve problems.
That's all for this episode on Second Round Interviews.
We have studied language for demonstrating that you are a good fit for an organisation, and we've practised highlighting skills, summarising the discussions and mentioning something that you forgot to bring up before.
See you next time and thanks for listening.
