You're listening to Business English Pod, the Business English podcast for professionals on the move.
Hello, and welcome back to Business English Pod.
My name's Edwin and I'll be your host for this lesson on job interviews for when you're shifting careers.
You've racked up a lot of work experience, and you're proud of your special accomplishments.
And you know enough to have clear opinions about how things should be done.
But it's time for a bit of a change.
Maybe you're switching careers altogether, or maybe you're just looking to change roles.
Regardless, you're going to have to explain your accomplishments and express your opinions carefully in order to make a good impression.
In an interview, it's not just about what you say.
It's about how you say it.
You will be asked some difficult questions, and you may only have one shot at it.
The stakes are high, and the competition may be great.
You need to sell yourself and demonstrate why you are the right choice for the position.
In this lesson, we'll hear Nina and Frank interviewing Patrick.
Patrick is a seasoned accountant looking for a career shift.
He's applying for a job with one of the major accounting advisory firms.
Patrick is going to highlight his unique experience, politely criticize his former employer, admit challenges and talk about past conflict.
These are all tough things to do well, but Patrick handles them wisely.
As you listen, try to answer the following questions.
1.
Why is Patrick talking about changes to a company's internal controls?
2.
How does Patrick describe financial meetings with executives?
3.
How does Patrick say he dealt with the executives?
Good point.
That's very interesting, Patrick.
And I see here that you were involved in realigning the internal controls.
That's right.
In fact, I spearheaded a complete overhaul of the company's internal controls.
A complete overhaul, eh?
Could you share a few specifics?
Certainly.
You see, the company had grown so quickly and had undertaken so many acquisitions that there were considerable inconsistencies in procedures for record-keeping and segregation of duties.
It was all rather untenable.
I see.
And what exactly didn't work there?
Well, several things.
For one, records and reports weren't standardized across every department or subsidiary.
So when senior management sat down to discuss financials, they needed an accountant there to help explain everything.
That led to a lot of confusing meetings, as you can well imagine.
Yes, I see what you're saying.
That does sound problematic.
And did you have to serve in that role with senior management yourself?
Yes, I did.
I worked quite closely with the executives.
But to be honest, I struggled sometimes when I was asked to simply confirm what they wanted to hear.
My honesty sometimes met with scorn.
So, would you say you had a troubled relationship with the executives?
Yes.
No, I wouldn't characterize it as troubled.
I believe I earned their respect by calling it how it was.
Even though they didn't always thank me for it, there was acknowledgement that it helped them make better decisions.
I did the dirty work, as you might say, though I always did so with tact.
Interesting.
Tact is definitely important.
Now, if we can shift gears for a while... and talk about your experiences in auditing.
I have a few questions for you there, especially about your work with the Gastos account.
Now, let's listen to the dialogue again and look at the language and techniques Patrick uses.
Good point.
That's very interesting, Patrick.
And I see here that you were involved in realigning the internal controls.
That's right.
In fact, I spearheaded a complete overhaul of the company's internal controls.
We are joining this interview somewhere in the middle as Nina is asking Patrick about his experience realigning or reorganizing his previous company's internal controls.
In his response, Patrick uses the expression, in fact, to highlight his special accomplishment.
He then describes his experience in effective or impressive terms.
He says that he spearheaded a complete overhaul of the controls.
Spearhead is a strong word to mean lead or direct, while overhaul is a strong word to mean complete change.
Highlighting your career accomplishments is important if you want to impress your interviewers.
Let's practice some other ways you can do this.
I implemented a new quality control procedure that cut defects by 10%.
I played an integral role in the company's expansion into Asia.
Under my direction, our department cut costs by 15%.
I managed to increase revenues by almost 20% in just one year.
Next, Frank wants to know more about exactly what Patrick did.
A complete overhaul, eh?
Could you share a few specifics?
Certainly.
You see, the company had grown so quickly and had undertaken so many acquisitions that there were considerable inconsistencies in procedures for record-keeping and segregation of duties.
It was all rather untenable.
When asked for specifics, Patrick responds confidently with the word certainly.
He then describes the background to his accomplishment.
The company had undertaken or decided to make a lot of acquisitions.
In other words, it bought several other companies.
According to Patrick, this meant that certain procedures suffered from inconsistencies.
This means that those procedures weren't the same across the different companies.
The result, in Patrick's words, was an untenable situation.
If something is untenable, it simply doesn't work or can't continue.
Patrick is being very careful here.
He is actually criticizing his former company, but he is trying to do so very politely.
He could say it just didn't work, but instead he says it was rather untenable.
The word rather helps to soften the idea.
In the following examples.
Notice how the speaker chooses words very carefully and uses softening expressions in order to criticize politely.
Maybe you can think of a more direct way to express the ideas.
Well, the branch manager was fairly traditional in his approach to management.
If there was one drawback to this approach, it's that decisions might have been made too quickly in some cases.
I guess you could say that the team didn't put a lot of thought into the plan.
Some people felt that the staff didn't always provide the best customer service.
Now, Nina asks Patrick for more detail.
I see.
And what exactly didn't work there?
Well, several things.
For one, records and reports weren't standardised across every department or subsidiary.
So when senior management sat down to discuss financials, they needed an accountant there to help explain everything.
That led to a lot of confusing meetings, as you can well imagine.
Patrick has criticized the situation, and now he needs to give some evidence for his criticism.
He introduces his first idea with the expression, for one.
Patrick says that records and reports were not the same in every part of the company.
For this reason, the senior managers needed a lot of explanation when they sat down or met to discuss finances.
Your opinions always need to be backed up by supporting evidence.
In an interview, you must be prepared to explain this evidence.
Let's hear some more examples of how we can do this.
One thing we did to change the workplace culture was to create an open office environment.
Improving our market share from 15% to 23% showed we were succeeding.
You could see that people weren't happy because they arrived later and left earlier.
Well, I managed to negotiate three successful takeovers in one year.
Now let's get back to the dialogue.
Yes, I see what you're saying.
That does sound problematic.
And did you have to serve in that role with senior management yourself?
Yes, I did.
I worked quite closely with the executives.
But to be honest, I struggled sometimes when I was asked to simply confirm what they wanted to hear.
My honesty sometimes met with scorn.
Frank seems to understand what Patrick is trying to say.
He then asks whether Patrick had to serve in that role with senior management.
The role that Frank is talking about is that of explaining financial accounts.
To serve in a role means to work in some position or perform some type of activity.
Patrick explains that he did work closely with the executives and then introduces his next idea with the expression but to be honest,
We usually say this when we are about to say something negative.
In this case, Patrick is going to admit a challenge of his previous position.
He explains that he sometimes had difficulty just telling the executives what they wanted to hear.
Patrick is confessing to having a weakness or difficulty.
This is very difficult to do in an interview, but it shows honesty and self-evaluation.
In the following examples, notice how the speaker admits to weakness, but doesn't just say, I am bad at something.
I sometimes get too caught up in the details of a project.
In situations of conflict, I may sometimes feel uncomfortable.
Communicating with younger staff is something I could probably improve.
Now, how does the interview continue?
So would you say you had a troubled relationship with the executives?
No, I wouldn't characterize it as troubled.
I believe I earned their respect by calling it how it was.
Even though they didn't always thank me for it, there was acknowledgement that it helped them make better decisions.
I did the dirty work, as you might say, though I always did so with tact.
Patrick has admitted that it was difficult to work with the executives.
This leads Frank to wonder if the relationship was troubled or generally poor.
Patrick says that he would not describe or characterize the relationship that way.
He wants to downplay past conflict.
In other words, he wants to show that it wasn't so bad.
To do this, Patrick talks about the positive side of his relationship.
He says that he earned the executive's respect by calling it how it was.
That is, he was honest and direct when explaining things.
He admits that they didn't always thank him, but that they knew he helped them.
Patrick says he did the dirty work, which is work that is not pleasant, but has to be done.
And he says he did this with tact.
In other words, he was able to be honest and direct without offending people.
Patrick is wise to downplay his past conflict, so let's run through some more examples of.
In each case, you will see that the person is showing how the problem was not too serious.
We didn't always agree but we worked together just fine.
It was a relatively minor conflict in the larger scheme of things.
We eventually worked things out and there were no lingering issues.
It was just part of working in a fast-paced, high-stress environment.
Let's hear Frank's final words in this part of the dialogue.
Interesting.
Tact is definitely important.
Now, if we can shift gears for a while and talk about your experiences in auditing.
I have a few questions for you there, especially about your work with the Gastos account.
Frank agrees that tact is important and wants to shift gears.
Shifting gears in a conversation or discussion means moving to a different topic or activity.
In this case, Frank wants to talk about some of Patrick's other experiences, but we'll have to wait for Episode 2 for more of this dialogue.
Now let's practice some of the language we've learned for highlighting unique career accomplishments.
You'll hear a question about your experience.
Then you'll hear a prompt.
Use the words in the prompt to make a response to the question.
For example, if you hear, What contribution did you make to your previous employer?
You can say, I succeeded in increasing sales by 10%.
We'll play an example answer after each practice.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
What achievement were you most proud of in your last job?
Oversee, Opening, First Branch, Russia Answer.
I oversaw the opening of our first branch in Russia.
How did you help the company become so successful?
I implemented a new sales training program.
Tell us about an important achievement you made in your lost position.
Develop.
Tracking system.
Save millions.
Answer.
I developed a new tracking system that saved millions of dollars.
Can you give us an example of a recent success?
Complete.
Five million dollar project.
Ahead.
Schedule.
Answer.
I completed a five million dollar project ahead of schedule.
Now, let's practice some of the vocabulary and idioms from this lesson.
You'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat the whole sentence, saying the missing word.
For example, if you hear... You can say...
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
I'm always the one who does the dirty when it's time for layoffs.
Answer.
I'm always the one who does the dirty work when it's time for layoffs.
Linda, I was hoping we could sit and discuss the new software.
Answer.
Linda, I was hoping we could sit down and discuss the new software.
Unfortunately, management and employees have a relationship.
Answer.
Unfortunately, management and employees have a troubled relationship.
Answer.
The company has grown quickly through several recent acquisitions.
We've reached the end of this episode, the first in our two-part series on job interviews for when you're making a career shift.
We've learned how to highlight unique career accomplishments, politely criticize and give evidence.
We've also heard how to admit challenges and downplay past conflict.
These are all very important but difficult things to do well.
Be sure to tune in to the next episode.
We'll hear Patrick continue his interview and demonstrate several more key interview skills for us.
Thanks for listening and see you again soon.
