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 today's lesson on dealing with difficult interview situations.
Imagine you're in a job interview, answering questions about your experience.
Things seem to be going pretty well, but suddenly you say something you wish you hadn't.
Maybe you mentioned a big mistake you made at a former job, or perhaps you said something bad about your former employer.
You watch the interviewer's face to see how she reacts, and your heart starts to race.
These are not unusual situations.
We've all faced them, and if you stay calm, there are some good ways to recover.
In today's lesson, we'll look at some useful techniques for these types of situations.
We'll look at admitting to a past mistake, explaining what we've done following a failure and highlighting what we've learned from an experience.
We'll also look at toning down a negative statement and emphasizing positive ideas after saying something negative.
We'll hear two short dialogues today.
In the first, we'll rejoin Simon and Charlene Simon is interviewing for a job as a bank manager.
In the second dialogue, we'll hear Sarah and Nick.
Sarah is interviewing for a position as a buyer with a big retail chain.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
One, what mistake did Simon make at his previous job?
Two, what did Simon do after making a mistake?
3.
What does Sarah think her previous employer needed to do better?
So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying you lost one of your best advisors to the competition.
Well, yes.
That's pretty much what happened.
I failed to understand his intentions properly, and I realized I overestimated his loyalty.
And was this a sign of wider troubles?
Or did his departure have a ripple effect on client relationships?
No, I didn't let it get that far.
When the whole thing went down, I met with everyone to make sure there weren't any underlying issues and reaffirmed their commitment to the team.
And you feel that you assessed the other employees correctly?
I certainly do.
In my private meetings with them, I discovered some lingering issues around compensation and sales quotas.
And I've taken steps to address those, which have proven effective so far.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language Simon uses when the interviewer asks him about a previous failure.
So, if I understand you correctly, you're saying you lost one of your best advisors to the competition.
Well, yes.
That's pretty much what happened.
I failed to understand his intentions properly, and I realize I overestimated his loyalty.
When we join the interview, we hear Charlene asking Simon about losing a good employee to another company.
That's not a good thing, but Simon deals with the problem head on.
He's very open and honest about his mistake, stating very directly that he didn't understand the situation properly.
He's not even shy about using the word failed.
Simon is admitting to his mistake rather than trying to make excuses or avoid it.
What are some other ways we can admit to a mistake in a job interview?
Let's practice a few more examples.
To be honest, I was wrong to assume employees were following all the safety guidelines.
Well, it was my fault for not proofreading the proposal well enough.
I think the problem was that I didn't check in with the client often enough.
My mistake was thinking we could finish the project in under 12 weeks.
Simon has admitted to his mistake, but Charlene wants to dig a bit deeper.
And was this a sign of wider troubles?
Or did his departure have a ripple effect on client relationships?
No, I didn't let it get that far.
When the whole thing went down, I met with everyone to make sure there weren't any underlying issues and reaffirmed their commitment to the team.
Charlene wants to know if the mistake came from or caused bigger problems.
This is Simon's opportunity to show what he did following his failure.
He immediately says I didn't let it get that far, showing that he realized the possibility that his mistake might have consequences.
Simon then states that he met with everyone to look for underlying issues.
He is showing exactly what he did to deal with his mistake And in that way Simon shows he took the problem seriously.
In many cases, facing the problem is much better than trying to minimize it or saying that it was no big deal.
Let's try some more ways of explaining exactly what you did to deal with a problem or failure.
Right after the problem we created a new set of policies to make sure it didn't happen again.
We decided to put every report through a three-person review process before making it public.
I immediately decided to create a contingency fund for similar situations.
I sat down with everyone involved and made a decision based on employee input.
Now, remember that Simon said he met with other employees following the problem.
Charlene wants to know more about this.
And you feel that you assessed the other employees correctly?
I certainly do.
In my private meetings with them, I discovered some lingering issues around compensation and sales quotas.
And I've taken steps to address those, which have proven effective so far.
Does Simon think he assessed or understood the other employees correctly?
Well, he sounds very confident that he did, saying, I certainly do.
He goes on to mention exactly what he learned in dealing with the problem.
In this case, he found out there were issues with compensation and quotas.
When we talk about a failure, we actually have a chance to show what we've learned.
How can we do this?
Let's run through a few more ways to highlight what we've learned.
I see now that we should build the possibility of delays into our timelines.
What I learned is the importance of building strong relationships with clients.
This really showed me how crucial it is to give employees the right training.
I think I better understand that implementing new software is a long process.
So we've heard Simon admit to a mistake and turn things around to explain how he dealt with it and what he learned.
In the end, what might have been a tough situation is actually a chance to show an interviewer how you rise to meet a challenge.
Now let's practice some of the language we just learned with a role play.
Imagine you are being interviewed for a job as an office manager.
You'll need to talk about a mistake you made in a previous job.
First, you'll admit the mistake.
Then you'll talk about steps you took to change things.
Finally, you'll highlight what you learned.
At each step, you'll hear a prompt spoken by the interviewer.
Then I'll give you some suggestions for the language you can use to respond.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and play an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
You said the staff didn't understand the importance of the plan?
Start by admitting that you only communicated the plan by email.
Answer.
Yes.
And my mistake was to only communicate the plan by email.
So, did you do something about this?
Now, tell the interviewer you decided to meet personally with the staff weekly.
Indeed.
I decided to meet personally with the staff every week.
And are more meetings the right thing to do in this type of situation?
Now highlight that you learned the importance of explaining things in person.
Answer.
I think so.
I learned that it's very important to explain things in person.
Now let's move on to the next difficult situation.
Remember, you'll hear Sarah interviewing for a job as a buyer for a retail company.
In the interview, Sarah says something negative about her previous employer and the interviewer probes her about the statement.
How does Sarah deal with this situation?
Let's find out.
Okay, but I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say that United Clothing didn't know what it was doing as a company.
Yeah, well, what I mean is that they seem to lack direction.
I felt they needed some better strategic planning rather than just responding ad hoc to changes in the industry.
Retail is changing fast, and companies need to have a good strategy to deal with that.
Yes, you're right about that.
But I wonder how this affected your experience at United.
Would you say it was a bad experience overall?
No, certainly not.
They may have lacked direction, but they did a lot of things right.
A really great group of people to work with, and they really supported their staff well.
In this dialogue, Sarah is showing how to deal with a situation where you might have said something negative about a company you used to work for.
Exactly how does she do that?
Let's take a closer look.
Okay, but I'm not quite sure what you mean when you say that United Clothing didn't know what it was doing as a company.
Yeah, well, what I mean is that they seem to lack direction.
I felt they needed some better strategic planning rather than just responding ad hoc to changes in the industry.
Retail is changing fast and companies need to have a good strategy to deal with that.
Nick wants Sarah to explain what she meant when she said that her previous employer didn't know what it was doing.
That's a pretty negative statement and Sarah doesn't want to sound like a negative or complaining person.
So the first thing she does is tone down her negative statement.
To do this, she explains her comment in clearer terms.
You might notice that she uses words like they seemed and I felt to soften her opinion.
She also puts her statement into business terms changing.
They didn't know what they were doing into.
They needed some better strategic planning.
Now let's try some more ways of toning down a negative statement.
Well, they weren't totally ignorant, just under-trained in the tools we were using.
I guess completely failed is a little strong.
More like they didn't achieve their key five year goals.
What I mean is that they lacked the right leadership to make effective changes.
They weren't exactly cheap, but I think they needed to invest in their employees more.
Sarah has turned down what she said, but Nick still wonders if Sarah had a generally bad experience at her former company.
Yes, you're right about that.
But I wonder how this affected your experience at United.
Would you say it was a bad experience overall?
No, certainly not.
They may have lacked direction, but they did a lot of things right.
A really great group of people to work with, and they really supported their staff well.
At this point, Sarah really needs to turn the conversation around.
She doesn't hesitate at all to say that it was certainly not a bad experience.
She acknowledges her criticism, but then mentions some very positive points about the company.
And she emphasizes her points with the word, really making it clear that overall she liked the company, which makes her sound like a positive person.
If you ever say something bad about where you used to work or who you used to work with, it's important to turn it around and talk about positives.
So let's run through some more ways of doing this.
As we do, notice the words used to emphasize the positive ideas, like very and certainly.
It was thrilling to be a part of such an innovative startup.
They certainly rewarded hard work, and they made sure employees were happy.
It was a very well run and efficient company to work for.
But at least the working environment was very friendly and positive.
Now let's practice the language we just learned with another short role play practice.
Imagine again that you're interviewing for a job as an office manager and that you've just said that your previous company was a complete mess.
You'll need to tone down your statement and then emphasize a positive point about the company.
Remember to listen to the prompt by the interviewer and my suggestions for language you can use in your response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
So the company was a complete mess?
What do you mean exactly?
Tone down the idea by explaining that the company sometimes seemed disorganized.
Answer.
I guess I mean that sometimes the company seemed quite disorganized.
I see.
And did that make your experience there a negative one?
Now emphasize that your overall experience was positive because of the great people.
Answer.
No.
My experience overall was really good because of all the great people there.
To finish off, let's practice some of the vocabulary and collocations we've covered in this lesson.
In a moment, you'll hear a series of sentences with a word replaced with a beep.
Repeat each sentence, including the missing word.
For example, if you hear... You can say...
We can prepare for the future with a good strategic planning process.
After each response, we'll play the correct answer.
Let's begin.
The problems.
Answer.
The situation is going to get worse if we don't take steps to address the problems.
The problems in finance were a sign of wider throughout the company.
Answer.
The problems in finance were a sign of wider troubles throughout the company.
Everyone was pretty sad about Mike's from the company.
Everyone was pretty sad about Mike's departure from the company.
Problems in the banking sector had a ripple on the entire economy.
Answer, problems in the banking sector had a ripple effect on the entire economy.
We've reached the end of this lesson, the second in our series on difficult interview situations.
We've learned how to admit to a failure.
Talk about what we've done following a failure and highlighting what we've learned.
We've also looked at how to tone down a negative statement about a previous employer and then to emphasize positive points instead.
With these techniques, you too can turn around a tough job interview situation.
Thanks for listening and see you again soon.
