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Hello and welcome back to Business English Pod for today's lesson on key skills for first-round job interviews.
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If you find job interviews stressful, you're certainly not alone.
Many people struggle to feel confident and comfortable in interview situations.
And there's the added worry that the stress you feel will make it even more difficult to answer the questions.
Well,
But you can reduce this stress with effective preparation.
You know that you'll be asked certain types of questions, so you can make notes about your responses or make an outline of important ideas that you want to talk about.
You can also develop skills to make sure you're being clear and accurate in your responses.
So what should you prepare and what skills should you develop?
Well, for starters, you should be ready to introduce yourself and your career path and to summarize your current job responsibilities.
In terms of skills, it's good to practice clarifying the words you use, buying yourself time and connecting your answers back to the question.
In this lesson we'll listen as William is interviewed for a position in business development at a bank in Hong Kong.
He's being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the company.
This is a first-round interview and you can hear William show how comfortable and skilled he is at responding to the questions.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
1.
What information does William give about his education and work history?
2.
What does William say about his management style?
Three, what does William say to buy himself time to think of an answer?
Nice to meet you.
It's William, right?
Just call me Mike.
Have any trouble finding us?
No, thanks.
But the traffic was bad.
Atrocious, isn't it?
You're right on time though.
That's good.
Have a seat.
Let's start off with just a general question about your background.
Can you tell me a little about yourself?
Alright.
Since graduating with honours in economics from the University of Hong Kong that was in 1996 I've been working for ten years at First United Trust at the Admiralty branch, first as a loan officer and for the past three years as an assistant branch manager.
OK.
And what are your main responsibilities at First United?
I've been mainly responsible for handling revolving credit for over 100 local and expat customers and overseeing a portfolio of 400 million in new short- and long-term fixed asset loans for individuals and for small businesses.
Uh-huh.
That's great.
Maybe you could also tell me something about the way you manage people.
What's your management style?
Um, let's see.
I'd say my management style is participatory and situational.
By that I mean that my style adapts to what each situation requires, but I always place great emphasis on participation from my team.
As for my personal characteristics, I thrive on challenge.
I work well under pressure, and I would describe myself as detail-oriented and proactive.
Interesting.
Those are always good qualities to bring to the job.
You said that your management style was participatory and situational.
Could you give an example of that?
Let's see.
Let me think about that.
Okay.
We were installing a major client CRM system which was behind schedule.
I called a meeting with all seven team members, described the project status and asked for recommendations for getting the project back on schedule.
The team decided on the best course of action, and the result was that we successfully delivered the project on time.
This is a good example of my participatory leadership style.
I try to use influence rather than authority to lead.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and listen to how William deals with the different questions Mike is asking.
They begin with a bit of small talk about traffic before Mike asks his first question.
Nice to meet you.
It's William, right?
Just call me Mike.
Have any trouble finding us?
No, thanks.
But the traffic was bad.
Atrocious, isn't it?
You're right on time, though.
That's good.
Have a seat.
Let's start off with just a general question about your background.
Can you tell me a since graduating with honors in economics from the University of Hong Kong.
That was in 1996.
I've been working for 10 years at First United Trust at the Admiralty branch, first as a loan officer and for the past three years as an assistant branch manager.
When Mike invites William to introduce himself, notice that William keeps his response focused on his career path.
He mentions his education as well as his work history, which includes two roles at a branch or a particular office of a bank.
What you'll notice is that William gives just the right amount of information.
If your response to any question is too short, you won't make a good impression.
Imagine if William just said, OK, I'm William, and I work at First United Trust.
But it's also not good to give an answer that's too long.
In this case, the right amount is just a few sentences.
What are some other things we can say as part of an introduction focused on your career path?
Let's try some more examples.
I graduated with a degree in finance and have since specialized in risk management.
After completing my MBA, I worked as an analyst in corporate finance for five years.
I spent a decade in marketing before transitioning to a role in product management.
I began as an intern in the industry and worked my way up to team lead.
Now that William has introduced his current work, it's a chance for Mike to ask a follow-up question.
Okay.
What are your main responsibilities at First United?
I've been mainly responsible for handling revolving credit for over 100 local and expat customers and overseeing a portfolio of 400 million in new short and long-term fixed asset loans for individuals and for small businesses.
Once again you can hear William give enough information for Mike to understand, but not so much that he gets distracted.
And with his answer, William uses some key phrases to explain his level of responsibility.
He talks about what he's responsible for and mentions that he oversees a big portfolio or collection of investments.
You'll also notice that he gives some idea of the scope or scale of his responsibility.
This includes mentioning how many customers he handles and how big the investment portfolio is.
This will help Mike understand his capabilities.
You can assume that you'll be asked to summarize your current job responsibilities, so let's practice more ways of doing this.
Notice the strong focus on verbs like coordinate, manage, and oversee.
I'm responsible for managing key client accounts and ensuring service quality.
My role involves coordinating project timelines and communicating updates to all stakeholders.
I oversee a team of six providing guidance and support on daily operations.
My primary focus is on budget management and financial forecasting.
Now let's get back to the interview, as Mike asks about a specific skill or responsibility.
Uh-huh.
That's great.
Maybe you could also tell me something about the way you manage people.
What's your management style?
Um, let's see.
I'd say my management style is participatory and situational.
By that I mean that my style adapts to what each situation requires, but I always place great emphasis on participation from my team.
William has used the words participatory and situational to describe his management style.
It's easy to throw buzzwords around, but good job candidates will show that they have a clear understanding of the words they use.
As you can hear, William explains exactly what he means with these words.
Situational means he adapts to different situations.
And participatory means he considers team participation important or he places emphasis on participation.
Let's run through some more ways of clarifying the words you use, so that an interviewer understands exactly what you mean.
When I say innovative, I'm referring to finding creative solutions to problems.
By efficient, I mean delivering quality work within the set deadlines.
When I say goal-driven, I'm talking about my commitment to achieving results.
After explaining his approach to management, William talks about his working style.
As for my personal characteristics, I thrive on challenge.
I work well under pressure, and I would describe myself as detail-oriented and proactive.
Interesting.
Those are always good qualities to bring to the job.
You said that your management style was participatory and situational.
Could you give an example of that?
Let's see.
Let me think about that.
William is trying to create a clear picture of how he works.
He emphasizes that he's good in high-pressure, challenging situations, and he's good with details.
But Mike wants to come back to William's idea about participatory and situational management.
He wants more than just an explanation.
He asks for an actual example of his approach to management.
Questions about specific examples when you did something or demonstrated some quality or approach are common.
It's a part of what we call behavioral questions, where you are asked about situations and how you reacted.
It's not always easy to think quickly about situations in your past.
For this reason, it's good to know some expressions for buying yourself some time.
William doesn't rush to give an example.
Instead he takes his time and says let's see, and let me think about that, to give himself some time to think of a good answer.
Let's try some more ways of buying yourself some time to think of a response.
That's a great question.
Give me a second to gather my thoughts.
Let's see.
I'll need a moment to recall a good example.
Hmm.
Let me think about the best way to explain that.
Just a second.
I want to make sure I answer accurately.
So, what example does William come up with for his situational and participatory management style?
Let's listen as he talks about a project to install a new CRM or customer relationship management system.
Okay.
We were installing a major client CRM system, which was behind schedule.
I called a meeting with all seven team members, described the project status and asked for recommendations for getting the project back on schedule.
The team decided on the best course of action, and the result was that we successfully delivered the project on time.
This is a good example of my participatory leadership style.
I try to use influence rather than authority to lead.
William summarizes the situation concisely and clearly.
He uses what we call the STAR approach to behavioral questions.
That means he talks about the situation, the task that was needed, his action, and the result.
Most importantly, William brings his response back to the exact question about participatory leadership style.
It can be easy, once you start telling a story about your work experience, to forget what the question was.
What are some other ways of connecting a long answer back to the question?
Let's run through a few more examples.
So, in short, that's how I approached the challenge with my team.
To bring it all together, that's how my role impacted the project.
To answer your question, that's how I lead in a high pressure situation.
And in the end, that's how I ensured the team's success.
These ways of connecting a long answer back to the question are very useful.
A good interviewer will frame their questions to collect the information they need to make a decision.
And if you stray from their questions too far, they might not invite you back for a second interview.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are interviewing for a management position at a financial services company.
You'll hear a cue from the employee, then I'll tell you how to respond.
We'll guide you through each step in the practice and provide an example answer for each response.
Ready?
Let's give it a go.
Could you share a bit about your background?
Start by saying you started as a financial analyst and then became a team lead.
I see.
And what kind of tasks do you handle in your current role?
Now say that you manage client portfolios and advise them on investment strategies.
I manage client portfolios and advise them on investment strategies.
You mentioned that your management style is collaborative.
Could you expand on that?
Answer.
By collaborative, I mean I always encourage my team to share their ideas.
On another note, can you give an example of leading a project under pressure?
Answer.
Let's see.
Just give me a moment to think of a good example.
That's all for this lesson on job interviews.
We've looked at how to introduce yourself and talk about your current job and responsibilities.
We've also learned how to clarify the words you use.
Buy yourself some time and tie a long answer back to the question.
For more practice.
Premium members can access the online quizzes and PDF transcripts for this and other lessons on the BEP website.
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Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
