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 second round interviews in English.
You may know all about the basic English job interview questions and you might be comfortable talking about your basic qualifications and experience.
But most companies don't stop the selection process after one round of interviews.
They create a shortlist and invite a few outstanding candidates back for a second interview.
In many cases, that second interview is what we call a behavioral interview.
Interviewers will ask questions about how you acted or reacted to challenges in past work and how you dealt with or adapted to different situations.
In this way, they can find out whether you have the right attitude, approach and abilities for the job.
The behavioral interview is a special opportunity to demonstrate soft skills such as leadership or how you take a principled approach to problems.
You might also want to show that you can remain calm in conflict.
In many cases, the STAR approach can help shape your responses.
This is when you describe four things, the situation, the task, the action, and the result.
And in this kind of English interview you have to be careful because some interviewers will try to give you leading questions to get you to reveal mistakes or problems.
In today's dialogue, we'll hear Kat, who is applying for a job with a private healthcare company.
She's being interviewed by Denise.
Denise is asking Kat some tough behavioral questions and Kat is doing a good job of demonstrating some important soft skills.
As you listen to the dialogue, try to answer the following questions.
1.
What example does Kat give? of how she showed leadership and went above and beyond?
2.
What situation does Kat describe in response to a question about an unpopular decision?
3.
What attitude or attribute does Kat demonstrate when describing a situation of conflict?
Now, I have another question here about your time with Fortune Health.
I'd like you to tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond.
I mean beyond the call of duty.
Above and beyond?
Well, I think I've gone above and beyond to develop what I call a culture of care among my team.
I mean, we strive to deliver great care as health providers.
But that philosophy has to be applied internally as well.
Okay, so.
So, as an example, when one of our nurses was down with a broken pelvis, I organized a couple of hospital visits.
I took some of our other staff out on the weekend to see her.
She doesn't have a lot of family around, so I felt it was our job and my job to make sure she felt supported.
I see.
And this was on your own time?
Yeah, it wasn't anything major, but I think a little effort had a big impact.
Okay, now another situation for you.
A bit different.
Can you tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision?
Sure.
Okay, so last year we had a situation where a funder pulled out just before launch.
My job was to make sure that project was top notch, no shortcuts.
And so I decided to postpone the launch by three months.
You know, there were a few noses out of joint people who had worked really hard, but I had to tell them that we weren't going to do it halfway.
We had to be ready, and to be excellent, not just good enough and on time.
Right, so you didn't want to cut corners.
And are you generally uncomfortable with things like cost-cutting or disciplined approaches to budgeting?
No, not at all.
It's all circumstantial, really.
On that particular project, we were guided very deliberately by concerns for quality.
That's the idea we pitched to our funders and to the public and I had a duty to uphold that, even if some people didn't like the decision.
All right, then.
A bit related, but I'd like to look at a different situation or circumstance.
Give me a recent example of how you dealt with an upset coworker or member of staff.
Okay.
Well, last week I had one of our home care nurses storm into my office yelling at me about her schedule.
Very unhappy.
Now, this is someone with a history of conflict.
She can get pretty riled up.
So, first, I invited her to sit down.
Not across from my desk, but at a smaller table in my office.
More casual.
And then I just listened.
I didn't rationalize, at first anyway, or tell her to calm down.
And after a time, she lowered her voice and we started to work things out.
Now let's go through the dialogue again and look at the language and techniques Kat uses during her interview.
Now, I have another question here about your time with Fortune Health.
I'd like you to tell me about a time when you had to go above and beyond.
I mean beyond the call of duty.
When you go above and beyond the call of duty, you do something extra or something that you're not required to do.
Let's hear how Kat responds to this question.
Above and beyond?
Well, I think I've gone above and beyond to develop what I call a culture of care among my team.
I mean, we strive to deliver great care as health providers, but that philosophy has to be applied internally as well.
Kat starts out speaking fairly generally.
That is, she hasn't described a specific situation yet, but rather she is describing her approach to a situation.
In this case, her approach is one based on the need to take care of people on her team.
It's a great idea if you can give the rationale or reasons for your actions in a situation.
And those reasons are related to the principles that you think are important.
Showing a principled approach tells an interviewer that you think carefully about how to respond to situations or events.
Let's try some more ways of showing a principled approach.
Good communication is a top priority, so everything else flows from that.
I thought the best course of action would have to fit with our strategic plan.
Kat has explained her approach, but she still hasn't given the situation.
Let's listen.
Okay, so.
So, as an example, when one of our nurses was down with a broken pelvis, I organized a couple of hospital visits.
I took some of our other staff out on the weekend to see her.
She doesn't have a lot of family around, so I felt it was our job and my job to make sure she felt supported.
Kat is now giving an example of how she showed care for one of her nurses.
This is an example of going above and beyond that Denise asked for.
Kat has chosen a good example because it gives her a chance to show another important attribute leadership.
Kat could have explained an individual situation where she did something extra.
But instead, she's showing how she organized other people to go and visit the injured nurse.
So your success in a behavioral situation depends on talking about situations that allow you to demonstrate key attributes.
How else can we show leadership in a behavioral interview?
Let's practice a few more examples.
There was a lot of confusion, so I arranged a conference call to discuss the problem.
I realized that this person needed some guidance and help to do his job well.
I really felt that it was my job to come up with ways of increasing sales.
Rather than seeing someone get laid off I said, let's find another way to cut costs.
Now back to the dialogue, as Denise moves on to another question.
I see.
And this was on your own time?
Yeah.
It wasn't anything major, but I think a little effort had a big impact.
Okay.
Now another situation for you.
A bit different.
Can you tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision?
As you can hear, behavioral interviews can include some pretty tough questions.
And, once again, it's important that you explain clearly the reasons for your actions and the context.
Let's hear how Kat does this.
Sure.
Okay, so last year, we had a situation where a funder pulled out just before launch.
My job was to make sure that project was top-notch, no shortcuts.
And so I decided to postpone the launch by three months.
You know, there were a few noses out of joint people who had worked really hard, but I had to tell them that we weren't going to do it halfway.
We had to be ready and to be excellent, not just good enough and on time.
Kat is using what we call a star approach to this question.
First, she describes a situation, which is that a funder decided not to provide money for a project.
Then she describes her task, which was to make sure the project was excellent or top-notch.
Next she describes her action, which was to postpone the launch of the project.
And finally, she mentioned the results, or what happened because of her actions.
So we have situation, task, action, results.
The STAR approach helps you give a complete picture of the situation, so the interviewer can see why you behaved in a certain way.
Especially with questions about challenges, you want to make sure the interviewer has a complete picture.
Let's go through some more ways of using the STAR approach.
First we'll try a couple of examples of explaining the situation and task, and then a couple on action and results.
Customers were complaining and I had to find a way to make them happy.
So, there were lots of ideas, but my job was to choose the best course of action.
I eliminated the weekly report and that freed up three hours a week for other work.
So I hired an admin assistant and the account managers were much happier.
In her last response, Kat mentioned that she didn't want to do it halfway, but to do less than originally planned.
Denise picks up on this idea for her next question.
Right, so you didn't want to cut corners.
And are you generally uncomfortable with things like cost cutting or disciplined approaches to budgeting?
Denise might be worried that Kat's unwillingness to do things halfway might mean she isn't careful with money.
So she asked Kat if she's uncomfortable with efforts to save money or be efficient.
It's a tricky question because if you don't think carefully, your immediate reaction might be just to say yes.
But you should be able to resist a leading question like this.
No, not at all.
It's all circumstantial, really.
Kat doesn't agree with Denise's assumption.
She states very clearly that she's not uncomfortable with careful budgeting.
In fact, she says that it's circumstantial, which means it depends on the situation.
In this way, Kat has resisted Denise's leading question.
She doesn't just agree with what sounds like a logical statement.
She's confident enough to say no and to explain herself.
How about practicing a few more examples of resisting a leading question?
No, in fact, I love working on group projects.
Definitely not.
I think it's always better to be totally honest about these things.
Actually, I really don't think so.
I did everything I could to avoid the problem.
No, that's simply not the way I like to approach conflict.
Let's get back to the interview.
This cat finishes her explanation, and Denise moves on to another behavioral question.
On that particular project, we were guided very deliberately by concerns for quality.
That's the idea we pitched to our funders and to the public and I had a duty to uphold that, even if some people didn't like the decision.
All right, then.
A bit related, but I'd like to look at a different situation or circumstance.
Give me a recent example of how you dealt with an upset co-worker or member of staff.
Remember, every question is an opportunity to show how you approach situations.
And what approach does this kind of situation call for?
Let's listen.
Okay.
Well, last week I had one of our home care nurses storm into my office yelling at me about her schedule.
Very unhappy.
Now, this is someone with a history of conflict.
She can get pretty riled up.
So, first, I invited her to sit down.
Not across from my desk, but at a smaller table in my office.
More casual.
Then I just listened.
I didn't rationalize, at first anyway, or tell her to calm down.
And after a time, she lowered her voice and we started to work things out.
Once again, Kat is describing the situation, what she did, and the result.
In this case an angry or riled up nurse came into her office and started shouting about the schedule.
Kat explains how she remained calm.
She didn't get upset, but rather sat down for a conversation and listened carefully.
And this approach appears to have worked, because the employee eventually lowered her voice.
Some of the biggest workplace challenges are related to conflict between people.
And if you can demonstrate that you have dealt with such situations calmly, you'll be considered a good candidate for any job.
So let's run through some more examples of demonstrating calm in a conflict.
I listened carefully for several minutes, then gently interrupted him.
While everyone was arguing, I went to the whiteboard and started writing down key ideas.
I didn't show how angry I was, but just invited him into my office for a chat.
Kat has used Denise's questions to demonstrate some really important qualities, and she's explained her actions very clearly, providing the right amount of context for Denise to understand the situations.
Now let's practice some of the language we learned in today's lesson.
Imagine you are interviewing for a management position.
You'll hear a cue from the interviewer.
Then I'll give you a suggestion for what you can say in response.
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.
So, why did you decide not to go ahead with the project?
Start by saying that you didn't have enough staff to do an excellent job.
Well, we didn't really have enough staff to do an excellent job.
But weren't you worried about meeting your monthly revenue targets?
Now say yes, but that you also have to think about long-term sustainability.
Yes, but I also have a duty to think about long-term sustainability.
Okay, now tell me about another time you had to make a difficult decision.
Next, say that there was a personality conflict with members of your last team.
Answer.
Well, there was a personality conflict with members of my last team.
Right.
That's a fairly common situation.
So, what did you do?
Now say that you reassigned one member to another project and the whole team improved.
I reassigned one member to another project, and the whole team improved.
Now let's practice some of the vocabulary 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...
So, what kind of things do you like to do in your own?
You can say So, what kind of things do you like to do in your own time?
After each response, we'll provide the correct answer.
Let's begin.
Jack deserves the promotion because he always goes above and...
Jack deserves the promotion because he always goes above and beyond.
This is a very important client, so we can't cut any.
This is a very important client, so we can't cut any corners.
Dave's nose was really out of... about having to work on Saturday.
Answer.
Dave's nose was really out of joint about having to work on Saturday.
At Roundtree, we... to provide the best service at the best prices.
Answer.
At Roundtree, we strive to provide the best service at the best prices.
We've also looked at the Steyr approach to behavioral questions and how to confidently resist leading questions.
Thanks for listening, and see you again soon.
