This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
Hello, it is Ryan. And I was on a flight the other day playing one of my favourite social spin slot games on chumbacasino .com.
I looked over at the person sitting next to me and you know what they were doing?
They were also playing Chumba Casino.
Everybody's loving having fun with it.
Chumba Casino is home to hundreds of casino -style games that you can play for free anytime, anywhere.
So sign up now at chumbacasino .com to claim your free welcome bonus.
That's chumbacasino .com and live the Chumba life.
Sponsored by Chumba Casino.
No purchase necessary.
VGW group void where prohibited by law.
21 plus terms and conditions apply.
With the American Express Platinum Card, you can unlock over $1 ,500 in value annually with statement credits on select purchases and other benefits.
That means getting access to even more of your favorite things.
More jet setting. More trend setting.
And more resetting.
And downward dog. The stage is set for you to do even more with the American Express Platinum part.
Learn more at americanexpress .com slash us slash explore dash platinum.
Terms apply. From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English for Work, our podcast to help you with your business English.
I'm Pippa. And I'm Phil.
In this special series, we're talking you through the process of getting a new job in English.
And today, we're talking about a big step, the job interview.
Remember, you can find a transcript for this episode at bbclearningenglish .com.
So, today's episode is all about job interviews.
Yes, we've had so many questions about job interviews and there's something lots of people find difficult, even native speakers of English.
So, we're going to break down the interview into two episodes.
Today we're focusing on how to talk about yourself in an interview and Pippa how do you find talking about yourself?
I find it quite difficult.
I think it's really hard to talk about your strengths and to always kind of talk positively about yourself.
It doesn't come naturally to me.
What about you Phil?
Yeah I used to find this really difficult.
I think as I've done more interviews, I've got better at just preparing things I can use to talk about myself.
As ever, we have our job applications expert, Amy Evans, to help us.
Amy works in recruitment for the BBC World Service.
And Amy says that while it's normal to not like talking about your strengths, it is an important part of job interviews.
Don't be afraid to highlight your strengths and make sure the panel know why you think you're suitable for that job.
we talked in the previous episode about preparing for an interview and having lots of examples ready to talk about but it can be difficult to know how to talk about these naturally in an interview yes but amy has a technique to help a good method for sort of answers is the star method which is situation task
action and result amy recommends the star method which is a common business template for giving examples it's kind of a structure for your answers s -t -a -r so situation task action result when you're thinking of your answers and thinking of specific examples you can think of what the situation was what the task
was that you were asked to do what you did what was your action what was your part in that situation and then what the result was so that's a good way of formatting and having concise and clear answers.
Okay, so maybe let's try an example of a star answer.
Okay, so let's imagine that I was asked to talk about how I deal with a problem at work in an interview.
So this is a fictional job interview.
Okay, so first we've got S, haven't we?
So that's situation.
What situation could you talk about?
Right. So let's imagine that I work in an office and I'm responsible for ordering the office supplies.
So there's a problem with the order and the delivery didn't come through in time and now the office needs more pens.
That's my situation.
So that's the S from star situation.
Next we've got the T, which is task, what would be your task in this situation?
So in this situation, the task is that I needed to make sure that the office had the right supply.
So I needed to sort out this problem.
Okay. And so we've got S and T.
So next is A in the star and A is for action.
So what action would you take?
So in this example, I could say that I called another supplier to get the pens for the week for the office and then I contacted the original company to make sure that the usual order would come as soon as possible and to sort out any problems with delivery.
So that is my action.
Okay, so we've had situation, task and action.
The last letter of star is R and that's for result.
So what happened and why does that make you a really good candidate for this job?
Yep, so here I might say that my actions meant that the office had the supplies that they needed, they had enough pens, and I was able to negotiate a better delivery system with the main supplier.
So I could then say it showed that I had quick thinking and good problem solving skills.
So I always bring the answer back to what it shows about me, and that's the result.
Well, I'd definitely give you the job, Pippa.
Oh, thanks, Phil. And of course, if you were in a job interview, you need to use a real example I talked about an imagined example there, but you need to think of a real thing that happened to you and then apply the STAR method.
So, situation, task, action, result.
Okay, let's hear what other advice Amy has got.
Make sure your answers, you're bringing all the points back to the question that they've asked.
So, try not to kind of go off on tangents.
And if you need a recap of what the question is, you know don't be afraid to say sorry can you repeat the question to make sure that you're kind of keeping on track so remember the interview is not just a chat it's about knowing whether you're right for the job so you need to make sure you're answering
the question and talking about relevant things yeah so as we were saying earlier that job interviews can make you quite nervous and of course the interview panel will expect you to be a bit nervous but do you think there's things that we can do that will make us less nervous when we get into that interview
room? Well I think it's practicing that structure to your answers so that even if they ask a question that you weren't expecting you have some examples and you've thought
