We're working on new episodes to help you improve your business English.
We have a new series starting in the autumn.
For now, please enjoy our series on job applications from 2024. which guides you through each step of getting a job in English, from writing a CV right up to your first day.
From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English for Work, and welcome to our special series all about job applications.
I'm Phil. and i'm pippa in this series we're talking about applying for a new job in english listen to the series so far to learn about every step of the journey Today, we're talking about researching and preparing for a job interview. that's bbclearningenglish.com you So it's a great feeling to be invited for a job interview, but it can also be really stressful, especially if you're going to have to do the interview in your second language.
But it's also stressful for native speakers, right, Phil?
Oh, yes, definitely. There's always this feeling of pressure that you might say the wrong thing and ruin your chances.
It's probably very unlikely that that will happen. it can be in the back of your mind as you're getting ready Yeah, it's an intense situation and people usually aren't used to that kind of situation.
So I think everybody gets nervous. There's lots of focus on the interview itself, but there's lots that you can do to prepare and we're going to be talking about preparing for an interview today.
Do you have any rituals for preparing for an interview, Phil?
I always try to work out what questions they could ask me and... try and come up with answers that I can have ready in my mind to come up with.
So I do a lot of practice with that. And then the other thing is I just get there really, really early.
But that probably doesn't help with nerves.
Yes, he's sitting there for an hour waiting, getting more and more stressed.
But yeah, getting there early is a good idea.
Throughout this series, we're speaking to Amy Evans who works in recruitment for the BBC World Service about how to approach each stage of a job application.
And Amy says you should start your preparations by getting as much information as possible about the interview.
It's always helpful to look up who's on the panel so you can have an idea of what they do in the company and just so that you feel familiar with who you're going to be meeting on the day.
I think you can ask about the format of the interview as well and check what sort of interview they're going to be doing, if there's anything that you need to prepare in advance.
It can be reassuring to know a bit more about who you'll be speaking to and what kind of questions might be asked.
And if you can't find out this information...
As you said Phil, you can think about what questions are likely to come up.
Yes, and then you can think ahead of the interview about some examples to speak about.
And Amy says, don't just practice on paper or in your head.
Practice speaking. Either, you know, if you've got a friend or family member or colleague that you could practice and role play with, or if you don't have that, even just sort of. standing in front of a mirror and just practice saying them so that when you come to the interview and you're asked a question even if it's not the exact question you were thinking of.
If it's something quite similar in your head, you're going to know with confidence that you can answer that and you can go, yep, I've got an example for that. and you can go into it with ease and not having to panic too much in the situation.
Now, Phil, I'm often quite worried about practising too much for an interview or sounding like a robot, like I've memorised an answer.
What do you think about that? Well, that is important.
It's a tricky balance. You need to sound natural, I think.
You want to practice enough so that you feel confident knowing your skills and experience to talk about in the interview.
You don't want to sort of practice so much that you almost fill your head with too many examples so that you get a bit confused on the day.
And you want to, as much as possible, kind of try and come across as sort of relaxed and confident rather than giving quite sort of rigid... over-rehearsed answers.
Okay so practice is important but you shouldn't write a script.
Yeah, and perhaps a good tip here is to talk about the examples so that you're confident, and then you can pick the right example in the interview, and then it should sound more natural.
Yeah, so I guess don't practice a full answer with exact sentences, but practice talking about a time that you did something and then you'll be ready to kind of... fit that to whatever question they ask.
Yeah and you can bring notes to an interview but just don't read off them like a script.
Yeah, I guess the most important thing is to feel comfortable and confident.
And that could also just mean researching the journey and the logistics.
I sometimes actually go to the place just to test that I know the way and I'm not going to get confused on the day.
It's a little bit like you're turning up early.
I like to kind of practice to make sure that I'm not stressed about the journey as well as the interview.
OK, that's it for this episode. Remember, you can find more programs to improve your business English on our website. like Office English, where we talk about using English in everyday situations at work.
Next time, it's interview time and we'll talk about the best way to talk about yourself and your experience.
See you then. Bye. Bye.
