hello and welcome back to the skills 360 podcast I'm your host Tim

Simmons and today I want to look at how to prepare for an interview in English

when I say prepare I'm not talking about making an appointment at the hair salon

or picking out a clean shirt I'm talking about doing some research anticipating

what you'll be asked and practicing how to respond yeah I know I'm always going

on about preparation but this time it's not just a suggestion it's essential if

you do it right you'll be able to head into the interview feeling relaxed and

confident and that will increase your chances of landing the job now here's

the thing most interviews cover the same basic territory sure you might get a

couple of curveballs but for the most part you can predict what questions

you'll be asked and that means you can plan your answers I don't mean script

your answers it's pretty tough to appear authentic and natural while delivering a

memorized response but you can outline your answers and practice your delivery

so how do we go about doing that well let's start by talking about how to

introduce yourself in an interview in English the old tell me about yourself

question it's a amazing how many people are thrown by

this question or fumble through an awkward response as they wait for the

real interview questions but first impressions are important and you need a

good answer for tell me about yourself my advice is to keep it succinct instead

of rambling on keep it professional but show passion and keep it positive and if

you need a formula try present past future how does that work check out this

example I'm currently a marketing manager with a medium-sized software

firm since I was young I've loved writing and design and all things tech

so in university marketing felt like the perfect fit and I went straight from

college to IBM where I worked for five years I'm happy with what I've

accomplished but I'm really looking for a new challenge now and I love what you

guys are doing in that example you heard me mention my current position my

educational and work background and the change I want in the future if you

master your tell me about yourself pitch you can practice responding to the

next most common English interview question what are your strengths first a

don't don't give them a laundry list of random skills like well I'm good at

communication organizing teamwork and I take the initiative all the time

that's totally forgettable instead choose two or three important strengths

that relate directly to the position you're applying for

choose ones that will set you apart from others and give some evidence so if

you're applying for a marketing manager position you might say people tell me

that I'm a creative manager I can motivate a team and make people feel

appreciated for example our team recently tackled a tough project for a

really demanding client and did you notice that I said people tell me that

I'm a creative manager it's not just your opinion you're telling them that

other people think so too now I wouldn't necessarily take the same

approach to the next type of question you're bound to face and which you

probably dread answering the what are your weaknesses question yes you're sure

to get this question in a job interview so you'd better be ready for it three

bits of advice first don't choose something that's actually a strength I'm

talking about the old well sometimes I'm too much of a perfectionist they've

heard that before it doesn't fly anymore secondly choose something that isn't

central to the position you're applying for thirdly talk about how you've worked

to improve this weakness let's say you're applying for a marketing manager

position and you're asked about a weakness you might try something like

this in the past I've struggled with public speaking giving presentations to

large groups of people at a conference for example is a real challenge

that said I've joined Toastmasters and I've been working hard to develop more

confidence with this other good weaknesses to talk about being patient

when working on a team delegating responsibilities giving

feedback or analyzing data if one of those isn't central to the role it could

be a good one to mention all right how about a quick recap of these tips first

practice a good response - tell me about yourself that's professional passionate

positive and succinct second talk about strengths that are related to the job

and set you apart from others and third talk about a weakness that doesn't blow

up your chances of getting the position and that you've worked to improve that's

all for today if you'd like to test yourself on what we've just covered have

a look at the business English pod dot-com website

there you'll find a quiz about today's show as well as a PDF transcript so long

and see you again soon