welcome to Learn Business English 16

today, we're doing a special video on job interview tips

now for those of you who have been with us for a long time

we did a video back in 2007, my wife and I

about job interview tips

now, the market has changed so much that a lot of the answers the interviewee used to give

are now considered to be cliche

so we're going to take a look at what would be more appropriate to say

what would be more appropriate to use

and of course we're going to do it in a very, very laid-back

and humorous way

so let's go to our lesson

question # 1: tell me about yourself

I'm really hardworking

I'm a workaholic

warning! cliche answer detected: give another answer to avoid job interview failure

so saying that your hardworking or a workaholic nowadays is considered overused

everybody uses it

so you really want to make this your own

and make this your own means that you want to make this your own story

and you want to make sure that you talk about details of previous work experience

maybe you had a tight deadline

and you had to work extra hours

maybe it was the year-end closing

and you had to work Saturday or Sunday

if you don't have any work experience, maybe you can focus on

some internship you did

or maybe some work project that you had from University or high school

What are your strengths?

I'm a total team player

I'm a team leader!

team player? team leader? is so passe as the French would say.

it's so out-of-date

so you really want to once again focus on your work experience

or maybe even when you were an intern

or some part-time job

where you had the chance to be part of a team

to work with a team

allowed my team to tailor to the local market

my greatest task was

bringing the teams together by bridging the cultural differences

I'm dedicated and motivated

dedicated and motivated sound meaningless because they're so overused

so if you're gonna use those words, make sure you back it up with experience

I'm the perfect fit for this job

I'm the perfect fit for this job

that sounds pretentious, a little cocky

and it's actually up to the interviewer to decide

if you are a perfect fit for the job

I will do whatever it takes to get this job

I'm open to anything, I'm willing to do anything

both of these sound like the person, the interviewee, is desperate

and I wouldn't advise saying something like that

you have to give yourself credit

you have to value all of the qualities that you have

in terms of work experience and skills

I'm a perfectionsist

I'm too detail-oriented

I'm a perfectionist? I'm too detail-oriented?

that's not going to fly

try to find another weakness

for example, it's hard to keep up with new technology

software, operating systems

since there's always a learning curve

which can be very frustrating and time consuming

where do you see yourself in 5 years' time?

now this might sound obvious, but there are some interviewees

that might let it slip out that they're not interested in their current field or industry

now if you aspire, if you really want to climb the corporate ladder in the company that you're interviewing for

then i suggest that you go to linked.com

find some of the employees that have been working there

to see how long they've been at their present position or previous position

so you have a good idea of how many years it would take to reach their position

I wasn't appreciated at my last job

well, this shows that you weren't happy at your last job

that you didn't get along with your boss most likely

and it could lead to some really bad feelings

you're opening up Pandora's box

focus on the positive

so the interviewer is looking for genuine interest in the company

not just some surface research

of the company

try to describe where you first found out about the company

maybe a personal experience you had with an employee or product from that company

well everybody I hope you enjoyed our lesson on job interview tips

there was a lot of vocabulary there, so I hope you were able to learn some more

and I look forward to our next Learn Business English lesson

Bye for now!