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How can I do better in an English job interview?

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How can I do better in an English job interview?  This is a question that is asked by many non-native English speakers that want to work for an international company.  There are a few ways to do better in an English job interview including knowing your own skills and traits, preparing and practicing for the interview, and researching the position and the company.

To begin with you should have a very good understanding of your skills, personality traits and where or how you obtained or developed them.  One thing you should do is go through all the jobs you have done, including part time jobs, and all the activities you have been involved in and review the things you had do to for them (the duties).  For all the duties you had you can think about what skills you needed to do them.  Many interviewers will want you to prove that you have the skills and traits that they are looking for.  You should also have some examples or stories of you using the skills and traits to accomplish something at work or in an extracurricular activity.  Knowing your skills and traits, and having examples to use will help you in answering many of the job interview questions.

After understanding your skills and personality traits you need to be able to do what I call Show & Prove, which will help you answer many of the questions they will ask during the job interview.  Show is being able to give them an example of you accomplishing something in a work situation, or an outside activity.  The example will tell the interviewer(s) what you did to solve a problem, help a customer, organize an event, increase participation, etc.  It will show you using some of your skills and exhibiting some of your personality traits.  The Prove part is being able to say where you acquired the skill or where you used it.  You can acquire the skills at work, through extracurricular activities, or learn them at school.

Another way to do better in the interview is preparation.  This can start with preparing answers to the expected questions.  These questions you can find on the internet, through research, or by asking your friends and contacts.  You can write out answers, modify them, and then practice giving them.  Remember that for some or many of the questions you should show or prove your skills and traits.  Reviewing your answers will give you the opportunity to check your grammar, to think about the use of your voice when answering, and to become more confident in answering the questions.

Practice is another thing that you should do so that you will do better in an English interview.  You can have someone help you with a mock interview (a practice interview that attempts to be close to the real thing) so that you can practice your interview question answers in a more realistic situation.   As well, you can practice answering the questions and video them.  By reviewing the video you can get an idea about what things you need to improve upon.  This will help build your confidence.  If you are more confident, you will be less nervous and you will be able to give better answers to the interview questions.

You should also research the company to learn more about its corporate culture, its markets, and its products.  Knowing more about the company will show that you are interested in the company and improve your chances of being chosen for the position.

These are some of the ways that you can do better in an English job interview.  They will also improve your chances of getting the position you applied for.  Check my course description “English for Job Interviews” for more information.

You can also see this article on Ezine at http://ezinearticles.com/?How-Can-I-Do-Better-in-an-English-Job-Interview?&id=8381022

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