How to Interview for a Job in American English, part 1/5

you're hired two words everybody loves to hear but before we hear these words comes the interview today's video is part one in a series that's all about preparing for a job interview this is part one of a five-part series on preparing for an interview interviewing for a new job can be a huge source of stress and anxiety and if you're interviewing for a job in a non-native language the stress can be even higher in this video you'll see me interview for a job throughout the interview we'll discuss some of the most common interview questions and

how to answer them you'll also learn some basic information to get you started on creating your own answers to these questions let's begin hello miss smith i'm tom kelly thanks so much for coming in it's my pleasure thanks so much for meeting with me of course did you have any trouble finding the office small talk most interviews will start out with a handshake and some small talk this may include questions about how you're doing your travel to the interview the weather how your weekend went and more all you need to do is be polite and

friendly keep your answers short you can also feel free to turn the question back to the interviewer for instance if the interviewer asks you how your weekend was you might respond it was great we celebrated my mom's birthday how was your weekend small talk is used to build a more comfortable environment before the interview begins it may seem silly but you can practice small talk on your own by asking yourself simple easy to answer non-personal questions you could also practice with a friend here's an example of small talk how are you doing i'm great thank

you and you how are you doing i'm doing really well it's such a nice day out there it is it was perfect weather all weekend it was did you do anything interesting over the weekend yes i went to the park with my family for a picnic that sounds nice it was and you i worked this weekend but i got a lot done so that was good it does feel good to get work done you can see we haven't said much of importance but the conversation is friendly and open and can make two people feel more

comfortable in each other's presence hello miss smith i'm tom kelly thanks so much for coming in it's my pleasure thanks so much for meeting with me of course did you have any trouble finding the office nope the directions on the website were great good would you like some water or coffee before we begin i'm okay thank you all right so to get started why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself sure common question tell me a little bit about yourself it's very common for interviewers to simply ask you to tell them about yourself

that can feel overwhelming but don't worry what they really want you to focus on is your education and work history you can also let them know what areas you have a lot of experience in or what your interests are when answering this question here are a few different ways to begin your answer i studied at harvard university and graduated in 2012 with a degree in business i've been working at smith incorporated for 10 years as a manager i have 12 years of experience in graphic design because of my time at verizon i have a lot

of experience in providing customer service if you're preparing for an interview practice talking about yourself and your work history record yourself with a video camera if possible make sure it's not too long maybe around a minute go back and listen or watch and write down phrases that worked well to use again if there was anything you stumbled over or left out write down some possible phrases you could have used the next day do the same exercise it's important that you don't just write a paragraph and memorize it but simply practice free talking with some key

phrases the more you practice before the interview the more comfortable you'll feel answering the questions during the interview so to get started why don't you tell me a little bit about yourself sure i studied at the university of florida and graduated in 2010 with a master's degree in toy design after graduation i was hired at happy kids creative i've been there for the past five years and am currently the director of toy production during that time sales have grown steadily it's been a great experience but i've run out of room to grow with hkc and

i'm looking for new opportunities i have a lot of experience leading teams in the creative process and finding new markets for the products that we create that's great to be continued we'll pick it up from here in the next video in this series in the next video we'll go over three more common interview questions how did you hear about this position what attracted you to our company and what's your greatest strength i hope this video on job interviews has been helpful there's nothing better than walking out of an interview feeling that you were fully prepared

if you have interview related questions or stories please post them in the comments below i'd love to hear them are you signed up for my mailing list if so you get free weekly emails in your inbox with english videos and lessons as well as stories of american culture and my own life click here or in the description to sign up that's it and thanks so much for using rachel's english if you liked this video be sure to subscribe either click here or in the description but don't stop there keep learning with my american english and

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