In today's Grammar Bites Podcast, we are going to look at the differences between 'do' and 'make'.
"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail" - this is so true when it comes to job interviews. With such a competitive job market at the moment, those who do not prepare will be left behind. You could be the prefect person for the job, but if you do a sloppy interview because of lack of preparation, you can kiss that job goodbye. But, luckily, there are several ways you can prepare for that all important interview.
The best way to prepare is to do a job interview classes with an experienced and trusted professional. This way you can get feedback and great advice to dramatically improve your interview technique. You will also get a lot of confidence from answering interview questions in an non-pressurized environment. Your teacher can help you prepare natural sounding answers in English. If you are interested in these classes, please look here.
Another way, you can prepare for job interview is going looking up common job interview questions. This is a good way to see what interviewer generally ask interviewees. However, if you are making some mistakes, you will not know about them until the actual interview. But if you are confident in your English speaking abilities, then this may be a good option for you. Also, do not forget to try and find job interview questions related specifically to your job.
The final way to prepare for your interview, is to just rehearse your CV and cover letter. This is the minimum you should do and is not advised in isolation. You get the job interview based on your cover letter and CV so you must know both inside out. If the make a reference to either in the interview and you cannot remember what you said, you are in big trouble. Try to flesh out what your interview says into good responses focusing on the essential skills for that particular job.
So there you have it! The best thing is to take classes with a professional but failing that, make sure you have prepared common questions and know your CV and cover letter perfectly!
Until next time, happy learning!
Some people just leave it up to fate when it comes to the job interview and hope for the best. This is a huge error, particularly, if the job interview is in English and English is not your first language. But, there is one thing you can do to improve your chances immensely: Prepare, prepare, prepare and when you are done, prepare some more.
Why is preparation so important? Well, it's simple really. It gives you so many benefits such as confidence, clarity of thought and how to really impress your interviewer.
I have broken it down into three major areas to prepare:
First thing to prepare: your research on the job and the company. This is so important. Some interviewers will even ask you what can you tell them about their company. Just by googling them, you are giving yourself a head start. This also ties in well with why you would like to work with that company.
Second thing to prepare: Your CV. You got to the interview stage because of your CV so it is important that you can give concise and coherent answers to flesh out what is written on CV. This is a great opportunity to show why you are the person for the job. Make the most of it so prepare it well. Think about why your work and educational experience are perfect for the vacancy and perfect it by practising with someone or in the mirror. Also, avoid saying, 'ehm' or 'er'. If you have some other interesting life experiences that could useful too. Remember to tie them back into why these experiences make you the person for the job. And don't forget the golden rule: if it is not relevant, it is not worth mentioning.
Third thing to prepare: Yourself! This is fairly obvious. But dress for the occasion, shave if you are man and be on time. Basically, present a professional appearance. It is a good idea to try and model yourself after what your interviewer is looking for! Also, try to get there a little bit early so you are not sweating. Make sure if you are bringing any documents that you have them all and that they are in immaculate condition.
And lastly, remember to breathe and you will WOW them!
Please share your good/bad interview experiences below. Or anything you should be prepare for a job interview.
Today, the world lost a great person in Robin Williams. His comedic genius, intelligence and warmness will really be missed. But fortunately, his memory will live on through his family and work.
He has thought us many things - just one look at his quotes list shows us that. But one thing English language learners can learn and use from the late Robin Williams is not to rely on scripted answers. He was known for coming up with many his best known lines on the spot, as I am sure many actors do, but Robin Williams had a special talent for this.
What I am getting to here is do not just rely on scripted conversation answers in grammar or exercise books to improve your English. Because simply they won't. And you will sound very dated.
This applies to all areas of English. If you can use your skills to construct an intelligent and rememberable answer, it will be infinitely better than just repeating a phrase or a sentence you read in an exercise book. For example, in a job interview or in an exam.
Another problem is that most everyday conversations that happen in English are not like anything that you see in grammar and exercise books. And neither are the questions or answers.
Also by challenging yourself to think like this and increase your English level will be much more beneficial for you than simply repeating something you saw.
To finish this post, try to challenge yourself to think independently in English- of course it is going to be difficult but you will improve a lot quicker.
Have you been learning English for a long time but feel you haven't improved for a long time also? This is a common problem but keep reading if you want a solution.
I am going to sound like a Eastern philosopher here but sometimes before you look out, you should look in. So, basically, maybe, it's not the material or the way you are learning English but rather your motivation. You really have to stop and ask yourself why am I learning English? If you are only beginning, it is a good idea to write your motivation on a piece of paper and look at it when you've lost your way a little.
You should tailor what you want to learn and how you want to learn to your motivation. If you want to speak better, reading books, while very useful in its own right, is not going to help you achieve this. Or if you want to prepare for an exam, only watching TV series is not going to help you.
The message in short is learn better by knowing exactly what you want before you start. If you can do this, you'll learn so much quicker and your learning path will be much straight forward (There's that Eastern philosopher in me again.).
If you want any help or guidance, please get in touch and we'll have you on the right path before long!
So you've got that all important job interview coming up and you want to prepare for it. Now, what's the one question nearly every interviewer asks? You guessed it! Tell me about a time where you had a stressful situation and how you overcame it? Or, how do you handle stress and pressure? You can nearly guarantee that you will be asked a question like this. There are several ways to answer this question. So let's make that stressful situation pay off!
First, as mentioned in other posts, preparation is key. Just by thinking of a stressful situation and how you overcame it will see you giving a comprehensive and impressive answer in the interview. And remember to focus on the situations where you actually overcame the situation and what actions you took to resolve the situation.
If this is your first job, tell the interviewer of a stressful situation you encountered at school or university and what actions you took to overcome it. You don't have to shy away from asking for assistance to solve the problem as this shows your ability to think on your feet and also to be a team player.
Try to highlight the skills required for the job you want that you used to resolve the stressful situation. For example, if the job requires you to be flexible, highlight how your flexibility helped to resolve that stressful situation. Highlight the actions and problem solving strategies you used to overcome the stressful situation for example, time management and organisational skills.
You can say that you work well under pressure but only if it's true as your employers will find this out very quickly once you start working with them.
If you have any other job interview questions you want answered, leave a comment at the end of this page or send us an email.
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