BEP 258 – Difficult Interview Situations 1

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on dealing with difficult job interview situations and questions.

We all know that job interviews are stressful. And we all know that one of the keys to reducing that stress is good preparation. But sometimes, no matter how well prepared we are, we find ourselves in tough situations. Maybe we are asked to talk about a weakness, or maybe we don’t know important information about the company where we’re interviewing.

Whatever interview difficulty we are facing, we need to take a deep breath, remain calm, and show confidence. Fortunately, we can learn language techniques to help us succeed in these tough interviews. In today’s lesson, we’ll look at showing how a weakness stems from a positive, how we’ve tried to change a weakness, and how we are a team player. We will also look at showing general industry knowledge and asking good questions.

We will hear two short dialogs today. In the first, we’ll hear Sara interviewing for a position as a buyer at a large retail chain. She’s being interviewed by Nick. In the second dialog, we’ll hear Simon interviewing for a position as a bank manager. He’s being interviewed by Charlene.

Listening Questions

1. What reason does Sara give for her stubbornness?
2. What has Sara done to change her stubbornness?
3. What does Simon say he understands about the banking industry?

Premium Members: PDF Transcript | Quizzes | PhraseCast | Lesson Module

Download: Podcast MP3

4 thoughts on “BEP 258 – Difficult Interview Situations 1”

  1. i was very stressed in all my job interviews for that i fogot many words that i should say it and i lose my self confidence . Please, tell me what should i do?
    i didn’t get job for these reasons.

  2. You should apply and attend in job interview as much as possible, then you will be surprise about your interview skill by each time. Good luck!

  3. Self confidence is built with enough knowledge. Always research before presenting yourself for a job interview i.e. Understand the job description, read more about the company and keep your mind free of interview freight.

    Always you positive wording when responding to the questions and probe deep into your personal abilities and achievements you have had throughout your professional career. Go out there ready to prove your worth. Hope this helps. :)

  4. as not English-native speaker , I have to admit , English interview is more stressful than my mother language , I usually struggle with word choice and sentence structure ,worry about how to express thoughts correctly and sufficiently . impressed a lot by this article , even a short paragraph in simple chat. but it is a technique to turn tough question into positive quality and personality exhibition . great !
    always understand the reason why thy ask the question , and respond properly and probe deep into your personal abilities and achievements .

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.