Job interviews can be terrifying, and I want to make sure that you're as prepared as can be to get the job you deserve. For this reason I asked my friend Dee, a job interview expert, to join us and explain exactly how a non-native English speaker can best prepare for an upcoming English interview.
Be sure to take notes as Dee provides key details on how to present yourself, and how to answer the tough questions of "tell me about yourself", and "what is your greatest weakness?"
Join the Patreon and change the sound of your spoken English!
https://patreon.com/Accentraining
Check out my video course on Udemy to take action on your Accent Training today!
https://www.udemy.com/course/command-the-american-accents-rhythm-and-pronunciation/?referralCode=C96318A268600601A20F
Looking to work with me 1 on 1?
Contact me through an instagram dm here:
https://www.instagram.com/accentrainingclub/
Or via email at enoutloud@gmail.com, and lets get started!
Job interviews can be terrifying, and I want to make sure that you're as prepared as can be to get the job you deserve. For this reason I asked my friend Dee, a job interview expert, to join us and explain exactly how a non-native English speaker can best prepare for an upcoming English interview.
Be sure to take notes as Dee provides key details on how to present yourself, and how to answer the tough questions of "tell me about yourself", and "what is your greatest weakness?"
Join the Patreon and change the sound of your spoken English!
https://patreon.com/Accentraining
Check out my video course on Udemy to take action on your Accent Training today!
https://www.udemy.com/course/command-the-american-accents-rhythm-and-pronunciation/?referralCode=C96318A268600601A20F
Looking to work with me 1 on 1?
Contact me through an instagram dm here:
https://www.instagram.com/accentrainingclub/
Or via email at enoutloud@gmail.com, and lets get started!
Welcome to the accent training podcast, a podcast where I teach you to take your spoken English skills to a whole other level. My name is pat I'm from Canada, from Toronto, living down in Mexico. And today I've got a real treat for you folks. Today, I interviewed a friend of mine, Mrs. D Gilpin, who is a job interview expert. Now she's not a job interview expert because she's been to many job interviews. She's a job interview expert because she has worked in recruitment for many years. She has helped English speaking professionals for decades, and she has taken the opportunity today to give some advice to all of my listeners, to help you go into your next job interview with full confidence in your communication skills. Honestly, my favorite part of today's episode is when she gives a very clear outline for how you can answer the question, what is your greatest weakness? This question stumps everybody in a job interview, whether English is your first language or not. Most people hesitate with this answer because it's like, you're trying to sell yourself in a job interview, but then they ask you a question which makes you consider your faults and where you may be lacking. So make sure that you listen all the way through for a sound understanding of how you can prepare yourself for a job interview. And so without further ado, I'd like to introduce you to D our job interview expert enjoy folks. So I've got with me today, D and D is an expert in job interview. She has guided people through this process many times over, and she's here to share with us today, some tips to make sure that you have confidence going into your interview. So good to speak with you today. D how are you doing
Speaker 2:I'm? Well, thank you, Patrick. Thanks for doing this. I love this topic, and I'm happy to talk about it.
Speaker 1:How would you describe yourself to our audience? Um, what type of experience do you have in this field and, and how can you help my, uh, my listeners here today,
Speaker 2:I'm a mature human being. So I've had a lot of years experience, maybe not mature in every way, but, um, I've had about, I guess altogether, maybe 25 years experience, specifically working in something called the executive search business, which is basically some people call it head hunting, which is, Hmm. Used to be considered an insulting name, but it's not anymore. It's recruiting basically. So I was a recruiter, but I worked mostly at kind of director levels and above, so fairly senior executives for most, almost all of that time. And then prior to that, I worked for about 10 years as, as an actor in sometimes a bit of a voice coach. Yeah. So about 25 years, almost all in that executive search level, but there are quite a few things that, uh, can, can transfer to other levels as well.
Speaker 1:Are there any specific professions that you would work with more than others? Um, for example, was it more in the educational sector or, or regarding engineers or
Speaker 2:Mm-hmm<affirmative> yeah, that's interesting. I started my career for the first in and when I was working in job search or recruiting, head hunting, whatever you call it, I started with, uh, a very generalized sort of industry, uh, profile. I worked with almost any industry, private sector or public sector. And as the years went on, I began to specialize in more of a client base that was oriented towards public sector. So government NGOs, healthcare universities, some kindergarten to grade 12 school systems, independent school systems. And as the years went on, I became more and more specialized in those areas. And the last few years, sort of a, an even more of a niche that I specialized in was academic work and healthcare, and sort of scientific research, um, institutions.
Speaker 1:Right. Wow. Hopefully you can, uh, share a little bit of what you learned at least in the interview process with us here today, because mm-hmm,<affirmative>, everybody's gotta go through that at some point, if you don't at least try to get a job at some point, you're not gonna get a lot done in life. And, and so let's see how we can help people prepare for that. First off, I'd like to ask you what steps can someone take to prepare for a job interview in English? Do you have any recommendations to start that
Speaker 2:Out? It's a whole separate issue kind of before the interview process is making sure that your profile out there is really good through your resume, your LinkedIn, um, and any other sort of social media that, that you use professionally. So that's actually the very first step, because if that isn't pretty good in English already, I strongly recommend using a professional translator. Um, if that isn't really well done, then you won't even get your foot in the door for an interview. Possibly sometimes you get lucky and maybe it's, you know, you know, someone who knows someone and maybe that resume doesn't end up being as important. Uh, but usually it's fairly important as a preliminary step. And then to prepare for that job interview in English, assuming that we're talking about people whose native language is not English, it's practice, practice, practice, anyone you can practice with, whether it's a platform online that you might have to pay for. There are meetup groups, the, the, the app, the meetup app, um, sometimes has groups. And sometimes you do need to pay sometimes not, but they have groups that are practicing, uh, job interviews. I've heard of something called conversation exchange, but I don't personally know it. And I don't know that they would necessarily specialize in job interviews, but that might be worth exploring if, if your budget is limited. Um, so practice is one of the biggest things, learn how to answer the two most difficult questions. The first one is the one that everybody asks in an interview and everybody dreads. And it's the, the sort of introduction question, tell me about yourself. So sometimes they ask it in a slightly different way, uh, but basically they want an introduction to yourself. So preparing for that question, it's really good. If you have a really solid sense of, of what you'd like to say for that, not memorized very important that it not be word for word memorized, or you won't sound truthful or genuine or authentic, but do prepare for that. The other question is about weaknesses. It's usually asked in an interview if there's time again, they may not actually use the word E weaknesses. They might say something like, you know, so if you had to take a course or get a coach for something, what would it, what area would it be in, or they might say, what would you like to develop further in terms of your skills and your, your management abilities, or maybe it's not a management position, but the idea of what would you like to develop further, but they're getting at, they want to know if you are aware of, of the areas in which you're not as good, that, and, and that you need to work on, perhaps
Speaker 1:Just to summarize quickly their pre preparation is everything. Um, if you don't prepare beforehand, things are not as likely to go your way, not only preparing speaking points, but your LinkedIn profile, making sure that your social media is up to date, that it looks professional, that you look like someone that they want to hire.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's, that's, that's exactly right, Patrick. I agree. Um, I forgot to mention also, um, make sure, uh, that your, your visual presentation is good, assuming that it's going to be on video, or if it's in person, I, I hate to say this, but it's huge presentation. The person's presentation is actually really important. And by that, I mean, their appearance basically do, are they dressed professionally? Basically, that's, that's pretty much it for the in person type, but for a video type of interview, or maybe sometimes you're self-employed and it's more a client meeting, uh, you're where you're pitching yourself for a video. You need to make sure that you have really good lighting in front of you must be in front of you, whether it's a ring light or a window is wonderful. If you can be sitting in front of a window, that's one thing. The second thing is make sure that your camera is as close as possible to eye level, your eye level. So that when you're speaking with the interviewer, you can make an actual sort of almost eye contact. And that's hugely important in especially north American business culture, actually, any, any English business culture, that's, that's really important. And then of course, I'm sure everybody knows, make sure that your background looks very professional, either very simple, almost nothing in the background or professional in terms of the furnishings. Look, you know, not don't do it in a bedroom obviously, or not that they can tell it's in a bedroom and so on. So I wish this sort of visual thing didn't matter as much, but unfortunately it does.
Speaker 1:Well, it says quite a bit about ourselves though, right? I mean, the way that you present yourself in an interview, it, uh, it is very important. Like these are the people that are gonna be paying you to do a job. Yeah,
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. And, and it depends on the job how important that will end up being once you're in the job, not every job involves looking great, but certainly in the interview itself, do you want them sort of, even if it's unconscious, you want them to have a first impression of you as kind of a, you know, together professional, uh, person who knows how to, how to look professional, basically how to look serious about their job.
Speaker 1:Keep that in mind folks. It's, it's not only about what you say, but it's also about how you present yourself. I'd recommend getting a haircut. I mean, get a
Speaker 2:Haircut. Yeah. That's a good idea.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm<affirmative> even a couple days before the interview get a haircut. And something that I learned before is, uh, is don't shower. IME. If you have an interview, uh, you know, over the computer, don't shower immediately before it, because it makes you look like you're really sweaty in the camera.
Speaker 2:That's a good point. Yeah. I never thought of that. Oh
Speaker 1:Yeah. I had actually, it was a commercial for ley, this, the online service that, uh, I was making with another, some English speaking influencer, English influencing teacher type person. Mm-hmm<affirmative> online and yeah, I had a shower right before it. And so for the thing, like I watched the, the ad afterwards and I just look like a really sweaty person. Like I<laugh>, it looks terrible. So,
Speaker 2:Oh, that's funny, Patrick. Yeah. So you learned that through experience.
Speaker 1:Yeah. AB exactly. I learned that my, my background didn't look nice. There were so many things that I could have done better, but that's it, you live and learn. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, so far though, I like the tips that you're giving and I'd actually, let's just jump to that question of, of how can we approach that question of what are your greatest weaknesses? Because you did mention, I like what you mentioned there, it's just about what would you like to improve in mm-hmm<affirmative> they may ask this question differently. Like, you know, if you were to take a course, what would you like it to be? Or something like that, how would you like to see improvement? Yeah. And so is there kind of a structure that we can use to approach this question without memorizing a script? Cuz you've also said that's a terrible sin. We shouldn't
Speaker 2:Memorize. Yeah. If it sounds memorized, certainly it's okay to have points, especially if you're on video, but just make sure you're not looking at them too often because the eye eye contact and the eye line, as we say, is, is so important. People who are not native English speakers have a beautiful gift when it comes to this question, because there is an answer which is true. It's not overly serious for the interviewer. It won't scare the interviewer at all. And it's straightforward. It's something that the interviewer really would already know. And that is the answer I need to work on my English. You see, because it's, it is something that is important for any job, obviously that's that involves an English interview. And it's true because if you're an English language learner, you always need to work on your English. In fact, some native English speaker should work on their English. You, you kind of have a built in wonderful answer to that question. And it's not a scary thing for most jobs. The, the job, the interviewer will not be too put off by that, unless it's a super communication oriented kind of a job. Usually if they're already advertising in their, looking at you as a non-native English speaker, chances are they're open to that idea. It's not going to scare them off usually. And if it does, if it is a concern for them, well, that tells you that maybe it's not the best job for you yet. You still do need to improve your English a bit more. But usually it's a really good answer. It shows self-awareness as well. It shows that you know that about yourself. They know the interviewer knows that you know that your English isn't as good as it could be whichever level you're at. So it, they don't have to wonder. Hmm. Does she know that, um, her English needs a bit more work? I wonder if she even knows that Hmm. You know, you're, you're kind of putting them at ease in that sense, letting them know that, you know, you need to work on it. It's not a deep flaw. It's, it's relatively simple to fix. It's not like, you know, you're too difficult with your employees or something. Not that you would ever, ever say it that way with your team, if you're too hard on your team, or if you're sometimes, uh, obsessive about detail, it's not a really serious weakness, uh, or personality thing. It's something that you can work on. And you can say, as you're wrapping up your answer, uh, and I am working on this, cuz I know I need to work on it. I think the better my English is the better a job I can do in with any organization. And you can say, I am working on this through X, Y, and Z. So, you know, if you're involved in a conversation platform like ley, or I think, you know, some of the other ones, the famous ones, I don't know them all. Or if you're working on it on your own, that's also fine. You can say that. You can say, I, I put aside, you know, one hour a week to study English, whatever you are doing to work on your English, you can kind of wrap up that answer on a positive note by saying that, you know, you know, you need work, uh, talk about why, you know, you need to work more on your English and then finish that answer with here's what I'm doing to improve my English. In, in my experience, the weaknesses question usually comes a bit later in the interview and often the interviewer might be running out of time. So usually they won't have time to ask for more weaknesses, maybe the slight majority of the time, but sometimes they will. So you should be prepared with a second weakness. So-called weakness in case they say, okay, that's interesting. Thank you. That that's a good point. Glad you you're working on that. Um, tell me about another one. That's, you know, more specific to your job or whatever. So you should have a second one prepared and same principle though, in terms of the way you frame it, frame it in a way that, you know, you're aware of it, you've been learning about it. You've been working on it. So, and on that positive note, here's how I'm working on it. Um,
Speaker 1:That's like, whoa, a, a way better answer than I've ever given any student.<laugh> when they've asked me that question, I've had many people ask me that question and I just, I, I just come up with, you know, well, here's how I would answer that. And then we, yeah, just make a couple practice things, but really why overcomplicate it? You know, why make everything so specific? Just, Hey, give a general one show I'm aware of right now, the skill that I'm using right now is not perfect and I can improve it just
Speaker 2:Right. Exactly.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Yeah. Um, and, and then, yeah, like you said, quickly say, here are the steps that I'm taking, just make that happen and then have handy a more professional, specific skill that is, uh, also gonna show that, you know, you're aware of what you're lacking professionally mm-hmm<affirmative>, but that's a nice freebie like that, you know, using that right there. It's a nice, easy answer.<laugh> every, literally everybody listening right now can use that.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. You're very li in a way you're fortunate because it's, it's a perfect answer if you only need to provide one thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. You're kind of taking that disadvantage and, and well using it to your advantage. Mm-hmm<affirmative> um,
Speaker 2:One other little thing I should say, project, if your English isn't too strong, um, say if you're intermediate level, unless you're advanced, even if you're advanced run your answer by, uh, practice it with, with someone who does have strong English, because, uh, for example, recently I was working with somebody and she was practicing for this question. And so she was very honest with me and she had something prepared and she, we, you know, we are, we talked about the answer that you can use regarding your English, improving your English. But then beyond that, she said, well, sometimes I'm, I'm abrasive with people. And although I knew what she meant, I thought, oh, don't say the word abrasive, sometimes certain words that you've learned in school or in your official English studies, they will have a sort of a, almost emotional tone, um, to a native English speaker. So for example, this word abrasive is really, really negative. So if, if an interviewer hears that word, they might get more worried about it than they need to be. Maybe what you're saying is, uh, I expect a lot from my, my employ my team or my colleagues. Uh, so sometimes I think maybe I push a little bit too much for the kind of high standard that I'm looking for. Something like that. Find a way to frame it in a more neutral way. Still being honest. You, you know, it's still a problem, but be very careful about the adjectives that you use. Don't get too fancy when you're trying to describe it, use fairly simple language, unless you're certain that the fancier language and adjectives, and so on that you're using, you know, will be okay for a native English person.
Speaker 1:If they try to overcomplicate it as well, trying to use, you know, words that they've learned in school, or just a word that they came across, that they really liked, they just may not have the confidence with it that they would have if they were to just describe it using more basic vocabulary. And yes, mm-hmm<affirmative>, and this is all about having crystal clear communication. And if there's a lack of confidence, plus you're using a word that sounds kind of negative paints you in a negative light, it's not gonna be good for your, it can't help your results at the very least. It may not always hurt your results, but it definitely isn't gonna help them. I like that. That's very good. So keep it simple. Don't memorize a script. Just think of the basic vocabulary that's going to help you answer each question, but that's all the preparation it's gonna take. And so, so I see that we're running a little short on time because we're using zoom and, and I haven't bought a membership on zoom, but I've got a question for you here. So I have a question about nutrition because you see, I love cooking and I, ah, oh yeah. That's a, a hobby that I absolutely adore. And I always like just throwing in tiny little nutritional tips about smoothies or, or cucumber water, stuff like that to my listeners. Interesting. Yeah. Do you have any advice regarding the breakfast that somebody should have on the day of an interview? Is there anything that you think is gonna help, you know, maybe wake up and feel good going into it? Any, any thoughts on, uh, nutrition?
Speaker 2:Uh, I love this question, Patrick. It's brilliant. It's, it's, uh, quite unexpected for me. I don't think I've never thought about this, but okay. Uh, just off the top of my head spontaneously, my thoughts would be don't have too much coffee so that you won't be even more nervous than is natural for, uh, an interview. Maybe don't eat anything that would make you, uh, your stomach, uh, act up a bit. You don't wanna be burping or something you wanna be comfortable. So maybe don't over fill yourself volume wise. Certainly I guess the usual, uh, things about maybe not too much sugar so that you don't have a sort of a sugar high and then a crash high protein would be good and make sure you have water beside you when you're, when you're doing your interview. So that, uh, cuz often our throat gets dry when we're a bit nervous. Another thing it makes me think of is after the interview, try to be really nice to yourself and that could include nutrition because interviews are tough. They're scary. They're for everybody. Um, maybe not scary, but they, you know, they, they require a lot of emotional energy and good on you for, for, uh, getting preparing for that interview, preparing your resume and then getting the interview and doing it. And you almost never feel like it was a perfect interview. Uh, you might feel that it didn't go very well. That's not uncommon. So you need to be really nice to yourself after do something that really makes you feel good, something self-care, and that could include food. Maybe you'd have something that you really, really enjoy afterwards. Um, you know, a limited amount even of a treat, uh, maybe a nice dessert after or, uh, something that really, that you enjoy and it makes you feel good after it kind of treat yourself in a few different ways. And maybe that's one of the ways is through food. I've I've never even thought of that, Patrick, but yeah, that's, that's uh, an interesting, um, link there between food and case interviews, difficult, uh, difficult sorts of, uh, performance, anxiety situations. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Oh yeah. If you have a lot of hash Browns for breakfast, something real greasy and, and you get heartburn going into an interview, you're not gonna feel as good as if you had had, uh, a, you know, little peanut butter sandwich or something. Something, yeah. Yeah. I've heard in the mornings, you want to eat something that's high in fat because your brain needs those fats to function properly. And so peanuts or beef like beef that's high in fat, possibly even bacon could be good. Hmm. And then again, you may have heartburn problems. At least I get heartburn from everything these days.
Speaker 2:Oh sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah. But well I'm in Mexico. That's uh, whatever. That's how it's
Speaker 2:<laugh> I relate to heartburn
Speaker 1:<laugh> it is. Oh my God. Yeah. But the breakfasts are amazing here
Speaker 2:They, oh,
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Imagine
Speaker 1:That's
Speaker 2:A good point though, Patrick, you know, if it's, if your interview is in the morning, uh, and, and of course, if it's later in the day, similar principles, make sure that a few hours before that you do get some, some good calories, um, but maybe not too much sugar and be careful of the coffee. That's probably a big one. Careful about coffee, be drinking water through the day so that your throat's in a good condition to be speaking for a while.
Speaker 1:I think everybody's been there at that with the coffee, I think at some point where you have one coffee and you say to yourself, whoa, I feel really good. I'm gonna go for a second.<laugh> and then you're like worrying about everything. Your hands are shaking and you're checking what, you know, how little money you have in the bank. And everything's freaking you out
Speaker 2:Spirals downwards.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Real quickly with that second coffee or sometimes third coffee, but well, this, uh, this pretty well brings us to wrapping things up for today. Do you have any final pieces of advice to wrap things up with that? Uh, you'd like to share our listeners here.
Speaker 2:You know, my biggest piece of advice is big kind to yourself about this because you know, and make your expectations realistic. It's really common to have to do many interviews before you get the job. That's the usual kind of scenario. And every interview you do, even if it's, it didn't go very well. You learn things that you can apply next time. And if you stay in touch with the person who interviewed you, they might very well bring you back another time when they have a different position open, you know, only one person can be the successful candidate. And of course there's usually many, many candidates, so don't feel badly if you're not that one person out of however many, there will be one that you'll get. And uh, so be kind to yourself, expect it be realistic and, uh, be really good to yourself after the interview, especially
Speaker 1:Thank you very much. I hope that people who are listening to this right now go into their next interview with, with confidence. If you don't get it this time, don't worry. You will have another opportunity. Don't burn those bridges, just, you know, don't storm outta the interview just because you feel that it went poorly. Yeah. You know, keep a smile on shake everyone's hand and uh, and keep in good contact to, to call them back later.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you very much for your time today. Miss D
Speaker 2:Thank you, Patrick. That was really interesting. And boy, you you're in the excellent interviewer.
Speaker 1:I mean, thank you.
Speaker 2:I'm not just saying it because it's a podcast.