GET SMART BEFORE YOU START. Session 3.- Job Interview.

Tips for a Successful Job Interview

Tip No. 1

Be cheerful and polite when you greet your interviewer. You should be on your feet, smiling and making eye contact .

In many Western cultures, a short handshake is appropriate at this time.

Tip No. 2

Be open to making small talk, but don't ramble on. Give standard replies to standard questions. For example:

"How are you today?" -- "Fine, thank you. And you?"

"Did you have any trouble find us?" -- "No, not really."

This is one case where not telling the whole truth is completely acceptable. If you planned well, you arrived on time and any difficulties getting there are not worth mentioning . Don't talk about getting lost or missing your bus. If you want to add a few words, you can say: "I enjoy coming to this part of the city." or "Your receptionist gave very good directions."

Tip No. 3

There will always be typical questions about your work experience, strengths, weaknesses, goals and salary expectations. But the interviewer may also throw in some unexpected questions to get a better feel for who you are and how you'd fit in at the given company. Even if the interview is in your own native language, it's possible for these more creative questions to be unclear. Instead of guessing what the interviewer really wants to know, you can ask for clarification :

"So if I understand correctly, you're asking me…"

"Let me start by answering… But perhaps I'm not headed in the right direction. Did I understand your question?"

Tip No. 4

Even if you possess a great many qualifications, you may begin to feel that you're not giving the right answers or making the best impression, so one acceptable strategy is to get the interviewer to talk a little. You should listen and try to get an idea about what the interviewer is looking for in the ideal candidate . Ask something like this:

"Can I ask how long you've been here? Have you enjoyed the experience?"

"I got a good impression as soon as I entered the office, but I have yet to really observe everyone in action. How would you describe the work environment here?"

Tip No. 5

Find out what the timeline is. You want to sound interested and committed without being overly confident or authoritative. For example:

"Could I ask when you expect to make your decision? … All right, that sounds fine. If you'd like to follow up with any other questions, you have my contact information. I'd be more than happy to talk with you again."

"When would I learn your decision? … Very good. I look forward to hearing back from you."

Tip No. 6

Wait for the interviewer to end the meeting. When the interview is drawing to a close, smile and thank the interviewer for his or her time. You can also express your pleasure over the entire experience.

"Thank you for meeting with me today. I really enjoyed our conversation. Have a nice day."

A final handshake is appropriate as you part ways. Please remember that your chance to make a good impression doesn't end with "good-bye." You should send a thank-you note later that day or on the very next morning.

Adapted from http://english.ohmynews.com/articleview/article_view.asp?code=2561982&menu=A11100&no=383444&rel_no=1&opinion_no=1&page=&isSerial=&sort_name=&ip_sort=

Listen to this part of a job interview.

When you go to a job interview you have to talk about your education. Read the following text.

We often need to ask about other people's nationalities and their origins. Here there are some expressions you can use to find out this kind of information.

• Expressions used to ask and answer about origins:
  • What is your nationality? I am Spanish.
  • Where are you from? I am from Spain.
  • Where do you come from? I come from England.
  • Where were you born? I was born in Cadiz.
  • Whereabouts in your country do you come from? I come from Seville.
• Expressions used to ask and answer about the country:
  • What is your country like at this time of the year? It is quite hot and dry.
  • What is your country's official language? It is French.
  • What is the local currency in your country? It is the American dollar.
  • What is the exchange rate against the euro? One euro is 1.5 $ now.

Do you know what USA stands for? And UK?

You will need English spelling in order to name some countries. Acronyms are letters that represent the abbreviated form of names of countries, institutions, organisations, etc.

Let's talk about the past now!

The Past Simple tense is used:

• to refer to finished states, actions or situations that happened in the past.
  • My boss shouted at me yesterday!
  • "Julius Caesar: he came, he saw, he conquered."
• to refer to a past habit o state.
  • He went to the office on foot every morning.
• to refer to past actions which happened one after the other.
  • My secretary wrote the letter, put a stamp on it and posted it last Monday.
• to refer to a past time that is not mentioned.
  • Shakespeare wrote a lot of good plays.

These time expressions usually go with the past simple:

• yesterday;
• last week, year, month, season;
• (quantity of time) + ago: two days ago;
• then;
• in 1967;
• when;
• in the past;
  • People didn't use planes in the past.
  • I did it two days ago.
  • You didn't know it then.

How to make the Past Simple:

• Regular verbs: verb + "-ed".

  If the verb ends in "-y"preceded by consonant + replace the 'y' with 'i' and add "-ed".

  • She studied at University.
• Irregular verbs: come CAME come.

  (We use the second column of the Irregular verbs list).

  • Negative Form:

    Subject + DID (NOT) + Main Verb.

    • I didn't finish up my meal, I was full.
    • He didn't come yesterday as expected.
  • Interrogative Form:

    DID + Subject + (NOT) + Main Verb?

    • Did you like the concert?
    • Did he/she not want to go with you?
    • Didn't you buy a ticket for the concert?

Let us hope you can use the imperative at work. That means you have someone you can give orders to.

The main uses of the imperative form in English are:

• To express a direct command.
• To express prohibition.

Have a look at the examples:

• Direct command:

  Follow me.

• Offer:

  Have a bit more bread.

• Warning:

  Be careful! A bus is coming.

• Prohibition:

  Do not feed the birds and keep off the grass.

• Rudeness:

  Shut up!

• Friendly advice:

  Never tell lies to your parents, always be honest.

• Directions:

  Cross over the bridge and turn right.

• Request:

  Close the car door, please.

• Instructions:

  Use a fountain pen and draw three lines.

• Invitation:

  Come and have lunch with us next weekend.

How to make the imperative:

• For the affirmative form we use the infinitive without to.
  • Give me details.
• In the negative form we use "Don't" + infinitive.
  • Don't go. Sit down and relax a bit.
• For the emphatic form we use "Do" + infinitive without to.
  • Do wait a moment!
• In question tags and when we want to make clear who we are addressing to, we use the pronouns "everybody" or "nobody".
  • Everybody raise their hands! Nobody speak up!
• When we talk to groups of people we use words like "you" or a noun.
  • Trust me, will you?
  • You stand up!
  • Peter, come here!

We continue with another progressive form. As you have seen, they are quite intuitive.

The Past Continuous (also called Progressive) can be used to describe an action in progress while it was happening in the past:

• I was listening to my favourite music when you interrupted me.
• The ant was working while the Grasshopper was hopping and chirping.

When do we use the Past Continuous?

• To talk about actions that were in process or were changing at a certain time of the past:
  • During the 1970's, many young people were consuming drugs as a natural thing.
• To talk about actions that were not yet finished and continued over a period of time:
  • At 9 o´clock, we were still presenting the new project in the meeting.
• To talk about two or more simultaneous past actions:
  • While we were having a drink, they were finishing the project.
• To describe the background in a story.
  • That morning, the wind was blowing...

How to make the Past continuous:

• Affirmative Form:

  Subject + was/were + Verb-ING:

  • I was listening to my favourite music.
  • I was visiting my grandparents last week.
• Negative Form:

  Subject + was/were (not) + Verb-ING:

  • I wasn't sleeping when you phoned.
  • He says he wasn't sleeping when I phoned.
• Interrogative Form:

  Was/Were +Subject + (not) + Verb-ING?:

  • Were you going to the concert?
  • Was she waiting for you?
  • Weren't we running in the park when we first met?
  • Didn't you buy a ticket for the concert?

Remember:
To add the final "-ING" form, if the verb ends in:

• "-e" it disappears and then +"-ing":
  • live living.
• "-ee" it remains the same:
  • see seeing.
• The final sequence "CVC" [Consonant (C) + stressed Vowel (V) +Consonant (C)] duplicates the final consonant and then "-ing" is added:
  • permit permitting.
  • run running.
• "-ie" it disappears and then +"-y":
  • die dying.
• "-y" we just add "-ing" because final 'y' is never replaced, no matter if it is either preceded by a vowel or a consonant).
  • She was studying at University.
  • They were playing in the garden.

Remember there are some verbs that normally do not take –ING (Have a look at State and Action Verbs in session 2 of this unit).

Remember we can use two different past forms in the same sentence.

• The Past Continuous is used in combination with the Past simple to express that a longer past action is interrupted by a shorter one.
  • Ralph was sleeping when the phone rang.

  How can we know which past tense we should use first and which one is the second? The answer is very easy:

  The action that is in progress and that is interrupted is always in the Past Continuous, the shorter action that interrupts appears in the Past Simple. As you will read in the following examples, both tenses can appear in a first or second position in the sentence.

  • While the students were having a coffee in the canteen, the fire alarm went off.
  • When the fire alarm went off, my workmate was making a speech.
• Sequence connectors to narrate a story in the past

  When narrating a story, we normally use the past simple and past continuous tenses. We also use the so-called sequence connectors to join ideas and facts within a text. Some of the most important are:

  • First.
  • Second.
  • Then.
  • Next.
  • Later.
  • After that.
  • Finally.
  • In the end.

  Some examples:

  • First, I got up very early as I didn't want to miss my plane to Barcelona.
  • Then, I hurried up to the airport and next, I got on the crowded plane. While we were flying, it started to rain.
  • Later, we landed in El Prat airport with 15 minutes delay because of the heavy rain.
  • Next, while I was waiting to collect my luggage, I met a popular flamenco singer.
  • Finally/In the end, after 10 minutes's talk, he gave me two tickets for his show.

We have looked at how we make the past tenses. Now we study the pronunciation.

How to pronounce the regular past form "-ed".

The ending used to form the past simple and past participle of regular verbs is pronounced:

• /t/ after voiceless sounds (/p//k//f//θ/ /s/ /ʃ/ /tʃ/ )

• /d/ after voiced sounds (/b//g//v//ð/ / z/ /ʒ/ /dʒ/ /m//n//ŋ//l//r//w//j/ and vowel sounds)

• /id/ after /t/ or /d/ sound.

Here there is one extra syllable!

Listen to the following past tenses:

Here we are going to deal with vocabulary that describes the type of work, job responsibilities and action verbs to describe what you do at work.

We are going to learn more vocabulary connected with work, including remuneration. We will also have a look at some words in the semantic field of education.