English Job Interviews | Best Answers to Questions

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job interviews

whoa tough scary stressful job

interviews in many ways are similar to

public speaking and for the same reason

because just like public speaking

job interviews create a lot of

nervousness a lot of stress and just

like with public speaking when we get

stressed when we get nervous our

communication ability are speaking

ability even our thinking ability they

all get worse and so it's very easy to

go into a job interview feel nervous who

and do a terrible job to it terrible

performance in the interview now many

ways job interviews can be even more

stressful because if you're interviewing

for a job it means well you need a job

or you want a job and so because of that

desire for the job or that need for the

job you can have even more pressure and

even more stress for yourself also with

job interviews there's competition you

know you are competing against a lot of

other people

who want the same job you know your

answers need to be better than their

answers that can also create a lot of

pressure and stress and this could make

a big difference in your life right this

could be a dream job a great job for you

but if you don't get it if you fail the

interview then you get into a job you

don't like your whole life could become

kind of unhappy and miserable if you

succeed in the job interview you can get

a great job make more money and have a

happier life so it's very important job

interviewing is a very important skill I

river and say my first serious job

interviews i was graduating from

University which already create some

stress right and I realized I wanted to

get a job i went to the career office at

my university and they helped students

graduating students like me get job

interviews see companies would come to

our University looking for new employees

especially young employees from college

and you could sign up to interview with

different companies most of these

companies were big companies you know

IBM AT&T large multinational companies

and so I thought well you know I need a

job i want to make decent money and so I

signed up for a lot of interviews and

during a couple weeks i had several

interviews now I prepared for the

interviews I read some books about job

interviewing and answering questions and

I knew that you had to give a strong

positive answer for each question and I

knew what the common questions would be

we all kind of know some of the common

questions two examples what's your

greatest strength what's your greatest

weakness right we kind of expect those

two questions and so you know of course

i read that ok when they ask you about

the weakness that's the dangerous

question right that you always give a

weakness that's really a strength right

today so then I I thought of and

memorize some good answers for my job

interviews

I'm ready I'm ready I know how to do

this going to pass these interviews

going to get a lot of job offers and so

of course you know we went in and yes

they did they ask me what's your

greatest strength

what's your greatest weakness and I said

something like you know my greatest

weaknesses that I sometimes I just

worked too much I work too hard and you

know I forget that I need to rest i need

to take a break

sounds good right i thought yeah that's

a good answer as it as a positive answer

has a strong answer

well after the interviews I waited and I

waited em and I waited and I waited

and I waited and I got zero job offers 0

second interviews nobody wanted me

hmm but my answers they were so good

right wrong terrible dancer socked

because here's the thing every other

person was doing exactly the same thing

everybody gives the same kind of answer

to those questions with your greatest

weakness

oh my greatest weakness is that I'm just

so awesome man

right that's basically what that answer

says it's bullshit

it's just a bullshit answer and bullshit

means something that's not true that's

kind of a deception alive not useful all

that together the slang word bullshit

one of my favorite slang words my

answers were bullshit because the truth

is I was not a super hard worker i was

just telling them what I thought sounded

good

I didn't even have much job experience

at that point I was bullshitting to

bullshit using it as a verb is to

delight to say stuff that's not true

usually to make yourself sound good

sounds bullshitting and so do most

people and job interviews

most people in job interviews they're

just bullshitting the whole time the the

saying the same kind of answers to try

to sound good

you have to think of this you have to

reverse it imagine you are a job

interviewer see I understand this now

because I'm a business owner so now I

hire people to do jobs so now i'm on the

other side and I can see oh my god

there's so much bullshit all these

people they're just bad that also helped

me the same crap i know it

not true ok so you can imagine this guy

is he interviewing and you know some

middle-aged I like my age now he's

interviewing these kids and all these

kids coming in saying the same

oh yes you know my greatest weakness is

just like I work too hard you know I

just get to focus sometimes honey and of

course you know this guy's thinking is I

oh my god I've heard this a thousand

times

same answer every time right and he's

just he's thinking to himself oh my god

you know they're all the same and he's

just hoping he's hoping for one person

to walk in that door who's real

that's the first thing he's looking for

just gonna be real and an open and

direct and confident that's what he's

looking for not bullshit

so how do you do it how do you do it

well took me many many years to figure

out how to be good at job interviewing

it's a big topic so i'll do more shows

about this topic because it's a huge

topic in our business English

conversations course we have a whole

unit a couple units about job

interviewing i recommend that course by

the way we also talked about job hunting

how to find great jobs how to do resumes

that are great lots of stuff business

English conversations with an S at the

end business English conversations

dot-com so okay future shows i'll tell

you how to give some good specific

answers to questions let's talk about

the big picture first the big general

idea what is a job interview

what is it exactly how should you think

of it i'll tell you you should think of

a job interview as a sales presentation

sales presentation you are selling

yourself you are giving a presentation

to sell yourself what do all good

salesman do

they persuade they know how to persuade

they are persuasive and let me tell you

now because I I know how to sell now

because I had to learn it with my

business I know how to do it well

the number one thing you need for

selling is understanding you have to

have a deep understanding of the person

you're selling to you have to understand

what they want you to understand their

needs most of all you have to understand

their problems

this is the mindset you must have when

you go into a job interview before the

interview right a week two weeks before

the interview you need to know what is

the interviewers problem or problems

what are their biggest problems and how

can I help to solve them if you don't

know that you're not going to do well in

the interview you've got a very low

chance if you do know that you can

answer well you've got an excellent

chance of getting a job offer and let me

tell you every hiring manager has

problems

how do you find out about the problems

you contact them before the interview

and you ask them see to so many people

that are afraid to do this and job

searching they just do the same thing as

everybody else send in my applications

and in my resume and then wait and pray

up please please call me for an

interview and then when they finally get

an interview they do nothing they just

wait for the day

oh please I hope I do well that's that's

crap that's not what good salesman do

the salesman do research first you have

to understand the company and the person

who was interviewing you

what do they want what do they need what

are their problems

you must know this so how do you do it

well this is a great way to

to be different so they notice you right

there maybe have hundreds of people

sending resumes you need to be different

need to stand out as different and

better one way you can do it is by

showing them that you are interested to

find out what they need what they want

what are their problems so you write

them or you call them on the phone and

you say hi my name is aj uh I'll be

interviewing you next week interviewing

with you next week

I you know before the interview I would

like to just know a little bit more

about the position if that's okay with

you I especially like to know you know

just what are you looking for what

what problems are you hoping to solve

what problems have you had in the past

with people in this position now I

guarantee some not everybody will answer

some will say well I'm sorry can't

answer that now you have to wait to the

interview

fine whatever at least they'll remember

your name though they'll still know all

that's the person who called me who made

an effort right away you have us an

advantage over everybody else even if

they won't answer the question but still

after you call i would write or maybe

right first and then call don't just do

it once

okay this is another thing that good

salesman know and good marketers know

ok it's never one time that's why when

you for advertising right let's say

coca-cola huge massive billion-dollar

company do they only do one

advertisement per year just one right

just on the big like say the super bowl

in America they show one advertisement

and then everybody goes and buys coke

of course not they know that they need a

campaign to sell people coke to convince

them to buy coca-cola they know they

need a lot of repetition of repetition

so they're gonna show lots of ads every

day newspapers billboards television

radio what you need to be the same in

your job search

so yeah you're right I'm first one

I'd like to know more what are your

problems what are you looking for with

this position

what kind of projects will I be working

on that kind of stuff

write them a couple times before the job

and you asking those questions if they

say i'm sorry i can't tell you then

write them back soon okay i understand

i'm just trying to understand a little

more about your needs because I want to

be sure i'm a good fit for you that I

can help you so that I'm not wasting

your time in a job interview this again

shows that you are concerned about that

and then of course you try calling same

thing now some some hiring managers some

interviewers will answer you

they'll give you some information that's

good now you know what they're looking

for

now you know what their needs are you

can be more persuasive the whole thing

is that the basic ideas this most people

when they do a job interview are

thinking about themselves they're

focused on themselves

it's all me me me me I want a job I want

more money

my strengths are this this is why I'm so

good I I that's what most people do in a

job interview

Mimi I I that's bad selling bad bad bad

selling great selling is you-you-you-you

a great job interviewer you hopefully is

focused on helping the interviewer

helping the company contributing solving

problems and so you focus on them even

during the job interview you need to

politely be the director of that

interview so that you're focusing on

them so even an everyday say what's your

greatest strength

most people just answer blindly my

greatest strength is whatever I work

hard

that's a terrible answer here's a better

answer

what's your greatest strength well you

know i i'd like to answer that question

but i'd like to know a little more first

about what skills and strengths are you

looking for in this position

what strength do you feel will

contribute the most to this job

answer with the question most in a job

interview most of them will then give

you something

well you know actually we're looking for

someone who can think fast and make

decisions now you give now you can

really give them a great answer you say

oh you're looking for someone who can

think fast and and make quick decisions

well you know in my last job I was very

decisive i had to make decisions about

our budget right whatever right you see

that you see the difference the answer

blindly just about Mimi I I it's a so

it's a weak answer is the same as

everybody else but it's dead if you ask

the question what are you looking for

what strength would best serve this

position this job

something like that now you learn

something about them and then you your

answer is focused on how can you help

them

this is a critical super-important

mindset change you must do this first

that's why I'm not teaching you a lot of

questions and answers right now because

that's later

you must first do this going to change

your mindset for not I I you you how can

I help them

how can I help you the interviewer I can

help you with the company

what are your needs what are your

problems

what projects are you doing what is your

team like how can I contribute to you

and your team and your

company you you I understand you

that's what you want that's who gets the

job if you can show that you understand

them even if you can show that you're

trying to understand them like if you're

a college kid is your first job they

don't expect you to understand business

they know you're full of a bunch of

bullshit from school epic dump its

alright did they know it

yeah but they're looking for attitude

they're looking for how you think

they're looking for your mindset and if

you have a mindset of contribution you

have a mindset of trying to understand

them trying to help them trying to solve

problems trying to figure out what

they're thinking and what they need

man you will be so different than

everybody else you will get a lot of job

offers i promise you that just this

mindset change you will get so many job

offers and the more you do it the more

you get used to it you'll get better and

better and better

like I said this is what makes you

different this is the first thing I'm

going to teach you more in future shows

but this is number one not I you not I

that company the interviewer shift the

focus to them what they need what they

want

understanding them all right so I know

it's a challenging thing job interviews

so i will talk more about it it's

another big topic we've got some big

topics in this 40 in 40 project

writing is a big topic freedom of speech

and media propaganda is a huge topic

public speaking is a big topic

pronunciation is a big topic so movie

technique lessons at those are big

topics they all need several shows so

don't worry i'm going to give you more

in future shows but right now if you're

thinking about job interviewing think

about that actually

anytime you need to persuade someone

it convinced them to do something

don't focus on you don't focus on

yourself focus on them and what they

need and want all right

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