Introduction
Getting invited for a job interview can be exciting and stressful. In this episode, Pippa and Phil talk about how to get ready for a job interview without over-preparing.
Transcript
Note: This is a transcript of a spoken conversation and is not a word-for-word script.
Phil
From BBC Learning English, this is Learning English for Work and welcome to our special series all about job applications. I’m Phil.
Pippa
And I’m Pippa. In this series, we’re talking about applying for a new job in English. Listen to the series so far to learn about every step of the journey.
Phil
Today we’re talking about researching and preparing for a job interview and what you can do to get ready. You can find a transcript for this episode to read along with on our website. That’s bbclearningenglish.com.
Pippa
So, it’s a great feeling to be invited for a job interview, but it can also be really stressful, especially if you’re going to have to do the interview in your second language. But it’s also stressful for native speakers right, Phil?
Phil
Oh, yes, definitely. There’s always this feeling of pressure that you might say the wrong thing and ruin your chances. It’s probably very unlikely that that will happen, but it can be in the back of your mind as you’re getting ready.
Pippa
Yeah, it’s an intense situation and people usually aren’t used to that kind of situation. So, I think everybody gets nervous. There’s lots of focus on the interview itself, but there’s lots that you can do to prepare and we’re gonna be talking about preparing for an interview today. Do you have any rituals for preparing for an interview, Phil?
Phil
I always try to work out what questions they could ask me and try and come up with like answers that I can have ready in my mind to come up with. So I do a lot of practise with that. And then the other thing is, I just get there really, really early, but that probably doesn’t help with nerves.
Pippa
Yes, it’s sitting there for an hour waiting, getting more and more stressed. But yeah, getting there early is a good idea.
Phil
Throughout this series, we’re speaking to Amy Evans, who works in recruitment for the BBC World Service about how to approach each stage of a job application. And Amy says you should start your preparations by getting as much information as possible about the interview.
Amy Evans
It’s always helpful to look up who’s on the panel so you can have an idea of what they do in the company and just so that you feel familiar with who you’re going to be meeting on the day. I think you can ask about the format of the interview as well and check what sort of interview they’re gonna be doing, if there’s anything that you need to prepare in advance.
Pippa
It can be reassuring to know a bit more about who you’ll be speaking to and what kind of questions might be asked. And if you can’t find out this information as you said, Phil, you can think about what questions are likely to come up.
Phil
Yes. And then you can think ahead of the interview about some examples to speak about.
And Amy says, don’t just practise on paper or in your head, practise speaking.
Amy Evans
Either, you know, if you’ve got a friend or family member or colleague that could, you could practise and roleplay with. Or if you don’t have that even just, sort of, standing in front of a mirror and just practise saying them. So that when you come to the interview and you’re asked a question, even if it’s not the exact question you were thinking of, if it’s something quite similar, in your head, you’re gonna know with confidence that you can answer that. And you can go, yep I’ve got an example for that and you can sort of go into it with ease and not having to panic too much in the situation.
Pippa
Now, Phil, I’m often quite worried about practising too much for an interview or sounding like a robot, like I’ve memorised an answer. What do you think about that?
Phil
Well, yeah, that is important. It’s a tricky balance. You need to sound natural, I think.
Amy Evans
You want to practise enough so that you feel confident knowing your skills and experience to talk about in the interview. You don’t want to, sort of, practise so much that you almost fill your head with too many examples, so that you get a bit confused on the day. And you want to, as much as possible, kind of try and come across as sort of relaxed and confident rather than giving quite sort of rigid over-rehearsed answers.
Pippa
OK, so practise is important, but you shouldn’t write a script.
Phil
Yeah, and perhaps a good tip here is to talk about the examples, so that you’re confident and then you can pick the right example in the interview and then it should sound more natural.
Pippa
Yeah. So, I guess, don’t practise a full answer with exact sentences, but practise talking about a time that you did something. And then you’ll be ready to kind of fit that to whatever question they ask.
Phil
Yeah and you can bring notes to an interview, but just don’t read off them like a script.
Pippa
Yeah, I guess the most important thing is to feel comfortable and confident and that could also just mean researching the journey and logistics. I sometimes actually go to the place just to test that I know the way and I’m not going to get confused on the day. So a little bit like your turning up early. I like to kind of practise to make sure that I’m not stressed about the journey as well as the interview.
Phil
OK, that’s it for this episode. Remember, you can find more programmes to improve your business English on our website, like Office English where we talk about using English in everyday situations at work.
Pippa
Next time, it’s interview time and we’ll talk about the best way to talk about yourself and your experience.
Phil
See you, then. Bye.
Pippa
Bye.