Lindsay McMahon
"The English Adventurer"

Do you have a job interview coming up for that you want to do well in?

Do you feel unsure of how to prepare for an interview, especially when it comes to providing all of your answers in proper English?

If you have felt unsure going into an interview, then you are not alone.

Today we are going to get some helpful tips for mastering a job interview from our special guest, Tina Crouch.

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Expertise To Help Prepare You

Today we have a special guest on our show, Tina Crouch, who has written a book in this area.

Her book is “ 8 Steps for Interview Prep: How English Learners Can Answer Tell Me About Yourself and Other Questions.”

She did a lot of research to be able to write this book, and to help many non- English learners in this important area.

Tina has been a professional writer for six years, but she has pivoted to teaching business English this year since she’s not traveling at all right now.

She found in her teaching that about 60% of her students needed help with how to prepare for an interview.

She focused on the questions like “tell me about yourself” because that tends to be the big scary question that people just aren’t sure how to answer.

You want to be able to answer such a question and shine in the interview, thus helping you to stand out from other candidates.

She interviewed three Human Resources experts so that she could take their point of view and experiences to help others to be prepared in this area in particular.

These experts see what works and what doesn’t, and they can help you to avoid the common pitfalls in an interview.

So you will go in ready for such questions, and you will learn what it takes to really show how prepared you are when you are in an interview.

Three Tips To Interview Success

You want to be sure that you stand out in an interview, and make the hiring manager see that you are a great candidate.

You want to show that you are prepared, and that you took the time to do your research and know how to answer all the questions.

Tina is sharing three steps to help you really shine during job interviews, and this will show you are prepared and will also help you to build confidence.

1. Prepare stories about your past experiences and skills using the job description: Take the job description you are interviewing for, and then come up with real life stories that apply to this. If you have an exact match, talk through this and show how you have showed up in this area and really done this in a successful way. Rather than feeling unprepared or nervous when a real life question comes up, think through this ahead of time. Consider what is being asked in the job description, and then think of instances where you did this in the past. This will show that you are a good match for the job description. It will also help you to go in knowing that you can apply your real life experiences to what is sure to come up in an interview.

2. Use company research to think of 3-5 questions you can ask the interviewer: You will often be asked at the end of an interview if you have any questions for the hiring manager. They want to see that you have done your research and care enough to have taken the time to think through this. Look at the company website, subscribe to their company newsletter, and do whatever you can do understand this company in advance. Come up with a few questions that you can ask when the opportunity presents itself in an interview. This shows that you care and that you took the time to do your research before the interview.

3. Feel comfortable taking your time: If you say something that you may regret later, it is often because you are rushing. Don’t make this mistake! It’s easy enough to take your time and be sure to give thought to what you are trying to say and the answers that you are giving. This is especially important if you are hit with a question that you didn’t anticipate. It shows confidence if you take the time to think through things and then deliver an answer that is well articulated. Taking your time and thinking things through is a sign of confidence and strength, and never weakness.

These tips can help to show that you are prepared, that you did your research, and they can demonstrate your confidence in a significant way.

You want to be prepared for the real life questions, and think through the things that an interviewer may ask you so that you really shine.

A Few Things To Think Through

There are a few things that the HR experts mentioned beyond just these tips.

One of these things is that you want to be sure to answer a question directly when it comes at you during an interview.

All of these experts that Tina interviewed added at the end that a lot of candidates don’t directly answer questions.

They may be trying to sound clever or use words that they are not comfortable with, and they may try to talk around the answer.

Rather than answer a question directly, these experts find that people try to use different language or avoid answering the question in a direct and informative way.

An example may be if an interviewer asks the question “How do you write with a pen?”

They may answer this with something like “I have a red pen and I like to write with it.”

This isn’t answering the question at all!

This is talking about the subject matter, but in an indirect way.

No valuable answer is provided, and this shows that perhaps the person being interviewed doesn’t know how to respond.

If you think too much, then you may avoid answering the question and come off as indirect or insincere.

You may talk yourself out of how simple the question really is, and then not give an answer.

It can instead be very helpful to repeat the question back to the interviewer.

This is a great way to ensure that you clearly understand what is being asked of you, and it does so in an articulate way.

You may say “Let me be sure that I understand clearly….”

By simply repeating it in this way, you can clarify, buy yourself some time to think things through, and show that you are being careful with your answers to the interviewer.

Natives do this and so as a second language learner, you should never feel bad about doing this.

These are all great tips, and the book is full of many wonderful ways to prepare yourself for a job interview.

You can find Tina at www.tinateachesEnglish.com , and there is a page for the book or search Amazon for “8 Steps to Interview Prep” to find it for yourself.

Takeaway

If you have a job interview coming up, you want to be sure that you are as prepared as possible.

These tips will help you to think through things in advance, and show that you really did your research.

Be sure to take your time and really think through your answers, because this will show confidence in a significant way.

If you keep these things in mind, you will be successful in your job interview and have more confidence moving forward.

If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments section.

We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

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