Do you have an upcoming job interview in English?
Do you really want to impress the interviewer when you talk about your past accomplishments in English especially in the business world?
Today Lindsay and Aubrey from All Ears English are talking about the present perfect tense, which you are going to use a lot in a job interview.
When you are in a situation where you want to talk about accomplishments in the past, then present perfect is the way to go.
You will learn how to use this grammar form and we’ll break down how it works.
We’ll determine how you can add it into an interview for true success to make sure that you get the job!
Business English Online Course
Get dozens of interviews with successful native speakers.
Learn REAL English for the business world.
Join the online course to get ready for your next meeting, interview or presentation in English.
How Present Perfect Leads To Job Interview Success
Before you head into an interview, you want to think about the types of questions you might be asked.
This is all part of the interview preparation, and it helps you to be at your best and ready for anything that comes your way.
As part of this, you want to also think about the types of answers you are going to provide when asked sometimes tough questions in the moment.
It is almost guaranteed that in every job interview, you’ll be asked about past achievements, success and experience.
You need the present perfect tense for this!
This is at the heart of what you are going to talk about, and therefore you want to be certain that you represent yourself well.
We’re going to teach you how to use the present perfect to impress at any job interview.
It’s all about learning how to impress and speak well about yourself so that you stand out.
When you want to stand out from the crowd and ultimately land the job, then learning what to say and how to say it becomes so important.
Understanding How This Works
Let’s start by understanding how this English grammar tense works, and then you can consider how to use it in your own interviews.
We will begin by seeing a breakdown of what present perfect is, and then we can build off of that.
Present perfect: Past experiences and achievements with no specific time mentioned.
The focus is on the action or experience, and we don’t care or know when it happened.
Form: has/have + past participle
You can use this in a number of different ways, so let’s look at some examples.
- “I have traveled to many different countries.”
- “She has studied multiple languages.
- “I’ve traveled to many countries.”
- “She’s studied multiple languages.”
Talking About Achievements
You use it to talk about past achievements and experience, particularly during a job interview.
It is unimportant when these things happened in the past, as that is not the focus at all.
This is something great to practice which will help you to speak well and represent your past accomplishments in this setting.
You may wish to try practicing at home before the interview, and then it will come across more naturally.
These are the types of things that you can control before an interview, which will ultimately help you to be successful and move onto next steps in the interview process.
You will also need to use this structure to talk to your teammates once you get the job when you volunteer for projects.
A Roleplay To Learn Present Perfect Tense
In this roleplay, Aubrey interviews Lindsay for a position as a zookeeper.
Aubrey: “Thank you for coming in today to chat with me.”
Lindsay: “Thanks for having me. I’ve read great things about this company, and I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Aubrey: “So, first tell me about your past experience. Have you worked with animals before?”
Lindsay: “Yes, I’ve always loved animals, and I’ve spent a lot of time volunteering at a local zoo.”
Aubrey: “Wonderful! What are you proudest of during your time as a volunteer?”
Lindsay: “I was part of a team that planned and carried out improvements to a lion enclosure, and I was extremely proud of the outcome. There was so much more space for the animals.”
Aubrey: “Did you find this experience rewarding?”
Lindsay: “Most definitely. I’ve always wanted to make a difference for animals, and it was very meaningful to accomplish this goal. I’ve hoped for some time to have the chance to do it again.”
You can see how this works and hopefully this gives you ideas of how to use it yourself.
There may be other instances where you use this tense, but a job interview is the perfect one to focus on.
When you want to represent yourself well and talk about what you have done in the past, this is the perfect way to go as you see in the roleplay above.
Takeaway
These tips about using present perfect tense during job interviews can help you land your dream job!
This is a tense that has a very distinct purpose and so you want to learn how to use it well.
A job interview is the perfect time to talk about what you have done in the past, so this is a great time to put this into play and perfect it.
Practice talking about your achievements, accomplishments and past experience using the present perfect.
This will increase your confidence and help you sound native and natural during your next interview.
You will be amazed at how well you can represent yourself using this, and so it serves as a very important aspect of your conversation.
In our course Business English Online Course you get to hear grammar tenses used by dozens of successful native speaker professionals.
If you have any questions, please leave them below in the comments section.
We’ll get back to you as soon as we can.
