話匣子英語:面試的準(zhǔn)備工作
Harp: Yeah, or if you’re in North America and you’re getting ready for your first job interview.
Maura: Yeah, it’s really helpful advice, I think. First, Harp: you have an interview, you got the call, you’re excited, you’re pumped, you’re feeling good. What can you do to prepare for the interview?
Harp: The first thing you should do is research. Research the company, find out what it does, look for the company website, find out things about the culture of the company, find press releases, google it. Find out about the company you’re gonna be interviewing at.
Maura: That’s good advice, because then you know a little bit more of what to expect and you can also think about some questions you might want to ask them, because you know about their company and you can be specific.
Harp: Exactly. It shows enthusiasm. It shows that you took the time to research the company. It sets you apart.
Maura: And, would it be a good idea to practice with someone?
Harp: For sure! I recommend practicing for the interview—before—to everyone. It’s a good idea to practice for some of the typical questions that get asked in an interview.
Maura: To be honest, I had never really done this before, and then recently I practiced a lot with a good friend of mine. We practiced interview questions, and then when I went for the interview, it was so much easier and I answered so much more clearly. Because even if they didn’t ask me the exact question, they asked me a similar question, and so my answer just came so much more easily. It’s really good advice. You’re right.
Harp: Yeah, so, an easy way to find out sample questions is, again, to go on the Internet and just search sample interview questions. And a big trend that’s happening in North America is behavioural interview questions. Behavioural interview questions are questions that are trying to find out your behaviour, so how you acted in certain situations. So, an example question could be “Tell me a time when you had to deal with conflict in work and how you reacted to it.” So they’re asking, from your past, how you reacted to situations and how you dealt with situations, so that’s why it’s important to practice so you have examples of situations where you had a problem and had to deal with it, of thinking on your feet. There are so many different types of behaviours they could be looking for.
Maura: And often, the trick with those kinds of questions is to turn something negative and put a positive spin on it, in some way.
Harp: For sure, so practice your answers.
Maura: Now, another thing that always stresses me out when I have an interview is getting there, because sometimes it’s far and I’ve never been to that area of town before. So what should you do in that case?
Harp: It’s so important to know where you’re going, how long it’s gonna take. Just go online. MapQuest it or look on Google and figure out the best way, and the easiest way of how to get there, and estimate how long it’s gonna take and then add at least 15 or 20 minutes or 30 minutes to get there, because being on time is very, very, very important in North America.
