How Can I Do Better in an English Job Interview?

Our big top tip here is to make sure you speak and listen to English for at least 2 hours every day to improve your speaking and listening skills ready for your English job interview.

Some excellent, FREE resources to help improve your listening skills especially are BBC Worldwide and English films (movies) which you can find on YouTube. Watching these will help you get used to how English is spoken by English people and also expose you to some of the different English accents you might encounter during your English job interviews or indeed once you start your new healthcare job in the UK. (Image Source: DeviantArt) On top of this, the more you expose yourself to the English language, the more advanced your English vocabulary will become. One of the things interviewers want to hear in your interview is detail about you, your skills and your experiences. To do this you need a rich vocabulary. It is far better to try and express yourself well in English and perhaps make a few speaking errors rather than merely repeating perfectly grammatical but limited and simple English phrases that you have learned by rote. Practicing speaking and listening to English for two hours every day will help you tell your interviewer meaningful information about yourself, giving you a better chance at being successful in securing your desired job.

Some typical questions often asked by English interviewers, which you might like to practice answering are:

1. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
2. Why did you leave your last position?
3. Why should we hire you?
4. How do you work under pressure?
5. Are you willing to relocate for this role?
6. Can you give us an example of how you have resolved a difficult situation in the work environment?
7. What salary are you expecting?
8. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
9. What motivated you to become a nurse/doctor/midwife?
10. Can you tell us a about your extracurricular activities, hobbies and interests?

A useful tip for practicing answering these types of interview questions is to ask a friend to role play the interview with you, that way you can both listen to the question and answer it in English. When you do this it may be helpful to make a note of any pronunciation or grammar errors that keep tripping you up so you can go away and learn more about and practice these areas. Remember in your interview it is perfectly acceptable to ask the interviewer to repeat anything you didn’t fully understand. It is far better to do this that pretend to understand and then deliver an answer your interview wasn’t looking for. Better still, if you’re unsure what question is being asked, repeat it back to your interviewer in your own words to double check you have the correct understanding. For further help with preparing for any of your upcoming job interviews in English you can either get in touch with the team here at Kate Cowhig using the email address: info@kcr.ie or try one of the following links:

• BBC Worldwide
• ESL
• English Town
• The BBC’s Learning English Advice
• The British Council, Professional Work Interview Tips