How to tackle a job interview in English

After you have been sending around your English CV for a while, the time will arrive for you to attend a job interview in english. With this imminent prospect ahead of you, you should remain calm. Nerves will only hinder you and make you lose a job opportunity.

If you already are a master of the language, you need to go deeper with certain technical questions related with the position that you want.

But if your language level is intermediate or low, the best thing to do is to take part in an intense conversation for practice. This is the best option, but often they don´t give you much warning. Therefore, we are going to give you some concrete guidelines in order to succeed in an interview in English.

Come with us and discover the best bits of advice to tackle this professional challenge and to be successful.

8 Pieces of Advice for Exceeding in an Interview in English

Before starting, don´t fear the ridiculous. It is a common error at the time of confronting situations like this. Try to be as prepared as possible and with complete confidence in your abilities.

1. Cover Letter

The first and fundamental thing is your CV. If they have already called you, it is because you have passed the first stage of selection and they are interested in you. If you still haven´t made one, dedicate the necessary time to prepare a good CV in English that reflects your qualities, studies, experience and skills.

2. Learn About the Company

This is a very important point. Once you have been called for a job interview in English, you should prepare for it. What are we referring to? Familiarising yourself well about the company that you have chosen to work for.

Although you should already know enough about them from when you signed up to a job offer, it´s normal that when you are searching for jobs you don’t remember these details. Therefore, although you don´t have much time, investigate a bit about the sector, what ideas they are working on developing, the history of the company, the role that you want to have, business culture, personal profiles, official publications etc…

We recommend that your look at the company´s website, and if they have social media profiles, in particular, LinkedIn.

It seems like lots of work for just a job interview, but it is worthwhile. Doing a search on Google and filtering through the recent results will let you find out lots of things about your possible future company.

3. Learn Specific Vocabulary

Once you have tackled the previous steps, it´s time to learn how to correctly express yourself in English. You must pay special attention to possible keywords that could come up in the questions and be useful for your answers during the interview.

Prepare a selection of vocabulary for talking about yourself, as well as a good glossary related to the sector of work of the company.

4. Prepare for the most common questions

Although you can´t predict everything in life, it is true that there are certain questions that you will certainly be asked in a job interview in english. They are very common questions; however, you must be prepared for them.

The more you prepare, the better you will feel at facing questions that you didn´t prepare for.

• Tell me about yourself. Talk about experiences related to the job that is on offer.
• What are your weaknesses? You have to be very careful responding to this question. You should play with the technique of saying a negative quality but at the same time one that can be considered positive. You can say that you are too much of a perfectionist and that you don´t like delegating, but that you are working on this. You can also say a defect that doesn´t affect too much the carrying out of your tasks. For example, you can say that you are a bit forgetful but that you have a diary so that you are on top of everything.
• What are your strengths? You should name your strengths. Highlight your qualities and explain why you would be an excellent choice for the role.
• Why have you been unemployed for such a long time? To respond to this, try to exaggerate your training, the courses that you have completed, previous jobs, fears, family situations, or jobs in your own time such as writing a blog.
• How do you picture yourself in five years´ time? You should answer including information about the role that you want.
• What do you know about the type of work we do? You should demonstrate that you have looked into the work of the company. Show how your training, experience and qualifications would make you an asset for the company.

These are only some possible questions. In the video below you will see a demonstration of a Job Interview with questions and answers that we hope will be useful for you.

5. Practise, Practise, and Practise Again

It´s an obvious piece of advice but it is the most effective. The best thing for putting yourself in a similar context, would be to practise with a native, or someone bilingual, who can do a mock interview with you and therefore can correct your mistakes.

But if this isn´t your case or if you don´t have enough time to do this, put yourself in front on a mirror and do it as if you were having a face to face interview with someone else.

6. Give a Good Impression

You should be prepared, punctual, and bring all the documents that they have asked for. Dress in a formal way but in clothes that you feel comfortable in.

Remember to always be friendly and polite during the entire interview.

7. Pay Attention to the Questions

Throughout the whole interview in English, you should listen carefully to the questions. If you have a low level of English, you must be even more attentive. It is very possible that the interviewer will speak fast or have a difficult accent to understand.

Don´t be scared or ashamed to ask them to repeat a question. It´s much better that they repeat than for you to be confused as to how to answer because you didn´t hear well or understand incorrectly what they are asking.

8. Demonstrate your Abilities With your Answers

It´s very natural when confronted with an English interview for your nerves to take over. But we recommend very strongly that you rely on your abilities and strengths. Don´t feel scared to express yourself, nor ashamed of your accent etc…

It´s very important that you express your skills well. Be clear, concise, and show your true interest in the job position.

In this video you can see an example of an interview in English so that you can get a good idea of how it should be.

After the interview, you could send an email thanking them, in order to maintain a good relationship with the interviewer, and emphasising that you would love to be part of the company.

If you still have any doubts that weren´t resolved during the interview, this is a good time to ask – questions about salary, benefits, tasks related to the job position, or when the selection process finishes.

These are only some tricks in order to be prepared for a job interview in English. Now it´s up to you to be the best. An additional recommendation: if you are still looking for work, it is worth preparing yourself at an English language centre.

With the help and support of a good teacher, you will be able to perfect your level and attend an interview with more confidence. Nathalie Languages can help you to improve and/or perfect your level of English so that you can´t resist any job opportunity.