If you want to relocate, or work for an international company, sooner or later you'll have to do a job interview in English. To survive it, you'll need to work on both interview and language skills, and this can be quite tricky and frustrating. Have you ever turned down an interview because you weren't confident enough with your English? Well, I did.
If you are considering a position in an English-speaking company, you've probably been using and learning English for quite some time, and already speaking at some proficiency level. Some of you think "Should be fine, I can speak." One of the biggest tricks here is the different level that's needed in the interview — it's a more complex language in terms of content, and less casual in terms of style, compared to one you use on your normal average day. Job interviews are already stressful enough, and this is going to be a high-pressure situation where you're forced to talk a lot, explain things, and speculate.
To help you get prepared, I wrote a short tutorial, where we will look at some practical tips to succeed in your meeting with the interviewers.
So, let's go.
Practice an Elevator Pitch
Write an “About me” speech, memorize and rehearse it as many times as you can. This will help you in many other situations where you need to introduce yourself to new people, whether it’s a networking situation or the first day on your new job/workshop/etc. Everyone knows the importance of first impressions — therefore the pitch is an absolute must-have.
Research the Requirements and Responsibilities
Find out exactly what the position you’re applying for involves so you have an idea about what specific questions the interviewers might ask, then prepare tailored answers.
You’ll need to be fully certain that during the interview you're using them in the right context though. Some candidates basically push the answers they prepared into the conversation and it just sounds weird. Don’t worry, if the questions you prepared won’t be asked, it’ll still provide you with potential conversation topics/opinions to share.
Do a Mock Interview and Get a Feedback
It’s very helpful to be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Do a practice interview and get some feedback to find out where specifically you're stumbling and then work on those specific ones rather than rehearsing the entire interview again and again.
If you could get a native English speaker to review your speaking, it’s fantastic. It’s even better to get it reviewed by someone who's got experience with job interviews and understands the process from the inside out. If you can’t get feedback from someone, record your mock interview, listen back to find and correct the weak spots.
Learn About Relaxed Concentration
You can find tons of information on the Web on stress management, telling ways to quickly chill and regain your focus. Try and choose your favorite method — breathing exercises/”self-distancing”/meditation/chewing gum (before you walk into the interview, of course) — whatever works for you and suits you more.
Now let’s move on to something very important about your speaking.
First and foremost — never be shy about your accent! It's a particularly common problem among Russian and Eastern European candidates. I live in Hong Kong and see how even natives from different parts of the world can’t understand each other (e.g. British and New Zealander) sometimes, let alone those whose first language is not English. Speak reasonably loud and slow, and don’t get frustrated if the interviewer asks you to repeat what you’ve just said.
Just like in the item above, if you don’t understand something, it’s totally fine to ask the interviewers to repeat themselves.
Use simple linking phrases which you can use to sound more fluent and organized (e.g. in my opinion, or as far as I can see, if you ask me I would say, I’m convinced that).
If you’ve noticed that you are veering away from the question, just get back to the topic and use rescue phrases such as “To get back to what I was saying”, “Where was I? Oh yes, I was talking about…”
If you’ve made an error and feel that it could lead to a misunderstanding, don’t panic, and don't try to start the whole answer again because that would be more confusing and will only make you panic more. The best way to fix it is to quickly and briefly correct/explain a certain point again. Everybody makes mistakes — stay calm and keep moving forward.
To conclude, this is what I’d like to tell you. There are so many people out there who for various reasons aspire towards jobs abroad, and who get frustrated and feel lonely, especially after hard interviews. Remember, you're not alone in this. Also, if you are not applying for an English teacher job you don’t really need to show an extremely high level of competence with the language. Your speaking doesn’t have to be error-free or accent-free.
These recommendations alone won’t get you the job, but they will increase your chances and make your preparation plan more practical and consistent. Focus on implementing that plan and follow it from day to day. From my experience, those who can do this are the most successful types of candidates.
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