4 JOB INTERVIEW tips you've never heard before - Business Communication lesson.

0:00Chris Today, I'm going to give you four job interview tips that you have never heard before. And here's why. Job interview advice on the internet is really bad. And by bad, I mean limited. Let me explain. I spend about 30% of my time, my professional life, coaching people on how to succeed in job interviews.

0:31Chris That's usually around two hours every day. I've coached people in every industry you can think of, from new graduates all the way up to people applying for C-suite roles. And this means that I've also done a lot of research on how other people think you should approach these questions. And what I find is the same advice over and over again.

1:02Chris Now, a lot of that advice is really good, and absolutely you should follow that advice. But I really don't want to watch another YouTube video saying that you should research the company that you're applying to or follow the star method for telling stories. So here are four tips that you have never heard before, based on hundreds of hours, maybe thousands of hours, of coaching people who've used my tools and strategies to get jobs up to C-suite level and up to seven-figure salaries.

1:46Chris That one, that seven-figure salary claim, I'm very proud of that one. That happened just last week. Someone I've been working with coaching through a series of job interviews. They just got that seven-figure salary job. So welcome back to the Breakout Business English Podcast. My name is Chris. I'm a business English and communication coach, and I've personally worked with over 1,000 international professionals, almost certainly just like you, to improve the way that they communicate at work in English.

2:27Chris And let's get started. So, tip number one today is to use numbers. Use numbers. This tip is a combination of things. You should avoid being too vague or general. That's the first part of this tip. And to do this, to avoid being vague, you should use numbers. Now, because I'm a good student and my university professors many years ago always told me to cite my sources.

3:07Chris Here's some research. In 2014, the American employment website Career Builder sent a survey to more than 2,000 hiring managers. They talked to more than 2,000 hiring managers. What they found was that some of their least favorite terms, their least favorite vocabulary, included common phrases like team player, hard worker, self-motivated.

3:41Chris I am I'm a self-motivated team player.

3:45 If you're using phrases like these to describe yourself, you need to stop. These mean nothing. Here's a good test.

4:00Chris If an 18-year-old with no qualifications and no experience could honestly walk into a job interview and say a phrase like this that maybe you've been using, then you probably shouldn't say it. The reason you were offered the opportunity to interview for a position is because of your hard skills and experience.

4:27Chris So why are you ignoring that when you're answering questions? Possibly because you're listening to a lot of job interview advice on the internet. Your task in your job interview is to translate your experience and hard skills and what you personally have to offer into these short two or three minute answers to communicate this experience.

4:55Chris And these phrases, these very general phrases, they don't do this. These expressions take up space, but don't do much to show how you would add value to the company you're applying to. They're also often qualities that employers expect from you anyway. So what should you do instead? Well, the opposite of vague is specific and clear.

5:25Chris And that's right, we should use numbers. Now, the general tip here is get specific. Talk about specific things that you have done and achieved. However, the easy way to make sure that you're doing this is say it with me now, to use numbers. So maybe in the past you've said something like, I'm great at delivering projects on time.

5:55Chris Why not say instead, I've delivered five projects in the past two years, all of which were at least a week ahead of schedule. Instead of saying, I'm great at managing people and I love to coach others. How about I've been responsible for teams of between five and fifteen people. From those teams, I mentored two people who went on to leadership roles themselves.

6:30Chris So the thing about numbers is that they make it really easy to guarantee that the information you're trying to communicate arrives with your listener. I might not know what you mean by I'm a great manager, or I have a lot of experience managing people, or I really'm really good at managing people. But I do know what you mean by a team of 15 people.

6:58Chris And I do know what you mean by I mentored two people. These numbers really help us to communicate. Now, let's take a quick look at a piece of vocabulary. A moment ago, I told you that you should stop being vague. That's V-A-G-U-E. You can describe a statement as vague if it doesn't give you enough information or it doesn't clearly explain something.

7:32Chris For instance, if you ask me how long I'm planning to go on vacation for, and I say, I'll be on vacation for a while, then you would likely need to ask for more information. That's a vague statement. You wouldn't want your bank to be vague when telling you how much money you have in your accounts. And in the same way, we don't want to be vague when explaining our experience or our professional identity to a hiring manager.

8:09Chris Okay, tip number two. This is one of my favorites. Tip number two is to say the obvious thing. Say the obvious thing. So often people fail in job interviews because they thought they were communicating one thing and their interviewer was understanding another. Maybe you tell a story about how you managed to deliver a project on time and under budget.

8:40Chris And your interviewer is sat there thinking, wow, this person obviously understands the importance of sticking to a budget. When in fact, you were trying to show them how good you are at managing a team towards deadlines. The fact is, your interviewer is probably sitting there with a physical notebook or a laptop, maybe, and they're waiting to write something down.

9:10Chris They're waiting to hear something that stands out. They're going to listen to your whole answer and write down one or two lines that they took away from what you said. When you're speaking or when you're planning what to say, think about that notebook. Think about what you want them to write down and tell them this.

9:38Chris Job interviews are not a time to be subtle and indirect or vague. Now, this varies from culture to culture. You've often heard me talk about the difference in communication between cultures and how communication is different in Japan compared to the Netherlands, compared to Spain, compared to the United States, for instance.

10:05Chris And in the United States, it might feel really natural to give a lot of information to say the obvious thing. This is what we call a low context culture. Whereas a lot of people over in Asia, especially Far East Asia, we're talking China, Korea, we're talking Japan, this might feel strange because in those cultures, it's more common to understand things from context.

10:39Chris But remember, you have a few minutes, 30, 45, maybe 60, to clearly communicate to someone why they should pay you a lot of money for the next few years to do something for them. This is not the time to hope that they understand you. This is the time to make sure and guarantee that they are writing down what you need them to know.

11:08Chris So, if you're in your interview and you're thinking, well, of course, I think that communication is an incredibly important thing. In fact, communicating with my team is the most important thing. But I told them a story about how I managed my team and we hit a deadline. So they know. And they're sitting there thinking, I hope this person understands the importance of communication.

11:38Chris So you're both thinking the same thing, but until you say it, until you actually put it out there into the room, you can't guarantee that they know that you know this. A good way to think about this is near the end of your answer, think about what this story or this idea says about your professional identity, who you are as a professional, and about the way you approach your work.

12:12Chris You can start sentences with phrases like My approach to these kinds of situations is My approach to these kinds of situations is or maybe the way I see things, the way I see things, or I'm the kind of person who I'm the kind of person who or finally, I think the most important thing is, I think the most important thing is on their own, these statements about your approach and your thoughts on what's important, they're not very valuable.

13:37Chris But when you've given a story with a lot of detail and you've backed up and reinforced this story with numbers, reducing that down to a key idea that communicates who you are as a professional and how you approach your work, that's really important. That's the obvious thing that you need to communicate.

14:00Chris So, for instance, in the story I mentioned a moment ago about bringing in a project on time and under budget, you might say, I think the most important factor here is that every decision that is made over the course of a project keeps the budget and deadline in mind. I've sat in meetings where good ideas are presented that would just take too long, or hours are spent discussing things that we know would take the project over budget.

14:34Chris For me and in my meetings, budget and deadline should be a key part of every decision-making process. When we're finishing our answers like this, we know we're always communicating the things that we intend to. And if you want to pass your next job interview in English and practice the way that you answer your interviewers' questions, then maybe we can work together.

15:08Chris My full-time job is helping international professionals who use English at work to improve their communication skills. So if you need English to do your job, but you don't speak it natively, then I would love to meet you. If you'd like to book some time to meet with me through one-to-one video calls, just you and me, then you can go to www.breakoutbusinglish.com.

15:40Chris That's the title of the podcast, breakoutbusinglish.com, and find out more. And starting on our very first call, we can focus on the specific opportunities that you personally have to improve your English and communication skills and the mistakes that you make most often or cause the biggest problems with your communication.

16:05Chris And of course, if you are preparing for a job interview, then we can work through the questions that you find most challenging, the stories you need to tell, and we can make sure that you are communicating who you are as a professional in the most effective, efficient, and specific way possible. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English-speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you.

16:43Chris Okay, let's move on to tip number four. Tip number four is focus on what you did. Now, a big part of job interviews these days is telling stories. And when I'm coaching people on how to pass job interviews, I hear a lot of stories. There are some tried and true tips that we can follow in order to tell great stories in job interviews.

17:21Chris I think that most hiring managers and HR people would agree that the star method, for instance, is a great way to make sure that you're structuring your stories well. However, one big mistake that I hear people making is that they don't spend much time talking about what they did. Remember, the only reason that you're being asked to tell a story is to find out what you did in a particular situation.

17:59Chris And the only reason your interviewer cares about what you did in a particular situation is because that they think that you might find yourself in that situation again, and they want to know what you would do. They're going to put you in that situation, and you're going to need to handle it. Therefore, what you did and how you solved the problem is really the only important thing that matters here.

18:30Chris Everything else is just background, information, and context. One very common mistake here is to spend all of your time setting up the story, giving your interviewer the situation, and telling them what was going on. This would be the S and T parts of the star method that we mentioned earlier, the situation and the task.

18:58Chris Then the action part, the part that actually talks about what you did, people often only spend a few seconds on this, and they're done. I've even heard people skip this step completely. We go situation, task, and result. Now, the situation might be the most interesting part for you. And when I think back on some of the craziest stories and craziest situations I've been involved in, yeah, the situation is the most interesting part.

19:33Chris Or maybe if you were telling your friends a story on a night out or in a coffee shop, then sure, you would talk about the situation. However, your interviewer is mostly interested in what you did. Another mistake when telling stories is spending far too much time talking about what the team did and too little time talking about yourself.

20:02Chris It is absolutely important to talk about your team. And there are moments in a job interview when I would consider this essential. However, when telling stories, we need to talk about what we did. Because what we're selling and what our interviewer is buying is the way that we do our job and the way that we solve problems.

20:28Chris Okay, let's take a quick look at a phrase I used a moment ago. I said that there are some tried and true job interview tips that we can follow. Some tried and true tips. But what does this mean? Tried and true is a phrase that describes something that is safe, trusted, and always works well because people have used it many times in the past.

21:00Chris It means a method or a thing that is not a new experiment, but a reliable choice that has already been tested and proven to be successful. For instance, you might take a certain route to work, even though your Google Maps, your Apple Maps tells you that another route is quicker, because the route that you know is tried and true.

21:30Chris I have a tried and true route to get to work. Or you might have a tried and true way to manage an underperforming team member that you want to talk about in your job interview. That's a method that always gets those underperforming colleagues to improve their work. So that's the phrase tried and true.

21:55Chris Okay, tip number four. Tip number four is to be positive and say nice things. Be positive and say nice things. Okay. Here's the best thing that can happen after your job interview. The absolute best possible outcome. Your interviewer leaves the meeting and says to themselves, I really liked that person.

22:23Chris I would be happy to work with that person. That's it. That's the goal. You want your interviewer to leave the interview and think, yeah, that person was pretty cool. I would not mind having a 9 a.m. Monday morning meeting with that person. The fact is, you're probably being interviewed because you have the skills for the job.

22:47Chris One of the biggest reasons that people are interviewed for jobs is to see what they are like as people. A big part of the interview is the company and the managers finding out if they want to work with you. Back when I was interviewing for a team that I managed a few years ago, I looked at the CVs that I chose.

23:13Chris I got a bunch of CVs and I looked at the five or six that I brought in, and I knew that the hard skills, I could probably just call one of them up and say, you've got the job. If they honestly can do the things written on these CVs, then they will be great. But the reason I want to meet them is I'm looking for someone I can potentially spend 40 hours a week with.

23:40Chris So how can we make sure we get this response? The way we do this is we stay positive and we say nice things about the companies we worked for and the colleagues we've worked with. This is especially important for questions like what would your current colleagues say about you? Or why are you leaving your current position?

24:07Chris These are both great opportunities to say nice things about your team. After all, someone who says nice things about their current team or their previous team is likely to say nice things about their next team, right? Doesn't that seem like the kind of person you want to work with? So those kinds of questions are great opportunities, but look out for them.

24:35Chris Whenever you're mentioning your team, whenever you're talking about your colleagues, this is an opportunity to say nice things about your colleagues and to be positive. Now, if this sounds like a rant, then maybe it is. Maybe it sounds like I'm angry and maybe I am. There are so many videos, articles, and podcasts about how to succeed in job interviews, and they almost give the same tired and maybe obvious tips.

25:07Chris So hopefully you can take something away from this podcast that will help you get your next job offer. I think I have been shouting. I'm losing my voice. Did I get through that more quickly than usual? Has this been a short podcast? Was I speaking quickly? Let me know. I'm very passionate about job interview preparation.

25:30Chris I do a lot of it, and um I think it's something that I really enjoy, and it's a big part of my professional life is making sure that the people who pay for my time achieve the things that they want to, and very often what they want to achieve is passing a job interview. So let's jump into today's quiz.

25:53Chris Last week I asked you about this very simple sentence. Emma hired Dave. One more time, this sentence. Emma hired Dave. And we mentioned that this means that Dave got a job. Congratulations, Dave, on your new job. Now, my question was how can we change this sentence to mean that Emma got a new job without changing the order of the names?

26:28Chris I still want to start with Emma and finish with Dave. So, how do we change this sentence to mean that Emma got a new job?

26:41 The answer here is to make the sentence passive.

26:46Chris So Emma hired Dave is an active sentence. The verb is being done by the subject of the sentence. However, if we build this as a passive sentence, which would be Emma was hired by Dave, then Emma stays the subject of the sentence, but now she's the one getting the new job. Sorry, Dave, I guess you'll have to follow some of my job interview tips next time.

27:22Chris So one more time. Emma hired Dave is an active sentence, which means that Dave got a new job. Emma was hired by Dave is a passive sentence, which means that Emma got a new job. Okay, let's give you another question to think about this week and take a look at this sentence. I stopped to talk to my boss.

27:52Chris One more time, I stopped to talk to my boss. And my question is does this sentence mean that the conversation started or that the conversation ended? I stopped to talk to my boss. Did the conversation start or end in this sentence? And what I need you to do is to switch the meaning there. So there's two questions here.

28:25Chris Does this mean that the conversation ended or that it began? And what would I need to do to switch to the other meaning? The answer to both parts of this question will be in next week's podcast. And I'm gonna wrap this up before I fully lose my voice. So don't forget that if you would like to discuss any of the ideas, vocabulary or grammar, etc., in today's episode, or work on your communication skills for work or even prepare for a job interview.

29:00Chris Then you can book a session to work with me on your English communication skills by going to breakoutbusinglish.com. That's breakoutbusinglish.com or clicking the link in the show notes and use the code podcast30, that's podcast30 at checkout to get a 30% discount off your first booking. I've worked with over 1,000 non-native English speaking professionals from new graduates up to CEOs and government leaders to help them achieve their goals, and I look forward to meeting you.

29:42Chris Between episodes of the podcast, you can get videos every couple of days on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Just search for Breakout Business English. Also, if there's a topic that you'd like to hear me talk about on the podcast, then I'd be excited to hear your ideas. Leave me a message or a comment on one of my YouTube videos, and I look forward to hearing from you.

30:07Chris If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, then I invite you to leave a review. Every review really helps me out and helps to push the podcast to new listeners and to grow the show. If you found this podcast useful and you think that there are some valuable things in here, then feel free to write a couple of kind words, and I thank you in advance.

30:30Chris And that's another great place to request a topic for a future podcast. That is it for today. Thank you for listening and for your time. I know how valuable it is, and I really appreciate and respect your choice to spend some of your time with this podcast. I hope you have a great week, and I'll talk to you again next time on the Breakout Business English podcast.