BEP 40c – Interview English: First-Round Job Interviews (1)
03/16/25 • 19 min
1 Listener
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on key skills for a first-round job interview in English.
If you find job interviews stressful, you’re certainly not alone. Many people struggle to feel confident and comfortable in interview situations. And there’s the added worry that the stress you feel will make it even more difficult to answer the questions well. But you can reduce this stress with effective preparation.
You know that you’ll be asked certain types of questions. So you can make notes about your responses, or make an outline of important ideas that you want to talk about. You can also develop skills to make sure you’re being clear and accurate in your responses.
So what should you prepare and what skills should you develop? Well, for starters, you should be ready to introduce yourself and your career path, and to summarize your current job responsibilities. In terms of skills, it’s good to practice clarifying the words you use, buying yourself time, and connecting your answers back to the question.
In this lesson, we’ll listen as William is interviewed for a position in business development at a bank in Hong Kong. He’s being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the company. This is a first-round interview, and you can hear William show how comfortable and skilled he is at responding to the questions.
Listening Questions
1. What information does William give about his education and work history?
2. What does William say about his management style?
3. What does William say to buy himself time to think of an answer?
Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 40c – Interview English: First-Round Job Interviews (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on key skills for a first-round job interview in English.
If you find job interviews stressful, you’re certainly not alone. Many people struggle to feel confident and comfortable in interview situations. And there’s the added worry that the stress you feel will make it even more difficult to answer the questions well. But you can reduce this stress with effective preparation.
You know that you’ll be asked certain types of questions. So you can make notes about your responses, or make an outline of important ideas that you want to talk about. You can also develop skills to make sure you’re being clear and accurate in your responses.
So what should you prepare and what skills should you develop? Well, for starters, you should be ready to introduce yourself and your career path, and to summarize your current job responsibilities. In terms of skills, it’s good to practice clarifying the words you use, buying yourself time, and connecting your answers back to the question.
In this lesson, we’ll listen as William is interviewed for a position in business development at a bank in Hong Kong. He’s being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the company. This is a first-round interview, and you can hear William show how comfortable and skilled he is at responding to the questions.
Listening Questions
1. What information does William give about his education and work history?
2. What does William say about his management style?
3. What does William say to buy himself time to think of an answer?
Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 40c – Interview English: First-Round Job Interviews (1) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.
Previous Episode
Business English News 59 – DeepSeek
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/BEN59-DeepSeek.mp3
In this Business English News lesson on recent hiring trends, we look at business English vocabulary related to IT English and the DeepSeek AI chatbot.
A surprise development in artificial intelligence is making waves across the industry. DeepSeek, a Chinese AI lab, has upended expectations, drawing global attention and raising new questions about the future of AI. With new players entering the field and established giants forced to respond, this moment could redefine how AI is built, funded, and controlled in the years ahead. The drama kicked off at the start of the year, as the Financial Times reports:
A small Chinese artificial intelligence lab stunned the world by revealing the technical recipe for its cutting-edge model. This has transformed its reclusive leader into a national hero who has defied US attempts to stop China’s high-tech ambitions. DeepSeek, founded by hedge fund manager Liang Wenfeng, released its R1 model, explaining in a detailed paper how to build a large language model on a bootstrapped budget.
Free Resources: PDF Transcript | Quizzes | Lesson ModuleDownload: Podcast MP3>>> The post Business English News 59 – DeepSeek first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.
Next Episode
BEP 41c – Interview English: First-Round Job Interviews (2)
https://traffic.libsyn.com/secure/bizpod/BEP041c-First-Round-Interview-2.mp3
Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on the skills you need to succeed in a first-round job interview in English.
A job interview is a chance to highlight your achievements and talk about the amazing things you’ve done in your career. By talking about what you’ve achieved, you can show how your experience fits the position. And by showing how your strengths have helped you, you can convince the interviewer that you’re the right person to hire.
If only it were that easy, though! Interviewers aren’t going to ask you only about the good stuff. They’re going to ask about difficult things as well. That means they might ask you about problems in your current or past jobs. And they might also ask you that dreaded question: what are your weaknesses?
But don’t worry. You know these questions are coming, so you can get ready. Think of some difficult situations you’ve been in. Focus on the ones where you were able to solve a problem or deal with difficult people. And think about your weaknesses honestly, and how you’ve tried to improve on these things. In that way, you’ll be able to face the tough questions confidently.
In this lesson, we’ll rejoin William as he interviews for a position at a bank in Hong Kong. William is being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the bank. You will hear how William deals with difficult questions, and how he isn’t afraid to discuss problems and how he dealt with them.
Listening Questions
1. William talks about a problem with short-term loans. What does he say was the cause of this problem?
2. What does William say is one of his strengths?
3. What does William say is one of his weaknesses?
Download: Podcast MP3>>> The post BEP 41c – Interview English: First-Round Job Interviews (2) first appeared on Business English Pod :: Learn Business English Online.
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