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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · INTERMEDIATE (B1-B2)

ENDLESS JOB
INTERVIEWS

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1 Warm up

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. How many interviews have you had after applying for a job?
2. Which job interview was the best? What made it a good interview?
3. Which job interview was the worst? What made it a difficult interview?
4. How many interviews did you have to get your last job?
5. What were the interviews like? Were you nervous or not? Why/why not?

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2 Focus on vocabulary

Part A: Match the vocabulary to the definitions.

1. stay put (idiom) a. a situation where two or more people, or groups of people, do
not agree with each other in a serious way
2. settle (v) b. at the most important level

3. conflict (n) c. find an answer to a problem

4. resolve (v) d. go into a new living or working situation without any problems
with other people
5. heated (adj) e. make a location your permanent home

6. ultimately (adv.) f. stay in a particular location and not move away

7. fit in (phr. v) g. the reason why something needs to be done

8. aim (n) h. with strong feelings, often anger

Part B: Now put the vocabulary from Part A into the correct blanks in the following sentences.

1. One of the aspects of my job as a manager that I don’t enjoy is when I have to
arguments within my team. I find it really stressful.
2. I didn’t get the job, so it looks as though I’m going to have to for now.
3. The conference should be fun, but my main is to make useful contacts for the
future.
4. Both Maxine and Esther are highly qualified for the job, but I would choose Esther as I think she
will with the rest of the team much better.
5. The online meeting didn’t go well at all. Two of the senior managers got into a really
argument over the costs of the new project.
6. I’m sorry for getting so angry, but as the manager of this department, the project is
your responsibility.
7. She already speaks Italian beautifully, and she’s just moved to Italy for a new job and loves it. I
think she’s probably going to there.
8. When we started sharing desks in the office, it caused a lot of as people liked to
have their own space.

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Now in pairs, answer the following questions.

1. If you had to move to a different country or city, where do you think you could settle?
2. What situations in your job cause the most conflict between people?
3. Do you find it easy to fit in when you start a new job, or not? Why?
4. Have you been in a situation where you had to resolve a problem at work? What happened? What
did you do?
5. What are your aims in your work for the next five years?
6. Would you be happy doing a job that involved a lot of travel? Or do you like to stay put in one
location? Why?

3 Prepare for listening

You are going to listen to a job interview. First, match the questions to the answers.

1. Have you ever had to resolve a conflict in a professional situation?

2. Can I also ask what the next steps would be in the interview process?
3. Where do you see yourself in five years’ time?
4. Do you have any questions for me, Wesley?
5. How would you resolve conflict in a management role?
6. Is a management role something that would interest you in the future?

a. Absolutely. I feel my strengths are project management and working with different people.
b. I admit that I’ve never had to in a management position at work.
c. If I were offered this job, I would hope to settle here.
d. If you’re successful at this stage, you’ll be asked to attend another interview in around 2 weeks
from now.
e. Ultimately, it’s important to listen.
f. Yes, can I ask what characteristics someone who is good at this role would have?

Now listen to the interview to check your answers.

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4 Listening comprehension

Now listen to the job interview again and decide if the following statements are True or False.

1. Wesley plans to move abroad within the next five years.

2. Wesley feels he is good at working with people.
3. Wesley doesn’t have any experience in dealing with disagreements in the workplace.
4. Wesley hasn’t had any real experience in dealing with disagreements at all.
5. Wesley believes the most important thing to do in a disagreement is to speak clearly about how
you feel.
6. The interviewer believes that someone who can look for new ways to solve problems would be a
good candidate for the job.
7. In the interviewer’s company, there are a lot of people from different places with different experiences.
8. The interviewer asks Wesley to come back for a second interview.

Now in pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What was your opinion about the answers that Wesley gave to the questions? Were they good
answers or not? Why?
2. What answers would you give in this situation? Look at the questions in the prepare for listening
section to help you.
3. At the end of the interview, the interviewer asks Wesley if attending more interviews would be a
problem. What would you say in that situation?

5 Skimming for details

Quickly read through the article on page 6 and match the numbers to what they mean.

1. The number of additional interviews Mike Conley was asked to attend. a. 2.6 million

2. The number of views Mike Conley’s post on LinkedIn got. b. 4,000

3. The number of public responses to Mike’s post. c. 66%

4. How certain Google decided it could be about a new candidate after 4 d. 6

interviews.
5. The percentage of people that lose interest in a job after not hearing back e. 77%
from the company after two weeks.
6. The percentage of people that lose interest in a job after not hearing back f. 86%
from the company after three weeks.

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6 Reading comprehension

Complete the following sentences with one, two, or three words from the article on page 6.

1. It’s usually when you are asked to go for a second or third interview as this shows
the company is really interested in you.
2. Mike Conley had more than one experience where a person was chosen for the
job after he had attended several interviews for it.
3. Mike received over more private messages than public messages about his LinkedIn
post.
4. A lot of other people also had stories of having a for jobs, especially in the tech,
finance, and energy industries.
5. It can be a if a company hires someone who doesn’t perform well.
6. However, for job applicants, there is a significant financial investment too, not just in terms of
taking time off from work if they are already working, but also the .
7. A interview process can give candidates a warning of how badly a company is
run.
8. A eventually hired Mike Conley and pays him more than he was hoping to make
from the jobs he was applying for previously.

7 Scanning for vocabulary

Quickly read the text on page 6 and find words that have the following definitions.

1. (para. 1) the feeling of being unhappy because something that you wanted to
happen did not happen

2. (para. 2) a job

3. (para. 4) make something less attractive or interesting

4. (para. 5) make a judgment about how good something is

5. (para. 5) the belief that you can trust something or know what will happen

6. (para. 6) possibly becoming something in the future

7. (para. 7) all the people who work for a company or organization

8. (para. 7) a person who professionally gives advice to companies or

organizations

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Endless interviews
How many is too many?

1.
Interviewing for a new job can be a stressful process: applying. Candidates have to make time to attend the
the applications, the waiting, the disappointment if multiple interviews, often taking time off from their
you don’t hear back. Usually though, a request for a jobs and paying the cost of travel to the interview.
second or third interview is seen as a good sign. At It’s simply not possible to do this for multiple job
the very least, it shows that the company is seriously applications.
interested and wants to learn more about you. But 5.
Recruitment companies generally see three to four
what does it mean when they want to see you five or interviews as being the maximum. Below a senior
six times before offering you a job? management position, it should be no more than two
2.
Mike Conley from Indiana in the United States or three. Google recently assessed its hiring practices
had several experiences where he went through and decided that four interviews was enough to make
multiple interviews with different companies only a choice of candidate with 86% confidence.
to be unsuccessful when the companies decided to 6.
It’s also important that the company stays in contact
hire someone from within the company. With one with potential employees. In a survey, 66% of
position, he was successful in three interviews and candidates said they would lose interest in a job
then was asked to co-ordinate with the company to if they didn’t hear back from a company that had
arrange six more interviews. When he asked HR if interviewed them within two weeks. This jumped to
these six interviews were the final ones, they replied 77% after three weeks. In today’s world, negative
that they didn’t know. interview experiences can translate to negative
3.
At this point, Mike decided to withdraw from the reviews on sites such as Glassdoor, which in turn
interview process. Worried, he wrote a post on can prevent companies from hiring the best people.
the business social media site LinkedIn. It was read There is also the view that if the process of getting a
over 2.6 million times. Mike said that there were job is long and complex, then this says a lot about the
around 4,000 public messages of support, but he way a company is managed. It’s likely that the reality
received more than four times that number privately of working there would be less than ideal.
from people who were worried their employer, or 7.
Mike Conley, however, had a positive ending to his
potential employers, might be reading. Many of them story. A company saw his post on LinkedIn, and they
had similar stories and doubts about the lengthy ended up hiring him. He now works for a start-up
interview process companies, particularly those in that helps students enter the workforce, a job that
the energy, finance, and technology sectors, are now pays far more than the role that asked him to prepare
using. for nine interviews. He has since also worked as a
4.
So why has this happened? Well, hiring the wrong consultant for companies who want to avoid giving
person can be a very costly mistake for a company, candidates the experience that he had. So whether
so it’s easy to understand why they would go you’re a potential employer or employee, it’s worth
to great lengths to avoid making it. However, giving the interview process experience some serious
there is growing evidence that having a long series thought.
of interviews discourages good candidates from Sources: bbc.co.uk, theconversation.com

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ENDLESS JOB INTERVIEWS

8 Talking point

In pairs, discuss the following questions.

1. What do you think are the most useful questions for an employer to ask a candidate in an interview?
Write down at least five.
2. How would you answer those questions?
3. What questions do you think are useful for a candidate to ask an employer in an interview?
4. What qualities do you look for in a company when you are applying for a job?
5. If you were in charge of hiring a new candidate, what qualities would you look for in that candidate?

9 Extended activity/homework

Using the work from this class, write a dialogue between an interviewer and a candidate in an interview.
Write the questions that you think a good interviewer would ask and give the answers you think you
would give.

Start like this:

A: Good morning, thank you for coming to the interview.

B: Thank you for inviting me.
A: ...

You should:

• Write at least 200 words

• Check your grammar, spelling, and punctuation

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