Speaking English: How to WIN Your Job Interview | 7 Critical Questions

Today, I'm going to interview you  for a job here at Rachel's English. 

This is for you to practice a job interview.  You don't know the exact questions you'll be  

asked in an interview but you can absolutely  prepare by answering some questions that  

are likely to come up. Actually, practicing is  imperative. You will do better when you practice. 

I'm Rachel, I have a background in opera singing  and I've been teaching the American accent to  

non-native speakers for over 20 years. Scan  this QR code or go to Rachelsenglish.com/free  

to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to  Master the American Accent. It will change the  

way you think about speaking American English. Today I'll ask you seven questions, and I'll give  

you some hints on how to answer them. A great way  to win the interview and land the job you want is  

to practice ahead of time and record yourself.  Review your video. See what can be better,  

practice and record again. To incentivize your practice,  

you can even send your video answers to  me. I may put them in a future video to  

further teach interviewing for a job in American  English. Send me your job interview answers in a  

video to [email protected], let me know  your native language and your general field  

of work. This is going to be fun. I cannot  wait to see your videos, I love this idea. 

Let's talk about the job you're interviewing  for today. The pretend job, I'm going to give  

you three different positions, choose one  and form your answers around the job that  

you're interviewing for. Here are the jobs: 

First, admin assistant. This would be  someone who handles my emails. Customer  

support. Also does some administrative  tasks like creating video transcripts,  

maybe a little bit of project management  to get my new videos and lessons published. 

Teacher. You are an accent specialist  who loves helping non-native speakers  

of English speak with more confidence. And the third position, Video editor.  

I use a lot of video editors in my  work and I could use some more help. 

Okay, here's your first question: What makes you interested in  

working for Rachel's English? You absolutely want to make sure  

you're saying something specific here. Something  that wouldn't apply to any other job. For example,  

let's say you're applying for a job at  McDonald's. There are so many fast food  

restaurants just like McDonald's. Don't say  you're applying because you love fast food.  

That's way too general. You want to say something  like I'm applying for this job because I've always  

thought McDonald's has the best hamburgers. Or: When I was little, my aunt took me to  

McDonald's every week for a Happy  Meal and I still have some of the  

best toys that I got in those Happy Meals. In other words, be specific to be memorable.  

And make sure your answer reflects that you know  something about the company. So, I'm going to  

ask you again, pause this video, open up your  camera app and answer this interview question. 

What makes you interested in  working for Rachel's English? 

Can you talk about a job you've had in the  past where your responsibilities were similar? 

The same advice applies to this question as  it will to every single question you answer,  

be as specific as you can. This is why it's a  great idea to record your answers and send them  

to me. I won't be giving you personalized  feedback but I may use it as an example  

in a video if I think there's a great  amount of detail or not enough detail.  

I've done a lot of job interviews. I know  how a strong candidate answers this and a  

weaker one. Let's make sure that you are the  strongest candidate at your next job interview. 

So, I'm going to ask again, be specific about  your responsibilities and give examples. 

Can you talk about a job you've had in the  past where your responsibilities were similar? 

In this position, you'll be working with a  team. Can you talk to me about how you work  

with the team and how you handle deadlines? This one is kind of tricky because I'm asking  

two questions at once how you work with  a team and how you handle deadlines. Make  

sure you always answer the complete question,  an employer isn't going to want to have to ask  

you again if but there's a part that you forgot  to answer, you could even shape your answer in  

a way to remind yourself to answer all parts.  You could say to answer the first part of your  

question and then put in your answer, and then  you could say: “And regarding deadlines..” or  

“as far as deadlines are concerned..” Remember always to be specific and  

give examples, here's the question again. In this position you'll be working with a  

team. Can you talk to me about how you work  with a team and how you handle deadlines? 

Whoa, I forgot one thing. I was working with a  doctor once, who was going to have a remote job  

interview. He never had a remote interview  before, and part of what he needed to do  

was to send ahead a small video presentation  as part of his application. Seeing as making  

videos is a huge part of my work, he asked me  to review his application and there was one  

major problem with it. Because he was looking  at a camera, he forgot that he needed to make  

a connection with the person who would be  watching the video. How do you do that? 

Remember to smile. Your body language in a  job interview whether it's remote or not is  

going to be important. So sit up straight, have  relaxed shoulders and smile. Okay, next question.  

How do you think your boss or co-workers would  describe you? Now, if this is your very first  

job ever, then you have no co-workers, you have no  boss. So you can describe how teachers friends and  

family may describe you. With this question I'm  trying to get a sense of your personality and how  

people relate to you. Don't just list adjectives.  Give a specific reason why. A specific story.  

For example, if your boss would describe you as  highly dedicated and a team player, then say this: 

My boss would describe me as highly dedicated  and a team player because one time, I worked  

all night to correct someone else's  mistake on an important presentation. 

Say that. Not just dedicated or team  player. Be ready to explain at least  

three adjectives about yourself. Okay here's the question again. 

How do you think your boss or  co-workers would describe you? 

What's your least favorite  thing about your job right now? 

An important tip for this question is don't  complain. Whether it's a lazy coworker or a crappy  

boss, I wouldn't focus on individuals but more on  work tasks and the work environment. For example,  

if you can't stand your boss and you don't think  she takes you seriously, instead, talk about how  

you don't see room for growth in your current  position and that you're really motivated to  

keep growing and keep learning new skills. So here's the question again, you answer it. 

What's your least favorite  thing about your job right now? 

What are you passionate about? Again this is the interviewer wanting to know more  

about you as a person. Your answer doesn't have  to be about work. And it's probably better if it's  

not about work. If it does relate to your work,  give an example that isn't directly about work. 

For example, I'm very passionate about the  voice and how we use it which relates to accent  

reduction and teaching English, my job but the  root of it is when I first started taking voice  

lessons in high school and I actually ended up  studying that all the way through graduate school,  

earning a Master of Music in Opera performance.  So I would lean into that part of the passion,  

that's not directly about work. But you can  also talk about something completely different,  

a hobby that has nothing to do with work. But  make sure you do say something. People who  

can't come up with something they're passionate  about in a job interview seem kind of boring  

and disconnected from the conversation. Okay, here's the question again, give me  

your best answer. What are you passionate about? This position is work from home. Can you tell me  

about your setup, equipment, internet  reliability and your availability? 

This won't apply to every position but all of  my hiring is for remote workers. When I hire  

a teacher, I want to know that the videos  that they make for our students are going  

to be of an acceptable quality. When I'm hiring  an admin assistant, I need to know that their  

internet and equipment is reliable enough for me  to get in touch with them when I need to. So since  

you're applying for a pretended job at Rachel's  English, give me the rundown of your situation. 

This position is work from home can you  tell me about your setup, equipment,  

internet reliability and your availability? I can't stress enough how important it is to  

prepare for a job interview by going over  potential questions. And it's even more  

important if English isn't your native language  and the interview is going to be in English. 

I have several different video series on  applying for a job and interviewing for a  

job in American English, be sure to check them  out if you're in the market for a new job. And  

don't forget practice and record your answers  to these interview questions. Even just one or  

two. It doesn't have to be all seven. Send them  to me at [email protected]. I won't be  

giving personal feedback to each individual  on your job interview question answers,  

but I am interested in pulling them together into  a video to teach interview techniques. I may use  

your answer as an example of a standout perfect  answer or I may use your example as an answer  

that needs a little bit of work. And I'll tell  you exactly what to do to improve your answer  

to make the best impact in your job interview. So make sure you only send in a video if you're  

okay with it showing up on the Internet. Don't  forget to head over to Rachelsenglish.com/free  

to get my free course, The Top Three Ways to  Master the American Accent. The techniques  

there are a great way to improve your  accent for that upcoming job interview. 

Keep your learning going now with this video and  don't forget to subscribe with notifications on.  

I love being your English teacher. That's it  and thanks so much for using Rachel's English.