Как найти работу и пройти собеседование на английском - # 12

kirill-shatilov — 10.05.2024

Как найти работу и пройти собеседование на английском - # 12

Вот в чём вопрос

Какие бы вопросы вам ни задавали, будь то собеседование первого уровня со специалистом из отдела кадров (хотя я просил вас обходить их за версту) или последнего – с президентом компании, все вопросы ваших собеседников сводятся к четырём, никогда не задаваемым напрямую:

Справитесь ли вы?

Подходите ли вы нам?

Не рискуем ли мы, приглашая вас?

Сойдёмся ли на зарплате?

Поскольку мы с вами говорим по-английски, назовём их соответственно:

Can you do the job?

Do we like you?

Are you a risk?

Can we work the money out?

А теперь разберём каждый в отдельности и зарядимся нужными фразами. Как тут ни вспомнить Гамлета и его «слова, слова, слова…»[1].

Вопросы о вашем опыте

Специалисты утверждают, что при принятии окончательного решения о выборе того или иного кандидата работодатель отводит ответам на эти вопросы всего 20% значимости. Но не надо обольщаться, поскольку это «первые» 20% и вы обязаны прозвучать достойно. Если своими ответами вы так и не ответите на этот вопрос Can you do the job, остальные вам могут просто не задать.

Дальше я приведу возможные варианты вопросов, которые вам зададут наверняка, чтобы понять меру вашей компетенции, а также ваши возможные ответы, которые призваны создать вокруг вас исключительно положительную ауру[2]:

Вопрос: Tell me about yourself and your last few jobs.

Ответ: In all of my recent positions, I’ve been successful in contributing to my company’s profitability.

Вопрос: Describe in detail what you do in your current job (или in your last position).

I really love the job that I’m in now (или the last job I had) because I really get to contribute by (и дальше через герундий описываете довольно подробно, что вы делаете или делали).

Ответив, можете сами переспросит:

Did I make it clear what I do (или did)?

Вопрос: What percentage of your week or month was devoted to the different functions of your job?

Ответ: Twenty percent administrative, 30 percent management, and 50 percent collaborative effort with my team.

Вопрос: What was the most difficult part of your last two jobs?

Ответ: Even though (такая-то ваша деятельность) was the most difficult part of the job, I met the challenge every time.

Тут вполне уместно рассказать какую-нибудь историю о преодоления вами какой-нибудь трудности. Только ни в коем случае не называйте эту трудность problem. Для вас этого слова вообще не должно существовать. Исключительно difficult challenge.

Вопрос: Describe the best job that you’ve ever had and why it was so much better than others.

Ответ (начало): There have been some wonderful aspects to just about every job I’ve had. I have really loved all of them, and they are all best for different reasons.

И дальше снова следует ваша коротенькая и показательная история.

Вопрос: What is your greatest accomplishment in your present or last job?

Ответ: Because I was given a chance to perform 110 percent over what was expected, I grew professionally and personally.

Я обычно в подобных случаях рассказывал о том, как в никому не известном Саранске в далёком 1996 году создал пиво «Толстяк» (концепцию, продуктовую линейку и упаковку), которое без малейшей рекламы завоевало весь российский рынок и показало на второй год жизни рост продаж в 1500% (по словам тогдашнего CEO компании Sun Interbrew Джо Стреллы в интервью журналу «Секрет фирмы»). Потом, правда, приходилось рассказывать, как после моего ухода пивом занялись слишком профессионально, его стали разливать в пластиковые бутыли, пошла дурацкая реклама, что в итоге привело к гибели прекрасного брэнда, который я считал квинтэссенцией маркетинга – товар продавал сам себя…

Вопрос: What specifically have you learned from the jobs that you held most recently?

Ответ: In my present position, my persistence (determination, earning respect, loyalty и т.д.) was reinforced when the group I led tried five or six approaches to a problem before we solved it. Most people would have stopped at two or three.

Вопрос: In what way has your present job prepared you to take on greater responsibilities?

Ответ: I love my job and the people I work with. Unfortunately, I’ve reached a point now where I can do my boss’s job. Even he has said that. But he isn’t going anywhere and doesn’t plan to retire for another ten years. To move up in the company, I’d have to relocate. I’m not bored, but I’m not challenged either. That is why I am interviewing with you all. It appears I can really be challenged here.

Вопрос: Describe a difficult business problem that you had to deal with and how you handled it?

Ответ: In my last (one, two) jobs, I had to either fire for cause (or lay people off). It was hard. I was successful in doing it gracefully, benefitting my company, and with little rancor on the part of the employees I had to let go.

Вопрос: Describe the situation in your last one or two jobs where you made a mistake. What was the mistake and how did you rectify it?

Ответ: In my present position, we lost a very good employee. Looking back on it, she left for reasons I might have been able to fix if I had realized the situation before it was too late. If I had to do it again, I would’ve been more aware of the situation before she left.

Вопрос: Where have you made difficult decisions before and what were they about?

Ответ: I had to cut $152,000 from my budget and lay off two people. Everyone on the team had been a good employee. It was a difficult decision.

Вопрос: Have you ever had to fire someone? Describe the circumstances?

Ответ: Firing people is one of the most difficult tasks that a manager has. But I found that if one does it in a very careful, well-documented, reasonable, businesslike manner, although uncomfortable for both parties, it can be done gracefully.

Вопрос: What kind of people have you hired and what do you look for in those people?

Ответ: I have been fortunate to have available to me wonderful people whom I have added to my teams in the past. I look for committed, passionate performers. Fortunately, I can and have been able to attract them and, just as importantly, keep them!

Вопрос: In your present or last jobs were there any problems that you discovered that had been previously overlooked? How did you deal with them?

Ответ: When I came into my job, the department really didn’t want to recognize the problem we had with inventory and delivery. We had a supply-chain software module that no one was using. It cost us nothing but a little time to implement and now everyone knows where everything is in the product delivery cycle.

Вопрос: Describe a major project that you have worked on and how it contributed to the overall good of your employer?

Ответ: If you have been involved in doing a major project, the perfect phrase would be to simply describe that project in relative detail. I have been involved in two major long-term, five-year projects.

Вопрос: Have you ever been involved in long-range planning?

Ответ: I chaired a committee for a long-range building (или product launch, или company reorganization и т.д.).

Вопрос: Give me an example of your past job experience that highlights your ability to build action plans or create programs that support management’s strategic goals and direction.

Ответ: My department was downsized and our workload was doubled. Rather than react to whatever project came our way, I convinced the team that we should outline a process . . . a more efficient process than simply reacting. It’s working. We are getting more done with fewer folks, and the rest of the company knows they can’t just come to us and say, “Hey, we need this right now!” We aren’t just reacting.

Вопрос: What were the most important/difficult decisions that you made in your present job, last job, or even your job before that?

Ответ (почти не задумываясь): In the last two jobs I had to lay off 35 percent and 25 percent of my staff, respectively, in each position. It was difficult to decide who would stay and who would go. I did it with as much compassion and decisiveness as possible. It was hard, but it worked out very smoothly.

Вопрос: What are one or two things you wished you had accomplished in your present or last job and the job before that?

Ответ: The economics of the company were such that we had to shut down the development of two very good programs (или products и т.п.) because the return on investment (ROI) was too far in the future.

Вопрос: Why have you not been promoted sooner? If you’re so good, why haven’t you been promoted?

Ответ (спокойный): The organization I am with has a bottleneck of very tenured people available for the few promotions when they come up. That is one of the reasons that I’m interviewing with you.

Вопрос: You really don’t have as much experience as we would like, why should we hire you?

Ответ: With every job I’ve ever had, I never went into the job having all of the experience that the employers wanted. In fact, I went into three of them where I was hired simply because I had more potential than any other candidate. As you can see, I was successful in every position.

More anon

Частный репетитор по английскому языку

P.S. Вы только что прочитали фрагмент моего поучительного пособия «Успешное собеседование… на английском», которое можно при желании или необходимости приобрести тут.

[1] Кстати, мой новый, правильный перевод «Гамлета» в рамках книги под названием ««Гамлет»: Литературный детектив» вы всегда можете найти и купить в интернете.

[2] Приведённые ответы не окончательные и ни в коем случае не полные. Они лишь позволят вам правильно подойти к ответу, который вы даёте в форме короткого рассказа из конкретной рабочей практики.

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