How to Practice Your Interview Skills When You are Non-Native Speakers

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Briefly summarize your CV: discuss education, work experience, skills, and personal qualities that will help you succeed in a particular profession. For example, a sales manager must have excellent communication skills and the ability to persuade and make good presentations. However, it would help if you didn't talk about yourself for too long. Instead, mention that you have the required qualities or skills for a particular position.

❌ Retell your autobiography. An employer doesn't want details about your personal life, where you were born, or when you married. Your answer should be clear and take a couple of minutes literally.

✔️ Tell the interviewer about your hobbies. Great if it is related to leading a healthy lifestyle or intellectual development.

❌ Ask: "What would you like to know?" since it's a direct way to failure. The fact is that this question is a way of checking how well you are prepared for the interview.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Choose 2-4 of the most outstanding and needed qualities or skills for the position and describe them in detail. Then, tell what you have achieved in your previous jobs or life because of them.

❌ List your strengths for a long time without any justification or explanation. It sounds unlikely and overconfident.

✔️ Mention what qualities or skills others consider your strengths. This way, you show the employer that you can look at yourself from the outside.

❌Talk about only one quality of yourself.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Tell the interviewer about 1-2 minor flaws that won't scare the employer. For example, if you get a job as an account manager, you can't say you are shy and have difficulty communicating with people. Are you going to work in an open space? Then it is better not to tell the employer that you need absolute silence to work.

❌ Say that you have no weaknesses. But, of course, everyone has flaws, so such an answer would be a lie and cause the interviewer to feel negative.

✔️ Explain how you work on your weaknesses. It's the only proper way to answer this question. What matters to the employer is that you're willing to change yourself for the better.

❌ Talk about shortcomings that may affect the job. For example, an innocent "I'm often late" will be perceived as "Disorganized and irresponsible." So be honest but careful in your wording.

✔️ Make a weakness into a strength. For example, you might say that being overly self-critical helps you do your job as efficiently as possible, and your lack of experience in your chosen field allows you to learn what is essential to the employer.

❌ List weaknesses without explanation. Try to level each disadvantage with the technique you're fighting it with.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Tell the interviewer what the company will get if it chooses you. The employer needs to know what you can give to their business.

❌ Praise yourself. An "I'm the best person in the field" response sounds completely unconvincing and even arrogant. The interviewer isn't interested in who you are but what you can do for the company.

✔️  Highlight some qualities of yours as unique. Think in advance about what it is about you that makes you stand out from other candidates. Then, tell how this exceptional quality will work for the company's benefit.

❌ Speak uncertainty. Try to find the fine line between arrogance and self-confidence, don't be modest. If you want the position, firmly state your advantages over other candidates.

❌ Don't give reasons that are not relevant to the position.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Say that you're eager to develop. It's the best way to show that you're interested in working in this field and are willing to learn.

❌ Talk badly about your former co-workers and boss. However, under no circumstances should you do this: the interviewer doesn't know you, so they may think you're to blame for the situation because of your unkind character.

✔️ Mention a change in the way you work. For example, say so at the interview if you were a freelancer and decided to return to the office. It's a perfect and adequate reason to change jobs.

❌ Reveal unflattering reasons for dismissal. Yes, you can't lie at the interview, but stories about being fired because of a lousy project are better reserved for the company of friends.

✔️ Talk about a life change. Typical reasons for an employer are a move or a change in family circumstances. Has your company left the market? Tell your employer about it. In this case, the truth is on your side.

❌ Say that your job is tedious to you. It makes the interviewer realize that a potential position might bore you in a month or two, and the company will lose time by choosing you. So look for a better reason.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Again, say what you can do for the company. For example, mention that you would be interested in using your communication skills to work with foreign partners and that you are sure you could attract new clients.

❌ Say the following: "I need the money," "I need the job," or "It's convenient for me to get to your office." Such statements are sure to displease the interviewer. No one expects you to love material possessions, so discussing higher goals is better.

✔️ Try to show that you know the specifics of the job. For example, if you're applying for a manager position, mention your ability to negotiate with clients

❌ Show that you're not well acquainted with the position. For example, if you're going to work as an accountant, it would be inappropriate to say that you love to talk to people and want variety in your job.

What to do

What not to do

✔️ Try to evade a direct response to the question and say general phrases. The exact amount is better discussed later when the interviewer is telling you in detail about the job.

❌ State the exact amount since you're unlikely to guess the precise salary the employer is willing to pay you.

❌ Ask: "How much are you willing to offer?" It is impolite to respond to questions with counter-questions.

❌ Talk about the salary at your previous job. Interviewers don't like it when their company is compared to another one.