Listening Questions

BEP 204, 205.

You’ve racked up a lot of work experience and you’re proud of your special accomplishments. And you know enough to have clear opinions about how things should be done. But it’s time for a bit of a change. Maybe you’re switching careers altogether, or maybe you’re just looking to change roles. Regardless, you’re going to have to explain your accomplishments and express your opinions carefully in order to a make a good impression.

In an interview, it’s not just about what you say, it’s about how you say it. You will be asked some difficult questions, and you may only have one shot at it. The stakes are high, and the competition may be great. You need to sell yourself and demonstrate why you are the right choice for the position.

In this lesson, we’ll hear Nina and Frank interviewing Patrick. Patrick is a seasoned accountant looking for a career shift. He’s applying for a job with one of the major accounting advisory firms. Patrick is going to highlight his unique experience, politely criticize his former employer, admit challenges, and talk about past conflict. These are all tough things to do well, but Patrick handles them wisely.

Listening Questions

1. Why is Patrick talking about changes to a company’s internal controls?

2. How does Patrick describe financial meetings with executives?


3. How does Patrick say he dealt with the executives?

Useful words and expressions:

Good point!

To be involved in realigning (reorganizing) the internal controls.

That’s right!

In fact, …

To spearhead (lead) smth (BE)

A complete overhaul (complete change) of the company’s internal controls.

To share specifics

Certainly! (BE)

To grow quickly

To undertake (decide to make) acquisitions (buy several other companies)

Conceivable inconsistencies in proceduresfor record keeping and segregations of duties

Rather untamable

To suffer from inconsistencies

To be standardized across every department or subsidiary

Senior management

To sit down and discuss financials

To help explain

To lead

Confusing (meetings, situations)

As you can well imagine, …

To serve in some role

To work (quite) closely with smb

To be honest

To struggle

To confirm smth

My honesty met with scorn

To have a troubled relationship with smb

To characterize it as …

To earn respect by …

Acknowledgement

Make better decisions

To do the dirty work

To do smth with tact

To shift gears (to move to a different topic or activity)

For a while

Effective or impressive terms

To implement smth

To play an integral role in company’s expansion

Under smb’s direction

To cut costs BY …%

To manage to increase revenues BY …% in just one year

The background TO smb’s accomplishments

Branch manager

To be fairly traditional in one’s approach TO one’s management

Drawback TO this approach

Decisions might have been made too quickly in some cases

Not to put a lot of thought into the plan

The staff didn’t always provide the best customer service

For one, …

Opinions always need to be backed up BY supportive evidence

Improving our market share showed we were succeeding

People weren’t happy

To manage to negotiate smth

The role is that of explaining smth

To perform some type of activity

To work IN some position (here)

To introduce an idea

To confess to having a weakness or difficulty

To bring writing skills up to a higher level

To get caught up in the details of a project

To feel uncomfortable in situations of conflict

Communicating with younger staff is smth I could probably improve

Relationships can be troubled, or generally poor

To offend (get offended)

To agree (in general)

Relatively minor conflict in the larger scheme of things

To eventually work things out

To have lingering issues

To make contribution to one’s employer

To be proud of one’s achievements

To oversee (supervise) the opening of …

To implement a new sales program

To develop smth

Example of a recent success

Time for layoffs

This is the second of a two-part Business English Pod lesson on job interviews for when you’re changing jobs or switching careers.

You can’t do the same thing for your entire life. That’s why you’ve chosen to make a change, to take your skills and experience and apply them to something new. But this comes with a challenge. How can you convince an interviewer that you’ve got what it takes to make the switch?

This is especially true for those of us who are more “mature.” There’s an old saying: “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” Well, your task in the interview is to show why this saying is wrong. And you need to demonstrate why an “old dog” brings a lot more to the table than a younger dog.

In today’s lesson, we’ll rejoin Patrick, an accountant who’s interviewing for a position with an advisory firm. Frank and Nina are conducting the interview. We’ll hear Patrick demonstrate some key interview skills; he’s going to answer hypothetical questions, highlight transferable skills, and demonstrate research. He’s also going to make polite suggestions and ask good questions.

Date: 2016-03-03; view: 1107