Interview Skills 6 - Describing Ones Strengths

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod.

My name is Marco.

My name is Katherine.

And as you probably noticed on our website, this is one of many different parts of a series

all about having an interview in English.

This is a job interview and at this point we're at about part 7.

That's right.

So today what we're going to talk about is the key question whenever you're having a

job interview is they ask you to describe your key strengths.

And this is our word for vocabulary preview today so let's take a look at it.

Vocabulary preview.

Okay, so you might have heard the word strength before.

This is something that you're good at.

And so key strength or key strengths, plural, would be things that you think are most important

about you as far as the things that you do well.

That's right.

So as we mentioned, your boss or your potential boss might ask you to describe your key strengths.

So you're going to mention a lot of adjectives, positive adjectives saying how good of a worker

you are.

So why don't we listen to our dialogue.

Let's see what Rebecca has to say about her key strengths and we'll look at those in a

little bit.

Okay, Rebecca.

Now you've given me a good idea of your work and academic background but what about you

as a person?

How would you describe your key strengths?

Well Mr. Parsons, as I mentioned before, I'm someone who needs new challenges.

I'm really focused and hardworking.

I think my academic results prove this.

Yes, true.

But how about other personal qualities?

Well I believe I'm a good team player but I can also work well independently.

I'm very enthusiastic and well, I hope my colleagues would agree, I'm fun to work with.

What would you say is your most positive quality?

That's a tough question but I would have to say my passion.

I'm really passionate about journalism and passionate about my career.

All right so she obviously has a lot of good key strengths.

Why don't we analyze a couple of those on Language Takeaway.

Language Takeaway.

So one of the first things that Rebecca mentions is that she's really focused.

Okay, so this word focused, what does this mean?

All right, so if a person is focused, basically you're saying that you concentrate on your

work.

That's right and someone who's focused might be very good in a noisy office or in a place

that is full of distractions like you said because they don't stop their work and think

about the noise or move around or go talk to people.

Someone who is focused just sits down and can do a lot of work all at once.

That's right, so she describes herself as focused and hardworking.

So hardworking means basically what it sounds like, that someone works very hard.

That means they put in a lot of hours, they get their work done, they're really, really

dependable.

That's right, so as you can see we use the word hardworking together.

So if you work hard, you don't say I work hard.

You can say that but if you want to use it as an adjective, you say I am hardworking.

The opposite of course would be lazy.

That's right.

Okay, so we're focused, we're hardworking and she also said that she is a good team

player.

Okay, this is a really key phrase here because it's something that employers, so people who

are hiring new staff like to look out for because most jobs you don't work alone.

You work with other people and so a team player is someone who works well in a group or works

well with others.

That's right, so a team player, everyone wants to have a good team player working for their

team, for their company.

And apart from being a good team player, you also want to be enthusiastic.

That's right, so this means that you are interested in what you do, you are excited about it.

It's not like oh God, I have to do this report.

It's like oh wow, I get to do this report, I'm enthusiastic, I'm really interested, I'm

going to put a lot of energy into it.

That's right.

So being an enthusiastic person not only can be about working, you can be enthusiastic

about anything, about painting your house, about going on a trip.

Exactly, enthusiastic.

Alright and our last word for language, takeaway is also a good quality to have if you are

passionate about what you do or what you're doing.

So someone who is passionate about something really, really likes that thing.

That means that they love to do it or love to see it.

Passion is the opposite of not interested.

So you're really, really emotional and excited and interested in something.

That's right, so you are passionate about something.

It comes from the noun passion, so you have a passion for painting, maybe you love to

paint.

So you're very passionate about painting.

So a lot of great adjectives there to describe yourself in a good way.

Why don't we listen to our dialogue again and we'll be back with Fluency Builder.

Okay Rebecca, now you've given me a good idea of your work and academic background,

but what about you as a person?

How would you describe your key strengths?

Well Mr. Parsons, as I mentioned before, I'm someone who needs new challenges.

I'm really focused and hardworking.

I think my academic results prove this.

Yes, true.

But how about other personal qualities?

Well I believe I'm a good team player, but I can also work well independently.

I'm very enthusiastic and well, I hope my colleagues would agree, I'm fun to work with.

What would you say is your most positive quality?

Hmm, that's a tough question.

But I would have to say my passion.

I'm really passionate about journalism and passionate about my career.

Alright so on Fluency Builder today we've picked out three key phrases.

Let's take a look at the first one.

When Rebecca said, I'm someone who needs new challenges.

Okay so this structure, I'm someone who, is something that you hear a lot of and you can

actually fill in the end of that sentence with a number of different phrases.

So in here we heard, I'm someone who needs new challenges.

We could also say, I'm someone who needs structure.

Alright so we can also change the verb right from needs to, I'm someone who likes a challenge.

Or maybe Tracy is someone who requires a lot of attention.

Right, so this is a way to introduce a characteristic of yourself.

So you're telling people something about yourself.

Okay, very good.

So moving on, we also saw that Rebecca said that she is fun to work with.

I'm fun to work with.

Okay so let's just treat this like a little fixed phrase.

We say this about people all the time.

He's fun to work with, she's fun to work with, or this group is really fun to work with.

They're all really fun to work with.

So that means that it's not serious, that you really enjoy doing it.

So it's a little fixed phrase that you can use to say that it's nice to work with Rebecca

or that she's very, not serious, not a mean person.

That's right.

And finally we have a phrase at the end, Rebecca hears a question she thinks is very difficult,

she calls it a tough question.

And so a tough question is something that is very hard to answer.

That's right, she says, hmm, that's a tough question.

So she's basically acknowledging the fact that the question is difficult, a tough question.

Now we can combine this word tough with other things.

That's right, you can say it's a tough situation, that means it's a hard situation to handle.

You could also say he's having a tough time, that means that right now in his life there

are many things that are difficult for him.

And so tough means difficult or hard or unpleasant.

Okay, very good.

So a lot of good stuff coming from Rebecca, mentioning all the positive things about her.

Why don't we listen to her dialogue one last time.

Okay Rebecca, now you've given me a good idea of your work and academic background, but

what about you as a person?

How would you describe your key strengths?

Well Mr. Parsons, as I mentioned before, I'm someone who needs new challenges.

I'm really focused and hardworking.

I think my academic results prove this.

Yes, true.

But how about other personal qualities?

Well I believe I'm a good team player, but I can also work well independently.

I'm very enthusiastic and, well, I hope my colleagues would agree, I'm fun to work with.

What would you say is your most positive quality?

Hmm, that's a tough question.

But I would have to say my passion.

I'm really passionate about journalism and passionate about my career.

Alright so talking about key strengths, I think it's always difficult to talk about

yourself and still sound a little bit humble, right, to not sound arrogant like saying I'm

the best.

Right, well that's the key here I think.

You want to say really good things about yourself because you're a salesperson and you're selling

your personality.

But at the same time you don't want to sound like a jerk.

Like I'm the best, I'm so smart, I'm so clever.

That's a little bit off-putting, it makes people uncomfortable.

So I think the trick is a balance.

And I guess if you use words such as this, like you know, I'm focused, I'm hardworking,

I'm independent, I have a passion for this.

It makes you sound like you're a really good worker but you're not arrogant, you're not

saying oh well, you know, I'm the best of what I do or something like that.

Right, so you're basically saying these are my skills but obviously I'm not the only person

who has these great skills.

That's right.

Okay so that's all the time we have for today.

Be sure to join us next week.

We're also going to have kind of part two of this when we talk about our weaknesses.

So this time we talked about our strengths, then we'll talk about weaknesses.

That's right.

So we hope that you will check out our website EnglishPod.com.

If you have questions or comments, leave them there for us and we'll be in touch very soon.

All right, we'll see you guys there.

Bye.

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