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M: Hello English learners! Welcome back to EnglishPod! My name is Marco.
E: And I’m Erica.
M: And today we’re gonna be bringing you the second part of our job interview series.
E: That’s right, so this is an advanced lesson and we’re gonna be talking about educational
background and experience.
M: Right, so, in the first part we saw preparing for a job interview. Now we’re at the job
interview and we’re just gonna be talking about your educational background and your job
experience.
E: That’s right and the language we’re gonna learn is gonna focus mostly on these two
areas.
M: Okay, perfect. So, let’s take a look at some of the difficult words before we listen to the
dialogue in “vocabulary preview”.
Voice: Vocabulary preview.
E: Alright, so, we’re gonna talk about a few common words that have to do with education.
Now, the first word we… I think we… we might know this one but there’s a little trick to it,
so the first one is major.
M: Major.
E: Major.
M: So, yeah, I guess everyone knows what a major is, right?
E: Yeah, it’s the… the main subject that you study in university.
M: Right, so you can study business as a major or…
E: History.
M: Exactly.
E: Yeah.
M: So, but you can also use it as a verb, right?
E: That’s right, I majored in history.
M: Majored in.
E: Uhu.
M: So, usually it’s followed by the proposition in.
E: Yes, always, in fact.
M: Okay.
E: When used as a verb. I majored in science.
M: I majored in business.
E: Yes.
M: Okay, so, you can say, my major is business administration or history or you can say I
majored in business.
E: Yeah, and the same pattern applies to minor.
M: Okay, so minor, this is really interesting, because this is more common in English
speaking countries, right?
E: That’s right.
M: So, what exactly is a minor?
E: Well, just like your major, but smaller.
M: Hehe. Okay, so…
E: So, if… if you major in History, maybe sixty percent (60%) of your classes are in History
and you minor in French, maybe thirty or forty percent (30-40%) of your classes are in
French.
M: So, basically, you can have two subjects in your degree, you can have a major in
Business with a minor in, ah, Art.
E: Yes.
M: Okay…
E: Yeah.
M: That’s interesting.
E: Uhu. Alright, and another two simple words… a bachelor’s degree.
M: Bachelor’s degree, okay.
E: A bachelor’s degree is what you get after s… going to university for four years.
M: Okay, so, a bachelor’s degree, after four years you get that.
E: Yeah.
M: After that you get a master’s degree.
E: Right, so, that’s another two years after your bachelor’s degree.
M: Okay, and I guess a master’s is more focused on an area, right?
E: Yes, more specialized.
M: More specialized.
E: Uhu.
M: And then the highest degree you can get is a PhD.
E: Exactly.
M: Which is a Philosophy Doctor, right?
E: Aha.
M: But you’re not actually getting a degree in Philosophy.
E: No, it could be in, um, International Relations.
M: Okay, but this is really hard to get.
E: Yeah.
M: You have to go to school for another five or six years, right.
E: Yeah.
M: And it’s a lot of research and not many people have it.
E: Yeah. Anyway, some simple words, um, but you know what, it’s… it’s quite unique to the
English speaking world, this system ??? so we bring it to you now.
M: Yeah, perfect. So now let’s listen to this guy who is at an interview and he’s gonna be
talking about his education and work experience.
DIALOGUE, FIRST TIME
E: Well, those were some pretty good answers, ah, to those questions, but… I don’t know,
Marco…
M: There was a little awkward moment, I don’t know if you guys heard it, ah… natural
body… what’s…
E: Functions.
M: Functions. Hehe.
E: Yeah.
M: So…
E: Oh, dear…
M: Well, making the interview a little bit more interesting, right? It doesn’t have to be
boring.
E: Exactly, but what is really interesting is some of the language he used to describe his
educational background and work experience, so let’s look at that now in “l(fā)anguage
takeaway”.
Voice: Language takeaway.
M: Okay, so in language takeaway today we have seven words that we wanna focus on
before we give you some tips about doing well on a job interview. So, let’s take a look at
our first word, course of study.
E: Course of study.
M: Course of study.
E: A course of study.
M: So, ex… what is a course of study exactly?
E: Basically, it’s like a plan of study.
M: Uhu.
E: Or a path of study.
M: Okay, so, his course of study was…
E: Business Administration.
M: Exactly, so that is his course of study.
E: Uhu.
M: Now, let’s take a look at our second word, track.
E: Track.
M: Track.
E: Track.
M: So, he said he wanted to gain some practical marketable skills, that the information
management track provided.
E: Exactly.
M: So, what does he mean by this track?
E: Again, basically if the track of study is… is like the path of study.
M: Okay.
E: So, the direction of your study.
M: Okay, so I guess it would be like think of a train…
E: Uhu.
M: Ant the train tracks, right?
E: Exactly.
M: Where the train travels. So, that’s where it’s taking you, that’s the path at he followed or
you should follow or you want to follow.
E: Yes.
M: Okay, that’s pretty interesting.
E: Uhu.
M: Now let’s take a look at our third word and it’s a really nice conjunction, hence.
E: Hence.
M: Hence.
E: H-E-N-C-E, hence.
M: Hence, so it sounds fancy, ah, but it’s..
E: Yeah, ah, not simple.
M: What does it mean?
E: So.
M: So.
E: Therefore, yeah.
M: Right. So you can use it as a conjunction between two ideas.
E: Uhu.
M: So, he said… what would be an example of how you could use hence?
E: You could say "the economy is doing poorly, hence, people are loosing their jobs".
M: Okay, hence, so, therefore, in consequence…
E: Right.
M: So.
E: Exactly.
M: But it just sounds a lot more like professional.
E: And formal.
M: Formal.
E: Yeah.
M: Okay, so try and use this conjunction hence, right? Instead of saying so, therefore.
E: Yep.
M: Use it. Okay, our fourth word.
E: Pursued.
M: Pursued.
E: He pursued a master’s.
M: Okay, so, to pursue.
E: To chase after something. [NOTE: another one chase around after someone or
something = to look here and there for something or to seek someone or something in
many different places]
M: To chase after.
E: Auh!
M: Hehe. So you can pursue a master’s degree like he did.
E: Yes, you can pursue a promotion.
M: A dream.
E: Uhu, nice one.
M: Can you pursue a girl?
E: Yes, you can.
M: Alright, so, pursue, to chase.
E: Yes.
M: Okay. Now let’s look at our next word, strive.
E: Another great word you can use when talking about your experience. To strive is to try
really hard.
M: To try really hard.
E: Yeah.
M: Okay, so, I know we have some examples for strive.
E: Yeah, let’s take a listen.
Voice: Example one.
A: At our company we’re always striving to improve our services.
Voice: Example two.
B: He really strived to get a new job and his work paid off.
M: Okay, great examples, well, strive, to fight, to try really hard.
E: Yep.
M: Alright. Okay, now the next word I didn’t really know what it meant, so this is really
interesting. Breadth.
E: Breadth.
M: So it’s kind of like saying bread but adding a “-th” at the end.
E: Yeah.
M: Breadth.
E: Breadth of experience.
M: Okay, so… so this basically means it’s wide.
E: Exactly, so when you have a great breadth of experience you have a wide variety of
experience.
M: Okay, so maybe in different fields…
E: Uhu.
M: Or at different jobs, so…
E: Yeah.
M: You can have experience like in marketing and then a little bit in finance and a little bit
in management.
E: Yes, a breadth of experience.
M: Alright. Alright, and now for the last word, it’s actually three-in-one.
E: A three-in-one deal.
M: A three-in-one deal, that actually they are very related.
E: Okay.
M: Right? So, when he talked about his work experience we was saying he… he supervised
and coordinated the customer support team.
E: Okay so, he watched over, right?
M: Uhu.
E: And made things work together well.
M: To coordinate.
E: Yes.
M: So, these are really great verbs that you can use when you’re talking about your job
responsibilities.
E: Yes.
M: I supervised.
E: I coordinated.
M: Uhu, and he used another really great one he said, to implement.
E: To implement, um, to make something happen, to put it in place.
M: Right, so, he implemented new strategies.
E: Implemented new policies.
M: Okay, to set in action.
E: Exactly.
M: Alright, so a lot of great vocabulary, a lot of great stuff and… well, you can use it for
when you’re at a job interview.
E: Uhu.
M: So, let’s listen to this dialogue again and when we’ll come back we’re gonna give you
some tips, so you’ll do well in this part of the job interview.
DIALOGUE, SECOND TIME
E: Alright, well, I wanna talk about two main things, um, and the first thing I wanna talk
about is, ah, how you address this question about your educational background like wha…
what is the interviewer looking to find out.
M: Okay, perfect, so when you’re talking about your educational background you shouldn’t
only talk about your college degree, right?
E: Yep.
M: You should also talk about any type of training that you’ve had.
E: Yeah, I think it’s really important to let the interviewer know that you’re continually
trying to update your skills and improve your… your knowledge, so any sort of courses or
seminars that you might attend this is a great chance to highlight those.
M: And that’s what the interviewer’s looking for, right?
E: Uhu. Also any… any trade publications, any magazines that you read related to your job
is… is a great way to sort of highlight your desire to keep learning.
M: Oh, I think it’s really important because it’s good that you went to a good university, you
got this degree and everything, but continuously training yourself and maybe just by
listening to business podcasts or… or reading specific, ah, magazines or stuff like that at…
that is demonstrating that you care about what you’re doing, that you’re continuously
learning, right?
E: Exactly.
M: Okay, so, those are the main things to talk about in your educational background. Now,
when this work experience question pops up, what should you really say?
E: When you’re answering this question I think there’s something really important to keep
in mind.
M: What’s that?
E: You wanna make sure that you’re being as specific as possible, right?
M: Right, so… giving examples of what you’ve done.
E: Like really specifically what you did, all of the sort of… the main achievements you have.
M: Okay, so like, for example, we saw in our dialogue that he talked about specific
strategies that he implemented to improve customer support in that company.
E: Right and he… then he gave some numbers.
M: Right, he said… yeah, he lowered the churn rate to about five percent.
E: So, it’s so important whenever you can attach a number to… to your success or your
achievement, to be able to do that in the interview, um, really… really demonstrates your
achievement.
M: Uhu, yeah, I think that’s really important and another thing when you’re talking about
previous jobs is make sure you keep it on a positive note, right?
E: Yeah, yeah.
M: Even if your experience was not very good or you didn’t like the company or, you know,
you had problems, you should avoid talking about that and always keep it on a positive
note.
E: Right, so if the interviewer asks you why you… why you wanna join this company, why
you’re looking to leave your… your current job, you… you wanna give these positive
reasons.
M: Right, you don’t wanna say "Well, because my boss was a jerk", or…
E: Yeah.
M: Or "I didn’t like the company anymore".
E: Yeah.
M: You know, you should answer it with something positive like "Well, I think I need a
change" or "This job opportunity is more aligned with what I wanna do in the future",
etcetera. Yeah, so positive always on your interviews and just, again, prepare for these
questions, that are always gonna be there.
E: Yes.
M: So, Erica, I know that you’ve done a lot of interviews.
E: Uhu.
M: And I understand that you’ve had a really weird question.
E: Yes. In an… in an interview I once got this question: "If you were a tree, what kind of
tree would you be?"
M: Really?
E: Yeah, I’m not kidding, I really was asked that question.
M: What did you answer?
E: Um, I think I said that I would wanna be a willow tree, because they’re really beautiful.
M: Hehe. Was that the right answer?
E: I… I don’t know like what are you suppose to answer to that question? I really don’t
know what the right answer was.
M: Well, some people, yeah… they’ll ask you just… I don’t know, random questions…
E: Yeah.
M: Just to see what your response is. I think also maybe is just how you deal with… with,
ah… with the pressure or…
E: Or with the unexpected questions.
M: Right, so it was like…
E: Yeah.
M: That is pretty unexpected, though.
E: Hehe.
M: But I guess you handled it pretty well.
E: Okay, well, I mean I got the job, so…
M: Oh, nice, alright.
E: Alright, um, I wanna know from our listeners if they were a tree, what kind of tree they
would be.
M: Yeah. Hehe.
E: Hehe.
M: And also tell us about, well, your job experience or your educational background, ah…
E: Uhu.
M: Well, I know, for example, that I’ve had a lot of different types of job, so I’ve even been
that person, that gets on the bus and charges people the money
E: I know, like…
M: It’s… random jobs ???
E: ??? You’ve had every job under the sun.
M: Hehe. So, but it’s great, so tell us what have… what’s the weirdest job you’ve had, what
the craziest or the best job.
E: Uhu.
M: Or any experiences.
E: Yes, so visit our website englishpod.com, leave your questions and comments there on
the website.
M: And we’ll definitely be there to answer them and we hope to see you there.
E: Thanks for listening and… Good bye!
M: Bye!
