Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on key skills for a first-round job interview in English.

If you find job interviews stressful, you’re certainly not alone. Many people struggle to feel confident and comfortable in interview situations. And there’s the added worry that the stress you feel will make it even more difficult to answer the questions well. But you can reduce this stress with effective preparation.

You know that you’ll be asked certain types of questions. So you can make notes about your responses, or make an outline of important ideas that you want to talk about. You can also develop skills to make sure you’re being clear and accurate in your responses.

So what should you prepare and what skills should you develop? Well, for starters, you should be ready to introduce yourself and your career path, and to summarize your current job responsibilities. In terms of skills, it’s good to practice clarifying the words you use, buying yourself time, and connecting your answers back to the question.

In this lesson, we’ll listen as William is interviewed for a position in business development at a bank in Hong Kong. He’s being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the company. This is a first-round interview, and you can hear William show how comfortable and skilled he is at responding to the questions.

Listening Questions

1. What information does William give about his education and work history?

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