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

A job interview is a chance to highlight your achievements and talk about the amazing things you’ve done in your career. By talking about what you’ve achieved, you can show how your experience fits the position. And by showing how your strengths have helped you, you can convince the interviewer that you’re the right person to hire.

If only it were that easy, though! Interviewers aren’t going to ask you only about the good stuff. They’re going to ask about difficult things as well. That means they might ask you about problems in your current or past jobs. And they might also ask you that dreaded question: what are your weaknesses?

But don’t worry. You know these questions are coming, so you can get ready. Think of some difficult situations you’ve been in. Focus on the ones where you were able to solve a problem or deal with difficult people. And think about your weaknesses honestly, and how you’ve tried to improve on these things. In that way, you’ll be able to face the tough questions confidently.

In this lesson, we’ll rejoin William as he interviews for a position at a bank in Hong Kong. William is being interviewed by Mike, an HR manager at the bank. You will hear how William deals with difficult questions, and how he isn’t afraid to discuss problems and how he dealt with them.

Listening Questions

1. William talks about a problem with short-term loans. What does he say was the cause of this problem?

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