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Hello and welcome to Business English 360. I’m Tim Simmons and today we're kicking off a new podcast called Business English 360. This is where we will explore skills that are crucial to your success. Let's call them soft skills. We're not talking about how to use a spreadsheet here... this is about how to approach situations, problems, and people.

Appropriately enough, we're doing this first round of shows on another kind of first: your first job interview. We're going to have a look at four key skills, including conveying enthusiasm, doing your research before the interview, and answering those particularly difficult questions. But we're going to start this series with one of the biggest questions: How do I show that I'm right for the job when I have little or no work experience? What am I supposed to talk about?

This is actually applicable beyond first job interviews. Perhaps you're changing careers or transitioning into a new aspect of business. But the question remains: How do I relate what I have done to what they want?

So, where do we begin? It begins with preparation. It doesn't matter how much, or how little, experience you have. It all starts with preparation. Don't wait until you walk into that room to consider good answers to questions that you know are coming. Your brain is already quite busy just coping with the tension of the situation. So sit down with pen and paper well before the interview and decide what you're going to talk about. You need to make a list of your experiences, accomplishments, and achievements. Remind yourself of those specific successes so you don't have to wrack your brain in the middle of the interview.

Now, a big part of your preparation involves matching those experiences and accomplishments with the job's required skills and responsibilities. To do that, you first need to read the job description very carefully. What exactly are they looking for? List the qualities. We're talking about things like organization, leadership, delegating, time management, taking initiative. These are the traits or abilities that you're going to prove you have. Also look beyond the job description. What other qualities do you think they need? Make a note of them and then hone them down to three or five you can easily reference in an interview.

Once you understand the kind of person they're looking for, find things in your experience that