Job Interview & Presentation Key Phrases
Talking About Your Strengths
What can you offer this company? Why do you think we should employ you?
- I’m creative and dynamic – my track record in my current job proves that.
- As you can see from my CV, I have a strong background in…
- I’m self-motivated and good at organizing my time.
- I think I’m flexible in the way I plan my work.
Talking About Weaknesses
What do you think your negative points are? What areas do you think you could improve in? What might your current employer want you to improve?
- One fault is that I’m a bit of a perfectionist.
- I sometimes try too hard to get everything exactly right.
Discussing Future Plans
Do you know where you want to be in two years? Where do you see yourself in five years (five years from now)? Do you plan to study for further qualifications?
- I hope to climb the career ladder as fast as I can.
Talking About Experience
Have you ever done … before?
- No, I haven’t, but I’m willing to learn if it’s necessary for this job.
Answering Difficult Questions
Your exam results are not as good as they could be, are they? I see that you didn’t complete your Diploma course, why was that?
- I decided that the theoretical aspects weren’t for me, and I wanted to gain a practical working knowledge of the industry.
- Why are you leaving your current job?
- I’m very happy in my current job, but I feel your company would offer more opportunities to develop my career.
What would you say to that?
Asking Questions
I understand that you have a system… Could you explain it in more detail?
Common Interview Questions
- What qualifications do you have?
- Why do you want this job?
- Do you like working with people? Why?
- What salary are you looking for?
- Do you have any references?
- What are your weaknesses?
- How do you deal with criticism?
- What do you think of your last manager?
- Why did you leave your last job?
Presentation Phrases
Welcoming
- Welcome to…
- Good morning, everyone.
Introducing
- Today you’re going to listen to…
- I’ll start the presentation by… then I’ll go on to… and I’ll finish with…
Moving from Point to Point
- That brings me to my next point.
- I’d like to move on now to look at…
Summarizing
- To sum up…
- To summarize…
Closing
- Are there any questions?
- Thank you for listening.
Complimenting the Speaker
- I’d like to say I think your ideas are excellent.
- I thought your suggestions were very original.
Leading Up to a Question
- You mentioned that this model might not be practical for all types of brands.
- You said your company has experienced this before.
- One thing you said was: Brand loyalty is often overestimated.
- One point you raised was that the markets are not stable at the moment.
- I’m not sure I quite understood your point about losing market position.
Asking for Clarification
- Could you give an example of a brand where it might not work so well?
- Could you just explain again why that happened?
- Could you clarify what you did as a result of that?
- Can I just ask what you meant by that?
Getting Started
Thank you very much for coming. And just to remind you, my presentation today is called…
Outline – Introduction
My talk will be in three main parts. Then I’ll go on to…
Main Body
Ok, to begin, let’s look at some figures. And that brings me to the second and central part of my talk. I could say a lot more about that, but now I’d like to explain…
Conclusion
So, to summarize, we started off by looking at… And that brings me to the end of my presentation.