Post 5: Interview Questions in English Reference Guide Construction

Hi Everyone,

Starting tomorrow, I would like that we work together to construct your reference guide of interview questions in English. This will allow you to rate a job applicant's level of understanding and use of the language.

To do this we need to work together to complete a number of stages:

1) Create 2-3 versions of the same question, with different degrees of difficulty to understand. Rating each one for it's level of difficulty.

2) Make a note of what you would be asking if it were in Spanish. To provide a guide and to guarantee that you are asking the question that you think you are asking!

3) Decide on what are the key points to look for in the answer. To be sure that the applicant understands what you have asked and is answering correctly.

4) Give 2-3 example answers for each question, to work as a guide to what is a good or bad answer.

The aim is to have AT LEAST 100 questions for you to use. I have started by giving you 25 general interview questions. 

However, I have left an empty question after each of mine. This is for you to give me more specific questions for your area that we can include also.

Depending on how well (and quickly) we can complete these first questions, I have up to 50 more that we can also include.

So lets all concentrate on making something that can help you both now and in the future!

I will explain in more depth to each group tomorrow and Tuesday. Please could one of you bring your computer, so that we can connect it to the monitor? To make it easy to decide who, we will start with the person in each group who is first in the alphabet.

Thanks as always guys. I'm really looking forward to making this as I think it will be a great resource for all of you to use.

Best regards as always,
Andrew

Post 4: Interview Questions

Hi guys. 

The topic of this new blog is what questions could you ask in an interview and in what different ways could you ask them? 

The logic behind this is that I will post the questions you give me over the various weeks, then between us we will ask these questions in different words or different ways.

OK, so our first 10 are as follows:

1) What would be your worst nightmare (at work)?

Eg. A similar question could be:

On an average day, what is the worst thing that could happen?

2)  Tell me what you do in a normal day at work?

Eg. A similar question could be:

Walk me through an average work day.

3) Tell me which was your favourite class at University and why?

4) Tell me about your greatest accomplishment at work.

5) Which moment was the worst of your career?

6) Do you see this position as a challenge for you?

7) What would make you quit a job?

8) Tell me what things your current salary is constituted of?

9) What aspects of the job do you prioritize in a new position?

10) What 'person' are you in the office?

So here are the first 10. If you can, as in the first 2 examples, please try to re-word these questions while still asking the same (or similar) question.

Thanks everyone. Have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow.

Best as always,
Andrew 

Post 3: Connectors

Hi everyone,

A little early this week!

As it seems to be a very important topic of interest for you all, today's blog is all about connectors.

Connectors are words that link ideas, phrases, sentences and paragraphs together. If you want to speak at an Intermediate or Advanced level it's important to at least use the 20 connectors we have listed here:

USED TO EXPRESS CONTRAST

However - (Sin embargo)

I'd love to go to the beach with you. However, I've already made plans for tomorrow.

Nevertheless - (Sin embargo)

She was very tired. Nevertheless, she kept on working.

On the other hand - (Por el otro lado)

Living in NYC is amazing, with so much to offer. On the other hand, it is one of the most expensive cities to live in and extremely stressful at times.

Instead of - (En vez de)

I will try to make friends instead of enemies.

Even though / Although - (Aunque)

Even though he's a billionaire, he drives a Chevy Spark.

Despite / In spite of - (A pesar de)

Despite being a billionaire, he drives a Chevy Spark.

*If followed by a verb, it must be a verb+ing

USED TO SHOW A RESULT

Therefore - (Por lo tanto, Por ende)

The storm left the neighborhood without electricity. Therefore, many had to depend on canned food for days.

Thus - (Así, en consecuencia)

She accepted their offer and thus became CEO of the enterprise.

TO SHOW SEQUENCE

First of all - (Ante todo, primero que nada)

First of all, I'd like to thank all of you for coming today.

Besides - (además, también)

Let's go the party tonight because they're gonna have great music. Besides, they have happy hour prices all night long.

Furthermore - (además)

I don't want to go there, furthermore, I have no time to do so.

Moreover - (además, es más)

English is very useful to learn, and moreover, it's fun.

On top of that - (además, más encima)

I hate Sushi. On top of that, it's really expensive.

ORDER OF IMPORTANCE

Above all - (Sobre todo)

I prefer meat to fish, but above all, I love pasta.

CLARIFYING

In other words - (en otras palabras, o sea)

She said the movie was a bit predictable. In other words, she didn't like it.

That is - (Es decir)

I grew up in Argentina. That is, I am Argentinean.

EMPHASIS

As a matter of fact - (De hecho)

I like eggs. As a matter of fact, I eat them every day.

Indeed - (de verdad, en efecto)

He is, indeed, a man of his word.

OTHERS

Such as - (como, por ejemplo)

GDP in developing nations such as Bolivia will continue to grow at a quick rate.

As long as - (mientras que, siempre que)

I'll let you eat Ice Cream as long as you do your homework.

To sum up - (para resumir)

To sum up, we've had an excellent 4th quarter and our shareholders will be very pleased.

As well as - (tanto como, asi como, y)

You'll be receiving the new Iphone today as well as a complementary charger.

That's everything for another week everyone! 

Best regards as always and I hope to see you all again very soon.

Post 2: Individuals Vs Groups in the Recruitment Process

Hi again everyone! 

Today is an article relating to the use of more than one person in the recruitment process. It is aimed mainly at businesses, but I thought it may be an interesting read for you all. Take a look. I hope you find it as interesting as I hoped!

Hiring Solo vs Hiring Committee: How To Get The Best Hiring Results

Whether you are the only human resource professional at your company or a recruiter working independently, have you stopped to consider if it's a good idea to hire alone? It’s no easy task sourcing, reviewing, and interviewing applicants for every job -- let alone be the only person making these types of decisions. Think about when you work on an important project. Are you the only person who ever weighs in on the process? The answer is probably no but even given the importance of hiring, it's often a solo job. If we know multiple opinions leads to better work outputs, why aren't we applying the same strategy to recruitment?

The risks and benefits of hiring solo

There’s a lot at stake when it comes to hiring people. We’ve all been unfortunate enough to have made at least one bad hire in our career. It’s a costly and stressful experience. A CareerBuilder survey estimated that around 41 percent of businesses admitted to making a bad hire and it cost them between $25,000 to $50,000 in lost productivity and replacement costs. It cannot be understated enough then that hiring must be conducted strategically and carefully. It can be beneficial at times to make a hiring decision using one’s own resources and experience, and then there are other times when it is more risky to do so.

Hiring alone creates some risks to the organization. First, it can introduce unintentional bias to the hiring decision. Because recruitment is evaluating people’s skills and other human attributes, it’s easy to make a certain impression of others based on our own values and ideas about stereotypes. In many cases, this can diminish our capacity to hire for diversity, which puts the organization at risk for EEOC violations and poor retention.

Another risk of hiring alone is that it reduces one’s time for sourcing other candidates and keeping them engaged in the process. Face to face interviews and assessments and background checks are very time consuming, as are candidate follow-ups and new hire processing. This can mean great candidates are falling through the cracks and being picked up by the competition.

But big benefit of hiring alone is that it is a matter of business necessity to make a decision about a candidate swiftly and with a knowledgeable background of hiring many people over the years. If you are confident in a candidate and don’t need validation other than what you have seen already, then it can be more beneficial to hire on your own. This is undeniably the easiest and fastest approach to hiring, so long as you understand the limitations of trusting only one opinion.

What are the pros and cons of using a hiring committee?

The other option when it comes to hiring is to pick a co-interviewer or select a group of people from your organization who are objective thinkers, seasoned at hiring, and good judges of character to form a strategic hiring committee. This is not a new idea, but one that is increasing in use. Large corporations like Amazon, Apple, and Google have been using hiring committees successfully for at least the last few years. But even if you have a small company, a hiring committee can put more eyes on the resumes of applicants to make better hiring decisions.

Group hiring works well when there are key roles to fill in the organization. For example, a management level candidate or a new department position rather than a lower level job like that of an assistant. These roles often requires the insight of several people who can share what they know as being the best skills and personality traits to look for. Given these positions often have multiple hiring rounds anyways, it's easy to bring in other voices to get a group opinion on candidates. This can be particularly helpful when there are multiple strong candidates in consideration.

A negative impact of a hiring committee is during rapid growth cycles when large numbers of employees need to be hired for entry level work. This is best left up to a few seasoned recruiters and the HR hiring manager to decide, otherwise things can be slowed down in details. Not to mention, in a rapid growth phase, it might be difficult to coordinate the schedules and resources needed to free up the hiring committee's time.

The trick is to find a balance between the time it takes to use a hiring committee and the importance of the hire. You don't want to bog down your talent pipeline by doing this for everyone but in some instances, hiring alone might lead to the wrong decision.

How do you create a hiring committee?

If you're going to try hiring with a little help, where do you get started? Here are some tips to set you up for success:

1) Understand what you need: Make a shortlist of the knowledge or background you need on your committee. You might need a member of HR present, possibly a coworker of the new hire, their manager, and maybe the department head. Or maybe the role has technical elements you can't vet alone that requires assistance from a different department. Be clear about who you need on your team and why so that everyone understands what they're bringing to the team.

2) Don't invite the whole company: Committees should be large enough to gather insights from but small enough to be manageable. A few people is the sweet spot rather than a large team. You want everyone's voice to be heard, otherwise why have them on the team at all?

3) Figure out roles: If you're going to be interviewing together, come up with a game plan. Who asks questions about past performance and who dives deeper into personality and behaviour? It's important not to overlap on interview questions as this creates a poor candidate experience.

4) Debrief together: It can be easy to focus only on the interview but once the candidate is gone, the committee should meet to debrief the interviews of the day. The sooner this can happen after the interviews are complete the better given that memory can grow more unreliable as time goes on. While you can gather feedback individually, it's better to meet in person as the discussion can sometimes trigger new insights when done in a group format.

Thanks everyone. I hoped you enjoyed the article. Both language and content.

Best regards as always and have a great weekend.

Post 1: Common Business Expressions

Hello everyone!

As a little extra help for all of you in addition to your classes, I will provide an article each week relating to interesting (I hope!) topics in business. This will be either useful language points in English, or an interesting article in English related to your work in some way.

The idea is that you read these blogs and make a comment in English, either about the topic or using some of the language presented.

I hope it is useful and enjoyable for you. Good luck everyone!

Best regards as always,

Andrew

Todays language topic is '20 common business expressions at work':

• Blue Collar Worker - someone who works with their hands or does manual labor. For example, construction workers, steel workers, plumbers, electricians, etc.

Eg. "Donald Trump won the election in 2016 because he managed to get the majority of blue-collar workers to vote for him."

• Call it a day - to stop working for the day

Eg. "I've been working since 7 this morning. I think it's about time to call it a day"

• Cut corners - to do something the cheapest or easiest way; to take a shortcut. Usually at the expense of quality.

Eg. "When construction companies cut corners it typically costs lives."

• Diamond in the rough - something or someone that has a lot of potential but lacks a few final touches or qualities

Eg. "Juan is a real diamond in the rough. He's got a lot of talent with people but just needs to work a little on his work ethic."

• Game plan - a plan or strategy for doing or achieving something

Eg. "The game plan for the week is to call every client personally to get their opinion"

• Get the ball rolling - to start something or to start a project

Eg. "We need to get the ball rolling on this project asap. It's due in October and it's already August."

• In the black - to be making a profit

Eg. "After three years of losses the company is finally in the black again."

• In the red - to be losing money

Eg. "With all these unexpected health bills we're going to be in the red this month."

• Loophole - an ambiguity or mistake in a law which allows one to evade or avoid the the law to an advantage

Eg. "After the tax codes changed some private investors were able to save a lot of money by finding some loopholes in the system"

• No brainer - a decision that is obvious or super easy to make

Eg. "Betting on the Chilean national soccer team versus the USA was a no brainer. Of course they were going to win."

• On a roll - to have a successful or lucky period.

Eg. "We've been on a roll the last three months. The sales numbers are through the roof. "

• On top of something - to be aware or in control of a situation

Eg. "Don't worry, Steve. I'm on top of the situation and I'll take care of it"

• See eye to eye - to agree with each other

Eg. "I do not always see eye to eye with my partner but we always reach an agreement."

• Small talk - polite social conversation about unimportant matters

Eg. "On Monday mornings it's good to make small talk with your colleagues. Ask them about their weekends, the weather, etc."

• State of the art - very modern, using the most recent methods or technology

Eg. "The new Tesla model was made using state of the art technology"

• Touch base - to get in touch or contact someone

Eg. " I'll work on this half of the project and you on the other and we'll touch base in a few days."

• Under the table - transacted in a secret or hidden manner

Eg. "They offered him money under the table to change his mind."

• Uphill battle - very difficult - requiring a lot of effort to overcome obstacles.

Eg. "It was an uphill battle to get the liquor license. We had to find someone with a contact in the municipality."

• White Collar worker - someone who works in an office or other professional environment.

Eg. "Universities typically prepare their students to become white-collar workers."

• Word of mouth - when people tell other people about a product or service without any other marketing.

Eg. "60% of our clients come to us based on word of mouth recommendation."

That's all for now. Have a great weekend and please come back next week for the next post.