Episode 05

Sarah goes for her interview. How do you think will she do?

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. You can also read the transcript.

Preparation

Transcript

Marcia: Hi, Sarah. I'm Marcia Boardman. We spoke on the phone ...

Sarah: Oh yes, I remember. I was having a bad day!

Marcia: ... and, erm, this is Philip Hart, our CEO.

Philip: Hello!

Sarah: Hello, it's very nice to meet you both. 

Philip: It says on your CV that you do voluntary work.

Sarah: Well, when I have time, yes! I do work at a centre for children with difficulties.

Philip: That must be very interesting.

Sarah: It's rewarding and challenging.

Marcia: Sarah, can you tell us a little bit about your current position?

Sarah: I'm assistant sales director for a chain of language schools.

Philip: So this post would be quite a change then.

Sarah: I don't think so, honestly, because the skills are the same, despite the product.

Marcia: Why are you thinking of moving on?

Sarah: Well, I've come as far as I can in my current position, I feel, and I'm 28 now and would love to take on some more responsibility.

Marcia: OK, um, let's move on to managing people. Can you give us an example of when you had to deal with a particularly difficult managee?

Sarah: Well, yes, I had two people working for me who didn't get along at all. They had no shared values, different temperaments and used to argue a lot. It looked like it was impossible for them to work together. So, I sat down with them and we talked about their differences and their problems, and after that things went much more smoothly.

Philip: How would you deal with a rapidly changing and uncertain global market?

Sarah: Oh, that's actually something I wanted to talk about in my presentation, but I'd say to stay flexible and to diversify markets and sales strategies.

Marcia: It says on your CV you speak French and Spanish.

Sarah: Yes, I do. I lived in both France and Spain for a while.

Philip: Any plans to learn other languages?

Sarah: I'd love to try!

Marcia: Erm, OK. Can you tell us about a time you had to close a particularly challenging deal?

Sarah: Well, the biggest contract I won – and the thing I'm most proud of professionally – was with a large university in India, to provide language training. The contract was full of technicalities and the client was very picky! But I still pulled it off.

Marcia: OK, erm, do you have any questions for us?

Sarah: Yes, about your ethical policy and your carbon footprint. I was wondering whether you are planning to reduce your carbon footprint and whether all your products are ethically sourced.

Philip: That's a very good question and that's something we're moving towards at the moment.

Marcia: OK, well, let's move on to the presentation.

Task 1

Task 2

Discussion

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Average: 3.9 (11 votes)

Submitted by RiccardoLippi on Fri, 01/05/2020 - 11:25

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Sarah did a great interview. I can't spot any negative point in her meeting. She had right outfit, right behavior and also she remained calm and natural. She has shown curiosity doing some questions about the sustainable policies adopted by company, this has triggered the appreciation of Marcia and the CEO. At the and she has confirmed her skills, without exaggerating them.

Submitted by Abdulaziz AZ on Thu, 30/04/2020 - 03:36

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She was good she will have this job for sure
Profile picture for user OlaIELTS

Submitted by OlaIELTS on Fri, 17/04/2020 - 22:37

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The good point about Sarah is that she has insights to what is required, but the bad points is that she don't know how to handle a challenging deal.

Submitted by eldabelba on Sun, 16/02/2020 - 19:05

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Hello there. I had a question regarding relative pronoun Which. Is that correct to be used which or that in this sentence: I know someone that is a volunteer firefighter. or I know someone which is a volunteer firefighter. Thank you.

Hello eldabelba

In defining relative clauses like this one, we use 'who' or 'that' when we are speaking about a person and 'which' or 'that' when we are speaking about a thing.

Here of course the volunteer firefighter is a person, so 'who' or 'that' are correct and 'which' is not.

All the best

Kirk

The LearnEnglish Team

Hello Mema.a.alali,

I'm sorry to hear you're having problems like this. Could you please send us details of the problem using the contact form on this page:

https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/contact-us

 

Include your user name, the course you subscribed to and the date you subscribed to the course and we'll look into it as soon as possible for you.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Loc Dang on Thu, 29/08/2019 - 15:39

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The interviewee in the video is confident and knows what she wants and what she says, her objectives are clearly described, her arguments are strong and convincing, that means she has perfectly prepared for the interview. She seems to be a promising candidate. Through this candidate 's dialogue, we can learn how to answer and express in such a situation.