HelloWorld! Cultural Workshops and Courses presents:

Effective Job Hunting in English

With that points to abundant online resources, for native and non-native English speakers alike!

From our very popular blog series since Year 2009

Shining ChenTESOL in Theory & Methodology (accredited by UK's ACTDEC, 2007)

Director and workshop facilitator,E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. (Ireland)

All rights reserved.

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English Resume: different formats – Which one suits your needs?First step in writing an English resume is to choose a format. It is vital because different jobs even use different formats in the English-speaking world. Take a look at the main 4 formats below and choose the one(s) that suit(s) your needs:

1. CV (Curriculum Vitae)

This is suitable for jobs in academia and/or laboratories (professors, researchers, etc.) and if you have published academic literatures, Ph.D. thesis, or research papers.

I never had to write one, but I can give you a suggestion: Most universities professors have their CV posted online on their school website. Take a look at them!

2. Chronological resume format

This format is suitable for people holding a master degree or below, including students, new graduates, and currently employed (small employees to managers).

Based on the amount of work experience, you might want to adjust your format accordingly:

For students, new graduates, or those with little work experience, please go to Page 3.

For people with abundant work experience, please go to Page 8.

3. Functional resume format

This format is suitable for people looking for a career change or who have worked in several very different fields. This kind of resume has to be written with extra care. There are many resources/tips on the Internet but please judge before believing.

4. E-resume

The companies asked you to fill out an e-form on their recruiting website? Sometimes they allow you to attach your original resume; sometimes not. Usually these companies are famous or multi-national companies. The recruiting website looks intimidating - what should you do? Please go to Page 13.

Cover Letter (a.k.a. Job Letter)

The company would like you to send in an English cover letter (a.k.a. job letter) along with your English resume, but you don't know much about it? Please go to Page 12.

Interview Tips

Did your English resume and cover letter won you a chance for an English interview opportunity? Congratulations! But are you worried about how to present yourself in English? I have a few tips on how you can prepare yourself well before the interview. Please go to Page 14.

Your comments and/or experience sharing are very welcomed! Any questions on working with English-speaking people are welcomed as well. You may post on HelloWorld! Cultural Workshops and Courses Facebook page.

Finally, I hope you will find confidence through job hunting and also a job that you enjoy. Best of luck and hope to hear your good news soon!

About author:Master's of Science in Engineering, Univ. of Michigan (2007)Accredited TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) (UK, 2007)Engineer residing in Germany (2008 - present)Director and workshop facilitator, E.V.L. International Consultings Ltd. (Ireland)

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

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Resume Writing: Students, new graduates, or those with little work experience

Alright, let's start with the basics. Remember:

(1) An English resume for you should only be 1-page long for you because the recruiters have to read hundreds of resumes a day – they will not turn the page.

If you just have a little more to say in your resume, you may decrease your page margins from the default value (default =1-1.25 in or 2.5-3.2 cm).

(2) Use clear indentations and/or columns, but no more than 3 layers/columns. Otherwise, it will make the recruiters very tired during reading. In addition, they may see that as lack of the ability to process and organize information.

So, in my sample resume, there are only 2 columns: one is for headings, and the other one aligned to the left. (There are other good resume layouts online but not so many unfortunately.)

(3) Use capitalized letters, bold and/or italic fonts to highlight certain types of information , such as the names of organizations (schools, companies worked for, activities participated).

Only apply the same font for less than 3 different types of information . For instance, don't use bold for headings, organization names, and job titles at the same time, because it makes your resume confusing (to recruiters who have been reading hundreds of resumes).

Yet, a combination is OK: headings + dates + organization names, because dates + organization names always go together. Remember not to get too excited and highlight every type of information in the end!

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

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(4) User larger font size for your full name.

Some make the mistake of making the name very large (say 24pt) but then the content very small (I have seen people using 9pt – if only anyone could read that!). However, make sure your name is at least around 18pt so that it is clear to the recruiters.

Also, you may capitalize every letter, or just the first letters, to make your name stand out from the other parts of your resume. Capitalization rules

(5) Which font to use? Many people use Arial or Tahoma, which look very nice on computer screens but not really easy to read after printed out. However, Times New Roman is easier to read (especially for elderly people) and does not take up too much space on paper.

If you are sending your resume per email, you may want to send it in PDF format where the fonts look just the same on screen as on paper. I recommend FreePDF XP and PrimoPDF, if you are looking for free software programs to convert any document into the PDF-format.

If you are applying for a job in visual arts and design, you may use colors and design and may choose other fonts.

Resume designer. (If you are an architect, resume architect) Here are 2 good articles online: “Web Designer Resumes” and “7 Deadly Sins of Resume Design”

(6) No 1st person: No “I,” “me,” “my,” nor “mine.” So, skip these words. Using passive voice may be necessary sometimes.

(7) An English resume must be very clear and concise. So, only put something down if it gives you advantages in terms of business. Remember, quick readability and easy on the eyes are what we should focus on:

a. Common professional terminologies or acronyms that recruiters can understand are welcomed (but if you are not sure, write down the whole name).

b. Please use Hindu-Arabic numerals (0-9) for numbers.

c. Complete sentences are not necessary. Actually, complete sentences take up too much time to get an idea across!

Now, let's talk about each heading in the resume:

First Name, Last Name:

In addition to your name, this is where you write down your contact information (address, phone number, email). To save space, many would use a symbol (e.g. • or /) to separate pieces of contact information.

If you put down a phone number, remember to answer your calls and check missed calls often; if you put down an email, remember to check and answer your emails in a timely manner!

As for email, some recruiters hate seeing email accounts containing anything other than names. To be on the safe side, you should consider just getting a new email account with your name (e.g. Naomi.Kambell@mailservice.xxx or Naomi_Kambell@mailservice.xxx) if you don't have one yet.

Objective:

This is where you put down the kind of role or job responsibility for which you would like to apply. This means, if you apply for 2 very different jobs, you will need 2 very different objectives.

Almost all websites talk about how you should have an objective, but it is very difficult for young workers because they are applying for many different jobs and probably have to take whatever job offer there is! So if you don't know what to put down, just skip it. I didn't have an objective and you don't have to either.

If you know exactly what you want, you can put it down in your objective. For example, you want to be a project manager (and perhaps already have the basic training for it).

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

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In addition, your objective should not mention salary or any benefit. You will discuss that when you are offered the job and in the process of deciding to accept or not.

Education:

Putting the section “Education” up front signals the recruiters that you are new into the work force, which is sometimes an advantage (depending on the job).

You should list your schooling in the reverse chronological order, meaning that the latest schooling on the top and go down to high school or university/college. You can highlight the name of the school using a bold font, for example.

If you are a student, put down “200x – present” for the current schooling. Putting down your expected graduation date (month and year) is being considerate - it gives the recruiters an idea when you may be able to start working.

Even if your education or studies area have little to do with the job vacancy, I would still suggest you to write it down as it is. It will give you an interesting topic to talk about during your interview.

Languages:

If you are multilingual, I strongly suggest to put this section as 1 of the top headings – it will make it clear to the recruiters that you have advantages in languages. Label your native languages with the word “(native)”. Next to the other languages, put down how many years of learning you have had OR the highest level of exams you passed.

Activities, Awards and Experience:

If you are active in activities or community services, you may want to push “Activities” up front; if you have solid work experience, you may want to push “Experience” up front.

Under “Activities” and “Awards”, list scholarships/ awards/ participated programs since high school or university/college. Remember to put down the year it happened. For scholarships, put down the names of the sponsoring organizations - for awards or programs, the names of the hosting organizations.

Please also use the reverse chronological order as in the “Education” section.

You will need to put down your role in each organization, or “participants” for certain activities. If it doesn't fit in 1 line, be careful with indentation in the 2 nd line. Remember the rule for indentations/ columns – that is, don't use more than 3 of them on the resume!

To describe what you did, please use bullet points and keywords. Choose • or a clear symbol for bullets.

Also, please use a strong verb to begin each bullet point (Remember I mentioned that complete sentences are unnecessary in resume writing?). These verbs are called action verbs and here is a sample list. (Choose your verbs wisely, because even I don't like some of the verbs on this list.) Which verbs are not on the list? “Do,” “get“ and “make” are not.

For example: Make phone calls => Contact & communicate w/ customers via telephone.Click here to find verbs to replace “make”Click here to find verbs to replace “do”Click here to find verbs to replace “get”

There are only very few occasions, where you cannot replace a “do” or a “make.”

Describe each previous company + department in 1-2 sentences. This is especially useful if the recruiters know little about your previous employers – it shows that you are a thoughtful person. Again, you don't have to write in complete sentences.

When describing job functions of each previous job/activity, name the skills you developed. No one finds it interesting to read “Make phone calls,” “Served food,” or “Negotiate with suppliers,” because they just don't show how well you did your job!

An example: Serve food => Increase turnover rate by 50% through time management

If you can do this for all your job descriptions, you don't even need the functional resume format when you are considering a career change.

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

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Software:

For some professions, the ability to use certain software programs is vital. For example, CAD is important for many mechanical people and Adobe Photoshop for artists and website designers. Add this section when necessary.

Hobbies:

If you just can't seem to write more than half a page, you may add this section to add some interesting information about yourself, OR you can consider the following layout (center alignment). It will make your page longer and still look clean. Another option would be to use Bookman Old Style as font.

Don't put down the heading/section “Citizenship” as many career websites suggest. The moment a hiring manager (for example in the USA) sees that you are not a citizen in their country, he may not consider you for the job because, for example, he doesn't want to apply for your work visa in the USA. Let them read your resume first and decide if you are who they need for the job. Companies are more likely to do everything to hire you once they are interested in you. Then, you can tell them if they ask.

Common acronyms and abbreviations in English resume writing:

w/ = with

w/o = without

w/i = within

& = and

/ = or

and/or = and OR or

Univ. = university

# = number

Dept. = department

A reader asked me if he should translate job hunt documents that he uses in his own country into English and send them to the English-speaking recruiters. This is an excellent question worth answering. The answer is it depends on what pieces of information these documents contain.

The reason is that English-speaking culture is very sensitive to the topic of discrimination. This means that if someone provides pieces of information revealing his/her sex, age, race, face, family background and so on and then this person gets the job, other candidates may sue this company. Therefore, if you send such information in, the recruiters will most likely be so scared and just throw your application away. In fact, if you ask the

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

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recruiters, they will ask you NOT to send in such information! The only exception is when your look is part of the job, as in the case of fashion models, TV show-hosts and so on.

So, this tells you something might be wrong if an English-speaking company asks you to send in your picture when your job performance has nothing to do with your face.

Then there is another case, where the company is not from an English-speaking culture and they may do things differently in their country when it comes to job hunting. For example, the Germans will attach a passport picture on their German resume and send in another document explaining their education and work experience. In this case, you may contact the company and tell them (but please don't do it via phone because you will be revealing your sex, age range, race, accent and so on!):

1. You have the rights not to send in such document by law, and

2. You don't think it's fair because companies from any English-speaking country ask you not to send in such information.

I am sure a good international company will recognize your courage and find you a very attractive candidate instead!

For more resources on job hunting, please read our “Handout: Resume, Cover Letter Writing Extra Resources.”

E.V.L International Consultings Ltd. copyrighted material, 2011-02-18 Shining Chen

Resume Writing: experienced professionals

Alright, let's start with the basics. Remember:

(1) Please keep your resume to 2-page long, although you have lots of experience. You could print your resume single-sided and stable the pages together.

(2) Use clear indentations and/or columns, but no more than 3 layers/columns. Otherwise, it will make the recruiters very tired during reading. In addition, they may see that as lack of the ability to process and organize information.

So, in my sample resume, there are only 2 columns: one is for headings, and the other one aligned to the left. (There are other good resume layouts online but not so many unfortunately.)

(3) Use capitalized letters, bold and/or italic fonts to highlight certain types of information , such as the names of organizations (schools, companies worked for, activities participated).

Only apply the same font for less than 3 different types of information . For instance, don't use bold for headings, organization names, and job titles at the same time, because it makes your resume confusing (to recruiters who have been reading hundreds of resumes).

Yet, a combination is OK: headings + dates + organization names, because dates + organization names always go together. Remember not to get too excited and highlight every type of information in the end!

(4) User larger font for your full name.

Some make the mistake of making the name very large (say 24pt) but then the content very small (I have seen people using 9pt – if only anyone could read that!). However, make sure your name is at least around 18pt so that it is clear to the recruiters.

Also, you may capitalize every letter, or just the first letters, to make your name stand out from the other parts of your resume. Capitalization rules

(5) Which font to use? Many people use Arial or Tahoma, which look very nice on computer screens but not really easy to read after printed out. However, Times New Roman is easier to read (especially for elderly people) and does not take up too much space on paper.

If you are sending your resume per email, you may want to send it in PDF format where the fonts look just the same on screen as on paper. I recommend FreePDF XP and PrimoPDF, if you are looking for free software programs to convert any document into the PDF-format.

If you are applying for a job in visual arts and design, you may use colors and design and may choose other fonts.

Resume designer. (If you are an architect, resume architect) Here are 2 good articles online: “Web Designer Resumes” and “7 Deadly Sins of Resume Design”

(6) No 1st person: No “I,” “me,” “my,” nor “mine.” So, skip these words. Using passive voice may be necessary sometimes.

(7) An English resume must be very clear and concise. So, only put something down if it gives you advantages in terms of business. Remember, quick readability and easy on the eyes are what we should focus on:

a. Common professional terminologies or acronyms that recruiters can understand are welcomed (but if you are not sure, write down the whole name).

b. Please use Hindu-Arabic numerals (0-9) for numbers.

c. Complete sentences are not necessary. Actually, complete sentences take up too much time to get an idea across!

Now, let's talk about each heading in the resume:

First Name, Last Name:

In addition to your name, this is where you write down your contact information (address, phone number, email). To save space, many would use a symbol (e.g. • or /) to separate pieces of contact information.

If you put down a phone number, remember to answer your calls and check missed calls often; if you put down an email, remember to check and answer your emails in a timely manner!

As for email, some recruiters hate seeing email accounts containing anything other than names. To be on the safe side, you should consider just getting a new email account with your name (e.g. Naomi.Kambell@mailservice.xxx or Naomi_Kambell@mailservice.xxx) if you don't have one yet.

Objective:

This is where you put down the kind of role or job responsibility for which you would like to apply. This means, if you apply for 2 very different jobs, you will need 2 very different objectives. For example, you want to be a project manager (and perhaps already have the basic training for it). Then, you can put it down in the objective.

In addition, your objective should not mention salary or any benefit. You will discuss that when you are offered the job and in the process of deciding to accept or not.

Experience and Activities:

Please also use the reverse chronological order, meaning that the last job/activity on the top and go down to each previous one.

Write down your role in each organization, or “participants” for certain activities. If it doesn't fit in 1 line, please be careful with indentation in the 2nd line. Remember the rule for indentations/ columns – that is, don't use more than 3 of them on the resume!

To describe what you did, please use bullet points and keywords. Choose • or a clear symbol for bullets.

Please use a strong verb to begin each bullet point (Remember I mentioned that complete sentences are unnecessary in resume writing?). These verbs are called action verbs and here is a sample list. (Choose your verbs wisely, because even I don't like some of the verbs on this list.) Which verbs are not on the list? “Do,” “make,” and “get” are not.

For example: Make phone calls => Contact & communicate w/ customers via telephone.Click here to find verbs to replace “make”C lick here to find verbs to replace “do” Click here to find verbs to replace “get”

There are only very few occasions, where you cannot replace a “do,” “make,” or a “get.”

Describe each previous company + department in 1-2 sentences. This is especially useful if the recruiters know little or nothing about your previous employers – it shows that you are a thoughtful person. Again, you don't have to write in complete sentences.

When describing job functions of each previous job/activity, name the skills you developed. No one finds it interesting to read “Make phone calls,” “Served food,” or “Negotiate with suppliers,” because they just don't show how well you did your job!

An example: Serve food => Increase turnover rate by 50% through time management

If you can do this for all your job descriptions, you don't even need the functional resume format when you are considering a career change.

Languages:

If you are multilingual, you may want to put this section as 1 of the top headings – it will make it clear to the recruiters that you have advantages in languages. Label your native languages with the word “(native)”. Next to the other languages, put down how many years of learning you have had OR the highest level of exams you passed.

Software:

For some professions, the ability to use certain software programs is vital. For example, CAD is important for many mechanical people and Adobe Photoshop for artists and website designers. Add this section when necessary.

Education:

This is probably not the most important pieces of information in your case anymore. However, you still need to put it down, at least your last education.

You should list your schooling in the reverse chronological order, meaning that the latest schooling on the top and go down to high school or university/college. You can highlight the name of the school using a bold font, for example.

If you are a student, put down “200x – present” for the current schooling. Putting down your expected graduation date (month and year) is being considerate - it gives the recruiters an idea when you may be able to start working.

Even if your education or studies area have little to do with the job vacancy, I would still suggest you to write it down as it is. It will give you an interesting topic to talk about during your interview.

Don't put down the heading/section “Citizenship” as many career websites suggest. The moment a hiring manager (for example in the USA) sees that you are not a citizen in their country, he may not consider you for the job because, for example, he doesn't want to apply for your work visa in the USA. Let them read your

resume first and decide if you are who they need for the job. Companies are more likely to do everything to hire you once they are interested in you. Then, you can tell them if they ask.

Common acronyms and abbreviations in English resume writing:

w/ = with

w/o = without

w/i = within

& = and

/ = or

and/or = and OR or

Univ. = university

# = number

Dept. = department

A reader asked me if he should translate job hunt documents that he uses in his own country into English and send them to the English-speaking recruiters. This is an excellent question worth answering. The answer is it depends on what pieces of information these documents contain.

The reason is that English-speaking culture is very sensitive to the topic of discrimination. This means that if someone provides pieces of information revealing his/her sex, age, race, face, family background and so on and then this person gets the job, other candidates may sue this company. Therefore, if you send such information in, the recruiters will most likely be so scared and just throw your application away. In fact, if you ask the recruiters, they will ask you NOT to send in such information! The only exception is when your look is part of the job, as in the case of fashion models, TV show-hosts and so on.

So, this tells you something might be wrong if an English-speaking company asks you to send in your picture when your job performance has nothing to do with your face.

Then there is another case, where the company is not from an English-speaking culture and they may do things differently in their country when it comes to job hunting. For example, the Germans will attach a passport picture on their German resume and send in another document explaining their education and work experience. In this case, you may contact the company and tell them (but please don't do it via phone because you will be revealing your sex, age range, race, accent and so on!):

1. You have the rights not to send in such document by law, and

2. You don't think it's fair because companies from any English-speaking country ask you not to send in such information.

I am sure a good international company will recognize your courage and find you a very attractive candidate instead!

For more resources on job hunting, please read our “Handout: Resume, Cover Letter Writing Extra Resources.”

Cover Letter (a.k.a. Job Letter)A cover is a must when you are applying for a specific job vacancy in English. A cover letter should make it clear to the hiring manager:

(1) Your name and for which job vacancy you are applying – please put this down in your 1st paragraph (= introduction), preferably in the 1st sentence!

(2) That you have attached a copy of your resume – please put this down in the 1st paragraph or in the last paragraph!

(3) That you meet the job requirements. So, please take out the job ad and read the job requirements carefully. Note that the most important job requirement is listed as the 1st item on the job ad and so on.

In each body paragraph of your cover letter, talk about 1 requirement only. Make sure to write a solid topic sentence , give evidence and make sure you elaborate more than what's already on your resume – the hiring managers want to get to know you as a person through your cover letter! If you cannot give an example, pick another requirement to write about.

Please write about 2-3 requirements (=2-3 body paragraphs) only. Otherwise, it gets too long and no one will want to read it.

Please note the following guidelines of a cover letter:(Please see http://engineers-international.com/17-2-17.php for details)

• Keep it to 1 page. Use short sentences that are shorter than 2-line long (page margins 1”, or 2.54 cm).

• No grammar or spelling errors. -> It has to be 100% perfect in grammar and spelling.

• Answer the job requirements.

• Flow and is easy to read.

Strive for simple sentence structure. Please break down any long sentence into several short sentences. Please also be careful not to confuse your readers with pronouns.

For layout, date, addresses, greeting and closing of a cover letter, please take a look at this example:

http://candocareer.com/cover-letter-examples/education-job-sample.htm

If the company did not mention that they will contact applicants, the last 2 paragraphs of the above example is a good idea.

If the company specifically mentions that they do not wish you to follow up with them, here is my suggestion:

“As there is considerably more to relate, I look forward to scheduling a meeting with you to discuss this job vacancy and my qualifications. Thank you for your time and consideration. ”

As for your greeting, you may write “Dear hiring managers of <Company Name>” and then followed either by a colon “:” or a comma “,”.

E-ResumesFirst, let's try to understand its nature from the electronic/software and business point of view:

• What is so special about E-resumes?

o Fast in keyword search

o Easy to store into and pull out from the database

o Usually not for human eyes to read if you are allowed to attach your original resume

• What could be the companies' motives of implementing E-resumes?

o Way too many resumes to read

o Speed up the first step of screening process (through keyword search)

From the above, let us now think about the pros and cons of this system, which is only another attempt to “improve” the hiring process.

• Pros

o Fast because of keywords (some say “efficient” but I don't agree)

o In theory, the software will consider you for similar jobs in the future (In practice, I have not heard of any true story.)

• Cons

o The software cannot recognize your writing style, nor can they tell if you are a good writer. (Thus, hiring managers still have to read in the end.)

o The software can't do well (compared to human eyes) when it comes to punctuations, grammar and distinguishing headings from content.

o No relevant keyword, no search result (and no hiring manager reading your resume) – a cheap solution!

o Word limit is always frustrating for job applicants.

o Time consuming for job applicants, who usually spend 2-3 hours to complete it and make sure it is error-free (although their paper-form resumes were ready).

o Software bugs and server stability problems are not less frequent or less damaging than human errors. (We all know this problem, don't we? :)

Now, we see many problems with E-resume and resume screening software , but let us think about how to make sure our resumes come through the screening process. Here are my suggestions:

1. Use a pure text editor (e.g. Notepad) to prevent us from using italic or bold fonts and so on.

2. Make sure you use an ASCII character (and not a symbol) for bullets.

3. Use common terms for your headings (e.g. “Experience” instead of your own cool creation), because some screening software programs look for them.

4. When struggling with word limit, take out parentheses, white spaces, tabs and uncritical punctuation characters.

5. If you are NOT allowed to attach your original resume, please check if you have punctuation for good readability.

6. Use keywords for skills, courses taken and so on to make sure your resume will appear in search results of relevant job vacancies.

Interview TipsFor non-native English speakers, please beware of any cultural difference in an English job interview!

As in any presentation, you need to be well-prepared, show confidence and, most importantly, know yourself well in order to perform well in a job interview. How? Take a look at my advice below and I am sure you will find yourself so much more comfortable during an interview.

First of all, you need to know a few tough but quite common questions for the interviewee (= you!) and how to answer them appropriately. These questions include:

1. Why do you choose our company?Never tell them “because you guys are famous”! It makes you look like a kindergartener. You may admit the company has a great reputation, but you need to tell them why you are a good candidate for the job and what you can do for their company.

2. What are your strengths? Please give me examples.Let's see – do you get along with people at work? Do you have deliver great performance in projects? Or both? Or are you flexible? Or do you have a stronger will to learn than most people? Or patience, or strong work ethic? You need to give examples, but 2-4 examples depending on how long your examples are.

Time yourself at home, and see which example takes up the most time and how much time each example takes. Ask yourself if it's really worth it to spend so much time on one example. During the interview, you need to observe the interviewer too. If he/she is dozing off, you need to wrap up and finish your example earlier!

3. What about your weaknesses?Think about which weakness of yours can be improved. Have you begun improving? What did you try or have tried to improve? How is the result? Give just 1 example and not 2 or more weaknesses!

4. Give me an example when you had difficulties at work. How did you resolve the problems?Think about which problem did you have to face, to analyze, to find possible solutions, to try out your solutions, and to evaluate the end results? Give an example with a good end result and explain your thoughts and story!

5. I see you have a few interesting points on your resume. Could you tell me a bit more about …? That's why it is so important to be honest on the resume/CV. If the interviewer asks for a few things at once, you may give a brief explanation of each and ask him/her which ones he/she wants to hear more about.

6. Why did you leave your last job?You need to answer with honesty, but you don't need to explain the details.

• If it is due to conflicts between you and coworkers/boss, you can just say the “work atmosphere” or the “company culture” “was not very open.”

• If you didn't get the chance to learn some skills in the last company, you may also say that you couldn't fully develop your potential due to limited resources.

Expect the interviewer to ask you then what exactly did you want to learn. Again, you need to know yourself well, but if this company cannot give you what you want, you might not get the job either.

Instead of being asked all the time, you should also evaluate whether this job, this boss AND this company are a good match to you. Otherwise, you might become the target of evil employers and your job will be the beginning of a nightmare!

Think about what you can ask the interviewer. If the answer can be found on the company website, your question is considered not intelligent. So, I usually ask about the department and/or the job itself:

1. Which department do you work for? (if he/she did not inform you)

a. (if it is the department of the job vacancy) Are there any interesting projects going on in the department?Be attentive and don't interrupt. If you have a question, you may ask but don't expect to get detailed answers because certain info might be industry secret. Nonetheless, this is a good time to show your interest in what the team does.

b. (if another department but not Human Resources) Do you often have interactions with the XX department? In which areas?

2. What are the projects that I will be involved in? Could you explain these projects to me?

3. What are the short-term and long-term goals of your company/department? What kind of problems do you face as a company/department?

Finally, it's your tern to see if the interviewer is honest or not!

Please look straight into his/her eyes and don't believe everything you hear. Many people told me that everything looked nice during the interview, but nothing was right when they started working.

4. Some people will ask if the new employer will support new employees. The answer will always be positive, duh! You won't get the real answer this way. You may ask, “What kind of trainings do you have for a new employee? How long are the trainings?”

You don't have to go into too much detail because you can always negotiate with the Human Resources Dept. or with your future boss once you get the job offer.

I always write down my questions and answers to the above questions on paper (just keywords to remind myself) and review them again before the interview.

Very important! In the English business culture, no one talks about your salary or benefits during the interview. Do not bring them up either. Otherwise, the employer will think that you are just in for the money. These issues will be negotiated later if you are offered the job.

Tips:

For better communication, try to use short sentences. If you have a long sentence, break it down into several short sentences. It is easier for others to understand you this way.

If you are a non-native English speaker, you should think in English when you interview. Otherwise, you will end up having many long sentences with many grammar mistakes.