Coming next — Job Interview Series

. Tell me about yourself
How to start naturally and choose what is relevant.

. Talk about a mistake
How to answer without making yourself look bad — and show what you learned.

. Why do you want this job?
How to give a genuine answer instead of the usual “Because I’m interested in the position.”

. Questions to ask at the end
Probably the most useful one to finish the series: what to ask, what not to ask, and how to sound interested without sounding rehearsed.

JOB INTERVIEW ENGLISH: “TELL ME ABOUT YOURSELF”

It sounds simple. It isn’t.

When an interviewer asks this, you don’t need to tell them everything about yourself. Give them a quick picture of who you are professionally.

A simple way to build your answer:

WHERE YOU ARE NOW → RELEVANT EXPERIENCE → WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR

You can start naturally with:

“Well, I’m currently working as…”

“At the moment, I mainly…”

“I’ve been working in this field for…”

Then connect it to your experience:

“Before that, I…”

“I also had the opportunity to…”

“One thing I’ve learned from that experience is…”

And finish by connecting yourself to the job:

“What I’m looking for now is…”

“I’d like to develop my experience in…”

“That’s one of the reasons this position caught my attention.”

Don’t try to tell your whole story.

Choose 2 or 3 things that make the interviewer want to ask you more.

A good answer should open the conversation — not finish it.

JOB INTERVIEW ENGLISH: “TELL ME ABOUT A MISTAKE YOU MADE”

This question can make you nervous.

But the interviewer isn’t necessarily looking for a perfect person.

They want to know what you do when something goes wrong.

You can keep your answer simple:

THE SITUATION → WHAT YOU DID → WHAT YOU LEARNED

Useful ways to start:

“There was a time when I…”

“I remember one situation where…”

“Earlier in my career, I made the mistake of…”

Then explain what happened:

“The problem was that…”

“I realised that I should have…”

“What I did was…”

And most importantly, show what changed afterwards:

“Since then, I’ve…”

“It taught me to…”

“Now, I always make sure that…”

For example:

“Earlier in my career, I sometimes left tasks until the last minute. One week, I underestimated how long a project would take and I missed a deadline. Since then, I’ve started breaking larger tasks into smaller steps and setting earlier deadlines for myself.”

Notice the important part?

You don’t spend the whole answer talking about the mistake.

You spend more time showing what you did about it.

A mistake can become a good interview answer when it shows that you learn and improve.