Personality questions and job interviews

Week 19 is here. We started out the week in usual fashion, with “free-talk” on Monday. Again, I am continually impressed with how well you guys handle this task.

Tuesday’s main topic was job interviews. The question that we started out with was:

Have you ever had an interview? or Have you ever had a job interview?
I think most people have not had job interviews so I expected Charles and Chang-bo to share their experiences with their classmates. They both did a good job with this. Actually, many people had interview experiences for part-time jobs or for university entrance.

We thought about some common interview questions. One question that stuck out was, “What would you do if your kid was sick and you had an important interview?”
This question is both interesting and a good example of the second conditional. Other common questions that we looked at include:

Tell me about yourself. (not really a question but more of a command)
How would a good friend describe you?
How well do you work with other people?
What was the most recent you’ve read?
Why should I hire you?

We spent some time using these questions to make a conversation. Other examples of common job interview questions (in the states) can be found here.

On Wednesday we took a few minutes to practice some of the above questions and then started a personality test. I asked everyone to answer just yes/no to each of this statements.

1. I learn more by reading than by group discussions.
2. Money can bring happiness.
3. The best way to deal with people is to tell them what they want to hear.
4. Love is more important than success.
5. Being lucky is the most important thing for getting a good job.
6. Fate controls our lives.
7. People should admit their mistakes.
8. Nice people have many friends.
9. A good leader lets people make choices.
10. Traditions are important.

After answering the questions alone, everyone talked about their answers with a partner. Then all the students tried to guess what my answers would be. Were you surprised? Why? After break the next job was to talk to a new partner and think about each persons answers and what they mean about that person’s personality. I thought this was quite interesting.

Next, we had to imagine that these were job interview questions (they sometimes are!) and we had to think about what the “correct” answers would be. Why did I say “correct“? Well, because there are actually not any correct answers to these questions. Every answer is simply just someones opinion. We spent a lot of time considering what interviewers would want to hear in an interview. My next question to consider was what the “right” answers would be for someone applying to become a member of a religious group. Of course, these “correct” answers were often different than the “correct” answers in a job interview.

At the end of class we talked about some words and phrases that came up during Wednesday’s class. They were:

gut feeling I cannot explain it, my gut feeling gave me all the answers I needed.

white lie Is telling a white lie really lying?

flattery “Flattery makes friends and truth makes enemies.”

a compliment “Compliments can make a whale dance.“

fifty-fifty I really cannot decide. It is fifty-fifty
(don’t forget about sixty-forty, seventy-thirty and so on)

luck “Luck is what happens when preparations meets opportunity.”

lucky Sometimes it is better to be lucky than good.

Of course there are some errors to review too!

I very hate that idea. >>> I hate that idea very much.

Last year I went to abroad. >>> I went abroad last year./Last year I went abroad.

In my case >>> OK. “In my case” is actually English and I cannot say that it is wrong…BUT it is not so common. I would suggest, “for me” as a much more natural phrase. In my case, I don’t think that I have ever said “In my case” in America. Good job today guys. Tomorrow we will have a personality test. I hope you are ready!

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