What not to do at a job interview

I am not the person who has been to the most job interviews ever, but I know I’ve made some fundamental mistakes during those I participated in. And I know for sure I’ve made the biggest mistake you can make at a job interview.

But first, let me tell you what made me remember this experience. Even though I felt absolutely crushed right after that particular interview, I’ve totally forgotten about it over the years. 

Until a few days ago when a student of mine shared this with me during our conversation session:

I was speaking very slowly, and I was looking for the right words all the time. I have mixed feelings about the job interview.

It made me remember that interview from so long ago. And I decided to share my story with him. And now with you. Because if you ever had mixed feelings about how you spoke in some situation, believe me, I know worse.

Here goes: I was in my early twenties, and I was insecure about pretty much everything. AND I was absolutely terrified to speak English. I loved the language and wanted to speak it really badly.

I knew I had the knowledge, so I should be able to speak quite alright, but when it came to it, it just was not working. Unless I’ve had a few drinks. 

Which was something I didn’t want to do before a job interview. But I was soooo nervous. I didn’t even like the job. I didn’t even want it. It was for a big corporation, and for some reason, I felt I should have a job like that.

The interview was in Czech, and it wasn’t going as horribly as I had expected. Then came the part where they wanted to test my English.

Part of it was me translating a promo text from the company’s brochure. It was not that bad. I started OK. But then I didn’t know how to translate one word.

One word.

I knew what to do with the rest of the text, but that one word… I thought I understood what it meant, but I wasn’t 100% sure.

So, logically, I didn’t say anything. I was sitting at the desk, looking at the text, my face bright red. I was sweating and feeling like a total loser. But couldn’t say a word. 

I couldn’t even look at those 3 people sitting there with me. It was embarrassing for everybody, and the interview couldn’t finish fast enough. I wanted to cry, and I thought I was gonna die.

Fast forward to the present, and here I am, helping other people with their English and telling my student that it’s totally fine to speak slowly and to look for words. But also, that usually, there is not only one „right“ way how to say something.

When the lesson ended, I started thinking about what I would say if I were in the same situation now. Well, that’s the thing. I’ve known for a while that one word doesn’t mean so much in most cases.

I could probably figure out the meaning from the context. Because my confidence is on a different level, and because I know it’s normal to make mistakes, I would not be afraid to make one or more.

But if the word I couldn’t understand seemed to be the important one, I would probably say something along the lines of:

Sorry, I am not sure what this word means.

It might be this, but I am not very sure.

Sorry, I am not sure what this word means. It might be this, but I am not very sure.

And if I was feeling too nervous, I would just say so. 

It’s not important what the level of your English is. Because you can say the same thing in many different ways. And you’ll say it the best way you can at that moment. 

It is not ideal, I know, but it’s better than keeping your mouth shut. It prevents you from getting stuck. It can even help you make a small step forward. And it shows the character of the other people involved in this situation. 

Because a job interview is a two-way street. It’s not only for them to find out if you are the right fit for them, but it’s a chance for you to figure out if they are the right one for you.

But I get it. You’d rather avoid situations like these altogether. If that’s the case, and you are struggling with your speaking but you’d like to do something about it, check out English Buddy Online, where you can practice and improve your speaking with people who are in the same boat as you.

And as (almost) always there is a Czech version of this post as well. Click the button below to get to it.