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BEP 226 – Conducting a Job Interview in English (2)

Business English, Human Resources, Job Interview English /

Conducting an interview in English (2)

In this Business English Pod lesson, we continue our look at how to conduct a job interview in English.

The interview is a crucial step in the hiring process. You have the opportunity to sit down with a candidate and get as much useful information as possible. And to get good information, you need to set the right tone and ask good questions. You also need techniques for getting people to explain and elaborate on ideas. The more details you can get from someone, the better. And hopefully you can figure out if the person is right for the job and for your company.

Good techniques for conducting interviews can help you in many other situations. Any time you need to evaluate a person, or a person’s company, you will use the same techniques. Imagine you need to contract an Internet marketing company. You will probably sit down with someone to ask them questions. Or imagine you have a paper salesman in your office. Again, you will need to ask him some good questions to evaluate his company.

Today, we’ll learn some great interviewing techniques, including how to ask stress questions and hypothetical questions. We’ll also learn about echoing someone to encourage them to speak more and calling someone on an evasive answer. And finally we’ll learn about giving the candidate a chance to ask questions of their own.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Sandy and Lee, who are interviewing Maria. Sandy and Lee are looking for someone to lead their company’s expansion into Asia.

Listening Questions

1. What does Maria say she does that Sandy repeats in order to encourage more detail?
2. What type of situation does Sandy ask Maria to imagine?
3. What does Sandy give Maria the chance to do at the end of the interview?

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BEP 225 – Conducting a Job Interview in English (1)

Business English, Human Resources, Job Interview English /

Conducting an interview in English (1)

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on conducting an interview in English.

How do you assess potential employees? Or contractors? Or business partners? Or anyone, for that matter? Well, you can look at a person’s resume or CV. And for more information you can google someone. But that’s never enough to really get an idea about someone. What we rely on are interviews, which can be very powerful tools. Interviews give us a chance to meet someone face-to-face, to ask tough questions, to find out how they solve problems, and to really get a sense of how they interact.

Asking someone questions face-to-face is not only important for job interviews. There are a wide range of situations where interview techniques are useful. Say you want to build a relationship with a new supplier. You’ll want to ask some questions and get to know the company. Or maybe you want to contract a tech support company. You’ll want to do interviews to see who is the right fit.

Interviewing is a skill, just like being interviewed. And there are some excellent techniques that you can learn to become a better interviewer. Today, we’ll look at how to make someone feel comfortable, how to ask open-ended questions, and how to get someone to give recommendations and provide more detail.

In the dialog, we’ll hear Sandy and Lee interviewing Maria. Sandy and Lee work for an international fast moving consumer goods – or FMCG – company that is expanding into Asia. They are looking for the right person to lead this expansion.

Listening Questions

1. What aspect of Maria’s work does Sandy want to hear more about?
2. What does Sandy want Maria’s “thoughts” about?
3. Which idea does Lee want Maria to explain in more detail?

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BEP 224 – Financial English: Discussing a Budget (2)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, English Collocations, Finance and Accounting /

In this Business English Pod lesson, we continue our look at vocabulary and collocations for discussing a budget.

A budget is a plan for spending money. And you’ll often hear the word “budget” used as a noun. But “budget” is also a verb. We can budget carefully or poorly. We can budget not only money but also time. And how we budget can help or harm our business. If we spend too much money, we may decrease profits. But if we don’t spend enough money, the business may not grow or thrive. It’s all about balance.

A typical budget includes a long list of items that we need to spend money on. And in a budget meeting, you’ll hear people talk, or argue, about where to spend more and where to spend less. So, how do we do this? Well, in today’s dialog, we’ll learn some of the common expressions we use when we discuss budgets.

Before we listen, let’s talk a little about English collocations. A collocation is a group of words that native speakers often use together. A correct collocation sounds natural, while an incorrect collocation sounds unnatural. For example, in English we say “budget cuts” to talk about lower spending. But we can’t say “budget slices” or “budget chops,” even though “slice” and “chop” mean “cut.” Those simply aren’t natural expressions.

You’ll hear many useful collocations in today’s dialog. As you listen, try to pick out these natural combinations of words. Then we’ll explain what they mean and how to use them in the debrief.

Today we’ll rejoin Kate, Harry, and Linda as they discuss the budget for their IT department. Kate and Harry are managers, and Linda is their supervisor. Last time, they talked about the past year’s budget. Today, you’ll hear them making a plan for the upcoming year.

Listening Questions

1. What does Kate say the finance department wants to focus on?
2. What is Harry’s concern about replacing the workstations?
3. What does Kate think can be changed to save money?

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BEP 223 – Financial English: Discussing a Budget (1)

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, English Collocations, Finance and Accounting /

Welcome back to Business English Pod for today’s lesson on financial English vocabulary and discussing a budget.

Budgets aren’t just for accountants. Almost everyone in business has to talk about money and how to spend it. It doesn’t matter if you’re a manager with a million dollar budget or a field tech just tracking your expenses. You’ll be talking about money and budgets.

In fact, talk about budgets is everywhere. Turn on the news and it’s not hard to hear people discussing budget “cuts” or budget “reductions.” You can hear about governments with budget “deficits” and budget “surpluses.” Everyone’s worried about money, and in business, earning more often means spending less. These are the topics you’ll hear about today.

Before we listen, let’s talk a little about collocations. A collocation is a group of words that native speakers often use together. A correct collocation sounds natural, while an incorrect collocation sounds unnatural. For example, in English we say “budget cuts” to talk about lower spending. But we can’t say “budget slices” or “budget chops,” even though “slice” and “chop” mean “cut.” Those simply aren’t natural expressions.

You’ll hear many useful collocations in today’s dialog. As you listen, try to pick out these natural combinations of words. Then we’ll explain what they mean and how to use them in the debrief.

You’re going to hear a conversation between two managers in the IT department of a large company and their boss. Kate and Harry are the managers, and Linda is the boss. They’re discussing the past year’s budget and how they spent their department’s money.

Listening Questions

1. What does Linda want to examine first?
2. What does Harry say about the large one-time cost the department had?
3. According to Linda, what is finance concerned about?

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BEN 21 – Business Trends for 2013

Business English, Business English Vocabulary, Business News, English Collocations /

Business Trends for 2013

In this Business English News lesson, we take a look at the prospects for 2013.

As the world rang in 2013, many analysts and commentators feel that it’s time to pull out the crystal ball and try to determine what’s in store in the coming 12 months. As the OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria explains, there’s still a lot of work to do.

The world economy is far from being out of the woods. The US ”˜debt ceiling debate’, if it materializes, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro area crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn. Governments must act decisively, using all the tools at their disposal to turn confidence around and boost growth and jobs.

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