So, it says here, E, that you heard about the job from Mickey Mouse?
Hi.
I'm going to do a video that I haven't done before, or an unusual one.
I'm going to do one on interviews.
I like doing videos on communication, and I realize that one of the things you guys
are doing is not just talking to people on the streets, not just trying to make friends
out there, but you're actually trying to get jobs.
And this video, I'm going to highlight five questions that you are very likely to run
into when you go to an interview in North America.
So, as you can see, Mr. E's got his tie on.
And he's ready for the interview, and I'm going to give you these five questions to
help give you some things you can actually say, and understanding what they're asking
you so you'll be properly prepared.
Now, to start off, I have to say this.
When you're going for a job, research.
They do expect you now to have some idea about the company, because we're in the 21st century,
and they know you've heard of Google and internet.
So, this is based on research, saying that you do your research on the company, then
use the information I'm going to give you, and you should do really, really well.
Okay, so let's look at the first question, which is "Tell me about yourself".
Well, this question is really about "Who are you?"
And they want to know if you're going to be okay for this job, because they want to have
Now, when they're asking this question, you don't want to answer it with too much information.
You want to get their attention so they get to know who you are, and they want to know
Don't forget, it's an interview.
There are going to be plenty more questions.
So, this one is "Tell me about yourself".
Now, what I suggest you do for this is I want you to do - because they do want you to touch
on your activities you do, your education and whatnot, but basically, they're looking
for a story, the story of you.
The best way to do this is to showcase yourself.
Like, put a frame around yourself, and what we're going to do is - I've got a couple of
videos you might want to look at as I explain this.
It's how to do a thesis and how to write an essay.
They're older ones, older videos, but they're still helpful.
I'll tell you how to bridge the story I'm about to tell you.
With a story, what you want to do is have an exciting beginning.
In this case, you might want to talk about - and I'll give you an example in a second
- an exciting beginning, a captivating middle, something that keeps drawing them in, and
then the thesis or the - sorry, your conclusion is going to be kind of snuck into how you're
going to solve a problem for them.
They want to get to know you, and you're going to sneak in a solution for their problem while
You know they're looking for somebody who's an independent worker that can get a problem
Tenacious is the word that means "won't give up".
When I was a kid, I lived in a small town, and there was a store called Becker's, and
this guy had had a sign looking for help, and I wanted to get a job.
My parents would let me finally get one, so I went to the store and asked for the job,
put in my resume, said, "No, don't want to kid you, you're too young."
I came back three days later, "No, I don't want to kid you, you're too ugly."
Came down four days later, he's like, "I don't want to kid you because you keep putting your
I went for this thing eight times.
I kept showing up every other day going, "You haven't hired anyone, I'm still here, I'm
He finally gave me the job because I showed up.
And that's how I'll help your company, because I'm a tenacious individual who will work for
See how I went from explaining to them who I am, I come from a small town, when I was
younger I wanted to work, so I'm saying I like to work, and then I kept working at something
I wanted to get even though they refused me, saying, "This is what I will bring for you."
I'm solving a problem for them because I know they need that solved, but I also get to showcase
And go check out those older videos and I'll show you how to write an essay and how you
can formulate something for yourself.
Cool?
How did you hear about the company?
Really what they want to know is how do we know - how did you find out about us?
Because there are three ways you can find out about a company, and each way tells them
a little bit about how much they may want you or how much you know about their company.
A friend told you, you were referred.
That means they know there's somebody in the company who thinks you're pretty good.
And they also know if that person's pretty good at work or not, but that's another subject.
But if you know someone in the company, it's kind of an in because they're like, "Okay,
they recommended you because they're putting their reputation on the line for you."
The next one is you were recruited.
And if you say, "I was recruited", what that means is that another company came and saw
that I have the skills that this company needs and they knew that you would be a good fit.
That's also a good way to get in there.
The third way doesn't seem like a good way to know a company because you could say, "Well,
I was looking for a job."
But if you say, "I was looking for a company that suited or needed my skill set, the things
I know", then they know you're an investigator, you're somebody who does research, which is
See?
How did you hear about this company?
You can turn around and say, well, for them they're saying, "Who knows you?"
But you can turn around and say, "In each of these cases, this is why you should hire
me because people in your company already like me.
Number two, other people in the industry know that I'm good at what I do and I should be
Number three, I'm a person who goes out and gets what I want, right?
So in this instance, you can say, "Hey, John from accounting," and you want to say where
they are from so they can go and talk to this person and you're not just making up, "John
from accounting said that you had this problem and he knows about my skill set and thought
I'd be a good fit for this job."
Number two, I was recruited by one of the top recruiters in this industry because they
noticed that I do a pretty good job at what I do and they noticed that you needed this
role filled and they thought I would be the person to solve that problem.
Number three, I have acquired a lot of skills over my time and expertise and I wanted a
company I could work at that I could use these skills, that they would be well used.
Boom.
Three different answers, three different things you can say.
Let's go to number three, okay?
Next question they might ask you is, "What are your salary expectations?"
What they're really saying is, "Can we afford you?
Now, this is a really tricky place because you might have lots of experience and they
might want someone for the job, but money can be a really big deal because that could
be what we call a deal breaker.
If they can't afford you, even though they need you, they won't hire you because they
You can say something like this, "Well, my salary range depends on what duties you would
expect me to do, and if we could discuss more the responsibilities, duties, and opportunities,
then I could see what we could work out."
You're being flexible, but you're also being, well, you're being fair to yourself.
You're saying, "I'm not just going to work for a dollar, but if you offer me opportunities
or I get a certain title or certain benefits, I'm willing to work on the price with you,
so I may not be out of your price range."
Another one you can say is this, "Well, the salary range for this particular job is X
or O, so it's like $10,000 to $20,000, and I know with my expertise I'm probably on the
higher end, but let's see what we can work together on.
Let's talk about this a little bit more, what you want me to do and the responsibilities
and benefits that would come with the job."
Once again, you're showing that you're flexible, so there's a possibility they can afford you,
and you're asking them to talk to you more about the jobs.
This is important because the more time they spend with you, the more likely they will
want to hire you because they've invested time in you, even if they haven't invested
Now number four, they might ask you, "Hey, are you more of an independent worker or a
This is about corporate culture, right?
So they're asking you, "Do you like working with other people or by yourself?"
This is kind of a trick question, even though they don't mean it.
Your answer should be, "I like the best of both worlds."
Yes, it's great if you're an independent worker, but if they're working in Silicon Valley and
they all have meetings where they all get together and brainstorm, which is talk about
ideas, and you say you're an independent worker, you're saying, "I wouldn't fit in that environment."
Now, what happens if they have to give you assignments and you have to go fly to different
places and work on your own, and you're like, "Well, I like working with a team and having
I like the best of both worlds says, "Hey, listen," and you can structure it like this.
I like the best of both worlds because I find when I work with a team, they bring up a bunch
of diverse ideas, I can have feedback on any ideas that I have, and we can collaborate,
and sometimes there are other ideas that are better than mine that I can incorporate in
But I'm the type of person, once I've got that direction, I can work independently and
do a really good job on my own.
You defeat their trick question by saying, "I like both," but you're outlining why both,
so you're not just trying to like, "I'll do whatever you say, boss."
You're like, "Hey, I can work by myself, and I can do that, and I like doing it efficiently
because I can focus, but at the same time, I can work with others when necessary," and
it is necessary at times if you want the best results.
Because no company has you sitting by yourself at all times, and no company will have you
working with others at all times, so you are actually offering them what they need.
Now, number five, if you're learning English, I know some of you are actually in school,
you might not be 16 or 17, you might be 20 or 30, and even if that's not the case and
you've been - you've just had to take care of your mother or something, sometimes on
your resume or your - yeah, your resume, you're going to - or application, what have you,
And a gap means there's going to be time off where you weren't working, and an employer
might look at that and go, "Hey, there was like two years you weren't working, like what
And it's a fair question, right?
Like, everyone needs money, you didn't need money, why didn't you need it?
Here's how you turn that gap time off into your advantage.
You say something like, "Well, yeah, I did, I took some time off from the corporate world
because I realized there were some skills I needed to get, and I wasn't getting it in
the environment I was, so I had to change the job I was doing or I had to change what
I was doing in order to learn and master these skills so I could come back a much more valuable
employee."
Yeah, a valuable colleague for people or someone they could work with and depend on.
You might have worked on a yacht, and it's like, "Yeah, because I wanted to learn the
ins and outs of how corporates are structured, a structure like that would work, and having
to work on the bottom and work my way up gave me more confidence to be a better employee
now."
Or, for you guys, it's easy, "I left Japan and I went to Canada to learn to speak English."
I mean, you can't say much more than that, it's like, "Yep, self-improvement."
And even if it's something personal, like you had to take care of your family, you said,
"Look, you know, my Uncle Zane was sick, and he needs someone to take care of him,
and I know what priorities are.
Just as I would prioritize my work when someone is of ill health, I will take that priority
That doesn't mean I wouldn't be here for the company.
It means when I know something's serious, I'm the type of person who takes the time
and takes it seriously, and I'll put the time in where required."
I got a tear from that, that was good, and I just made it up, but you can do that as
well.
So, these, as I was saying, are five questions that you're probably going to run into, okay,
I have now given you the tools that you can take - I mean, I gave you some speeches, and
I want you to watch the video again.
Maybe you'll write some down, but you'll have some ideas of how you can take it yourself
so you're not like, "Oh my gosh, tell me about myself," and you start talking about something
They do want a story, and I said showcase, make it small, and make that story work at
the conclusion that you have an attribute or something that they want.
An attribute is like a detail that they need or want.
When you want to know how - when they want to know how you heard about them, put it and
frame it in such a way that it always works out to their advantage.
I'm one of the best, that's why I was recruited.
The best in your company or people in your company thought I should work here, that's
I looked for the best company.
Who doesn't like being called the best?
I looked for the best company, you're it, and that's why I'm here, because I have these
skills I want to use with you.
Salary expectations, well, I have a range.
So don't - if you want $75,000, don't say $75,000.
Say listen, I know I'm looking between $73,000 and $80,000, I have the experience and I have
the ability and I want to work, and let's negotiate depending on what you're offering
in the ways of title, benefits, and opportunities.
That says you're flexible, we can negotiate, right?
Next, corporate culture, I gave you that one as well, right?
You want to be the best of both worlds and you want to use something like that, like
I can work in both environments really well.
And then finally, if you do have time off, you already understand what you have to say.
The time was taken to improve yourself, so find something you did during that time period,
shows how it makes you a better person, a better employee, and then show how that would
Now that we've done that, I don't really have a quiz, because this is more of a learning
thing where you're going to have to go over and think about it, but I do have some extra
stuff I want to share with you, so make sure you come back and watch the rest of the video.
Okay.
So now we've talked about the interview, I want to give you a couple of terms, a little
bit of a deeper understanding of some of the words I used or terms I used, throw out a
I'm not doing a quiz on this one, because as I said, it's best to actually go over the
video again and actually write out some of the things that I said, because your story
is unique and you cannot just answer with what I said, and if you could imagine a whole
bunch of people using my exact words in an interview, they'd be like, "So you watched
You all said the exact same thing.
You need to change your words."
So that, I'll give you your homework, and then I'll do the quote of the day.
The first one I want to talk about is "elevator pitch".
You say, "You never mentioned it."
But a great way to describe that question for "So tell me about yourself" is an elevator
An elevator pitch is done in business, right?
And what they do is, they say, imagine you're in an elevator, you're on the ground floor,
you're going to the 15th floor, how long do you have to talk to someone?
Well, within that time, you will have to explain something to someone complicated, or even
something simple, so you're going to need two or three sentences, you're going to have
to have an opening, a middle in which you explain it, and then the end - this is the
key - where they're like it, but there's a bit of curiosity where they want to know a
You don't want to just give them their shot.
When they're done, they should go, "That's really cool.
That's the elevator pitch, okay?
So that's what we want to do for that question of "Who are you?"
So by the time you finish speaking about who you are, they're like, "Wow, that's cool",
That means they're paying more attention to you, and they're more likely to hire you.
When I said if it's $73,000 to $80,000, it means what is the number - from the lowest
Now, salary range also usually means in an industry - if you're an engineer, for instance,
you might start out - so a beginning engineer with no experience might start out with $70,000
a year, but an engineer with five years of experience, a lot of experience, may go to
$110,000, and that's usually the minimum and the maximum for that particular job.
When we discussed it, you were talking about your salary range, but you should also know
the industry salary range for the job you're going for.
So if you're going for an engineer, research it, and research what part of the world you're
in, because being in England might be one thing, being in Australia might be another
So find out what the range is so that you can make your salary range fit within their
And if you're really exceptional, screw it.
A job offer is someone saying, "This is the job we require done.
This is what we're going to pay with the benefits and any opportunities that are available with
So when you say, "What is the job offer?", you're not just saying, "Do I get money?"
Yes, but what's the title, what's the pay, are there benefits, what are the learning
Cool?
And salary expectations, they're saying, "What is it you expect to get paid?"
This is what we were talking about, the salary range, where it's in between.
When they ask you salary expectations, it's not a bad thing.
Some people might go, "Oh, you're playing games and you're saying this."
Well, the matter - the fact of the matter is you might want to work for a company.
And giving them an exact number might price you out of the market.
Price you out of the market means you make yourself too expensive for them to hire.
So by giving them a range, you're saying, "Let's work together."
Because really, if you really wanted to work for the company, if you didn't get an extra
thousand dollars, are you going to say no to the opportunity?
Are they going to allow you to learn and grow?
No.
But at the same time, to give an exact number, not the best thing, I think, strategy when
Give them the range, and if you've done your homework, right?
You have to research the company.
You'll know what they can afford, and if they can't afford you, they're not going to hire