Vocabulary for Job Interviews: Qualities
| This is the first entry in the Vocabulary for Job Interviews series. This entry is available as a Adobe Acrobat file for printing or use in a class. This entry includes a listening exercises. You can dowload the MP3 or play it using the button below. (MP3) |
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Yesterday we talked about abilities, skills, talents and qualifications. And, while they’re important in most job interviews, they aren’t the only thing that is important. Your future boss will want to know if you’re hard-working, if you’re intelligent, and if you can learn quickly. Are those skills? Not really. Are they talents? That’s not the right word, either.
We’re talking about your qualities. Before you listen to the recording, you might want some paper to take notes on. The vocabulary moves a little bit quickly, so here are a list of the terms you will be hearing. This list is only of the ‘positive’ vocabulary. As you make your notes, you’ll want to write down what the word means, as well as what the opposite of the word is. (That’s the ‘negative’ vocabulary.)
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professional
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friendly
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knowledgeable
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communicative
If you think that that’s a lot of vocabulary for a few minutes of listening, you’re right. So you might want to write the vocabulary down now—leaving space to make notes as you listen—to save you time when you’re listening.
Now listen to the recording.
Writing Practice
The odds are you knew some of the words, so you only have to focus on practicing the words that are new to you. Look at your list of vocabulary—now, you should have the four words above, plus their opposites, or eight words—and mark the words you weren’t sure before you listened to the recording. Those are the words you’ll want to practice.
For each word, my advice is to make three sentences. For the first, write a sentence about yourself. Say if the word fits you, or not, and give an example. Then think of another person who the word fits, and write a sentence about that person, giving an example. And lastly, think of a person that the word doesn’t fit, and write a sentence about that person, and use the word and it’s opposite.
For example, if I want to practice the word hard-working, I might write these three sentences:
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I’m a professional person. I can work with my boss, even though I privately think he’s an idiot.
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My friend Rob is very professional. He is very serious about what he does.
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My friend Sue isn’t professional. She’s unprofessional.
Everything clear? Remember, if you put your practice sentences in the comments at Bite-Sized-English.com, I’ll be glad to correct them for you.
