Receiving a job interview is an exciting opportunity to demonstrate your professional and interpersonal skills for a potential employer. As organisations increasingly focus on global industry and connections, having professional English skills is a huge benefit that can set you apart from competitors. We’ve curated some tips from ULC’s English Lessons For Professionals course to show you how to demonstrate your English skills and cultural competence leading up to a job interview.
1. Resume/CV writing
Your resume is the first thing a potential employer will read about you, so it’s essential to make an excellent first impression. Having strong written English skills will demonstrate attention to detail and general competence, increasing your chances of receiving a job interview. It’s crucial to understand the vernacular and conventions associated with professional written English so that you avoid mistakes that reflect poorly on your English skills. In our English Lessons for Professionals course, our industry teachers demonstrate proper English use in professional contexts and help you develop the skills to create a clear, concise and compelling resume.
2. Cover letter writing
A cover letter is your opportunity to express your personality, work ethic and professional objective through a brief explanation of your professional achievements. Here, you can get creative and show off your communication skills. Try using industry-specific vocabulary and more complex and varied sentence structures. Although you can tell an employer that you possess strong communication skills, demonstrating them through a dynamic and artful cover letter is much more effective. If you’re providing a cover letter for an English-speaking company outside of Singapore, you should familiarise yourself with the cover letter writing conventions of the home country. ULC’s English class for professionals outlines how to do this and more so that you can give yourself the best chance of being invited to a formal job interview.
3. Responding in professional English
Whether over email or in person, you have to respond to questions and comments in professional sounding English. When responding to a potential employer, you won’t have the opportunity to double-check words or look up grammatical conventions; your responses are quick and must reflect your understanding of how English is used in the workplace. The last thing you want is to write an excellent resume and cover letter only to show in a job interview that your communication skills are lacking in person. You can improve your use of professional English through personal study and ULC’s courses such as the English Lessons for Professionals course. These courses will give you the opportunity to practice real-world interview scenarios so when you are offered a job interview, you can approach it with confidence.
4. Posture and dressing
Before you speak in a job interview, the interviewer will make judgments based on your presentation. If you are dressed sloppily, it will convey that you are not taking the job interview seriously or don’t have an attention to detail. If you are slouched in your seat, are fidgety or look uncomfortable, your interviewer may sense that you lack the self-assurance required to excel in their company. Take some time before your interview to think carefully about the clothes you decide to wear; make sure they are appropriate for the position. In other words, ‘dress for the job you want.’
Ace Your Job Interview with ULC’s help
A job interview doesn’t have to be complicated or frightening; with the proper preparation, you can breeze through the interview process confident that you have effectively demonstrated your communication and presentation skills. To prepare to enter an English-speaking workplace, ULC’s English Lessons for Professionals course will provide you with insights from English speakers with experience in professional contexts across various industries in Singapore and internationally. Give yourself the best chance of succeeding in the workplace and sign up for an English class with ULC today.
