面试大闯关4: 如何介绍上一份工作
1. Would you briefly describe this company to me? 介绍一下你的原单位, 好吗?
问题分析: 当老外提出这个问题的时候, 他心里的疑问是: “这个公司我从来没有听说过, 是否是个名不见经传的小公司?”所以, 在向老外介绍自己工作单位的时候, 要着重强调公司的优点, 规模大的强调规模, 人数多的强调人数。如果你所在的公司业务总量很小, 你可以告诉面试官, 业务总量不大但是平均到每个员工的业务量却相当惊人!
回答示范: “广盛发”,the name means “a big, prosperous company”, hehe, although it’s not really a very big company. But, it’s true that the company is quite prosperous. It specializes in exporting women’s shoes. With only 10 employees so far the turnover last year was up to 15,000,000 RMB. I am one of the three customer service officers, with the responsibility of order taking, tracking and general customer service roles. Due to the limited number of staff, we all work more than 10 hours a day, 7 days a week in busy season.
2. Would you describe your typical working day? 请你描述一下自己典型的一天工作吧。
问题分析: 在这个问题上, 面试官希望捕捉到的信息点是: 第一, 这个家伙原来干的工作和我们现在这份工作到底有多少是类似的?第二, 他在原来工作单位表现到底怎么样?所以, 在描述自己的工作内容时, 要注意突出两个信息点: 第一, 用事实突出自己繁忙并且业绩不错的优点; 第二, 要着意强调一下和所申请工作类似的内容。
回答示范:Yes. I would arrive at office half an hour earlier as my boss often gives me a lot of work once he comes in, and I have to be ready for it. My responsibilities are mainly to assist the sales manager and representatives with order tracking, stock reporting, document preparation and translation, using Excel, Word and PowerPoint. When the reps are on a business trip, I will deal with their share. Two thirds of my work involves computers, working on tables and forms precisely and quickly. The rest of time is to take care of the managers and reps, you know, do what they need me to.
3. Why do you want to leave your job? 你为什么要离职?
回答示范1:To be honest, the reason I quit is that I am not pleased by my current job. My current work is in a vocational high school. Maybe I have to explain a bit more here. In China, vocational high schools are designed for the less-advanced students or the ones wanting work instead of going to university to further their education. As a result, the social status and the pay in vocational high schools are not at all satisfactory. I can never become a professor in this school. So, although teaching makes me happy, I have to leave this job because I can’t have long-term career development here.
回答示范2:The former company hasn’t done well in the past 2 years, they have to make some redundancy and our department is lucky enough to be one of them. What a pity.
回答示范3:Frankly speaking, I want to leave the job simply because I’m attracted by the position you offer. Compared with my current employer, Global Market is so much more renowned, offering a secure job and a long-term development. My current employer now offers an okay salary, but the career opportunities here are very limited because the size of business is relatively small. I think you can understand my choice.
4. What is an ideal boss like? 你最喜欢的老板是什么样子的?
问题分析: 和上个问题一样, 面试官希望了解的是: 第一, 这份工作是否会让你满意?第二, 你一定会效仿你的老板, 如果你说自己喜欢的老板是能吃苦耐劳的, 那么你往往是一个吃苦耐劳的人; 如果你说喜欢自己的老板是高屋建瓴的, 那么你往往也是一个颇为注重宏观规划的人。要格外注意的是, 如果面试你的人恰恰就是你未来的老板, 那么这个问题可要小心了, 如果你所做的描述和他的个性风马牛不相及, 可能令面试功亏一篑。
普通回答:I like democratic bosses. They can give me enough room to develop on my own, rather than giving instructions to me for every small detail.
回答示范1:Ideal boss? Well, I prefer strict bosses. Although working with strict bosses means a lot of pressure, I can grow fast with them. For new graduates, nothing is more important than developing our abilities as fast as we can.
回答示范2:Ideal boss? Let me see. Well, in my opinion, an ideal boss can effectively motivate his or her subordinates by encouraging good performance and punishing poor performance. I will feel highly motivated to do a good job if I know my boss would reward me for excellent performance.
5. What were the best aspects of your last job? 在上一份工作中, 你最喜欢的是什么地方?
问题分析: 在这个问题上, 面试官要捕捉的信息点是: 第一, 这个申请人是个什么样的人?如果你是小秘书却喜欢有挑战, 那你很可能还停留在好高骛远的不成熟阶段; 如果你喜欢原来的老板给你很大的自由发展空间, 那么你很可能是个“自由派”, 不太喜欢约束; 第二, 你所申请的工作到底是否会让你满意?如果这一份工作内容和你最喜欢的工作内容大相径庭, 比如说, 你喜欢有挑战而偏偏这份工作很细节, 那么面试官可能会因为“自惭形秽”而拒绝你的申请。
回答示范1:The best aspect of my last job? Let me see. Well, I think it was the trust of my boss. He gave me lots of room to develop myself, you know, letting me shoulder responsibilities. And I didn’t let him down. I did a good job.
回答示范2:The best aspect of my job, well, is that I can learn a lot from others. As you can imagine Carrefour has a team of high-quality staff. When working with these people I can learn a lot, you know, their attitude to see things, the way they work.
回答示范3:The best aspect of my job? I think it’s the team I work with. As a sales assistant I work with the sales reps on a daily basis. It’s so interesting to work with them, as you can imagine the sales reps are all active and humorous guys. I can learn so much from them. After working with them for a year and a half, I feel I have “inherited” their good traits. I’m tougher, more positive and a lot better at pleasing others, hehe.
6. What were the worst aspects of your last job? 在上一份工作中, 你最讨厌的是什么地方?
问题分析: 这是一个比较棘手的一个问题, 说得虚伪了没有人相信, 说得太真实又唯恐令面试官反感。
回答示范1:The worst aspect of my current job is definitely lack of job security. My pay was delayed twice in the four months since I’ve worked there. I joined this company in hope of helping the boss to grow a small business into a bigger one. However, it proved a lot more difficult than I expected. The boss is very reluctant to invest in promotion. As a result, business has been rather slow.
回答示范2:I have to work six days a week in my current job. You know it’s against the Labor Law but it’s the normal practice in many factories in Dongguan. It would be quite alright for me to work on Saturday occasionally, but certainly not every Saturday.
回答示范3:The worst part of my current job is that it’s too quiet. As it’s a branch liaison office it only has five people. And I don’t have enough workload. Sometimes I have little to do for the whole week! I really feel bored of working there. I’d like to have a busier job. You know, more responsibilities, more sense of achievement.
7. What were some of your achievements in your last job? 在上一份工作中你有哪些成就?
问题分析: 一个颠扑不破的面试哲学是: 在上一份工作中有成就的, 才有可能在新工作中有成就。在回答这个问题的时候, 一般要遵守一个原则: 用事实与数字说话。
回答示范1:I was named “Employee of the Year,”for the highest level of accuracy of all 18 bank tellers last year.
回答示范2:I increased sales approximately 100% in three years. Last year I personally sold 1.5 million Yuan worth of services and was ranked number 2 in the entire company among 14 sales reps.
回答示范3:I suggested to my boss that we should create a new type of customer satisfaction survey. This suggestion was applied later and effectively reduced customer complaints.
8. What were some of the disappointments in your last job? 在上一份工作中你比较失望的地方或者失败是什么?
问题分析: 这个问题相当棘手。太真实可能会吓坏面试官, 太虚伪又没法令人相信。比较好的应对方式是, 给对方列举一些非致命的失败, 同时, 这些失败是由于自己所订立的目标比较高。
普通回答:Disappointments? There were some. I couldn’t get an A in the annual evaluation. I got B, which was not bad, but certainly not good enough.
回答示范:I failed to achieve the sales target last year, I sold a million and a half but the target was two million. Our Beijing headquarters is having some problems and can’t provide effective pre-sales support for us. Failing to reach the target is a big disappointment for me.
9. How would you evaluate the progress you made in your last job? 你如何来评价自己在上一份工作中的表现?
问题分析: 对于在上一份工作中表现平平的申请人, 这个问题简直如芒刺在背, 痛苦啊。但是, 哪怕面壁三天、 掘地三尺也要想出一两个你在上一份工作中的亮点, 否则, 只能在面试时芒刺在背了。
回答示范1:I am very proud of the progress I made in my last job. I joined the company as a new hand, but after only a year and a half, I was promoted to team leader. I could achieve such a rapid progress partly because my last job was in a small firm. If I can make the same progress in a large company like GE, I would be prouder.
回答示范2:Well, I would give myself 70% if 100 means full satisfaction. I had some achievements in my last job. For example, I got 80-89% in the annual evaluation last year, which was 60%. The promotion program I organized on Wangfujing Road was highly successful and my client was very pleased. However, the results of several other programs were not quite satisfactory due to some reasons I couldn’t control. Actually that’s why I want to quit.
10. What pressures did you have in your last job and how did you manage them? 你工作中有什么压力, 你是怎么样应付的?
问题分析: 平庸的人往往感受不到压力, 有能力的人往往在工作中遭遇很大的压力, 同时, 他们处理压力的方法也是相当积极有效的。
回答示范1:In my current job, most pressure comes from the high sales target. It’s extremely difficult to meet the target because it’s a 30% increase over the sales of last year, and the sales of last year were already quite high. However, I can manage this pressure well because although I can’t meet the sales target, my sales abilities have never been challenged by my boss and others. Six out of seven sales reps can’t meet the target this year and I am actually quite close to it.
回答示范2:Well, I have to meet deadlines in my current job. Some projects have a very tight schedule, and even if we do a lot of over time work it’s still hard to meet the deadline. This gives me a lot of pressure. Usually I manage the pressure by communicating honestly with my boss. If he can understand me I feel relaxed.
回答示范3:There are many emergencies in my current job, you know, customer challenges, unexpected orders. As the customer service officer with the longest experience I am usually put in charge of handling emergencies,you know, like a firefighter. This gives me lots of pressure because I can’t let my boss down. I could handle these pressures well, partly because I’m used to them.
11. Sometimes a work assignment requires frequent travel. How do you feel about the prospect of frequent travel? 有时候工作需要你经常出差, 你怎么看?
问题分析: 如果你兴高采烈地说: “哦, 出差是免费旅游的好机会呀!”面试官只能哑然失笑或者苦笑, 因为你太天真了, 对于绝大多数人来说, 出差绝对不是“美差”而是“苦差”。所以, 在这个问题上, 面试官要捕捉的信息点有两个: 第一, 这个家伙成熟了没有?他对于这份职位本身的缺陷有没有心理上的准备?第二, 这个家伙到底会采用什么样的方法, 避免出差损害了自己的身体健康, 并令精神萎靡不振?所以说, 面试官不想听大话和空话, 他要听的是一些实实在在的小措施, 能够让你常出差而不会太辛苦。
回答示范1:I traveled a lot in my last job. I traveled almost every week. As far as I know, this job requires travel, but not every week. So it wouldn’t be worse than my last one.
回答示范2:I am very lucky that I can eat and sleep very well on trips. I’ve never been carsick, and even when sitting on a train I can sleep well. So, I never need to worry about frequent traveling.
回答示范3:I don’t worry about frequent travel because my daughter is taken care of by my parents, who are both well-educated scholars. It is not a big deal for them to educate a two-year-old little thing.
12. Most employees and bosses have some disagreements. How did you react to these disagreements in your last job? 很多雇员都和老板有意见相左的时候, 在上一份工作中, 你是如何处理和老板意见不同的情况的?
问题分析: 这个问题通常会提给有几年工作经验的申请人。在这个问题上, 面试官希望捕捉的信息点是: 第一, 他是一个有主见的人, 还是一个唯老板之命是从的人?第二, 他是更信任自己的老板, 还是更信任自己?第三, 在真正意见相左的时候, 他是否能够高效地解决问题?
回答示范1:My last boss was very democratic. He always listened to our opinions and gave us enough opportunities to defend them. So we never had any trouble communicating with each other when having disagreements.
回答示范2:When I have disagreements with my boss, my first reaction is to double-check my opinions. My boss is an expert and he’s been proven right most of the time. If I do believe I’m right or partially right, I provide my boss with a detailed report listing all facts and numbers to prove my opinion. Because my boss is extremely busy, I need to make the report simple but powerful, to help him make the decision.