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SkimaTalk Official Course

Advanced Interviewing Skills Lesson 2: Describing Your Areas for Improvement

1.  Describing Your Strengths

2.  Describing Your Areas for Improvement

3.  Describing Your Accomplishments

4.  Describing Your Leadership Abilities

5.  Bringing it All Together

Advanced Interviewing Skills

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Today’s Lesson!

Session Guidelines

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Your session with your SkimaTalk instructor will be structured as follows:

Introduction / briefing

Practice interview – “your areas for improvement” (info. on page 10)

Teacher feedback / discussion

5 min

10 min

5 min

5 min

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Repeat practice interview

Spend 2 – 3 minutes reviewing the content on pages 5-7. Answer any student questions.

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Preparation�

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During an Interview, Expect to be Asked About Your Areas for Improvement

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The question can take many forms, such as:

l  “Please describe your top weaknesses.”

l  “What are the areas in which you need to improve?”

l  “What are some skills that you wish you had?”

l  “What are the biggest skill gaps on your resume?”

l  “Are there any skills this job requires that you currently need to improve on?”

Be Prepared to Discuss Your Areas for Improvement and an Example of Each in Action

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Area for Improvement: “I tend to procrastinate” Example: “Often, I have to work really late the night before a deadline to finish a project. But I always get the work done.”

Area for Improvement: “I need to work on attention to detail” Example: “Sometimes, my colleagues find formatting errors in my PowerPoint presentations. Lately, I have been focused on improving this.”

Turn Your Weakness Into a Strength

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To impress your interviewer, acknowledge your weaknesses, then demonstrate the steps you are taking to fix them.

Interviewer: “Please describe your biggest weakness.”

Interviewee: ”One area in which I need to improve is in keeping my boss informed of my activities. However, I have recently taken some steps to address this area. Every Friday afternoon I now send my boss a list of my accomplishments for the week, and my top priorities for the following week. Then, during our Wednesday meeting, we walk through this list to ensure I am focusing on the correct priorities. My boss has been very pleased with this new process.”

Interviewer: “Thank you for your answer, I am impressed by the steps you are taking to address this.”

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Are You Ready?�

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Preparing For Your Interview

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You should spend 30 minutes preparing for your SkimaTalk session. To prepare, please take the following steps:

Read the job description for your practice interview (page 10).

Write down three personal areas for improvement, and 1 example of each. Also write down the steps you are taking to fix each area for improvement.

Practice answering the following question out loud: “What are your top weaknesses? And what steps are you taking to address these weaknesses?”

Practice Interview: Job Description

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Employer: ABC Co. – A leading software company. Job Title: Social Media Manager

Overview of Role: The Social Media Manager is responsible for managing the company’s social media accounts and creating successful social medias campaigns. Key Criteria: l  Creativity. l  Experience with popular social media tools (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.). l  Strong organizational skills. l  Attention to detail. l  Able to work independently.

Interview Question

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Question: Please describe your top areas for development and the specific steps you are taking to address these areas. Be sure to provide specific examples.

Teacher version only

Teacher Instructions: 1.  Ask the interview question, and then listen to the student’s response. A “good” answer

will include the following: •  3 areas for development. •  At least one example of each area for development. •  Specific steps the student is taking to address the areas for development.

2.  Discuss the student’s response. Focus on: •  Content: did the response include all the required information? •  Vocabulary and pronunciation: were there any errors? •  Structure: did the answer flow logically? •  Impact: did the student convince you he/she can admit to flaws and be proactive in

fixing the flaws? 3.  Ask the student to answer the question again, utilizing the feedback from your

discussion.

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End of Lesson We Hope You Enjoyed It!