Shadowing Practice: How to Answer the 8 HARDEST Interview Questions | Job Interview Tips - Learn English Speaking with Video

There are certain questions that I think we are all panicked about being asked in an interview

and these are the hardest questions to answer.

So today I am here to help you out and give you sample answers, some suggestions on how to go when being asked the eight hardest job interview questions.

Now if we haven't met, my name is Cassandra and I help motivated professionals build their careers through practical tips to gain career confidence.

So let's get started.

So to me, the absolute hardest are the crazy quiz style questions.

These are the riddle type questions that Google is infamous for asking, but I've seen a lot of other companies do it as well.

I will say these tend to be more industry specific.

In higher ed, I'd never get asked one of these questions, but in anything with engineering, computer science, it's very, very often the case that you will.

Same with any kind of tech company.

So what are these types of riddle questions?

Something like, well, how many pennies would it take to be stacked on top

of each other to reach the height of the Empire State Building?

I don't know, right?

These are questions where they're not actually looking for a right answer it's more about your thought process

so you want to go through

and really explain out loud how you came to your answer so for my internal processors

we have to really work on this to share all our thoughts you can't just sit there and go hmm

8 ,500 ,000 like I don't I mean that's not the right answer I have no idea

but you can't just spout out an answer you got to

tell me how you got there like well there are you know 10 pennies roughly in an inch

and then 12 inches would be 120 pennies so that's a foot

and it's so many feet

and go through it also don't be afraid to ask them

questions like you know first thing I need to know is

what is the height of the Empire State Building could could you let me know the height and then

if they won't you can say okay well what I would

do is I would find out the height of the building

and then I would figure out how many pennies would be

in an inch how many would then be in a foot

and then multiply that blah blah blah now even

that y 'all please do not take

that as being the right way to answer this question I

am just sharing my thought process you could figure out some other crazy way to do it

so just don't be afraid to share it out loud now

I've shared this next tip on this in another video don't

be afraid to ask for clarification I know I kind of just said

that with the empire state building one

but I really want to emphasize it this was something I

didn't know you could do for years like I thought they asked you a question

and I'm just supposed to go off that and answer it.

And I didn't realize that sometimes they actually are testing you to see if you'll ask clarifying questions.

So I have a friend who asks people, I'd like you, well, really, it's a statement, but I would like you to make me some eggs.

That's a question in a job interview.

He automatically rules out people who just dive right into how they'd make eggs.

He wants people to go, okay, well, where are we?

All right.

So what equipment do I have?

Like, do I have a frying pan?

Um, how do you like your eggs?

Do you like them scrambled?

Do you like them over easy?

He wants them to ask questions back.

It's not a matter of making eggs the right way.

He wants you to ask clarifying questions.

So with any of those riddle type ones, explain your process and don't be afraid to ask questions in return.

Okay.

So the next one that's really hard for people, why are you leaving your current position.

First off, I don't think this gets asked nearly as much as people panic over it.

I see a lot of y 'all in the comments on LinkedIn, etc. saying, how do I answer why I left my position

and I've been unemployed or why I want to leave my current position?

How do I answer that?

You know, I really don't think it gets asked that often, but it can be asked.

That's why it's still on this list.

So if you are asked, I want you to focus on the positive of the new job, not the negative of the past i have had jobs where i sat there

and stared at a screen with nothing to do i have had jobs where they drilled me all day long

and i was on a phone like a telemarketer even though it was not a telemarketing job

and i just wanted to i mean i broke a tooth at

that job it was not great but

when i went to the next job i couldn't be like well i'm here

because that job made me break a tooth because it's

so stressful like that's not going to go over well so instead You want to be forward -thinking

It's not so much why you're leaving the position, it's why you're interested in this new position.

So you can briefly touch on why you're leaving.

Well, you know, I feel like I have risen to the level of all the opportunities available to me at this time

and I'm ready to move in that position

and I'm ready to move forward in my career

and that's why I'm really excited in this

because this will get me to

that next step where I get to do this thing and this thing and that thing and I'm very excited about that.

We don't touch on the bad boss.

We don't say I'm bored out of my school we just

say you know I've gotten the opportunity to really learn all I can in this position

and so and so has been a great mentor and boss

and yada yada if they have been

if they're a horrible human being you don't have to say

that so and so has been a great mentor and boss

but I've really realized

that in order to take the next step in my career trajectory I need to kind of spread my wings

and fly and head somewhere else and

so that's why I'm very interested to be here okay so always focus forward and positive.

The next one that a lot of people say is really hard to answer is, are you willing to fail?

So first off, I think any company that's going to ask you this question wants the answer to be yes.

I think companies that don't want you to fail aren't even going to broach the topic

because they don't want to even give you the idea that failure is okay.

So if a company is asking, are you willing to fail?

Yes needs to be part of the answer, okay but with the yes you need to give some examples of how you've been willing to fail

and what is failing look like to you you know are you willing to fail safely like within certain parameters

or are you willing to fail

100

when a boss is given permission you want to know what they're looking for in the project

101

so keep those sorts of things in mind don't be afraid to expand on what failure looks like to you

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and how how willing you are you know you're not gonna fail with millions of dollars of the company's money

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but you're willing to fail on small things depending on where

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you're working you know spacex might want you to fail with millions of dollars i'm not quite sure

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but be willing to share a little more than just yes

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dive into it okay the next one that's hard to answer

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tell us about a time you've had a conflict at work

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now i believe i talk about this in another video like just unto its own

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but the key things on this are you want to use

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the STAR method do not be afraid to lay the groundwork

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and give me the situation and the task what was going on

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that led to the conflict then with the situation the task

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you'll share it's part of the situation what the conflict was right

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so and so and myself didn't see eye -to -eye on this piece of the project

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and then you're going to give your action to resolve it

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so I went to her and I asked to speak blah blah blah blah

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and you give that action

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but the piece everyone forgets unless you've watched these videos the

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piece everyone forgets is I want the result I don't want to just hear

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that you took initiative

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and you went to talk to them to really hash this out I want to hear

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that the two of you went on to complete the project

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got wonderful remarks from your manager it was the highest selling product

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that you've made the friendship is stronger than ever

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and you too have worked great as a team for the last three years.

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Whatever it is, I want that result.

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The money is in the result.

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So when you're answering a conflict, make sure to give me the full star method on it.

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And then the other reason why I think people have a

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hard time with this is depending on where you are in your career, you maybe haven't had a conflict at work.

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Like my first couple of part -time jobs, I didn't have a conflict.

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So don't be afraid to use some other piece of your life what they want to know is

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that you can handle conflict

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and you're not afraid to resolve it to deal in conflict they don't need it to be in the workplace

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so don't be afraid to say you know i've been really lucky

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that i haven't had a lot of conflicts at work

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or really any conflicts at work

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but i did happen to do a team project at school

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and this happened

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or you know last year at church i worked on planning a retreat with the team

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and there were some conflicts there is it okay

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if i share with you a story from

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that totally fine they just want to see how you resolve

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conflict it doesn't have to be at work okay the next

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question that's hard to answer has to deal with well really

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it's kind of a category anything dealing with past managers

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so tell me about a time you didn't get along with a past manager tell me about a time you

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and your manager didn't see eye to eye the reason these are hard is

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because if we're talking about this it probably means the manager like

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if you've had a bad boss all you want to do on this is go okay

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so I had this boss who was kind of a jerk

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and he didn't understand

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that as much as I worked I couldn't make the person

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on the other end want to act a certain way or want to buy a product or whatever.

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You just can't bad mouth the boss so these questions take some finessing.

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This is why we practice.

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This is why we prepare.

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If you need help on preparing there's a video in the description box

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but Shhh you need to really practice ahead of time what is my answer

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if they ask about an issue with a past manager

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or a past supervisor what is my answer and my story

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if they ask about a time we didn't see eye to eye

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or what is one thing i wish my boss did differently

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and why without completely bad mouthing them

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if you practice you can find a way to get there

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but if you don't practice you're going to trip all over yourself in the interview.

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Okay number six what is your greatest weakness?

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Now once again I have a whole video on this that'll

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be in the description box as well as in a card right here

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but this question needs to be answered one with an actual weakness.

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Please do not give me any of this like oh I'm just such a a workaholic.

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I just work work work.

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I don't understand work -life balance.

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Shut up.

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We all know you're like, great, you're going to work really hard for us.

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No, I want a real weakness.

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But this is, again, a reason you have to prepare.

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Because if you didn't think about a weakness, when they ask in the room, you're going to be like, I don't know.

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Your weakness needs to be something that is an actual weakness, but it is not super relevant to this position.

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And you have to show how you've worked on it.

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So you want to talk about something that is not going to kill getting the job for you.

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So if it's sales, right, you're not gonna say, oh, well, I'm really shy.

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That doesn't work.

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So think through how you're going to share an actual weakness and how you've worked on it.

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Also, you have to give the working on it part.

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Don't forget that.

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When they say what's a weakness, don't just go, I talk too much.

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Like, that doesn't work.

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Or I've had people say just kind of random things.

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I mean, y 'all, people say weird stuff.

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I've had people just go, public speaking.

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or something really like not related to the job

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but also a strange skill like what's your week not strange skill

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but just so not related to the job and a technical skill

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that it was like so out of left field

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so it was a position where they would be doing nothing creative on the computer at all

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and the person when I said what's your greatest weakness said photoshop

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okay it was just

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so awkward like it doesn't apply to the job in any

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way there was no explanation of why they thought this was

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a weakness they needed to bring up it just didn't make any sense

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so use something that's actually part of who you are as a person in your personality

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and share how you're working on it the reason you want

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to give an actual weakness is you want to show them i recognize i am not perfect

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and there are things i have to work on

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and here is how i am doing so so keep

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that in mind okay similar to weakness is what have you learned from your mistakes this one's hard

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because it's kind of a weakness offshoot right it's once again saying i'm willing to say i've made mistakes

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but you don't want to give something so big

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that they think why would we why would we bring this person in

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so talk about what you've learned like you have to think

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about it ahead of time what is a mistake I can give that's not the biggest to this job

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but I can show I've worked on it like I know

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how to find solutions to problems let's say I know my attention to detail has been bad before

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and so I I had a position where I did this thing

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and I messed up on something

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because I put a zero in the wrong like nothing huge

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but something that shows oh I made a mistake

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so what I learned was I need to prep more ahead of time

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and I created a checklist for myself to make sure I hit every piece of the project.

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Whatever it is to show how you made the mistake and learn how to fix it for the future.

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And then the last one, tell me about yourself.

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Still seems to be tripping everybody up.

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For some reason we all have a very hard hard time talking about ourselves

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so I really want you to practice how you answer tell me about yourself.

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Remember that it is not about what you think is most important, it's what you think is most important to them.

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So I've been doing a lot of mock interviews lately.

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If you didn't know, that is something you can do with me.

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There's info on that below too.

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But I've been doing a lot of mock interviews and I always start by asking, tell me about yourself.

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And people start going off on things that they've deemed important.

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Oh, I need to tell them that I did this at this company

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and this at this company and this thing at this company

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and then this thing at this company and that other thing

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and some of them I think wait why are you telling me

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that right now like that's not important to me you always

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want to go through your work history maybe the last couple of years

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and tell me what you've done and one thing you learned from

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that job that's relevant to this job okay then you want

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to move on to the next thing the other issue I've

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seen happen is somebody will go well at this position I created this campaign

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and the campaign did really well

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and we got a lot of sales off of it

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and my boss really appreciated it and they said

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that it was a great campaign and because of

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that they put me in charge of 10 other campaigns and blah blah and now I'm not hearing about you?

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I'm hearing about the campaign.

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So don't get lost in the weeds.

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Don't start going down the rabbit hole.

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You're gonna touch on one thing from each position.

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Hey, I did this here and I think it really helped me learn blah, blah, blah.

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And then I moved on to this position where I was in charge of this.

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And from that, I gained yada, yada, yada.

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And then I moved here and did this thing.

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And from that, I got this other skill.

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And that's why I'm so excited to now be here today

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because this is kind of the next step in my progression

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blah blah blah like highlight next job highlight next job highlight

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do not get lost in the weeds of starting to tell

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me about a project you're no longer telling me about you you're telling me about

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that project so stay focused on those things

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and then the other part we don't get personal I don't

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need to hear in this how you drink iced coffee every

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day even though I do right don't let the mug fool

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you it's iced I don't want to tip it I'll spill

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it I don't need to hear how you love to Zumba and stand up paddleboard on weekends.

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That is not what goes into this.

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If they want to know that, they will ask you like, so just tell me about like, you know, what do you like to do for fun?

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What do you see as what's, what is social or like weekends mean to you?

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They will ask if they want to know that more personal side.

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So don't incorporate that in the tell me about yourself.

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That's a lot of things.

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Okay, y 'all.

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I hope this has been helpful.

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Like I said, there are more resources in the description box below as well as two videos here.

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That's it for today.

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Please subscribe and give this one a thumbs up if you liked it and I'll see you next time.

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Bye.

📺 Same Channel

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 278 sentences and 3329 words to shadow. The speech runs for 16:44. The speaker talks fast, about 199 words per minute, so expect linked and reduced sounds. 88% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English, so the vocabulary is easy to follow.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
weakness noun	/ˈwik.nɪs/	The condition of being weak.
egg noun	/ɛɡ/	An approximately spherical or ellipsoidal body produced by birds, insects, reptiles, and other animals, often housing an embryo within a membrane or shell…
skill noun	/skɪl/	A capacity to do something well; a technique, an ability, usually acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities that are regarded as innate.
penny noun	/ˈpɛni/	In the United Kingdom, a unit of currency worth ¹⁄₁₀₀ of a pound sterling, or a copper coin worth this amount. Abbreviation: p.
highlight verb	/ˈhaɪˌlaɪt/	To make prominent; emphasize.
resolve verb	/ɹɪˈzɑlv/	To find a solution to (a problem).
weed noun	/wiːd/	Any plant unwanted at the place where and at the time when it is growing.
panic noun	/ˈpænɪk/	Overwhelming fear or fright, often affecting groups of people or animals; (countable) an instance of this; a fright, a scare.
depend verb	/dɪˈpɛnd/	To be contingent or conditioned; to have something as a necessary condition
dive verb	/daɪv/	To swim under water.
tooth noun	/tuθ/	A hard, calcareous structure present in the mouth of many vertebrate animals, generally used for biting and chewing food.
mentor noun	/ˈmɛn.tɔː/	A wise and trusted counselor or teacher.
clarify verb	/ˈklæɹ.ɪ.faɪ/	To make or become clear or bright by freeing from impurities or turbidity.
mock verb	/mɑk/	To mimic, to simulate.
topic noun	/ˈtɑpɪk/	A subject; a theme; a category or general area of interest.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Meaning
go through verb	To travel from one end of something to the other.
figure out verb	To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
bring up verb	To mention.
find out verb	To discover, as by asking or investigating.
go down verb	To descend; to move from a higher place to a lower one.
go off verb	To explode.
go over verb	To look at carefully; to scrutinize; to analyze.
rule out verb	To cross an item out by drawing a straight line through it, as with a ruler.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect continuous have/has been + -ing — an action that started earlier and is still going on	you've been willing · I've been doing
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	if you liked it and I'll see
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	haven't met · I've seen · I've shared
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	being asked · be stacked · I've been unemployed

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 129 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, you're, I'm. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “th” sounds: tooth /tuθ/, thumb /ˈθʌm/
The “sh” and “zh” sounds: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, friendship /ˈfɹɛn(d)ʃɪp/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, suggestion /səˈd͡ʒɛst.ʃən/, progression /pɹəˈɡɹɛʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: explanation /ˌɛkspləˈneɪʃən/, initiative /ɪˈnɪʃ.ə.tɪv/, differently /ˈdɪf.ə.ɹənt.li/, supervisor /ˈsupɚˌvaɪzɚ/, incorporate /ɪŋˈkɔɹ.pɚ.eɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like weakness, egg, skill.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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