Job Interviews 面试英语

Today’s episode is the first in a two-part series that follows job applicant William Chow through his first interview at an international bank.

今天的节目是两集系列节目的第一部分，我们将跟随求职者William Chow在一家国际银行的第一次面试。

In this show you’ll learn how to deal with some typical first interview questions. Along the way you’ll also practice some great new vocabulary and useful phrases.

在本期节目中，你将学习如何处理一些典型的第一次面试问题。在这个过程中，你还可以练习一些很棒的新词汇和有用的短语。

In today’s dialogue we’ll listen as William gets interviewed for a position in the business development department of the main Hong Kong branch of Mercantile International. Mike Warner, a HR manager at Mercantile International Hong Kong, is conducting the interview.

在今天的对话中，我们将听到威廉接受Mercantile International香港分公司业务发展部职位的面试。麦克·沃纳是Mercantile International香港公司的人力资源经理，他正在主持面试。

Before we listen to the dialog, make a note of these questions:

在我们听对话之前，把这些问题记下来:

1) How is the traffic today?

2) How long has William been working at his current job?

3) What kind of business does he mainly handle?

4) How does William describe his personality?

5) What does William mean by a participatory and situational leadership style?

Vocabulary

atrocious: extremely bad 糟糕的

revolving credit: a line of credit usually used for operating purposes, changing each month depending on the customers current cash flow needs. 循环信贷

portfolio: a collection or group of loans 投资组合

fixed asset loan: a loan to buy something that cannot be easily turned into money, such as building, industrial machinery and so on; furthermore, this thing—the fixed asset—is used as collateral; that is, it is used to secure the loan. 固定资产贷款

participatory: encourages participation and teamwork. situational – able to adapt to different situations. characteristics – a feature or quality of a person or object. 参与式的

CRM: short for Customer Relationship Management. CRM refers to all aspects of interaction a company has with its customer, whether sales or service related. expat - short for expatriate; a person who lives abroad, away from their country of origin. 客户关系管理系统

Dialog

Receptionist: Mr. Warner will see you now, Mr. Chow. Let me show you in. Mike: Nice to meet you.

William: Nice to meet you, too, Mr. Warner.

Mike: It’s William, right? Just call me Mike. Have any trouble finding us? William: No, thanks. But the traffic was bad.

Mike: Atrocious, isn’t it? You’re right on time though. That’s good. Have a seat. Okay, well, shall we get started?

William: All right.

Mike: Let’s start off with just a general question about your background. Can you tell me a little about yourself?

William: Yes. Since graduating with honors in Economics from the University of Hong Kong — that was in 1996 — I’ve been working for 10 years at First United Trust at the Admiralty branch, first as a loan officer and for the past three years as a branch assistant manager.

Mike: Okay. And what are your main responsibilities at First United?

William: I’ve been mainly responsible for handling revolving credit for over 100 individual local and expat customers and overseeing a portfolio of HK$400 million per year in new short and long-term fixed assets loans for individuals and for … for small businesses.

Mike: Uh huh. That’s great. Maybe you could also tell me something about the way you manage people. What’s your management style?

William: Uh, let’s see … I’d say my management style is participatory and situational, by that I mean that my style adapts to what each situation requires, but I always place great emphasis on participation from my team. As for my personal characteristics, I thrive on challenge. I work well under pressure and I would describe myself as detail-oriented and proactive.

Mike: Interesting. Those are always good qualities to bring to the job. You said that your management style was participatory and situational. Could you give an example of that?

William: Let’s see. Let me think about that. Okay, we were installing a major client CRM system which was behind schedule. I had to enlist and integrate the support of my team to ensure the project was finished on time. I called a meeting with all seven team members, described the project status and asked for recommendations for getting the project back on schedule. And, you know, several excellent ideas were proposed. The team decided on the best course of action and the result was that we successfully delivered the project on time. This is a good example of my participatory leadership style … I try to use influence rather than authority to lead.