job interview training coaching in English French

TRAINER

Philip Wells

Trainer in company communications for the last ten years for companies in Belgium, working in English and French as target languages. Formerly financial researcher for Dutch, British and U.S. financial institutions.

What can I offer a client? In second-language interview training, the most common problem arises from the lack of perspective. People change jobs for all kinds of reasons, and sometimes without being able to put their finger on the most important. Going through a client’s career events rarely comes without some big discoveries, usually in the form of unappreciated strengths. We use these to shape the interview strategy, which is basically the sales pitch. Based on this, I work with the client to allow them to offer clear and credible answers to identified questions..

We also work out a linguistic strategy, which is an important part of the game-plan, and one of the most frequently neglected. This involves assessing the client’s linguistic level and establishing how he or she can make the most effective use of the target language they already possess. Most of my clients are short-term, with an interview planned within the month, so there’s little time for deep language training. The time I spend with clients can be anything from two sessions, which will provide the most basic interview strategy planning, to anything up to eight or more sessions for complete review of past experience, working on the client’s profile, target questions, and rehearsals in the target language.

ARTICLES

If the interviewer’s key unstated question is “who are you?, trying to avoid it altogether can be worse. . EN9 01-11-2015	L2 candidates often believe that the biggest problem is going to be linguistic. In most cases and conditions, this isn’t true. EN2 18-12-2015	The question “Who are you really?” is probably the key unstated question in any interview. Why is it so hard for the candidate to answer? EN6 06-01-2016
Can there be such a thing as a riskless interview? If telling people what they most want to hear sounds too easy, here are the reasons. EN7 18-01-2016	The received wisdom is that if an interview is hard, doing it in a second language is going to be even more so. Is there an unseen upside to this situation? EN3 10-01-2016	Less like real life:.. the rapid change in interview styles has created new challenges. FR7 04-03 2016
	L2 interviews – are engineers a special case? The engineering profession has become global: second-language (L2) job offers are becoming increasingly frequent, and in some sectors, the norm. But as an engineer, you hold several strong cards. EN11 24-04-2016

SECOND-LANGUAGE INTERVIEW TRAINING IN ENGLISH AND FRENCH

STRATEGY, CREDIBILITY, QUALITY OF CONTACT