Individual work Unusual behavior

Individual work

Unusual behavior

▲1 What advice would you give to someone who’s attending their first job interview?

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  Make a list of “does and don’t”.
  
• 
  Compare your lists. Do you agree with all the advice.
  

▲2 Read the introduction to the article. What do you imagine “unusual behavior” might include?

▲3 Now read the rest of the article. Which stories do you find difficult to believe?

The job interview: things not to say and do

We’ve all been interviewed for jobs. And we’ve spent most of those interviews thinking about what not to do. Don’t bite your nails. Don’t fidget. Don’t interrupt. But some job applicants go a long way beyond this. We surveyed the top personal executives of a hundred major corporations and asked for stories of unusual behavior by job applications.

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  An applicant said he was so well qualified that if he didn’t get the job, it would prove the management was incompetent.
  
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  She wore a Walkman but told me she could listen to the music and me at the same time.
  
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  A balding candidate abruptly left the room and returned a few minutes later wearing a hairpiece.
  
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  He challenged me to an arm wrestle.
  
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  She asked to see my resume to check if I was qualified to judge her.
  
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  She complained that she hadn’t had lunch and proceeded to eat a hamburger and fries in my office.
  
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  He promised to demonstrative his loyalty by having the corporate logo tattooed on his forearm if he were hired.
  
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  He stopped the interview to phone his therapist, who advised him to ignore the question I’d just asked.
  
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  She refused to get out of the chair and threatened to stay in my office until I hired her. I had to call the police.
  
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  When I asked him about his hobbies, he stood up and started tap dancing around my office.
  
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  He asked me to put on a suit jacket to ensure that my job offer was for real.
  

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Individual work

▲4a) Read again. Which applicants would you describe as:

▪describe to get the job? ▪over – confident ▪aggressive?

▲b) Compare and explain your answers.

▲5 Talk about your own experiences of interviews for jobs, courses and so on.

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  Which interviews can you remember most clearly? Why?
  
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  Do you think you’re good at being interviewed? Why? Why not?
  
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  Do you have any experience of being an interviewer?
  
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  Do you think interviews are a good way of choosing people?
  

From English unlimited B2 course book.