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Types of Job Interview Questions, by Alison Doyle (from The Balance Careers)

By ALISON DOYLE (Updated May 25, 2018) From The Balance Careers 
When you go on a job interview there are a variety of different types of interview questions you'll be asked. You'll be asked about your employment history, your ability to work on a team, your leadership skills, your motivation, as well as other interview questions related to your skills and abilities.

Your responses need to be targeted for the job you are interviewing for. Your responses should show the employer why you're a qualified candidate and why you are a fit for the job and the company.

Take the time to prepare for a job interview, in advance, by reviewing the different types of interview questions you'll be asked, as well as by taking a look at sample answers for each type of question.

01 Interview Questions About Your Abilities

During a job interview, you'll be asked questions about your abilities. The key to successfully responding is to focus on your abilities as they relate to the qualifications required for the job. Review common interview questions about your abilities and sample answers.

02 Interview Questions About Leaving Your Job

When you're interviewing, you will be asked why you left or are going to leave your job. Here are interview questions, along with sample answers, related to leaving your job, getting fired, and what you have been doing if you're not currently employed.
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The skill that will survive automation, by Livia Gershon (from BBC Capital)

Robots are poised to replace workers in many industries. But some professions can never be automated away, and require investment, writes Livia Gershon.

Disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence and big data are changing the world of work. Retail jobs are disappearing in the US while the online sellers supplanting them fill their warehouses with robots instead of human workers. In China, manufacturing businesses that fled wealthy countries to find low-wage workers are now replacing those humans with machines. And on farms around the world, automated systems are beginning to take on backbreaking tasks like weeding lettuce. Studies have found that new technologies threaten around 40% of existing US jobs, and two-thirds of jobs in the developing world.

There is one kind of job though, that is both indispensable and difficult – perhaps impossible – to automate: the kind that requires emotional skills. Artificially intelligent software is being built that can recognise emotions in people's faces and voices, but it is a long way from simulating genuine empathy, and philosophers have been arguing for centuries that a machine with real feelings is impossible. Computers are nowhere near being able to compete with humans on the ability to really understand and connect with another human being.
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WEEKLY PICKS - 5

This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

📜READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

Article from Mind Tools: Beating Self-Sabotage: Recognizing and Overcoming It
"You can't do that!" "That's way too difficult!" "If you try, you'll probably just fail anyway." These statements sound as if they're coming from a tyrannical and cruel person with a mission to destroy self-confidence. Unfortunately, all too often, we can be the tyrant and our target can be ourselves. (Continue reading)

Article from BBC TRAVEL: The end to a French cheese tradition?
After years of lobbying, industrial producers are now allowed to make camembert with pasteurised milk. As a result, one of France’s beloved cheeses may be disappearing for good. (Continue reading)

Article from BBC CAPITAL: Why suppressing anger at work is bad
How faking your feelings at work can be damaging – We all put on a front a work, but researchers have found that burnout can relate closely to how employees manage their emotions during emotional or stressful interactions. (Continue reading)

🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS
5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:
❓ QUIZ ⇒ Random Phrasal Verb Quiz (Test your understanding of phrasal verbs with these random phrasal verb quizzes. Each time you 'start again', it will show you a new quiz generated from a phrasal verbs database.)

    MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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    GRAMMAR PILLS: ORDER OF ADJECTIVES

    First things first… 

    What’s an adjective?

    An adjective is a word or a structure that describes, qualifies or modifies a noun (= NOMBRE / SUSTANTIVO) or pronoun. 

    ¿Por qué es necesario estudiar el orden de los adjetivos en inglés? 

    Porque los adjetivos se colocan normalmente en un orden en particular según el tipo de adjetivo que sea (por ejemplo: opinión: interesting/beautiful, forma: square/round, material: wooden/gold, etc.). 

    Básicamente, los adjetivos se colocan en 2 posiciones: 

    1) ATTRIBUTIVE ⇒ BEFORE THE NOUN (as an attribute):
    → [That blue car] is mine.
        adjective + noun

    2) PREDICATIVE ⇒ AFTER THE VERB (in the predicate):
    → My car [is blue].
               verb + adjective

    💡Tip: La mayoría de los adjetivos pueden usarse en ambas posiciones, pero algunos pueden usarse solo en 1 de las 2 (attributive or predicative):

     ✅ It was our main problem. [‘main’ ⇒ attributive = before the noun]
    ✅ The children were alone at home. [‘alone’ ⇒ predicative = after the verb]

     These sentences, on the other hand, are not correct:

     ❌ Our problem was main. [‘main’ cannot be used in the predicative position]
    ❌ Some alone children [‘alone’ cannot be used in the attributive position]

     🔗 Click here for more examples

    Además, hay una 3ra posición: 

    3) POSTPOSITIVE ⇒ AFTER THE NOUN:
    → All candidates present on the test day...
                  noun + adjective

     🔗 Click here for more examples + an exercise

    ORDER OF ATTRIBUTIVE ADJECTIVES

    Cuando colocamos más de un adjetivo en attributive position, debemos seguir un orden: 1ro van los adjetivos que expresan opinión (lo que pensamos de algo, nuestra percepción subjetiva, como beautiful, interesting or cute) y luego, los que expresan un hecho (fact), es decir que son objetivos, como el tamaño, la forma o el color.

    Según Cambridge English Grammar Today, el orden más común en el que colocamos attributive adjectives es el siguiente (esto podría modificarse en frases enfáticas):

    💡 ALSO READ 1: Adjective Order (Englishclub) ⇒ Check out the Table! ⇒ Then, take the quiz ⇒ Adjective Order Quiz


    🎬 VIDEOS:
    ORDER OF ADJECTIVES (It only takes 2:17 minutes!)

    Never Break This Grammar Rule - Adjective Order (3:34 minutes)

    💡 Further Practice:

    Georgina Jacobs
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    LEARN ENGLISH THROUGH SONGS AND MUSIC

    Do you like music? Would you like to practise your English skills using songs?

    🎼 THIS is a great tool to learn English and other languages through music and the lyrics of your favourite songs.

    🎼 You can practise your listening skills and enjoy listening to your favourite music videos at the same time. (Of course, it's free, and you don't need to sign up (if you don't want to) to be able to play! ⇒ Lyrics Training)

    🎼 JUST FOLLOW THESE 3 EASY STEPS: 
    • Step 1 ⇒ Choose a language and a video. Then, click on “Play now” (you can browse for songs/singers you like as well) 
    • Step 2 ⇒ Choose you level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced or Expert 
    • Step 3 ⇒ Decide whether you want to “click on” or “type in” the missing words, and PLAY!

    🎼 Keep in mind that the language used in songs is informal, and HAVE FUN!

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    WEEKLY PICKS - 4

    This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

    📜 READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

    Article from Mind Tools: 10 Common Time Management Mistakes
    Avoiding Common Pitfalls - How well do you manage your time? If you're like many people, your answer may not be completely positive! Perhaps you feel overloaded, and you often have to work late to hit your deadlines. Or maybe your days seem to go from one crisis to another, and this is stressful and demoralizing. (Continue reading)

    ❓ QUIZ from Mind Tools ⇒ How Good Is Your Time Management?
    Discover Time Management Tools That can Help you Excel

    Article from BBC CULTURE: The writers who defied Soviet censors 
    Underground publishers in the USSR broke rules in ingenious ways – such as hiding books in fake binding and making records on X-ray film, writes Benjamin Ramm.
    In anticipation of the poet’s arrest, his creations were concealed by inventive means – sewn into the insides of cushions and shoes, or hidden in mattresses and saucepans. The police confiscated most of his papers, but others were smuggled out, or hidden surreptitiously in obscure locations. The most important poems were inscribed where even the wiliest investigator could not find them – in the memory of a devoted reader, who would pass them on.  (Continue reading)

    🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

    LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS
    5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
    A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
    💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
    💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


    MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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    WTF is slow fashion? by Hilary Milnes + 2 VIDEOS

    The problems raised by fast fashion go deep.

     The industry — embodied by giant retailers like H&M, Forever 21, Zara and Uniqlo that crank out cheap, disposable garments — is beset with problems stemming from pollution to waste to unsafe working conditions. Fashion Revolution Day, happening this Friday, April 24, is an annual day of awareness to memorialize the 2013 collapse of a clothing factory in Bangladesh that killed over 1,100 workers and injured 2,400 more. Sixty-five countries will participate, asking consumers to tag the brands they wear and ask #WhoMadeMyClothes on social media.

     Fashion Revolution Day will hype “slow fashion” as the antidote to the ethical and environmental havoc wreaked by the fast-fashion industry. The slow fashion movement has been taking shape since designer Kate Fletcher coined the term in 2008, but it’s still not at the front of many consumers’ minds.
    HERE's what slow fashion is and why it’s on the rise with conscious shoppers.







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    WEEKLY PICKS - 3

    This post offers you a selection of recommended free online exercises, games, videos and resources so that you can improve your English language skills while having fun! ENJOY!

    📜 READING PICKS – Articles, blog posts, quizzes and more:

    Article from BBC CAPITAL: The science of being charming, by Tiffanie Wen
    From the first moment you walk into a room people are making judgements about how much they like you. Fortunately, there are ways to improve your chances.
    Charmers. What makes these lucky individuals so effortlessly likeable when many of us have to work so hard at it? While many would have you believe social grace or winning people over is something of an artform, there is a surprising amount of science behind it, too. (Continue reading)

    Article from BBC TRAVEL: We may have cracked the mystery of Stonehenge, by Vivien Cumming
    The more archaeologists study Stonehenge, the more mysteries unfold. But a coherent story is beginning to emerge. (Continue reading)

    🎬 VIDEO PICKS – Short and fun videos:

    LESS-THAN-5-MINUTE VIDEOS
    5-TO-10-MINUTE VIDEOS:
    A LITTLE LONGER BUT WORTH IT!
    💬 VOCABULARY PICKS:
    💡 GRAMMAR PICKS – Assorted exercises and games:


    MORE PICKS NEXT WEEK!
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    Can you train yourself to be a risk-taker? by Vivian Giang (from BBC CAPITAL)

    Business leaders say taking risks is an essential part of getting ahead in today's world. If that's not your style, how can you become more comfortable with leaping into the unknown?

    It took Binta Niambi Brown several years to walk away in 2013 from the comfortable life she had built for herself as a corporate lawyer. She was going to start her own business, in a tough market that was already flooded. (Continue reading)
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    The Leadership Motivation Assessment (from Mind Tools)


    The first and most basic prerequisite for leadership is the desire to lead.

    After all, it takes hard work to become an effective leader and, if you are not prepared to put this work in or if, deep down, you're not sure whether you really want to lead, you'll struggle to convince people that you are worth following.

    Leaders create the vision and set the direction for their organizations. But it is their ability to motivate and inspire people that allows them to deliver that vision.

    So, how much do you want to lead? This quiz will help you find out.

    💡 You may also be interested in the quizzes below: 
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    FREE PERSONALITY TEST: Which personality type are you?

    “Often the first question people ask after completing our personality test is “What do these letters mean?” We are of course referring to those mysterious acronyms like INTJ-A, ENFP-T, or ESTJ-A. As you may have already read in the free Type Descriptions or additional articles available on our website, each letter refers to a specific trait, with an additional variant listed at the end. But before we discuss those traits, let’s first take a brief historical detour.

    Since the dawn of time, we have tried to describe and categorize ourselves in many ways. From the four temperaments of the Ancient civilizations – sanguine, choleric, melancholic and phlegmatic – to the latest advances in psychology, people have been restless in their pursuit of a good, reliable way to fit something as complex and fluid as human personality into a well-defined model. We are still some time away from being able to do that, although the current models account for the majority of our personality traits and can often predict with a high degree of confidence how we are likely to behave in specific circumstances… (More information HERE)”


    💡 You may also be interested in the quizzes below:

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