Episode 08

Marcia writes to the unsuccessful candidate to give them the bad news.

Do the preparation task first. Then watch the video and do the exercises. You can also read the transcript.

Preparation

Transcript

Marcia: OK, OK, that's great! We'll be pleased to have you on the team. Looking forward to seeing you next week. Bye!

Philip: Was that Sarah?

Marcia: Yes. She's going to accept the job and wants to come in next week for a chat.

Philip: Oh, great news! Now you just have to tell the other guy that we don't want him.

Marcia: Mm, I hate giving bad news.

Philip: I'm glad that it's your job and not mine!

Marcia: OK, may as well do it straight away. 'Dear Mr Watson, we regret to inform you you have not got the job.' Hmm, sounds a bit too direct. How about: 'Dear Mr Watson, thank you for your application to WebWare. We regret to inform you you weren't successful'?

Philip: Erm, I think you should say something positive.

Marcia: But he was terrible!

Philip: Well, he wasn't great, no, but I think we should be positive and polite.

Marcia: Yes, you're absolutely right. OK, how about this: 'Dear Mr Watson, thank you for your application to WebWare. You were a promising candidate. However, we regret to inform you that the competition for the post was very strong and we will not be offering you the position. Yours sincerely, etc. etc.'

Philip: Yes, that's more like it. But we should include some feedback.

Marcia: Of course. How about if I add this? 'In future, you may wish to moderate your personal style and carefully fact-check your CV.' How does that sound?

Philip: Erm, I'm not sure what 'moderate your personal style' means. It's a bit vague.

Marcia: Hmm, OK. How about 'give more specific examples of your achievements and show how you work as part of a team'?

Philip: OK, yes, I like that. And remember to finish with something like, 'We wish you the best of luck in the future.'

Marcia: Of course. I certainly do wish him luck! OK, done. I'll send it now.

Task 1

Exercise

Task 2

Exercise

Discussion

What feedback would you give to Daniel about his interview performance?

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Worksheet79.69 KB

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Language level

B1 Intermediate

B2 Upper intermediate

The kind of feedback I would give to Daniel about his interview performance will be a bit direct, moderate, polite and positive.

These videos are very useful for me. I'd have loved someone to give me a feedback like that during my first interviews for working.

Marcia speaks pretty quickly, and it is not going smooth for me as a beginner of studying English. The listening part is, I can say, usually the main problem in learning English, so it's worth pursuing Marcia's speed speaking (of course, it's no walk in the park!) once you win to get used to catching her sentences, you are successful!

Once I got a rejection letter from a software company. In the email, it said "It was a very difficult decision." in Japanese. I accepted the words as they were and felt a little relieved to know that was close. However they might have thought just like Philip in the video and gave me the positive comment.

Marcia Boardman speaks very fast, as if she is in a hurry. But Philip Hart speaks normal and fluently in my opinion.