The most successful candidates for top professional positions are well prepared before they arrive for interview. Here is the first post in a new series on job interviews in English.

A job interview may be started in a gentle way in order to allow the interviewers to get to know you as a person rather than just as what you have presented on your CV. So, they may start with a simple question such as ‘Can you tell us a little about yourself?’ They probably want you to explain a little bit about what kind of person you are, your background, family, values, your likes and dislikes, perhaps.

This is your chance to present yourself as a human being, a real person, so you should think about how you want to do this to show yourself at your best - the real you. Of course, you want to be confident with your language as you give this information. If you don’t sound confident with the language it may sound like you are not being totally honest or that you generally lack confidence.

I suggest that you take some time to write down what you want to say about yourself and practise saying it aloud so that you don’t have any problems with remembering the vocabulary and pronunciation. This also gives you the chance to check your grammar and style. Think about your last job interview or maybe you have been responsible for interviewing new talent. What are some of the questions from these situations? Could you answer in English?