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BEP 177 – English Presentations: Making an Impact (1)

Advanced, Business English, Persuasion, Presentations / January 23, 2011

This is the first in a two-part Business English Pod series about adding impact to your business English presentations.

We’ve all sat through boring presentations before. And we’ve all worried during our own presentations that others might be feeling that way. So what can we do to prevent this?

A presentation needs impact. It needs to make the audience feel something, understand something, or believe something. And it needs to make them want to do something. Fortunately, there are some simple techniques and language that you can learn that will add impact to your presentations. And then people will look at you, and not out the window.

In this lesson, we’ll hear part of a presentation delivered by Ben. Ben is going to talk to his colleagues and managers about cloud computing. But first he is going to identify a problem and then show that there needs to be a solution to that problem. Only then can he help them understand what cloud computing is and what benefits it might bring to the company.

Listening Questions

1. What happened to Ben on Monday morning?
2. Where is Ben’s stuff stored?
3. What does Ben say about the number of documents in their department?

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Skills 360 – Tips for Successful Presentations 2

Advanced, Business English, Business English Skills 360, Presentations / January 16, 2011

Welcome back Business Skills 360 – the podcast that looks at the other side of Business English.

This is the second part of our series on effective English presentations. Last week, we talked about keeping it short, simple, engaging, and real. Much of that happens in the preparation. Today, we’re going to talk about what happens when you stand up in front of that audience and have to start speaking.

Your first goal should be to make a connection with each and every listener. That connection is the pathway along which your message travels. If you have a good connection, there’s a good chance your message will sink in. To make this connection, you have to do two things: you need to control the audience’s attention and you need to engage their minds. And to do these two things, you have three tools: your voice, your props such as PowerPoint – and your body or movement.

Discussion Questions

1. What is the most difficult part of speaking in front of a group of people?
2. What different types of visual aids are commonly used in presentations?
3. When you give a presentation, do you usually stand in one place or move around?

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BEP 169 – Interview in English for your First Job (3)

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Interview English / July 25, 2010

Welcome back to Business English Pod for this business English lesson, the last of a three-part series on English Interviews for your first job.

When you’re in an interview in English, everything is focused on you – your education, your skills, and the qualities that make you the best candidate for the job. But it’s also important for you to focus on the company you’re interviewing with. After all, you’re interviewing for more than a job. You’re interviewing for a spot on the company team. Employers want to know how you’ll fit in with the office culture and see if your values are consistent with theirs.

In this episode, we’ll talk about ways to show you’ve researched the company. We’ll also cover language to show you’re a good fit and for discussing your long-term career goals. Finally, we’ll look at ways the company might explain next steps in the hiring process.

Once again, we’ll join Owen, who is interviewing for a test engineer position at a company called IBH. He’s in the middle of a panel interview with Erica and Cindy, two HR reps, and George, who’s the head of engineering. Today, the interview wraps up.

Listening Questions

1. Why is Owen interested in working for IBH?
2. What does Owen say about collaborative spirit?
3. What is one of Owen’s long-term career objectives?

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BEP 168 – Interview in English for your First Job (2)

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Interview English / July 18, 2010

This is the second of a three-part Business English Pod series about interviewing for your first job in English.

Interviewing in English for a job is a lot like a sales meeting. You need to sell yourself to the employer by convincing them that you have the knowledge, skills, and experience they need. But when you’re interviewing for your first job, it gets a little trickier as you probably don’t have that much work experience. So, you need to show the interviewer why your college experience makes you the best candidate for the job.

In this lesson, we’ll focus on ways to highlight that experience and relate it to the job during an interview in English. We’ll talk about extra-curricular activities, internships, and gap years. And, we’ll look at ways to differentiate yourself from the competition and prove that you’re the best person for the job.

In today’s dialog, we’ll rejoin Owen, who is interviewing for a test engineer position at IBH, an electronics company. He’s in the middle of a panel interview with Erica and Cindy, two HR reps, and George, who’s in charge of engineering at the printers division of IBH.

Listening Questions

1. Name one thing Owen did for his school’s robotics team.
2. Why did Owen decide to intern at Lu Tech?
3. What did Owen do during his gap year?

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BEP 167 – Interview in English for your First Job (1)

Advanced, Business English, ESL Podcast, Interview English / July 11, 2010

This Business English Podcast lesson is the first in a three-part series on first job interviews in english.

Job interviews in English can make anyone nervous. After all, you want to make the best impression you can. But as a new graduate, you have an added challenge: little formal job experience. You need to prove to the employer that your studies and university experiences relate to the job you’re seeking.

Today, we’ll cover some ways to help you connect your college experiences to an employer’s job requirements. We’ll look at making introductions and explaining ground rules and interview format. We’ll also look at two types of common questions – “tell me about yourself?” and discussing your education.

We’ll meet Owen, who just got his master’s in electrical engineering. He’s originally from Chengdu, China, a city 2,000 kilometers west of Shanghai. But he moved to Shanghai for graduate school and has decided to stay here for work. He’s interviewing for a test engineer position at IBH, an electronics company.

Today’s meeting is a panel interview. This means a group of people will be asking the questions. So we’ll also meet Erica, who’s in charge of recruiting for IBH, and two of her colleagues: George, an engineering manager, and Cindy, a new HR manager.

Listening Questions

1. Why do you think George is handling the technical aspects of the interview?
2. What are two qualities or transferable skills that Owen mentions?
3. What does Owen say about his university’s approach to learning?

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