Day 10: Interview Practice in the Back Seat
In a taxi from Frankfurt's main station to a bank tower, Sebastian (A), on his way to a job interview, rides with Joachim (B), a taxi driver who once ran a company's human resources department.
How to study this lesson 3 steps
- Read the situation under the title. It says who is talking and how they know each other, which decides how politely they speak.
- Read the dialogue line by line with its translation, until every line makes sense. Point at (or tap) a German word to see what it means.
- Spend at least 30 minutes listening to native German, for example from the Resources page. It doesn't matter if you don't understand it yet.
Dialogue
Audio recordings are on the way. For now, each lesson is the dialogue with its English translation.
Keys: E hide English · ← → previous / next day · point at a word to see its meaning
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A
Bitte beeilen Sie sich, in zwanzig Minuten beginnt mein Vorstellungsgespräch! Ich bin völlig durch den Wind.
Please hurry, my job interview starts in twenty minutes! I'm all over the place.
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B
Dann nutzen wir die Fahrt doch: Ich war fünfzehn Jahre Personalchef. Was ist Ihre größte Schwäche?
Then let's make use of the ride: I was head of HR for fifteen years. What's your greatest weakness?
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A
Ähm, ich würde sagen, ich bin manchmal zu perfektionistisch.
Um, I'd say I'm sometimes too much of a perfectionist.
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B
Das ist eine Floskel, die sich nicht nachprüfen lässt. Glaubwürdig wirken Sie, indem Sie ein konkretes Beispiel nennen.
That's a stock phrase that can't be checked. You come across as credible by giving a concrete example.
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A
Zweiter Versuch: Früher habe ich nie delegiert, bis mir beim letzten Projekt alles über den Kopf gewachsen ist.
Second attempt: I never used to delegate, until everything got on top of me on my last project.
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B
Sehr gut, und jetzt runden Sie das ab, indem Sie sagen, was Sie daraus gelernt haben.
Very good, and now round it off by saying what you learnt from it.
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A
Dass man sich helfen lassen sollte, sogar von einem Taxifahrer. Was bin ich Ihnen schuldig?
That you should accept help, even from a taxi driver. What do I owe you?
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