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Respect your clients!

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One of my good clients sometimes asks me to hold interviews for their prospective employees to assess their language skills. That's only natural since my client wants to be sure they hire the right people who can work with English speakers. Today there was an interview with a person who applied for a position of a telephone interpreter. Another person from the client's company was present there to be sure both of us provide an objective report. Well, we were shocked. From the very beginning, this person behaved as if HE was hiring us. He even said once something like 'I decided to test my language skills, so I am holding this interview...' That's when I had to remind him that it was the company's owner who made the decision about the interview. Anyway, I learned some good lessons today about how NOT to behave with your clients or prospective employers. After all, they do have a lot in common since they both hire other people to do the work.

So, here are my tips:
1) DON'T try to show off. A job interview is not the right place for that. Show your skills and qualifications instead.
2) DON'T try to dominate the conversation since that won't help you get the job. Listen well to the questions and answer them as well as you can.
3) DON'T refuse to answer the questions you don't like (not talking about personal issues here, just normal questions asked at any interview). You may not like some of them because the answers to those questions may reveal some facts that don't go well with the position you are applying to. My advice would still be to answer those questions as honestly and openly as you can; but as soon as you're finished with the answer, point out your strengths that outweigh those negative 'elements' of your background!
4) The most important thing is that you should RESPECT your clients. They have chosen to spend their time on this interview, which means they respect you enough to listen to what you have to offer. Besides, they are willing to pay you money. So, please, show your respect to them.

Those are some of my lessons for today. Hope they are helpful to you, too!
Have a wonderful week!
Olga
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Comments

  1. UnknownMar 22, 2011, 12:56:00 PM

    Must have been a weird experience! Some people just don't know what humbleness is. Thanks for sharing, it's a very interesting post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Olga ArakelyanMar 22, 2011, 1:02:00 PM

    Thanks for your comment, Ewa! Yes, I'd say it was ... a super-extra weird-weird-weird-weird (one "weird" is clearly not enough) =( UPD: My client is still in doubts whether to hire that person or not. His language skills are excellent, but now they are not so sure they want him.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Olga ArakelyanMar 22, 2011, 1:02:00 PM

    oops, forgot the word "experience" after "weird" =)

    ReplyDelete

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