BEC Sample Interview

Stage One

Interlocutor Good morning. My name is John Smith, and this is my colleague, Mary Clinton. And your names are Li Hua and Wang Wei?

Li: Yeah
Wang: Yeah
Interlocutor: Thank you. Now, first of all, we'd like to know something about each of you. Mr. Li, can you tell me about yourself?
Li: My pleasure. As you know, my name is Li Hua. I'm from Jiangsu province. I'm now studying in Suzhou University. And I'm majoring in international trade there.
Interlocutor: Thank you. Mr Li. Now Mr. Wang, can you tell me about your ambitions?
Wang: Yes. I am now a student with Suzhou University majoring in business administration. I hope I can get my MBA and join a world-famous multinational company. And after I have had enough experience, I am going to start a company of my own.
Interlocutor: Thank you, Mr. Wang. And Mr. Li, could you tell me about your ambitions?
Li: A big question for me indeed. I've never thought about it, but I bet I'll work towards a CEO of a big multinational corporation. That's my goal in life. And that's why I am spending so much time on English, business English in particular.
Interlocutor: Mr. Li, you said you're spending a lot of time on business English. Do you think business English is difficult to learn?
Li: Not exactly, though it may be difficult at the initial stage. The thing is that you need to have some business knowledge before you start to learn business English.
Interlocutor: How about you, Mr. Wang? Is it difficult for you?
Wang: Not really. You know, I like English very much, and my major is business administration. So I have always found business English very interesting.

Stage II

The importance of having a good CV

Well, in my opinion, you can never underestimate the importance of having a good CV.
In the majority of cases, your CV is the employer's first impression of you, your first chance to impress your potential employer, let's say. It is the essential illustration of your suitability for the job, showing how your skills and experience match your employer's requirements.

But more than that, it shows your ability to summarize, prioritize and present information effectively, essential skills in today's job market. It also shows your linguistic and communicative abilities.

Even though employers these days use a variety of selection techniques, such as analyzing your handwriting, a good TV is still the single most important part of any application.

Stage III

Time Management

Your company has found that ineffective time management is one of the major problem areas throughout the workforce. You have been asked to put forward some suggestions for improving the situation.

Discuss, and decide together:
why poor time management can become a major problem in companies
what procedures could be adopted to ensure that time is managed effectively.

Zhang: Hi, Ms Wang, you know, our company is sort of out of control these days. Don't you think so?
Wang: Yeah. Everything seems to be in disorder here in our company. And that obviously has a lot to do with poor time management.
Zhang: You mean poor time management has caused all these problems. Why?
Wang: When time is not well planned within a company, they usually do not allocate blocks of time to specified tasks. They do not have a definite idea of when they should complete a certain task. And …
Zhang: And I think they often neglect the ordering of priorities. I mean certain tasks need our prior attention. But in our company every task is treated on an equal basis, even if it is a very urgent task.
Wang: That's the point. So time should be planned according to the importance of the tasks we need to deal with.
Zhang: So what do you think we can do so that time is managed effectively here in our company?
Wang: You mean what procedures we can adopt?
Zhang: Sure. That's what our boss is asking us to do. Right?
Wang: Right. I think we've got a lot to do. First, we should make all the staff members realize how important effective time management is to our company.
Zhang: Yes, I think we can give them instruction in time management, especially those in supervisory positions.
Wang: Right, perhaps we can run a few training programs for them. If need, we may invite some experts from outside to help us.
Zhang: Another thing we can do is to make all the managers, or even every staff member, come up with a job description of their own. In this way, they can be pretty sure about what they are responsible for and what they are not.
Wang: Yes, that's a good idea. And I think, the top managers of our company should come up with a set of rules as to what kind of jobs should be given priority to. In this way, we can make sure that important tasks are dealt with first.
Zhang: Good idea. So to sum up, our company should run a few training programs, and every staff member should write a job description of their own.
Wang: And rules should be made as to what kind of job should be given priority to.