3. Look at the questions that David Smyth uses during an interview. In which section of the interview would each question appear?

a Have you ever been in a situation in which you lost your temper?

b What sorts of projects did you work on during your time with them?

c What do you know about our recent acquisitions in Latin America?

d Did you have any trouble finding our building?

e How do you deal with difficult people?

f Which of the options that you took at university was the most interesting?

g How ambitious are you?

h Are there any questions that you'd like to ask me?

4. Work with a partner.

1) Think of the most common questions on a job interview?

2) Look at the following questions and decide how you would answer them.

• Where do you see yourself in 5 years?

• What are your salary requirements?

• Why should we hire you?

• Why did you leave your last job?

• If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be?

3) What questions would you ask a potential manager?

4) Act out an interview according to the interview scheme from 3.3.B. Before you start tell your partner about a position you are going to hire him/her.

Headhunting

READING

1. Read the article from the Financial Times about the headhunting profession, then answer the questions below. Poacher turned tv star – do headhunters deserve their bbc image?

Last night’s episode of Headhunters, a new BBC drama, does not present the trade in its most flattering light. Hall works for one of London’s foremost headhunting firms, where he spends his time on the mobile phone in constant search of bodies to ‘poach’. A client wants to hire an entertainment lawyer: Hall does better by persuading him to poach a whole team. When the head of the old law firm finds out that his valuable assets are about to leave he is so upset he kills himself.

Headhunters have never been the most respected profession, but the message from the BBC seems to be that their ruthless tactics are pushing them to new depths of unpopularity.

Tim Clark, an expert on headhunters at the Open University, argues that the business doesn’t deserve a bad name. He says that from the beginning people have viewed headhunting as a secretive, underhand business, disliking the process by which individuals are approached discreetly and persuaded to move jobs. ‘It’s an easy industry to pick on. So much of the business is confidential. People don’t know the full facts.’

So, what are the facts? Is there a moral problem with poaching? Might it be the responsibility of the headhunter to think about the mess that a person leaves behind when they change jobs?

‘The work is very sensitive,’ says Ian Butcher of Whitehead Mann. ‘You can create problems if you take out key people. But most senior businessmen recognize that that is part of the game. In any case, our loyalty is to the client.’…

1) What is normally ‘poached’ and from where?

2) If you use ruthless tactics, do you consider the feelings of other people? Does ruthless show approval or disapproval of these tactics?

3) If you describe activity as underhand, do you approve of it?

4) If X picks on Y, is Y able to defend himself of herself properly?

5) Does Ian Butcher sympathize with the companies that he persuades people to leave?