A. Vocabulary

You will see the following words on this page. Do you know what they mean?

B. Examples of Skills and Experience

“Tell me about yourself.”

“What are some of your hard skills? What are some of your soft skills?”

“Why is this job good for you? Do you have any experience doing this job?”

These are common interview questions. All of us have skills and experience. Some of these skills and experience are from other jobs. We also have skills and experience that are not from work. We sometimes forget to mention them! But many of these skills and experiences are transferable to the work world.

So think about some activities you do at home or in your community. How do they relate to the work world?

Flip through the following cards to read some examples. As you do so, think about the activities YOU have done. What did those activities teach you?

C. Writing About Skills and Experience

The following is a writing tool. Use this tool to gather ideas for talking about your skills and experience. You will use these ideas when your record yourself.

1. Type your answers in the boxes on the Tell me about your skills page.
2. Export your ideas into a Word document on the Export your ideas page. You can use this document when you make your recording. You can also submit this document to a teacher or tutor.

D. Talking About Skills and Experience

Imagine the interviewer says

“Do you have any experience doing this job?”

Well, if you do have direct experience doing the job, you can respond with this phrase:

• “Yes, I do, and one example is …” and then add an example, maybe one of the ones you wrote about.

Now, if you do not have direct experience doing the job, you can respond with one of the following phrases:

• “No, but …” and then include an example that you wrote about, or
• “Not directly, but …” and then give one of the examples you wrote about. 

So, imagine an interviewer says “Tell me about your skills” or asks “Do you have any experience doing this job?” Record your answer below.

1. Use one of the bolded phrases we just talked about.
2. Tell the interviewer about one or more of your activities or experiences.
3. Explain what you’ve learned.

You may want to download your recording and submit it to a teacher or tutor for feedback.