Course contents based on ictnle.com authored materials and the Pondering People YouTube channel series:

  • Debriefing questions                                                                                                                                                             
  • CV review (chronological, functional vs skills)                                                                                                                                  
  • Writing a covering letter (→ comparing ideal candidate with own experience)
  • Describing motivation & successes (→ CV / covering letter updates)                                                                                                           
  • Describing strengths & weaknesses (→ anticipating sticky points)                                                                                                        
  • Preparing for a job interview (understanding behavioural questions)                                                                                                              
  • Assessing expectations from a job description (matching your offer with needs)    
  • Speaking strategies                                                                                         
  • Answering questions with the STAR approach, the Minto / McKinsey pyramid & BLUF       
  • Identifying single answers & support stories for many questions
  • Navigating interview questions about a lay-off in your previous job
  • How can you tease or whet the appetite of a recruiter at a job interview?
  • Refining BLUF & Minto Pyramid answers with generative AI
  • Behavioural question drills (team playing, motivational coaching, mentoring, adapting management styles, dealing with conflict...)
  • Answering follow-up questions to STAR with Minto / McKinsey Pyramid & BLUF
  • Reverse questions   
  • Cultural misalignment of negotiation expectations
  • Negotiating job offers - mock interviews to practise dealing with low-ball offers (AmEn, deceptively or unrealistically low bids) when negotiating TC (total compensation), perks/fringe benefits at FAANG (Meta (formerly Facebook), Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet) and similar big tech companies                                                       

Pondering People

Pondering People screenshot

This course is based on a YouTube Channel series entitled 'Pondering People' where people think, chew, mull over what to do in graded English. 

Contents focus on how to relocate to perform your dream job, whether you’re in IT, sales and marketing, or management… 

The course is desgined to improve your & interpersonal skills in English - as a foreign language - to nail behavioural questions at job interviews, address dilemmas in case studies and strike a deal during negotiations.

 

Preparing for interviews

  • Scheduling job hunt activities
  • CV review (chronological, functional vs skills)
  • Review of LinkedIn Profile
  • Understanding expectations from a job description | Writing a covering letter (ideal candidate)
  • CV versioning feedback (company vs team match) | Follow-up questions
  • Describing strengths & weaknesses (sticky points)
  • Navigating interview questions about a lay-off in your previous job
  • Being a team player, manager or leader
  • Communication strategies | Kinds of interviews
  • Mock interviews | STAR method vs Minto Pyramid
  • Identifying support stories
  • Describing success stories with the STAR approach
  • STAR, Minto Pyramid, 1PBL & BLUF
  • Do you want to seem more senior than you really are? (risks of over-selling oneself)
  • How to improve mock interviews?
  • Story building with a pre-trained AI model for job interviews vs ChatGPT
  • How can you tease or whet the appetite of a recruiter at a job interview?
  • Support stories with follow up questions
  • Refining BLUF & Minto Pyramid answers with generative AI
  • Assessing corporate culture values of your target company
  • Making a career without burning out
  • Management styles - Dealing with talented volatile managers
  • Answering questions for a senior level position | Teal organisations
  • Interviews drills with various interlocutors - Behavioural questions
  • Job hunting or team matching?

(...)

Communicating across cultures

  • Breaking the cultural iceberg
  • High and low context cultures (E.T.Hall)
  • When cultures collide (R.Lewis)
  • Lewis model & horizons
  • Hofstede cultural dimensions - How to use power distance, restraint & indulgence
  • Hofstede cultural dimensions - How to use power distance, individualism & long term orientation
  • Case study - Practice with Hofstede cultural dimensions
  • Facilitating cultural changes
  • Political correctness across cultures
  • It's all Greek to me

(...)

 

Negotiating

  • Thinking win/win
  • Seven stages by Harry Mills
  • Negotiation set phrases for a job interview
  • Negotiating within BATNA
  • Negotiating objectives
  • Dealing with resistance, redirecting objections
  • Building bridges from questions you don't want to answer
  • Stalling for time in a negotiation
  • Reconsidering concessions after reaching a deadlock
  • Negotiating job offers
  • Cultural misalignment of negotiation expectations

(...)