Job Interview English Lesson Plan for B1–B2 Students

Students who ask for interview practice usually have an interview coming up. They don't need a long list of phrases. They need five or six answers they can give with confidence, and practice hearing questions they didn't prepare for. This plan is written for one-to-one lessons with adult B1–B2 students and takes two lessons of about an hour.

Before the lesson

Ask the student to send you:

the job ad, or a job they'd like to apply for;
their résumé, or a short list of their jobs with dates;
the date and type of interview: video call, in person, or a panel.

If the interview is real, build everything around that job. A model answer about someone else's career is useful for five minutes. After that, the student should be talking about their own.

Common questions and how to answer them

Tell me about yourself

The interviewer wants a short summary that connects the student to this job, not a life story. A simple order works: what you do now, what you've done before that matters here, and why you want this job. It should take one to two minutes.

"I'm a logistics coordinator at a food company. I've worked there for four years, and I plan deliveries for about 60 stores. Before that, I spent three years in a warehouse, so I know the work from the inside. Now I'd like to work with an international team, and that's why I applied for this role."

Teach the other ways it's asked, too: "Walk me through your résumé" and "Tell me a little about your background."

Why do you want to work here?

One fact about the company and one link to the student's experience: "I read that you're opening two new warehouses next year. I helped set up a new site in my last job, and I'd like to do that again."

What are your strengths?

One or two strengths, each with an example: "I stay calm under pressure. Last year, a supplier canceled two days before a big order, and I was able to find a new one in 24 hours."

What's your biggest weakness?

Something real that isn't central to the job, and what the student is doing about it: "I used to find it hard to say no to extra work, and my own deadlines sometimes slipped. Now I plan my week every Monday and check new requests against that plan." Steer students away from "I'm a perfectionist." Interviewers hear it all the time.

Tell me about a time when…

These questions ask about a real past event: a conflict, a mistake, a deadline, a difficult client. The STAR order keeps the answer clear: Situation, Task, Action, Result.

"Last spring, our biggest client complained that deliveries were late. My manager asked me to find out why. I checked three months of data and found that most delays came from one route, so I changed the route with the drivers. In two months, late deliveries fell from 12% to 3%."

The whole answer is in the past simple, which is normal for a story with a finished time.

Why are you leaving your current job?

Stay positive and don't criticize the current employer: "I've learned a lot there, but there's no room to move into a manager role, and I'm ready for that now."

What are your salary expectations?

Research the usual pay for the job first, and give a range rather than one number: "I'm looking for something between $58,000 and $65,000, depending on the full package."

Do you have any questions for us?

The answer is always yes. Prepare two or three:

What does a typical week look like in this role?
What would success look like after six months?
What are the next steps?

Useful phrases

Experience:

I've been working as a ___ for ___ years.
In my current role, I'm responsible for ___.
I have experience with ___.
I worked at ___ from 2019 to 2023.

Examples and results:

For example, last year I ___.
As a result, ___.
That meant we could ___.

Buying time and checking:

That's a good question. Let me think for a moment.
Could you repeat the question, please?
Do you mean ___ or ___?
Sorry, I didn't catch the last part.

Closing:

Thank you for your time. I enjoyed learning more about the role.
I look forward to hearing from you.

The grammar that comes up

Present perfect or past simple?

Use the present perfect for experience up to now with no finished time, and with for and since for things that are still true. Use the past simple for finished jobs, specific times and stories.

I've worked in sales for six years. (She still works in sales.)
I worked at a bank from 2018 to 2022. (That job is finished.)
I've managed teams of up to ten people. (Experience, no time given.)
In 2023, I managed a team of ten. (A finished time.)

Two concept-check questions do most of the work: "Do you still work there?" and "Is there a finished time?"

Mistakes to listen for:

I work here since 2020. → I've worked here since 2020.
I have led a big project last year. → I led a big project last year.
I've been here since three years. → I've been here for three years.

can, could and be able to

can for skills now: I can use Excel and SAP. I can speak Portuguese.
be able to sounds a little more formal, and it works in tenses where can doesn't: I'll be able to start in March. I've been able to cut costs by 10%.
For one success in the past, use was able to or managed to, not could: We were able to finish two weeks early. (Not: We could finish two weeks early.) The negative is fine either way: We couldn't find a supplier, so…
could is right for a general ability in the past: When I lived in Berlin, I could speak German quite well.
Could you…? is the polite way to ask the interviewer something: Could you tell me more about the team?

Over two lessons

Lesson 1 (60 minutes):

Warm-up (5 minutes): "Have you had a job interview in English? What was hard?"
The questions (15 minutes): Show the eight questions above. For each one, the student says what the interviewer really wants to know.
Model answers (15 minutes): Read the models. The student finds the present perfect and the past simple, and underlines phrases to keep.
Grammar (15 minutes): the tense contrast and was able to.
Planning (10 minutes): The student makes notes for "Tell me about yourself" and one STAR story. For homework, they make notes for four more questions.

Lesson 2 (60 minutes): the role-play.

The role-play

First try (5 minutes). The student answers "Tell me about yourself" once, with no feedback. It warms them up.
Interview one (15 minutes). You're the interviewer. Ask six questions and follow up on the answers: "What did you learn from that?" "Why did you decide to leave?" Be polite but real. Don't stop to correct; take notes.
Feedback (15 minutes). Use the checklist below.
Interview two (15 minutes). The same questions in different words, plus two the student hasn't prepared. Unprepared questions teach students to buy time and keep going.
Swap (10 minutes). The student interviews you with three questions. Sitting in the interviewer's chair shows them what a clear answer sounds like. Finish with homework: a recording of "Tell me about yourself" in under 90 seconds, made on their phone.

The student should prepare notes, not a script. Key words and numbers on a card are enough. An answer read from a script sounds flat, and it falls apart when the question is worded differently.

For a video interview, practice on video: look at the camera, not at your own face, keep notes beside the camera, and check the sound 15 minutes before.

Feedback that helps

Use the same checklist after each interview, so the student can see progress:

Did the answer actually answer the question?
Was there an example, with a number or a clear result?
Was it under two minutes?
Tenses: present perfect for experience, past simple for stories.
Words: one weak word to upgrade, such as did the project → led the project.
Pronunciation of the words the student will say most: job title, company names, numbers.
Delivery: pauses, speed, eye contact with the camera.

Give two things that worked and two things to fix, no more. Then ask the student to give the same answer again right away. The second try is where most of the learning happens.

Ready-made lessons in the library

These Business English lessons from the SnappySchool library follow the same path, and each downloads as a PDF:

Getting ready for a job interview: "Tell me about yourself," strengths, a weakness and availability, with can, could and be able to. A career coach gives notes on a practice interview, and then your student does one.
The job interview: a video-call interview that gets to a difficult client and salary expectations, an offer in a voicemail from HR, and a mock interview, with the present perfect and the past simple.
Researching a company: how to research a company before an interview, built on the cola wars, with the passive.
Writing a résumé: a US résumé, action verbs and numbers instead of clichés, and a recruiter's tips.
Review 2 (Business English): a job ad, a company's web page and a cover letter, then a full job interview.
Present perfect or past simple? (A2): for students who need the tense contrast first. It ends with a job interview with the teacher.

Questions

How long should an answer in a job interview be?

Most answers should take 30 seconds to two minutes. If the interviewer wants more, they'll ask a follow-up question.

Should students memorize their answers?

Memorize the order and the key facts, not the words. Then practice the same answer with the question asked in different ways.

What is the STAR method?

It's a way to answer "Tell me about a time when…" questions: Situation, Task, Action, Result. Tell the story in the past simple and finish with a clear result, ideally a number.

What grammar should I teach for job interviews?

The present perfect and the past simple come first, because students describe their experience and tell stories about past jobs. After that, can, could and be able to for skills and achievements.

A job interview English lesson for business students (B1–B2)