Ask HN: How you improved your communication skill for interviews?

6 points by christopherDam 10 years ago | 7 comments

I am non native speaker. I am living in different country where English is not native language. But for interviews and all other official work english is mandatory and It is really required to crack the interviews and all.

My communication skills is not up to the mark and I am not fluent speaker. Because of this I am lagging behind from my fellow developers.

Please help and give some advice. How to improve communication skills. What helped you to learn english and become fluent speaker.

Thanks for your help

orless 10 years ago |

Identify your weaknesses. What are they? Language? Specifically? Grammar, vocabulary? Or higher-level communication? Or interviews, specifically?

I'm twice non-native speaker (English, German) but got good enough to do communication-focused roles without big problems.

From my point of view, language requires training in grammar and a satisfactory vocabulary.

Grammar most probably really need training (like language courses), I think it's quite hard to get all these tenses and modal verbs etc. right.

For vocabulary check Duolingo, good for training.

Read a lot in the language, listen a lot to the speech.

A couple of friends who learn eastern-European languages book private lessons over Skype, you can get a professional tutor quite cheap. Not sure if this will work for English, though.

Consider spending several month abroad (some Work&Travel programm). Full integration is the best way to learn the language.

As for interviews, read a few books on interviews (like "Programming Interviews Exposed") and do a lot of interviews. Go to interviews just for training. It's just a matter of practice. After a dozen of interviews you'll know the show.

christopherDam 10 years ago | |

Thanks a lot really great advice. One thing more do you check or conscious about grammar while listening or reading others while learning language?

gesman 10 years ago |

As long as you know the technical shit and can somehow communicate where other party understands you and vice versa - it's fine.

You're up for learn-as-you-go.

That's for technical/engineering positions. Today's startup of 10 people has 8 from different countries speaking with a horrible accent.

If your position is marketing - then my advise is less valid (unless you'll be marketing on your home language to your home audience).

christopherDam 10 years ago | |

Thanks but you know some times you can not show yourself in 1 hour or less.

I agree with you but some companies did not give value to your technical talent and they need communication skills. I have seen the interviewers saying we need communication skills also and some candidate reject basis on that.

postila 10 years ago |

Join some active open source project with good community that includes native speakers. Participate in its development. Usually, there is a lot of written conversations in OSS projects, and participating in them might be a good source of learning.

However this advice won't work in short-term: you need at least several months of such activity. But you'll eventually improve your skills, without spending a dollar.

orless 10 years ago | |

This seems quite unrealistic and inefficient to me. OP would have to find an open source project (with a good community) which would match his/her skills and accept him/her as a contributor - which is a challenge on it's own. Then there will be hardly any feedback on the written communication (correction of mistakes or style etc.). And no spoken language.

I know a lot of people who learned English by singing songs, but hardly anyone who've learned English in an open-source project. And believe me, I know much more codes than singers. :)

trumbitta2 10 years ago |

https://www.fluentify.com/ ?