Can anybody give me tips for speaking with recruiters UK?

[Hema Suku]

Hi Friends,

I am seeking Java developer job in UK, I need some tips from experienced persons, Can anybody provide me the better link or information for interview preparation? can anybody give me advice for how to speak with job recruiters and 4+ years experienced Java developer interview questions with answer?


Thanks in Advance..

[Jeanne Boyarsky]

I've moved this to our Job Discussion forum. Google has a ton of links. As does searching this forum. What are you looking for more specifically?

[chris webster]

Well, I don't know how far your post reflects your English language ability, but if you are planning to work in the UK in the longer term, you should invest some time in improving your English skills to a professional level, regardless of whether you are applying for a new job. Communication skills are vital in any role, and you need to be able to speak/write English clearly, as well as understand it.

With regard to interviews, you should expect to be asked questions about your skills and experience i.e. everything you have claimed to know about in your job application. Think about the questions you would ask to find out if somebody had the skills you claim to have, and then think about how you will answer those questions. If you don't have all the skills required for the new job, you need to be able to explain how you will bridge that gap if you get the job. Find out something about the company as well, because the recruiters will expect you to know something about them, and it will also help you to prepare some intelligent questions about their business/systems when they ask you "Do you have any questions for us?".

Finally, don't waste time learning scripted answers to specific questions. Be prepared to respond to a wide range of questions about your skills/experience, and listen to what the interviewers are asking - they may not be asking you the question you've prepared for. An interview should be a conversation between professionals who are trying to answer a simple question: are you the right person for this job?

[Hema Suku]

Jeanne Boyarsky wrote:I've moved this to our Job Discussion forum. Google has a ton of links. As does searching this forum. What are you looking for more specifically?

Thanks for your information. Specifically I am looking Java developer interview preparation guidance, and I need to know how to speak with a recruiters.

Thanks.

[Hema Suku]

chris webster wrote:Well, I don't know how far your post reflects your English language ability, but if you are planning to work in the UK in the longer term, you should invest some time in improving your English skills to a professional level, regardless of whether you are applying for a new job. Communication skills are vital in any role, and you need to be able to speak/write English clearly, as well as understand it.

With regard to interviews, you should expect to be asked questions about your skills and experience i.e. everything you have claimed to know about in your job application. Think about the questions you would ask to find out if somebody had the skills you claim to have, and then think about how you will answer those questions. If you don't have all the skills required for the new job, you need to be able to explain how you will bridge that gap if you get the job. Find out something about the company as well, because the recruiters will expect you to know something about them, and it will also help you to prepare some intelligent questions about their business/systems when they ask you "Do you have any questions for us?".

Finally, don't waste time learning scripted answers to specific questions. Be prepared to respond to a wide range of questions about your skills/experience, and listen to what the interviewers are asking - they may not be asking you the question you've prepared for. An interview should be a conversation between professionals who are trying to answer a simple question: are you the right person for this job?

Thank you for your valuable information, I don't have depth knowledge about my communication skill, from year 2009 I am managing in UK with my communication skill in College and University, I don't know how to check my communication skill is professional or not. If you know any website for testing communication skill like that, Please guide me.


Thanks.

[Junilu Lacar]

Hema Suku wrote:
Thank you for your valuable information, I don't have depth knowledge about my communication skill, from year 2009 I am managing in UK with my communication skill in College and University, I don't know how to check my communication skill is professional or not. If you know any website for testing communication skill like that, Please guide me.

To be brutally honest with you, if your written communication in a professional context is anywhere near the quality of writing in your posts, then you need a lot of work on grammar and composition. If you can find any courses on basic English grammar and composition at a local university or college, then you should definitely take some.

[Hema Suku]

Junilu Lacar wrote:

Hema Suku wrote:
Thank you for your valuable information, I don't have depth knowledge about my communication skill, from year 2009 I am managing in UK with my communication skill in College and University, I don't know how to check my communication skill is professional or not. If you know any website for testing communication skill like that, Please guide me.

To be brutally honest with you, if your written communication in a professional context is anywhere near the quality of writing in your posts, then you need a lot of work on grammar and composition. If you can find any courses on basic English grammar and composition at a local university or college, then you should definitely take some.

Thanks for your information and can you please suggest me free English teaching places in Birmingham, UK? or any proper you tube links?

[chris webster]

Your posts are confusing - you say you have been studying at college here since 2009, but you also claim to have 4 years' professional experience of Java: have you been studying or working as a developer in the UK? As you don't seem to know what level of language ability is required in the workplace, I'm assuming you have been studying. But the UK IT industry doesn't really need inexperienced recruits with poor language skills, so you'll need to put some effort into making yourself more marketable on that score. There's not much point talking to UK recruiters - or interviewers - if neither they nor your potential colleagues can understand you.

If you have been studying in the UK, your university should be able to advise you on English classes, indeed they should have offered you this support when you first arrived. To be honest, if you have already been studying here for 4 years then your written English should be much better than it appears to be. Maybe you are not speaking/writing enough English at the right level, or you are not getting the right support to develop your English to a professional or even reasonable college level, but you need to do something about it.

Java Ranch isn't really the place to look for English lessons, however, and you need to do more than just watch a few YouTube videos. If you want to find good professional English classes in Birmingham, you should probably do some research locally e.g. start at one of the universities and see if they offer suitable classes. If not, look for a reputable language school with properly qualified teachers offering intensive courses in advanced business English or similar.

[Hema Suku]

I have been studied as a regular student from 2009 to 2010 in a local college. I have finished my PGDMS through that college then I have applied MBA in a distance learning in the mean time I have tried for IT job because I had an experince in jaca development. I have got that job through my husband friend who was working in my company. My company is a small scale company, It has 10 to 12 members it doing small projects for the local business.

when I was arrived this country my college has been conducted english examination for all students according to the result they have been arranged english lesson for the people who was weak in english, Fortunately I have been passed in that exam with good score. When I was studying in the University I have to attend the class montly once, and I had a tutor for my assignment preparation and dissertation preparation he was guided me through out MBA, but I haven't faced any problem with communicating my tutor. My wrriten english must be better professionally. Obviously, I have struggled in my assignment and dissertation preparation some how I managed.
I have started working from my company from november 2010, my visa status has been changed one and half years back. I went some places like community centres and NHS who all are giving basic english course to get a course from them, but they said you no need to start this course because once you go to large scale multicultural organisation then your communication will be increased. The problem is in my company all persons are from my region, so I can't get the chance to improve my communication skill. I don't get chance to speak with british people in my work environment. Even I was attended an interview with british person but I dint feel any difficulty unfortunately I was not selected that was a govt sector so I got an interview from them directly there is no recruiters in the middle.
I know my english skill is not in professional level, thats what I have tried english courses but they haven't accepted me, now I searching advanced english course still I can't get anything in my area.
Thanks for your suggestion and guidance, really your guidance has given me a lot more ideas and thinking, I will try to improve my level best in english.

[chris webster]

Forget about applying for jobs as a Java developer. Right now your priority must be to learn English properly. It is frankly disgraceful that your college failed to spot the serious problems with your written English, or to help you develop your language skills to a decent level. And I cannot understand how you managed to get a "PGDMS" (some kind of diploma? I've got two UK degrees and I've never heard of this), let alone how you expect to get an MBA through the medium of English.

I'm sorry if this sounds harsh, but you have failed to take advantage of the opportunities to improve your English despite living here for 4(!) years. I've worked in a foreign language environment myself, and I know it can be hard, but you have to make the effort to improve your language skills by whatever means possible: read as much as you can at a professional level, learn from examples of good English and practice these, join clubs to meet people, get to know your fellow students or colleagues, don't hide in a self-imposed ghetto of people from your own country, take advanced English lessons and actively seek out opportunities to develop your skills further, instead of assuming that a passing grade in a clearly inadequate language exam 4 years ago means you are even passably fluent in English for professional purposes.

And expecting the UK taxpayer to subsidise your learning - via community centres or the NHS - is a little cheeky when you are already working as a developer and can expect to earn a lot more money if you are successful in your career goals. Put some time, money and effort into properly learning the language of the country you are living in, and maybe people will have a better chance of appreciating your other skills as well. Good luck.

P.S. Here is one free language lesson: "Have been" is the passive form.

"I have been studied as a regular student..." means somebody studied you, but I expect you mean "I studied...".
"When I was arrived this country" - you mean "when I arrived in this country".
"My college has been conducted english examination" means nothing at all - presumably you mean "my college conducted an English examination".
"He was guided me through out MBA" is also passive but mostly meaningless - I think you mean "he guided me throughout my MBA".
"I was attended an interview" - you mean "I attended an interview...".

This is basic English grammar, the kind of thing that I taught to 13 year old foreign students in secondary school many years ago, so you should have known this before you even started college here, and you certainly should not be having problems with this after studying and working here for 4 years.

[Hema Suku]

Ya... Now I understand what mistakes I have done in my last posts, I could have to written my passive sentence as, the examination has been conducted by the college. I think so I am not doing these kind of mistakes while I am speaking.
One more thing I want to tell you is that I have passed my MBA on september 2011. I think this is a very shocking news for you. Am I right? but I have cleared my MBA with 2 attempts. My tutor has given me a lot of correction, and I have struggled on my dissertation preparation even though I have cleared.

Anyway I started searching best english course teaching centres in my area, if I would have got your advice before 2 years means I would have finished my english course, now I might be a master in that. Really I like english language and one of my dream is to become a master in english.

Could you please tell me what other mistakes i have done in my posts?

[chris webster]

Hema Suku wrote:One more thing I want to tell you is that I have passed my MBA on september 2011. I think this is a very shocking news for you. Am I right?

Yes, because I would expect an MBA graduate to be able to communicate clearly, correctly and articulately in written and spoken English at a professional level. You clearly cannot do this at the moment - your written English is semi-literate to be honest - so you will need to work hard on improving your English: you want people to pay you well for working as a professional in the UK, so you need to start by showing enough respect to learn their language properly at a professional level.

Hema Suku wrote:Could you please tell me what other mistakes i have done in my posts?

Sorry, but there are too many mistakes to explain properly here - this is JavaRanch, not EnglishRanch - and I'm not an English teacher. Find a properly qualified English teacher and explain that you need to improve your written and spoken English to the standard that people would expect from a professional software developer with an MBA. A good teacher/school will carry out a proper needs analysis and discuss your particular requirements with you. And practice what you are learning all the time i.e. practice doing it right instead of coasting along with your current inadequate knowledge. For example, always write proper English when you post here on JavaRanch. But this is a long term project - after all, you've already been in the UK for 4 years without doing any of this so far - and you should expect to work hard if you expect to make the necessary progress. Good luck.