Read the first pages of Job Interviews in English for IT B1–B2

Before you start

Welcome

Welcome! This book is for everyone in IT who wants a new job, a better job or a promotion, and has to get it in English: developers, testers, DevOps and cloud engineers, support engineers, data people, product managers and team leads.

You already know your job. You’ve fixed hard bugs, shipped features and kept systems running. But in an interview in English, many strong people suddenly freeze, talk for too long or make their work sound smaller than it really is. The interviewer doesn’t hear the engineer you are. They hear someone who is looking for words.

This book helps you change that. It takes you through the whole hiring journey, from your CV and the first recruiter call to the technical rounds, the salary conversation, the offer and your first weeks in the new team. For every step, you see a weak answer and a strong answer, you learn how a good answer is built, you get the phrases you need, and you prepare your own answer.

You don’t need perfect English to do well in an interview. You need clear, true stories about your work, a simple structure for your answers and a few good phrases. That is what this book gives you.

How this book works

There are 24 chapters in four Parts:

Part	Chapters	What you prepare
1 · Getting the Interview	1–6	Understanding the process, your CV, cover letters and messages, your online profile, recruiter calls, “Tell me about yourself”
2 · Behavioural Interviews	7–12	STAR stories about teamwork, conflict, mistakes, ownership, strengths and weaknesses
3 · Technical Rounds	13–18	Talking about your projects, thinking aloud in live coding, system design, take-home tasks, saying “I don’t know”, your own questions
4 · Offers and Next Steps	19–24	Video interviews, follow-ups, salary, offers and negotiating, rejection, your first 90 days

Do the chapters in order if you can. Part 1 builds the basics that every later chapter uses. But if your technical interview is on Thursday, go straight to Part 3: each chapter also works on its own.

After every six chapters, a Part review mixes everything from that Part. Try it without looking back.

Use the key. All the answers are at the back of the book. When more than one answer is possible, a slash (/) shows them. For rewriting and speaking tasks, the key gives a possible answer or a model answer: one good version, not the only one. If your answer is clear, true and answers the question, it is a good answer too.

Use your own career. The examples follow five candidates, but in every chapter you also prepare your own answer, with your own projects and your own numbers. By the end of the book, you will have a full set of answers ready for your next interview.

Say it out loud. Interviews are spoken. After you write an answer, read it aloud two or three times, then try to say it without reading. Time yourself: most good answers take between one and two minutes.

How each chapter works

Every chapter has six steps and ten exercises.

Step	What you do
1 · See it in action	Compare a weak answer and a strong answer to the same question, and notice what makes the difference.
2 · How it works	See the parts of a good answer, in order, and the key rules.
3 · Useful phrases	Learn ready-to-use phrases, marked B1 or B2.
4 · Practise	Choose, order, complete and rewrite. Exercises 1–7.
5 · Say this, not that	Fix the mistakes that make strong candidates sound weak. Exercise 8.
6 · Your turn and quick check	Prepare your own answer with a checklist, then do ten quick questions. Exercises 9 and 10.

The B1 phrases are simple and safe: you can use them in any interview. The B2 phrases are a little more precise or more diplomatic. Start with B1, then add the B2 phrases you like.

The levels in this book are a guide to help you choose. They are not official CEFR results.

Meet the candidates

The examples in this book follow five people through their job searches in the autumn of 2027. Some of them you may know from the other books in this series: they work at Northbeam Software, a fully remote company that makes Shiftly, a staff-scheduling app for restaurants, clinics and shops.

Name	Situation	Based in
Aiko Tanaka	Junior developer at Northbeam. She’s going for a mid-level role. Good at her job, but she often makes her work sound smaller than it is.	Osaka
Mateus Costa	Frontend developer at Northbeam. He’s applying for a senior role at Harbourline Systems. Friendly and fast, but he talks too much when he’s nervous.	São Paulo
Oksana Kovalenko	QA engineer at Northbeam. She’s applying to be QA lead at Quayside Data. Very precise, and sometimes she sounds more direct than she means to.	Kraków
Ravi Menon	Backend developer with four years’ experience. He was a maths teacher before he moved into tech. Now he’s applying to Northbeam.	Kochi
Lucía Ferrer	Cloud and DevOps engineer. She’s going back to work after a two-year career break and applying to Lumen Grid.	Valencia

On the other side of the table are the interviewers: Elif Demir, recruiter at Northbeam; Sam Okafor, engineering manager at Northbeam; Priya Raman, senior backend developer at Northbeam, who runs technical interviews; Freya Lund, recruiter at Quayside Data; Tomás Brandt, talent partner at Harbourline Systems; Nnamdi Eze, engineering manager at Lumen Grid, and a few of their colleagues.

All the people, companies and products in this book are fictional, and so are the email addresses, which use example.com. The tools are not real brands either: the candidates talk about “the ticket tracker”, “the cloud platform” and “a professional networking site”. Your tools may have other names, but the English works the same way.

Quick guide: the hiring journey

Most tech jobs follow a journey like this. Every company is a little different, so always ask what the process looks like (Chapter 1 shows you how).

1. Application. Your CV, a short cover letter or message, and sometimes your online profile. (Chapters 2–4)
2. Screening call. A short call with a recruiter about the role, your experience, your notice period and your salary expectations. (Chapters 5–6)
3. Hiring manager interview. Often behavioural: “Tell me about a time when…” (Chapters 7–12)
4. Technical rounds. Your past projects, live coding, system design or a take-home task. (Chapters 13–18)
5. Final round and offer. Sometimes a full interview day; then references, the offer and the salary conversation. (Chapters 19–22)

And remember: after a “no”, there is always a next interview (Chapter 23), and after a “yes”, there is a first day (Chapter 24).

Five ideas you’ll meet again and again in this book:

1. Answer the question first. Then give the details.
2. Tell true stories. One real example beats ten adjectives like hard-working or passionate.
3. Say “I” for your part. Your team did the project; the interviewer wants to know what you did.
4. Keep it short. One to two minutes for most answers. Stop, and let them ask more.
5. It’s a conversation. You can ask questions, take a moment to think and ask them to repeat.

Ready? Let’s start with Chapter 1.

Part 1 · Getting the Interview

Chapter 1 · How Tech Hiring Works

Goes with The job ad and the first email · Your goal: You can read a tech job ad, understand the usual stages of a hiring process and ask a recruiter clear questions about it.

Hiring in tech can feel like a long game with secret rules. One company has two interviews, another has six. Some send you a coding task, others ask you to design a system on a whiteboard. Many candidates are afraid to ask questions because they think it sounds weak. In fact, it’s the opposite: good questions show that you’re organised and serious. In this chapter you’ll learn to read a job ad like an experienced candidate and to ask about the process, clearly and politely.

1.1 See it in action

Ravi Menon is a backend developer in Kochi. On Monday 6 September 2027, he sees this job ad on Northbeam’s careers page.

Backend Developer · Rota team (NB-2027-14)

About the role. You’ll be working on Shiftly, our staff-scheduling app for restaurants, clinics and shops. You’ll build the APIs behind shift planning and shift swaps. The role reports to Sam Okafor, engineering manager.

What you’ll do. Design and build new API endpoints. Improve the speed and reliability of the scheduling service. Review code and support other developers.

What we’re looking for. We’re looking for someone who has three or more years’ experience building backend services, writes clear tests and enjoys working in a remote team. Experience with time zones and date handling is a plus.

Where. Fully remote, open to candidates in time zones between UTC−3 and UTC+9.

Our process. A 30-minute screening call · an interview with the hiring manager · a technical interview · a short meeting with the team.

Ravi applies. Two days later, Northbeam’s recruiter, Elif Demir, invites him to a screening call. Here are two possible replies.

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Your application: Backend Developer (NB-2027-14)

Reply A

Dear Madam,

Thank you very much for your kind mail. I am very happy and honoured. Please tell me everything about the process and what I must prepare, and when the result will come. Any time is OK for me.

Regards,
Ravi

From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Your application: Backend Developer (NB-2027-14)

Reply B

Dear Elif,

Thank you for your email. I’d be happy to have a screening call.

Before we talk, I have three short questions:

1. What does the process look like after the screening call? I saw four stages in the job ad.
2. Is there a coding task? If so, how long should the task take?
3. What’s the timeline for a decision?

I’m in India (UTC+5:30). Would it be possible to have the call on Thursday or Friday between 08:00 and 12:00 UTC?

Best regards,
Ravi Menon

Notice. What does Elif learn from Reply B that she doesn’t learn from Reply A? Why are Ravi’s questions numbered? Why does he give his time zone and a time range, not “any time”?

1.2 How it works

Most tech hiring processes have the same stages. Each stage tests something different, so you prepare different things.

Part	What to say	Example
1 · Application	Show the results of your work and why this role fits you	Built the API for a booking app used by 200 clinics.
2 · Screening call	Your situation, your motivation, your notice period and salary range, in short answers	I’m looking for a role with more backend work.
3 · Hiring manager interview	True stories about how you work with people and solve problems	Let me tell you about a release that went wrong.
4 · Technical round	How you think: explain your steps, your choices and your trade-offs	I’ll start with a simple version, then optimise it.
5 · Team or final round	How you’d fit in the team; your own questions	How does the team share knowledge across time zones?
6 · Offer	Clear, polite questions about the details	Could you send me the offer in writing?

Read the ad in three parts. What you’ll do tells you the real job. What we’re looking for tells you what they’ll ask about. Words like is a plus, nice to have or bonus mean that you can still apply without that skill.

Don’t wait for a perfect match. Many good candidates only apply when they have 100% of the skills. If you have most of the important ones, apply.

Always ask about the process. Recruiters expect it. Ask early, ask once, and put your questions in one short message.

Number your questions. A recruiter can then answer 1 yes, 2 about two hours, 3 by the end of October without missing anything.

Give your time zone and a time range. In a remote world, any time is not helpful. Give two or three options, in UTC or with your offset.

Tip · Recruiter, hiring manager, interviewer. The recruiter (or talent partner) organises the process. The hiring manager is your future boss and makes the decision. Interviewers are everyone who talks to you, often future colleagues.

1.3 Useful phrases

Use	Level	Phrase	Example
Reading the ad	B1	You’ll be working on …	You’ll be working on our mobile app.
Reading the ad	B1	We’re looking for someone who …	We’re looking for someone who enjoys testing.
Reading the ad	B1	… is a plus	Experience with cloud platforms is a plus.
Reading the ad	B2	The role reports to …	The role reports to the head of engineering.
Asking about the process	B1	What does the process look like?	What does the process look like after this call?
Asking about the process	B1	How many stages are there?	How many stages are there in total?
Asking about the process	B1	Who will I be speaking to?	Who will I be speaking to in the technical interview?
Asking about the process	B1	How long should the task take?	Is there a take-home task, and how long should it take?
Asking about the process	B2	What’s the timeline for a decision?	What’s the timeline for a decision on this role?
Times and dates	B1	I’m in … (UTC+…).	I’m in Kraków (UTC+2).
Times and dates	B2	Would it be possible to …?	Would it be possible to move the call to Friday?
Times and dates	B1	I’m free on … between … and …	I’m free on Tuesday between 09:00 and 12:00 UTC.
Confirming	B1	Just to confirm, …	Just to confirm, the call is at 10:00 UTC on Thursday.
Confirming	B2	Could you let me know if I need to prepare anything?	Could you let me know if I need to prepare anything for the call?