Professional Interview Practice for Nigerian Applicants (Canada)
Practise the questions a professional interview commonly asks, and see where your English needs work before the real interview. Built for people who moved from Nigeria and are interviewing in Canada.
What a professional interview asks
Employers often ask these questions. You can practise any of them out loud, with feedback.
- Tell me about yourself and what brought you to this role.
- Describe a project you owned from start to finish. What was your specific part?
- Tell me about a time you disagreed with a manager or a colleague.
- How do you prioritise when several people need something from you at once?
- Tell me about a time something went wrong and you had to tell someone.
How interviews run in Canada
Talking about your own work
Confident but not boastful. Emphasise teamwork and how you worked with others.
What interviewers here tend to value
- Teamwork
- Multicultural awareness
- Adaptability
- Community involvement
- Warmth
What catches people out
- Treating Canada like the US
- Not emphasising teamwork
- Ignoring volunteer/community experience
What is expected of your English
How much English a job needs depends on the role and the employer. Frontline adverts often ask for basic or working English, for example so you can follow safety instructions, and office roles often ask for more. The job advert is the best place to check. You do not need to sound like a local speaker. In Quebec, many roles also ask for French.
An accent is normal. What helps most is making what you did, and the result, easy to hear in every answer.
Asked about local experience?
Many interviewers in Canada ask if you have local work experience. Type the job you did in Nigeria. See job titles an interviewer here may use for it, three points for your CV, and a short answer you can practise. Explain your overseas experience (free tool)
Reading about it only takes you so far
Answer a few of these out loud. You will see where your English needs work, and what to fix first. A first look takes about a minute. The full check is 3-5 questions, about 12-20 minutes. Free, and you do not need a card.