Oral test

1. What are the factors which are important in getting a job? (Những yếu tố nào quan trọng trong việc có được một công việc?)

In my opinion, there are 6 factors which are important in getting a job, including: experience, qualifications, skills, personality, appearance and self-confidence. -> Explain why these 6 factors are important (briefly). (Giải thích ngắn gọn tại sao 6 yếu tố này lại quan trọng). Ví dụ: Experience helps me quickly adapt to the new work and work effectively. It also helps the employer save time and money to retrain me. The more experienced I am, the more easily I will outweigh other candidates. Employers usually look up to those who are experienced rather than who are not. Qualifications are also important in getting a job, especially a job at state-owned enterprises because they show the basic, necessary knowledge and skills someone learned at university or school. In many ways, qualifications shows someone’s ability and quality, etc.

2. What are your experiences at work? (Những kinh nghiệm trong công việc của bạn là gì?). Câu này mọi người kể ra những công việc mà mình đã từng làm và những công việc đó mang lại cho mình những kinh nghiệm gì.

Well, I have gone through many kinds of work at different companies. I have worked as a seller, marketing staff, interpreter, translator, planning staff, and export-import staff. For each work, I have gained a specific kind of knowledge and experience. The more work I have gone through, the more experienced I become. When I worked for Bao Ha Joint Stock Company, I gained experience in car accessories, office furniture selling and installing, working with tenants, managing other sellers, working with Koreans and understanding what they are like. I also practiced and improved my translating and interpreting skills, which meant I had more experience in translation and interpretation. In addition, I also obtained experience in doing office work.

3. What are the benefits of globalization? (Những lợi ích của toàn cầu hóa là gì?)

I think globalization has the following benefits: offering people more choices of goods and services, increasing competition among companies and therefore providing people with higher quality and cheaper products or services, raising people’s living standards and improving international communication and understanding. Sau đó mọi người có thể giải thích rõ hơn về những lợi ích đó, ví dụ: when globalization occurs, trade is free, goods and services from other countries will enter a country and the people in the country will enjoy more choices of goods and services other than the goods and services provided by the country. There are nearly always companies operating in the same field and as a result, competition is inevitable. When globalization takes place, local companies have to compete against not only each other but also foreign ones. It means that competition increases. There will be companies which compete against others in terms of quality while other companies compete in terms of price. Therefore, consumers will benefit from this competition with higher quality and/or cheaper products and/or services, etc.

4. How does the fair trade movement benefit the third-world producers? (Phong trào thương mại công bằng có lợi cho các nhà sản xuất ở thế giới thứ ba như thế nào?)

If the fair trade movement is not practiced, most of the third-world producers cannot break into the European or US markets because of high tariffs and the heavy subsidies that Western producers enjoy. The fair trade market protects the third-world producers from depressed world

commodity markets and the price wars between giant multinationals. Fair trade can save these producers from bankruptcy due to price difference which can be as much as 100%. Fair-trade food is booming and fair trade food sales are growing and creating a market which is now attracting multinationals such as Sainbury’s, Starbucks and Carrefour.

5. What do you think of high-quality products? (Bạn nghĩ gì về các sản phẩm chất lượng cao?)

Well, I think high-quality products are well-designed. Let’s take an example, an iPhone. It is so nice and its design is amazing. Its screen and icons look sparkling. It is also very modern with a lot of interesting applications. Most of high-quality products are well-known and iPhone is not an exception. In addition, high-quality products are usually durable. A friend of mine has an iPhone 3G and he has been using it for 5 years and it is now still in good working condition. Moreover, high-quality products are reliable. If I buy an iPhone, I don’t worry about its quality. High-quality products are often expensive but you get what you pay for. You can buy a Chinese-made iPhone at a very cheap price but its quality is very bad. That’s the reason why so many people still buy a genuine iPhone though it’s very expensive.

6. Why is investment in quality important? (Tại sao việc đầu tư vào chất lượng lại quan trọng?)

Because quality is remembered long after the price is forgotten. Quality, not price, is remembered by consumers when they buy a product or service. If the quality of your products or services is high, consumers will not only buy yours this time, they will buy next time and many times later. Moreover, consumers will not only buy, they will introduce your products or services to their families, friends, relatives and so on, which means you will have a huge number of customers to buy your products or services. On the contrary, if you don’t invest in quality or the quality of your products or services is low, consumers will buy yours only once and they’ll never come back. That means you will lose not only consumers but also their friends, families and so on. Technically speaking, investment in quality helps to build profitability. Investment in quality is the investment in what customers are looking for. Once customers are satisfied with the quality of your products or services, what should follow is healthy revenues and even healthier profits.

7. What do you think of corporate social responsibility? (Bạn nghĩ gì về trách nhiệm xã hội của doanh nghiệp?)

I think corporate social responsibility is necessary for the sustainable development of a business in the context of increasing awareness of consumers and decreasing quality of environment. Corporate social responsibility includes such activities as providing consumers full and honest information on the business’s products or services, fully paying taxes, protecting environment and contributing to the community. A socially responsible business is a business that achieves a lasting balance between its own interests and those of society and environment. Corporate social responsibility will help to build trust, develop the business’s brand and maintain positive business results.

When you successfully build trust, consumers will give you their loyalty. Because when consumers trust you, they are less likely to look elsewhere and they will be loyal to your brand. And if you make a mistake, they are more likely to forgive you.Consumers will boycott a business’s products or services if they know the business is socially irresponsible. As an example, when Vedan Company destroys the environment, consumers do not buy their seasoning powder anymore and supermarkets do not distribute this product either.

8. What are the factors that make for great leaders? (Các nhà lãnh đạo vĩ đại có những đặc điểm gì?)

Great leaders, in my opinion, are those who have great mind, great vision and great personality. Great mind means the ability to have profound knowledge of many different fields, such as: politics, economics, society, military, poetry, language, etc. Great mind also means the ability to create great works like Capital by Karl Marx. Some great minds are Karl Marx, Engels, Lenin and Ho Chi Minh. Great vision, according to Peter F. Drucker and I agree with him, is lifting person’s vision to higher things. Great vision is also the ability to foresee the development of history or age or future. Bill Gates has foreseen the development of personal computers and operating systems and it is one of the reasons why he has become a great leader in Microsoft Empire in particular and in the world in general. Last but not least, great personality, according to Peter F. Drucker again, is the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations. A great leader is a man who can make another man or many others go beyond their normal personality. Selfishness, greed, evil, etc will be removed. Great personality will change a person from bad to good, from cruel to humane, from negative to positive, from good to better and from normal to great.

9. What are the characteristics of good leaders? (Các nhà lãnh đạo giỏi có những đặc điểm gì?)

Good leaders often have foresight, decisiveness, passion, ambition, talent, and persuasiveness. Foresight helps them to see future opportunities and challenges and work out future development steps for their companies. Some good leaders can foresee development trends in their country and even the development trend of their age and grasp the opportunities to be successful. Decisiveness helps good leaders to make important decisions. This characteristic is especially important when a business is facing an all-or-nothing situation. Passion helps good leaders to work untiredly and effectively. Good leaders usually have to deal with a mountain of work but they can still overcome it well thanks to their passion. Ambition sets goals for good leaders to reach and therefore, ambition helps good leaders to make constant development and reach higher goals. Few businesses survive without development and that’s the reason why ambition is very important. Talent helps good leaders to do everything easily and vice versa, it’s difficult for leaders to do everything without talent. And finally, persuasiveness helps good leaders to have agreement from their staff, colleagues, partners and customers, which means they have a collective strength to carry out tasks and reach the goals set.

10. How do leaders develop their skills? (Các nhà lãnh đạo phát triển các kỹ năng của họ như thế nào?)

I agree with Max Landsberg that the way leaders develop their skills is 70, 20, and 10, which means 70% of the way they develop their skills is on the job; 20% is through coaching by somebody else and only 10% is by training. So, the main way for leaders to develop their skills is on-the-job training. On-the-job training means leaders need to experience a lot of different types of activity, lots of different roles and lots of different challenges, and only then can they start to build up a range of experiences and a range of skills in leading their staff in different situations.Personally speaking, there are two ways for leaders to develop their skills. First, the job of leaders will itself help them to develop their skills. During their daily work, leaders will learn and develop their skills. Their job will somewhat teach them what to do and how to do. This is similar to on-the-job training. Second, working environment and relationships will help leaders to develop their skills. Leaders often have to meet with different types of people, such as: partners, customers, other leaders, employees, friends, etc at different places, including: offices,

private homes, cafes, restaurants, fitness centers and so on and that helps them learns many useful things, draw lessons, and develop their skills.