Job interview Word Search
This job interview word search hides words like resume, candidate, employer to find. Play it free online or print the PDF with the answer key, a handy job interview vocabulary activity.
10 words · 11×11 grid · Medium · Answer key included · Free printable PDF
Tap the first and last letter of a word — or use arrow keys and Enter. Dragging works too.
- EXPERIENCE
- CONFIDENCE
- CANDIDATE
- HANDSHAKE
- REFERENCE
- EMPLOYER
- PUNCTUAL
- VACANCY
- RESUME
- SALARY
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Did you know?
- resume
- Resume is French for summed up, and its career sense of a working life on paper only appeared in the 1940s.
- candidate
- Office seekers in ancient Rome wore chalk-whitened togas, so candidatus, meaning white robed, became our word for a job hopeful.
- employer
- Employ and imply are the same word underneath: both come from Latin implicare, meaning to fold in or involve.
- salary
- Salary traces to the Latin salarium, an allowance whose name grew from sal, the Latin word for salt.
- handshake
- A 2008 study put 98 students through mock interviews and found handshake quality predicted the interviewers' hiring recommendations.
- reference
- Refer literally means to carry back, and reference only came to mean a testimonial about a person in 1895.
- punctual
- Punctual once meant having a sharp point, and only in the 1670s did it settle into meaning prompt.
- vacancy
- Vacancy, vacation and vacuum all grow from the Latin vacare, to be empty, so a vacancy is an empty seat.
- experience
- Experience, experiment and expert all come from Latin experiri, to try or test, so experience is simply things tried.
- confidence
- Confidence comes from the Latin confidere, to trust fully, and shares its root with faith and fidelity.
- application
- Apply comes from Latin applicare, to fold toward or attach, and it only gained its job-seeking sense in 1851.
- interview
- Interview comes from the French entrevue, to see each other, a reminder that both sides are sizing each other up.
- qualification
- Qualify and quality share the Latin root qualis, of what kind, so a qualification says what kind of worker you are.
- probation
- Probation, prove and probe all come from Latin probare, to test, and probation already meant a trial period in the 1400s.
Trivia
Office seekers in ancient Rome wore chalk-whitened togas. Which English word for a job hopeful comes from the Latin for white robed?
Candidate, from the Latin candidatus.
British job seekers send a CV. What do those two letters stand for, and what does the phrase mean in Latin?
Curriculum vitae, Latin for the course of one's life.
Interview coaches teach the STAR method for answering behavioral questions. What do the four letters stand for?
Situation, Task, Action, Result.
A 2008 study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found one part of the greeting predicted hiring recommendations. Which part?
The quality of the applicant's handshake.
The English word salary grew from the Latin salarium. Which everyday substance sits at the root of that word?
Salt, from the Latin sal.
In their words
In the fields of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.
Louis Pasteur
You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Is this job interview word search free to print?
This job interview word search is a free printable puzzle with 10 hidden words in an 11×11 grid. Find words like EXPERIENCE, CONFIDENCE, CANDIDATE hidden across, down, and diagonally. You can play it right here in your browser — tap the first and last letter of a word — or download it as a printable PDF with the full answer key on page two. It's free for personal and classroom use, so teachers can print copies for a whole class with no sign-up and no account. Word searches like this one are a proven way to build vocabulary, spelling, and word-shape recognition, which is why they're a favourite with ESL learners, elementary classrooms, and anyone who likes a quiet puzzle with their coffee.
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Play →or printSources: Online Etymology Dictionary: candidate (Latin candidatus, white-robed toga candida) · Online Etymology Dictionary: salary (Latin salarium, from sal 'salt') · Online Etymology Dictionary: resume (French resumer 'to sum up'; career sense 1940s) · Online Etymology Dictionary: interview (French entrevue, s'entrevoir 'to see each other') · Online Etymology Dictionary: experience (Latin experiri 'to try, test'; experiment, expert) · Online Etymology Dictionary: employ (Latin implicare; imply is the same word) · Online Etymology Dictionary: reference (testimonial sense first recorded 1895; refer = 'carry back') · Online Etymology Dictionary: punctual ('having a sharp point'; 'prompt' sense from the 1670s) · Online Etymology Dictionary: vacancy (Latin vacare 'to be empty'; vacation, vacuum) · Online Etymology Dictionary: probation (Latin probare 'to test'; trial period sense by early 15c.) · Online Etymology Dictionary: confidence (Latin confidere, com- + fidere 'to trust') · Online Etymology Dictionary: apply (Latin applicare 'attach to'; job-seeking sense 1851) · Online Etymology Dictionary: qualify (Latin qualis 'of what sort'; shared root with quality) · Online Etymology Dictionary: curriculum vitae (Latin 'course of one's life', 1902) · Stewart, Dustin, Barrick & Darnold, 'Exploring the handshake in employment interviews', Journal of Applied Psychology 93(5), 2008 · Dress for Success: Who We Are (Nancy Lublin, 5,000 dollar inheritance, three nuns, Manhattan church basement, 15 countries, 13,000 volunteers) · DDI: The STAR Method for behavioral interviewing (Situation, Task, Action, Result) · Louis Pasteur, address of 7 December 1854 (Wikisource, French text of the 'esprits prepares' passage) · Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn by Living (1960), pp. 29-30
Word list, facts & trivia researched and compiled by Sam Letterman — spotted a mistake? Tell us and we’ll fix it.