Dialogue: A Short Job Interview

A job interview is one of the most grammatically dense moments in everyday formal Russian: in just a few questions you have to talk about yourself (о + prepositional), name what you do for a living (instrumental of profession), say how long you've done it (a present tense that English would render as a perfect), and field a question about working at our company (у + genitive). Each of these is a place where Russian diverges sharply from English — and an interview is where they all show up at once. Read the exchange first, then the line-by-line commentary.

The dialogue

Line by line

— Здра́вствуйте, проходи́те, пожа́луйста. Расскажи́те о себе́.

Здра́вствуйте is the formal "hello" — the вы-form, setting the respectful register immediately. Проходи́те ("come in / step inside") is a polite вы-imperative; its imperfective aspect (from проходи́ть) makes it a warm, hospitable invitation rather than a clipped order. Both verbs are plural/formal вы-forms, which is correct between an interviewer and a candidate who are strangers.

Расскажи́те о себе́ — "tell (us) about yourself" — is the classic interview opener, and it contains two B2-worthy points:

• о + prepositional. To talk about a topic, Russian uses о (or об before a vowel) + the prepositional case. "About yourself" = о себе́, the prepositional of the reflexive pronoun себя́. You can't use the nominative or accusative here; о always governs the prepositional. See the preposition о.
• себе́, not вас. The reflexive себя́ is used because the speaker telling and the person being told about are the same — the candidate talks about himself. Even though the interviewer says it, from the candidate's perspective the request is "tell about your-own-self", and Russian keeps the reflexive себе́ rather than о вас.

Расскажи́те is perfective (from рассказа́ть) — the interviewer wants a complete, bounded account, not an open-ended ongoing telling.

— Спаси́бо. Я рабо́таю программи́стом уже́ пять лет.

This single sentence is the grammatical centerpiece. Three things are happening:

1. рабо́тать + instrumental of profession. To say what someone does for a living, Russian puts the profession in the instrumental case after рабо́тать: программи́ст → программи́стом ("(work) as a programmer"). The logic is that you function in the capacity of / by means of being a programmer — the instrumental is the case of "in the role of". You do not say рабо́таю программи́ст (nominative). The same pattern: рабо́тать учи́телем ("work as a teacher"), рабо́тать врачо́м ("work as a doctor"). See the instrumental predicate.

2. Present tense for an ongoing duration. English forces a present perfect here — "I have worked / have been working". Russian uses the plain present tense, рабо́таю, plus уже́ ("already") + the time span. The logic: the action is still going on right now, so Russian keeps it in the present. Russian reasons "I am working (and have been for five years)"; English reasons "I have worked up to now". This is one of the most reliable English-speaker errors — reaching for a past tense (рабо́тал) when the job is ongoing.

3. Numeral government — пять лет. The number пять ("five") forces the counted noun into the genitive plural: год → лет ("years", a suppletive genitive plural). Numbers 5 and up (and 0) all take the genitive plural. (Compare: оди́н год, два/три/четы́ре го́да — gen. sg. — пять лет — gen. pl.) See case after numbers.

— Хорошо́. А почему́ вы хоти́те рабо́тать и́менно у нас?

Почему́ = "why". Хоти́те is the вы-form of хоте́ть ("to want") — note хоте́ть is irregular, mixing both conjugation patterns (хочу́, хо́чешь, хо́чет, but хоти́м, хоти́те, хотя́т). After it comes the bare infinitive рабо́тать: "want to work", an infinitive complement just as in English.

И́менно = "exactly / precisely / specifically" — a sharpening particle that turns "why do you want to work for us" into "why us in particular". It's a marker of careful, formal phrasing.

У нас is the phrase to dissect: у + genitive literally means "at the place of / in the possession of", so у нас = "at our place", and in a work context, "at our company / for us". The нас is the genitive of мы. Russian doesn't say рабо́тать для нас ("for us" with для) for employment — the idiomatic "work for company X" is рабо́тать у + genitive (у нас, у вас, у них) or рабо́тать в + company name (в Гу́гле). У нас here is the warm, insider way to refer to one's own organization.

— Меня́ привлека́ют ва́ши прое́кты и кома́нда.

A neat reversal of English word order. Привлека́ть = "to attract / draw". The thing doing the attracting (ва́ши прое́кты и кома́нда, "your projects and team") is the grammatical subject (nominative, plural → verb привлека́ют), and the person attracted, меня́ ("me"), is the accusative object, fronted for emphasis. So the literal structure is "Your projects and team attract me" — Russian keeps the experiencer as object and the stimulus as subject, the reverse of English "I'm drawn to…". The verb привлека́ют is plural to agree with the compound subject прое́кты и кома́нда.

— Отли́чно. Когда́ вы смо́жете приступи́ть к рабо́те?

Когда́ = "when". Смо́жете is the perfective future of мочь ("to be able") — "will you be able to". Приступи́ть к + dative is a formal collocation meaning "to start / get down to (a task)": приступи́ть к рабо́те ("to start work", рабо́та → dative рабо́те after к). This к + dative government is fixed; you can't substitute another preposition. Its register is distinctly formal — exactly right for an interview.

— Хоть за́втра, я гото́в.

Хоть за́втра = "(even) tomorrow / tomorrow if you like" — хоть here means "even / as soon as", signalling eager flexibility. Я гото́в = "I'm ready", and note the zero copula (no "am") plus the short-form adjective гото́в, which agrees in gender: a male candidate says гото́в, a female candidate гото́ва. Short adjectives are the normal predicate form for states like readiness.

Why вы throughout

Both speakers use вы consistently (хоти́те, смо́жете, the вы-imperatives расскажи́те, проходи́те). An interview between strangers in a professional setting is firmly вы territory — switching to ты would be a serious misstep, reading as disrespectful or presumptuous. Even after hiring, colleagues often stay on вы in many Russian workplaces, especially with managers. The whole grammar of the exchange — plural verb forms, formal collocations (приступи́ть к рабо́те), the sharpening и́менно — projects professional distance and respect. See navigating ты and вы.

Vocabulary gloss

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• о + prepositional for topics: о себе́, о рабо́те, об о́пыте. The reflexive себе́ ("oneself") is the prepositional of себя́.
• Instrumental of profession after рабо́тать / стать / быть: рабо́таю программи́стом, стал дире́ктором — never the nominative.
• Present tense + уже́ for ongoing duration: рабо́таю уже́ пять лет = English "have worked for five years". The job is still going, so Russian stays present.
• Numeral government: пять (and 5+) takes the genitive plural — пять лет; contrast два/три/четы́ре го́да (gen. sg.).
• у + genitive = "at someone's place/company": рабо́тать у нас = "work for us". And the whole exchange is formal вы — the default for interviews and most professional contact.