Learn English – to be interviewed or to interview

passive-voicephrase-usage

Basically as a greeting for an interview, I want to say something like

Thank you for the opportunity to be interviewed for this scholarship.

However, after doing a little bit of research, I found a user of an English language forum, WordReference, asking similar problem.

According to it, the proper greeting is

Thank you for the opportunity to interview (for the programme, for the position, for the scholarship, etc.)

My concern is that I believe instead of using to interview which means you are interviewing someone, I should use the phrase to be interviewed.

Best Answer

As noted in the comment, "interview" has a second meaning, in which the roles are reversed.

verb (used without object) 5. to have an interview; be interviewed (sometimes followed by with): She interviewed with eight companies before accepting a job.

http://www.dictionary.com/browse/interview?s=t

I would stay away from the passive voice as much as possible. Use simple sentence structures -- they are much stronger.

So, something like this:

Thank you for the opportunity to meet with you.

However, the truth is that the context will make it clear what you are thanking the person for, and you can just say, "Thank you." Or, you could mention something specific, such as, "Thank you for the tour. It was fascinating to get a first-hand view of the factory floor." (Or whatever it was that fascinated you. Be sincere!

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