Recruitment. The letter of application. CV.

When a company needs to recruit or employ new people, it may decide to advertise the job or position in the appointing page of a newspaper. People who are interested can then apply for the job by sending in a letter of application and curriculum vitae containing details of their education and experience. The company will then draw up a list of candidates, who are invited to attend an interview.

The most important thing when interviewing a candidate is his character, his ability to react, his intelligence and his suitability for the position for which he is being interviewed. It is important that the person is well presented, is neat and tidy, and that he or she has a good manner, because that shows a lot about personality. Normally the candidate has had one or two interviews with junior members of the staff before he gets to the level of personnel manager, and it is expected the person concerned to have a good knowledge of what the company does, what he’s expected to do, and who is going to report to. If the candidate doesn’t give an impression of understanding one of those three times, then he gets marked down accordingly.

The major way a candidate goes wrong is by basically becoming a yes-man or a yes-woman and agreeing with everything you say.

The most important pieces of advice to the candidates are: first of all you should listen; secondly, you ask right questions; and, thirdly, perhaps, the most important, you should create the right kind of relationship – an adult-to-adult relationship with the interviewee or the interviewer.

The letter of application normally contains three or more paragraphs in which you should:

· confirm that you wish to apply where you learned about the job

· say why you are interested in the position and relate your interests to those of the company

· show what you can contribute to the job by highlighting your most relevant skills and experience

· indicate your willingness to attend an interview (and possibly state when you would be free to attend)

To apply for a job you need to write a curriculum vitae (CV). Here are some advice on writing it properly.

At first you should give the general information about you: your name, address, telephone, date of birth and marital status. Remember to write your first name in full and to give your work telephone number beside home number. The date of birth should also be written in full.

In graph called “Education” you should list all schools and colleges you graduated from and do not forget to mention the years you were studying there.

The next section should be filled with all the qualifications you have got with mentioning the year of getting each qualification.

The section “Experience” requires listing all the jobs you’d had before applying for this one. You’d better give more details about your last job.

It is also necessary to give other information such as your knowledge of foreign languages and other activities or interests.

One of the important parts of the CV is references from your friends, teachers and former employers – anyone who can tell your prospective employer about your working habits and experience.

 

Markets and monopolies. Markets. Competition. Monopoly.

In a market economy the actions of buyers and sellers set the prices for goods and services. The prices, in turn, determine what is produced, how it is produced, who will buy it and what will be the mix of consumer and capital goods. Supply, the quantity of a product that suppliers will provide, is the seller’s side of a market transaction. Suppliers usually want the price that allows them to make the most money. Demand, the quantity of a product that consumers want, is the buyer’s side of a market transaction. Buyers want the price that gives them the most value for the least cost.

Whenever people who are willing to sell a commodity contact people willing to buy it, a market for that commodity is created. Buyers and sellers meet in person, or they may communicate by letter, by phone or through their agents. In a perfect market, communications are easy, buyers and sellers are numerous and competition is completely free. In a perfect market there can be only one price for a given commodity: the lowest price which sellers will accept and the highest which consumers will pay. There are, however, no really perfect markets, and each commodity market is subject to special conditions. Competition influences the prices prevailing in the market. Prices inevitably fluctuate, and such fluctuations are also affected by current supply and demand.

Although in a perfect market competition is unrestricted and sellers are numerous, free competition and large numbers of sellers are not always available in the real world. In some markets there may only be one seller or a very limited number of sellers. Such a situation is called a monopoly and may arise from a variety of different causes. It is possible to distinguish in practice four kinds of monopoly.

State planning and central control of the economy often mean that a state government has the monopoly of important goods and services, e.g. most national authorities monopolize the postal services within their borders. A different kind of monopoly arises when a country, through geographical or geological circumstances, has control over major natural resources or important services, e.g. Canadian nickel and the Egyptian ownership of the Suez Canal. Such monopolies can be called natural monopolies. Legal monopolies occur when the law of a country permits certain producers, authors and inventors a full monopoly over the sale of their own products. These types of monopoly are distinct from the sole trading opportunities when certain companies obtain complete control over particular commodities. This action is often called “cornering the market” and is illegal in many countries. In the USA anti-trust laws operate to restrict such activities, while in Britain the Monopolies Commission examines all special arrangements and mergers that may lead to undesirable monopolies.

In the market systems, competition answers the basic questions of what, how, for whom and how much. Competition among producers is for the highest profits. Competition among consumers is for the best goods and services at the lowest prices. Obtaining the highest profits and the best goods at the lowest price are the only motives the market system considers.

In a market economy three basic resources – land, labour and capital – are bought and sold for the best price. Market for labour is constantly changing. Producers are in competition with one another to hire the best workers for the lower wages. Workers compete with one another to get the best jobs at the highest wages. Producers’ needs for workers change constantly. Young people train for a career, then, need to consider what types of workers will be needed in future. Planning a career requires careful study of statistics showing which jobs are growing. Further, career planning must include the ability to change with the economy. Workers need to be able to learn new skills to remain competitive in the market.

 

Pricing policies.

 

Market prices are determined by the interaction of supply and demand. Companies’ pricing decisions depend on one or more of three basic factors: production and distribution costs, the level of demand, and the prices (or probable prices) of current and potential competitors. Companies also consider their total objectives and their consequent profit or sales goals, such as obtaining maximum income, or maximum market share, etc. Pricing strategy must also consider market positioning: quality products generally require “prestige pricing” and will probably not sell if their price is thought to be too low.

Firms with excess production capacity, a large stock, or a falling market share, tend to cut prices. While firms experiencing cost inflation, or in urgent need of cash, tend to raise prices. A company faced with demand that exceeds its possibility to supply is also likely to raise prices.

Demand is said to be elastic if sales respond directly to price variations. When sales remain stable after a change in price, demand is inelastic. Although it is an elementary law of economics that the lower the price, the greater the sales, there are numerous exceptions. For example, price cuts can have unpredictable psychological effects: buyers may believe that the product is faulty or of lower quality, or will soon be replaced, or that the firm is going bankrupt, etc. Similarly, price rises convince some customers that the product must be of high quality, or will soon become very hard to get hold of, etc! A potential customer seeing a price of $499 will register the $400 price range rather than the $500. This is a psychological effect that many sellers count on. Such technique is known as “odd pricing”.

Actually most customers consider elements other than prices when buying something: the “total cost” of a product can include operating and servicing costs, and so on. Since price is only one element of the marketing mix, a company can respond to a competitor’s price cut by modifying other elements: improving its product, service, communications, etc. Reciprocal price cuts nay only lead to a price war, good for customers but disastrous for producers who merely end up losing money.

Whatever pricing strategies a marketing department selects, a products selling price generally represents its total cost (unit per cost plus overheads) plus profit or “risk reward”. Overheads are the various expenses of operating a plant that cannot be charged to any one product, process or department, which have to be added to prime cost or direct cost which covers material and labour. Cost accountants have to decide how to allocate or assign fixed and variable costs to individual products, processes or departments.

Microeconomists argue that in a fully competitive industry, price equals minimum average cost equals break-even point.