Ex.13.Watch Video 9. Say if the statements are true or false. Correct the wrong statements.

1. Most interviews are designed to assess three key areas: educational background, interest for the job being offered, fit for the job including applicable skills and personality.

2. Women shouldn’t wear skirts for the interview.

3. Women shouldn’t wear jewelry, pink costumes and make up.

4. Jobseekers should give a firm but not a bone-crushing handshake.

5. Applicants should make eye-contact with the interviewer.

6. Don’t smile, or you will look silly.

7. When asked: “Tell me about yourself”, applicants should give a detailed life story.

8. When asked: “Tell me about yourself”, applicants should give a concise summary of his/her career, abilities and goals.

9. When speaking about your weaknesses avoid being too personal and say what can be improved.

10. An applicant should answer all interviewer’s questions, even if the question is illegal.

11. An applicant can answer telephone calls if they are very important.

12. An applicant should switch off the phone after checking who was calling.

Ex.14. Role-play. “Interview a jobseeker!”

Decide upon a company and a job the jobseekers are going to apply for.

Divide the class into 4 groups, each of them performing one of the following tasks:

1. “Employers”: make a job description for the position.

2. “Employers”: make a list of personal qualities and qualifications required for the position.

3. “Interviewers”: make a list of questions the interviewer is going to ask.

4. “Applicants”: think of ideas that can make you a perfect fit for the position and for the company (in this group each student makes his/her own list of personal qualities, qualifications and experience).

Act out a panel interview. Do it in groups. Each group consists of two “employers”, one “interviewer” and one “applicant”. After the interview discuss, whether he/she is a good fit for the position.

Ex. 15. If you want to get an appointment for an interview, and an opportunity for getting a new job, it’s important to know how to write a perfect Resume (CV) and a cover letter that could show how professional and how interested in the job you are.

Listen to John Woodrow, a Human Resources professional giving some advice on writing better CVs.

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/professionals-podcasts/advice-writing-cvs

Before you listen match the words and phrases in the table to their definitions.

1.recruitment 2. CV 3. post 4. database 5. candidate 6. flexible 7. relevant 8. reference

a. A person who is competing to get a job b. A document that describes your qualifications and working history to support a job application c. Able to change or be changed easily according to the situation d. The process of finding people to work for a company or become a new member of an organization e. A computer system that stores lots or information f. Connected with what is happening or being discussed g. A person who knows you can say why you are suitable for a job h. A job in a company or organization

Ex.16. Listen to John Woodrow. Decide if the following statements are true or false.

1. Part of John Woodrow’s job is deciding which new people his company will employ.

2. Woodrow reads hundreds of CVs every month.

3. His company does not accept CVs.

4. Woodrow’s company keeps lists of potential employees on a computer.

5. Woodrow will ignore a CV which is too long.

6. He thinks the first CV he looks at is too short.

7. One problem with the first CV is that it includes irrelevant information.

8. Woodrow suggests that placements are not important when describing your experience.

9. The second CV has too much space on it.

10. The second CV includes information about the languages the person can speak.

11. Woodrow is only interested in people who can speak Spanish.

Ex.17. Listen to the audio again and complete the text by writing the missing words into the gaps below.

1. John, ____________ about your work.

2. It’s good to know what ____________ people are out there.

3. What advice ____________ give us on writing a CV?

4. Anything longer ____________ pages will automatically go into the bin.

5. Make sure it’s clearly written and ____________ no spelling mistakes in it.

6. We don’t need ____________ what people look like.

7. We’re ____________ a couple of CVs now.

 

Ex.18. Here is a sample resume. Read and analyze it.

Jodi Shannon
317 Jefferson St.
Amherst, MA 01004
[phone]
[e-mail]
__________________

Objective
Seeking position as Department Store Manager.

Qualifications summary
- Four years of experience in retail merchandising, specializing in men's wear.
- Experience creating financial plans and meeting budgets.
- Created promotional concepts.
- Purchased and maintained inventory for a $12M company
- Experience creating radio and print advertisements.

Employment History
Jones Department Store 2005 - Present
Buyer, New England Region
Supervised a sales staff of 22 associates.
Responsible for purchasing men's wear sold in the men's department of all company stores
in New England, with years sales exceeding $2M.
Drafted budgets, solved problems for individual stores, and developed new merchandising concepts.
Analyzed sales, planned key promotional events, and wrote quarterly reports.

J.C. Goodwin Department Store 2001 - 2005
Manager, Men's Department
Responsible for all aspects of Men's Department management.
Recruited and trained new employees.
Responsible for loss, prevention, inventory control, and merchandising.

Education
B.A., Marketing 2001
Boston University, Boston, MA

References
Available upon request.

 

Ex.19. Search the Internet for more samples in various fields of business (you can go to http://www.freeresumesamples.org.) Write your own resume (it can be fictitious) applying for a position in a company. Try to use free resume builders at the site.

 

Ex.20. Learn how to write a cover letter.

A cover letter is a marketing tool in every job search; therefore it's necessary to attach this document to every resume that you send. The main objective of the cover letter is to attract employer's attention towards your resume and in order to do so, you need a document free of mistakes; it also should be interesting to read.

The information that is contained in your resume should be summarized and it should have around four paragraphs. The cover letter gives you another chance to market yourself and show what you have to offer to the company, it answers the questions "How can this person help the organization?"

 

Generally a cover letter has the following format:

Hard copy: sender’s address and contact info at top. Place your address and the date, they can be left-justified, or centered.)

Your Street Address
City, State Zip Code
Telephone Number
E-mail Address

Month, Day, Year

Mr./Ms./Dr. First Name Last Name
Title
Name of Organization
Street or P. O. Box Address
City, State Zip Code

Dear Mr./Ms./Dr. LastName:

Introduction paragraph: Describe why you are writing; how you learned of the company and/or the position, add basic information about yourself.

Second paragraph: Describe why you are interested in the employer's type of work. Demonstrate that you did your homework and investigated about organization and the employer or position. List those relevant qualifications that make you a good fit for the employer's needs. If you can you should explain more deeply those skills you described in your resume. If you have other enclosures besides of your resume, mention them here.

Third paragraph: Emphasize the fact that you would like to have an interview with the employer to know more about the position. Let the employer know that you will call in two weeks to know if they need something else from you. Thank the employer for his/her time and consideration.

Sincerely,

(Your handwritten signature)

Your name and last name typed.
(In case of e-mail, your full contact info appears here)
Enclosure(s) (refers to resume, etc.)

Ex.21. Search the Internet for sample cover letters and write your own cover letter to match the resume you have already written.

Following the interview process, an HR manager will call a candidate's references. HR managers also tend to call the candidate's former employers - whether the candidate has the former employer listed as a reference is typically irrelevant.

U N I T 6

Business Communication

Ex.1. Read the text.

 

Business communication is an important part of every organization. No business can function in the absence of a strong and able communication. Good communication skills (or soft skills) can boost one’s career and lead him/her up the ladder of success. Effective business communication can be defined as a well-organized process of sharing business ideas, proposals, information, facts within an organization or outside it to achieve a predetermined goal. It is the flow of messages within an organization among its employees and with its customers, clients, etc., ensuring its smooth running.

Here are some tips that would help you to communicate better in your professional setup:

· Understand your target audience, as the information, mode and tone, language of communicating varies with the people it has to be done with.

· In today’s world, time is the most precious thing, so we should respect others’ time. Be concise and precise while communicating as no one has the patience to read 100 lines of information which could have been dealt in just 30.

· It is important to understand that communication is a bidirectional process that not only requires one to talk but listen to the ideas, thoughts, queries of others.

· Be confident while addressing the listeners, as for them to have faith in your ideas, you should have it too.

· It is important to be responsive to problems and complaints that your clients, customers and financiers face, and cater to their needs and issues effectively and on time.

· Be polite while facing questions and interruptions, make an eye contact with your listeners and make them feel comfortable while communicating with them.

· Keep any form of communication simple and professional.

(Read more at http://www.buzzle.com/articles/effective-business-communication.html)

Ex.2. Find in the text the following words and word-combinations, explain their meaning or give synonyms. You can use http://www.learnersdictionary.com. Illustrate the use of the words with your own examples.

 

Soft skills, to boost, to lead up the career ladder, to ensure, flow, professional setup, to vary, precious, concise, precise, bidirectional, query, confident, faith, responsive, complaint, to cater.