UNIT I. CHOOSING A CAREER. JOBS AND EMPLOYMENT.

PART I. GETTING STARTED.

For most people, choosing a career isn’t easy, yet it is one of the most
important decisions you will make in your life. Find the right career, and you will
be happy and successful. Find the wrong career, and you may be unhappy and
unsuccessful. It pays, therefore, to explore your choice of occupation from every
angle, collect as much information as you can, actually try different kinds of work
before making up your mind. Above all, evaluate yourself. Be sure you know your
own interests and talents.
Unfortunately, not everyone takes this trouble. Those who don’t, can make
costly mistakes. For example, some people simple follow in the footsteps of a
parent or a relative. One young man I know became a doctor because it was his
father’s profession. Yet he could not stand the sight of blood. Watching an
operation made him sick to his stomach. One day he had to amputate a leg, and,
after making the first cut, fainted in the operating room. A young woman I know
became an accountant although she hates maths. Her uncle encouraged her by
promising a job in his company. It took her several years, and several disasters
with the company books, before she realized her mistake.
Procrastinating, postponing a decision, is another error people make.
“Manana” is the Spanish word for it. I’ll get started tomorrow, or next week, or
next year. These people refuse to face the problem, hoping it will go away. But if
you don’t take the first step now, how can you plan for the future, take the right
courses in school, get in the right programmes? Procrastinators just drift, missing
many opportunities.
Well then, how do you find a career? Jascha Heifetz was a concert violinist
at the age of thirteen. Shirley Temple was a movie star at the age of five. Most of
us are not so talented, or so lucky. Everyone has skills, but yours may not be so
obvious; may, in fact, go undetected. Your career search has to look for everything.
Be systematic. Analyze your problem. Determine what information you have. Then
go after the information you need.
First, start with yourself. Make a list of inventory of your interests, your
talents, and abilities. Most people have a lot of these, but at the beginning they are
undeveloped and may not seem outstanding. By concentrating on a few, or on one,
you may surprise yourself, and everyone else, at how good you can get.
The interest inventory that follows covers the major fields in which most
people find careers: science, arts, social service, business, sales.
Text 3.

A.

THE JOB INTERVIEW

When a job opening is advertised in the United States, there are often a lot of
people interested in applying. Many job hunters send in their resumes and apply
for the same position. Sometimes a company will receive hundreds of resumes for
a single job opening. The job interview, therefore, is very important. In the
interview, an applicant must demonstrate that he or she is the best person for the
job.
Because job interviews are so critical, some job hunters read books or take
courses to help them make a good first impression. These books and courses are
full of advice and suggestions to help job applicants dress appropriately and have a
clean and neat appearance. They take their resume or a sheet of paper listing their
education and work experience with them to the interview. They also prepare a list
of questions about the job or the company. They go to the interview alone and are
always on time.
At the beginning of the interview, the applicant shakes hands firmly with the
employer. The employer usually invites the applicant to sit down. During the
interview, it is appropriate to smile often and to look directly into the eyes of the
interviewer. The applicant doesn’t chew gum or smoke during the interview. The
applicant is prepared to answer questions about education and previous jobs. More
difficult questions are possible, such as: “Why did you leave your last position?”
Sometimes interviewers also try to get to know the applicant better. They ask
questions about the applicant’s personal background, family, and hobbies.
Interviewers expect applicants to talk profoundly, confidently, and truthfully about
their work experience, skills, goals, and abilities. When the interview is over, the
applicant stands up, shakes hands with the interviewer and says thank you for the
time the person has offered.
Job applicants who can show they are capable, well-prepared, punctual,
polite, and honest have a better chance of getting the job they’re looking for.
B.

WORK AND CAREERS

Sometimes we say that someone we know is “a square peg in a round hole”.

This simply means that the person we are talking about is not suited for the job he
is doing. He may be a bookkeeper who really wants to be an actor, or a mechanic
who likes cooking. Unfortunately, many people in the world are “square pegs”,
they are not doing the kind of work they should be doing, for one reason or
another. As a result they are probably not doing a very good job and certainly they
are not happy.
Choosing the right career is very important. Most of us spend a great part of
our lives at our jobs. For that reason we should try to find out what our talents are
and how we can use them. We can do this through aptitude tests, interviews with
specialists, and consulting reference books on the subjects that interest us.
There are many careers open to each of us. Perhaps we like science. Then we
might prepare ourselves to be chemists, physicists, or biologists. Perhaps our
interests take us into the business world and into such work as accounting,
personnel management or public relations. Many people find their place in
government service. Many other fields – teaching, newspaper work, medicine,
engineering – offer fascinating areas to those with talent and training.

Assignment: Read texts A and B and say what is most essential: 1) to get the
job you want. 2) to feel happy about the job.
 Examining Your Skills and Abilities

There are two essential steps in the job-hunting process: research and planning. Research
means examining your skills and finding out where you can apply them. Planning means
deciding how you will present your skills to a prospective employer. You should go through
these steps carefully whether you are looking for your first job or you are interested in changing
to a better job.
Look at the following examples of skills/responsibilities and personality traits and find
the ones that apply to you.

Skills/Responsibilities Personality Traits

acting making decisions Use: I am very… Use: … is one of my
analyzing meeting people strong points
assembling (putting negotiating (bargaining) accurate accuracy
things together) operating machines adaptable adaptability
building things organizing cooperative cooperation
cooking persuading people creative creativity
dancing repairing machines dependable dependability
decorating selling flexible flexibility
designing sewing mature maturity
driving singing organized organization
filing solving problems persuasive persuasiveness
growing things speaking punctual punctuality
helping people sports responsible responsibility
interviewing supervising tactful tact
listening typing
making crafts

You are looking for a job.

Answer the following questions:
1. Personal information (name, address, telephone number)
2. Job objective (career goals)
3. Education (school, college, institute, university)
4. What are my (your) abilities (language, computer)
5. What special talents do I (you) have?
6. What are my (your) special interests?
7. What are my (your) physical abilities and limitations?
8. What are my (your) attitudes and values?
9. How do I (you) see myself (yourself), or what is my (your) self-concept?
10. Extracurricular activities (student/professional organizations you belong to, travel, sports
and hobbies)
11. What is my (your) previous experience (salary)?
12. What are my (your) educational plans for the future?
13. Am I (Are you) the kind of person who works well in a large group? Or do I (you) work
better with only one or two people?
14. Am I (Are you) willing to accept change?
15. Do you like to speak in front of people?
16. What type of position am I (are you) looking for?
1. All of the following sentences could be used to describe jobs. Mark each
sentence as follows:

(+) if you think it describes a positive aspect to a job

(–) if you think it describes a negative aspect to a job
(?) it could be either positive or negative

▪ It is well-paid.
▪ It’s badly-paid.
▪ It’s challenging.
▪ It’s stressful.
▪ It’s hard work physically.
▪ You work long hours.
▪ You have to work shifts.
▪ You need to be talented.
▪ You need special training and qualifications.
▪ You need good people skills.
▪ There’s a lot of job satisfaction.
▪ There’s a lot of variety.
▪ There’s a lot of responsibility.
▪ There are a lot of opportunities.

2. What is most important for you in a job? Choose the five most important
features from this list and put them in order of importance for you (most
important = number 1).

▪ variety
▪ doing something useful for other people
▪ good prospects of promotion
▪ job security
▪ working in team
▪ a good salary
▪ flexible working hours
▪ job satisfaction
▪ convenient location
▪ pleasant surroundings
▪ overtime possibilities
▪ perks (e.g. a company car, free health assurance)
▪ independence
▪ age of retirement
▪ a good pension
▪ plenty of time for other things outside work