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b) Using the words from the table, form a verb phrase.

Model:

To work for a company, to work in a library, to work at a plant.

18.As you can see from the table above, the vast majority of places take the preposition “at”.

Even places that are usually used with “in” switch to “at” if you name a specific place of employment (see the “in–at” column of the table), e.g. I work in a bookstore – I work at Planeta bookstore. The switching also occurs if you use the definite article, even without giving the specific title of place, e.g. I work in a restaurant. – I work at the restaurant on the corner. This is important because prospective employers would always expect you to be specific about your former employment location during interviews.

a) Specify the places you worked before according to the model.

Model:

St. 1: I worked in a large office. I worked at the Moscow office of the firm.

St. 2: I worked in a hospital. I worked at St. Catherine’s hospital in St. Petersburg.

b) Specify the place where you work (or worked before) in a short dialog.

Model:

A.: What do you do (for a living)? Are you in business?

B.: Oh, no. I am a librarian and work in a library. At the Public Library, to be exact.

c) Give your employment history. Use the connectives first, then, now.

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19.Discuss the questions below, giving both pro and contra arguments.

1)Do you think job interviews in America are different from those in Europe? 2) Is an interview the best way to select the ideal candidate for any open position? 3) Can an individual benefit from going through many interviews? 4) Can an evasive answer be sometimes better than a right-to-the-point one? 5) Can a person experienced in going through interviews trick the personnel officer and get the job s/he is applying for? 6) Do you think that interviews should be held differently for white collar, pink collar and blue collar positions? 7) Is getting information about a company while investigating for an interview similar to industrial espionage?

20.What do you think is meant by the saying “There’s no better time to look for a new job when you are quite happy with your old one”?

21.In addition to the technical interview specific to each field of endeavor, a candidate should be prepared to answer these common job interview questions. Do you agree with the comments which follow?

a)Questions to Expect at an Interview:

1.Tell us something about yourself. Here, your one-minute oral presentation of yourself comes in handy. Make a short, organized statement of your education and professional achievements (for phrases, see Exs. 19 and 26 of Unit 4).

2.Why do you want to work for us? Recall any job goals you have and apply them to the job under discussion. Briefly describe your qualifications for the job and contributions you could make to the company. Talk about how your professional skills will benefit the company. Always position your answer with some “give and take”*, describing what you can offer the employer.

3.What qualifications do you have for the job? Mention educational achievements in addition to any relevant work experience. Indicate that you have learned a great deal but now look forward to the opportunity to gain more practical skills, to put into practice the principles you have learned; say that you are never through learning enough about your major.

4.What could you possibly offer us that other candidates do not have? Say “enthusiasm” in addition to educational achievements. Emphasize the qualities that you do not expect other candidates to have. Never put down other candidates.

5.What are your career goals? What are your future plans? The interviewer wants to know if your plans and the company’s goals are compatible. Let him know that you are ambitious enough to plan ahead. Talk about your desire to learn more and improve your performance, and be as specific as possible about how you will meet the goals you have set for yourself.

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6.What is your greatest strength? Being a team player, cooperation, willingness to learn, ability to grasp difficult concepts easily, taking criticism easily, and profiting from criticism are all appropriate answers.

7.What is your greatest shortcoming? Be honest here and mention it, but then turn to ways in which you are improving. Do not dwell on your weaknesses, but do not keep silent about them. Do not ever admit any quality that hampers job performance, such as laziness, or lack of concentration, etc. Try to turn a weakness into a strength, e.g. “I often worry too much over my work. Sometimes I work late to make sure the job is done well”.

8.How do you feel about pressure, deadlines, travel, relocation, overtime, weekend work?

Sound as flexible as possible. If the job description does not call for these, you probably will not see them. The company wants to know that you can be counted on in any emergency. Be prepared to give an example where you performed well in a stressed situation not caused by your own procrastination or failure to anticipate problems.

9.Have you done this type of work before? Link your transferable skills directly to the employer’s needs, especially when their applicability may not be obvious.

10.Do you know (any specific tool or package)? If not, substitute strength for weaknesses: describe your proficiency in similar tools and packages, and express confidence that you can quickly attain proficiency in this particular one as well.

11.Did you inaugurate any procedure / systems / policies in any of your past positions?

Describe your creativity. List all the great ideas you had which could not be implemented due to circumstances beyond your control (e.g. no financing).

12.The successful candidate will work alongside some highly trained people who have been with the company for a long time. How will you fit in with them? Display your eagerness to learn from co-workers.

13.Describe your best and your worst boss. For the “best”, you might say that you enjoy working with someone who was interested in helping you to learn and grow, involved with monitoring your progress, and generous about giving credit when it was due. For the “worst”, avoid accusations that might reflect badly on you. Never badmouth* your previous boss.

14.What do you like doing in your free time? The interviewer may be looking for evidence of your job skills outside your professional experience. For example, hobbies such as chess or bridge demonstrate analytical skills. Reading, music, and painting are creative hobbies. Individual sports show determination and stamina, while group sport activities may indicate you are comfortable working as part of a team. Also, the interviewer may be curious as to whether you have a life outside your work. Employees who have creative or athletic outlets for their stress are often healthier, happier and more productive. So any sports or communal activity is a plus, but do not mention activities that might result in a long sick leave (e.g. hunting).

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15.Why are you looking to leave your present job? Do not criticize the existing position. One good answer is that you like your present job very much, but your potential for growth is limited because of its size. You can also say that you left previous positions only after realizing that moving on was the only way to increase your responsibilities and to broaden your experience. Emphasize that you want to stay and grow with the same company, reassure the interviewer that you are not running away from anything. Never attack your previous employer. This only makes you look bad. If you did not have any problems, simply give reasons, such as: you relocated away from job; the company went out of business; you were laid off; it was a temporary job; there was no possibility for advancement; you wanted a job better suited to your skills, etc.

16.How long have you been looking for a job? Employers are prejudiced against candidates who have been on the market for some time and have not found anything. If you are still working, always say that you just started looking. Otherwise be prepared to explain why you have not received or accepted any offer.

17.Have you received any other offers? It’s better to say that you had an offer from some company, but it was not right for you, than to say that none of the places you have interviewed with made you an offer.

18.What kind of people have trouble getting along with you? The interviewer will not believe you if you answer “none”. So you might say that people who do not work as fast as you do resent it.

19.What was the biggest mistake you ever made in choosing a job? Why? You may show your regret you did not go in that direction sooner, or your regret having left that job because you were impatient for a promotion, and later realized that you could have learned more.

20.This is a much larger / smaller company than you’ve ever worked for before. If the company is larger, then you are looking for growth opportunities and new areas of knowledge. If the company is smaller, then you are looking for a less bureaucratic organization where decisions can be made quickly.

21.You seem to be overqualified for this position. Why do you want this job? The interviewer is concerned that you may leave this job as soon as something better comes along. Emphasize your long-term commitment to the job.

22.After being with the same organization for so long, do you think you’ll have trouble getting used to another? This concern is usually unwarranted. Even though the candidate stayed with the same firm, s/he probably had different bosses, interacted with different people, and performed different tasks.

23.Have you managed people in any of the positions you’ve held? Even if you have not had people reporting to you, or the authority to hire or fire anyone, you can talk about your consensus building or project leadership roles. You may say that on several occasions you were asked to give technical interviews to prospective applicants, and you tried to determine

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whether they would be team players and would get along with other people in the department.

24.What are your salary expectations / requirements? Some job counselors advise interviewees to lie about their past salaries in order to get a larger one from the future employers. But if the prospective employer checks your last salary and finds that you have lied, you lose. It is better to round off your last salary to the nearest thousand. As far as your present salary is concerned, provide a salary range. In case you do not want to answer this question directly, deflect it back to the interviewer by saying something like: “I don’t know. What are you planning on paying the best candidate?” or “I am glad you brought up the subject of compensation. What is the salary range for this job?”

25.Is there anything you would like to say to close the interview? Here is a chance to ask some of your well-formulated and intelligent questions prepared beforehand.

b)Questions to Recent Graduates (entry-level* positions):

1.Why did you choose this school / your major / minor? Your answer should demonstrate that you were focused and didn’t make these important decisions at random.

2.Which classes and subjects did you like best? Why? Emphasize the classes relevant to the job you are seeking.

3.Which classes and subjects did you like least? Why? The courses you mention as your least favorite should not be related to the job.

4.If you were to start college all over again, what courses would you take? Talk about the changes in your course selection that would have produced a better candidate for this job. Mention how courses unrelated to your career were valuable to your development.

5.Do you think your (bad) grades are a good indication of your academic ability? Say that you overextended yourself that semester and did not cope well, but show that you did much better in the subsequent semesters.

6.Have you participated in any extracurricular activities while in high school or college?

Indicate any duties or responsibilities you had: handling money, writing memos, coordinating events; if you were not able to participate in such activities, tell the interviewer that a part-time job, or community, or church activities, or commuting a long way to school each day prevented your participating.

22.To be able to answer the interview questions in the most effective way, you should see clearly what concern each of them addresses. Look through the questions once again and try to establish what the interviewer is going to discover about you (e.g. your technical knowledge, your speed and thoroughness, your attendance and punctuality, your ability to get along with people, your ability to work in team, your ability to work independently, your decision-making or problem-solving ability, your management and

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