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Job fairs (career fairs) are gatherings where many candidates meet with recruiters from one or more organizations for brief interviews. Most job fairs involve face-to-face contact, but Internet job fairs are becoming more common.

Do not forget to bring along many copies of your resume, a list of recommendation letters from your references, your business cards, and books to refer to if technical questions arise. Bring many copies of any materials you plan to give away – it is better to have extra copies than to run out. You will also need a briefcase (not a knapsack, not a plastic bag) to carry all of the above, plus the materials and business cards you will collect from the recruiters.

Before you stand in any lines, walk around the entire fair, see who is present, and plan which recruiters you want to talk to. Pick up the literature from the companies you are interested in; these often run out early, and make useful reading while you wait in lines. As you stand in line to listen to a recruiter, try to listen carefully to what s/he is telling the candidates in front of you. The same questions will probably be posed to you in a few minutes and you will have more time to think about the answers. You may also hear another candidate being told that the company is not currently interested in his skill set, which happen to be similar to yours. It may mean that you should not waste your time standing in this line, or it may really mean they did not like only this particular person, but might be interested in you.

Whatever strategy you follow during your job campaign, remember two things. First, employers almost always have a shortage of good, qualified employees. Second, there is an answer to every career problem if you solve your problem not by focusing on your own needs and frustrations, but on the ways to help others and how others will benefit from you.

EXERCISES

18.Go through the text again and answer the following questions:

1.What are the options to conduct job search? 2. Is it waste of time applying to organizations that might have no openings? 3. Why is the business world suspicious of strangers? 4. What is networking? 5. Where should an entry-level candidate seek advice? 6. Where do employers send their reqs to? 7. Who do recruiters represent? 8. What is a job fair? 9. How many companies do you contact at job fairs? 10. What things should you bring along to the job fair?

19.Discuss the questions below.

1.Which options of conducting job search do you think are most democratic and why?

2.What are the advantages of solicited and unsolicited applications? 3. Do you compete with more applicants for an advertised or non-advertised opening? 4. Why do companies welcome unsolicited letters and keep impressive applications on file? 5. Will the company pass impressive unsolicited applications along to a company that have an opening? 6. What strategy has to be the

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most widely used recruiting strategy in business today? 7. Should you devote time and effort to only the most important people?

20.What do you think these statements mean in the job hunt context?

1.The best time to find a new job is when you don’t need one, and the best time to cultivate business relationships is when everything is going smoothly. 2. You never get a second chance to make a first impression. 3. With part-time effort, you get part-time results. 4. Do first things first, and second things not at all. 5. The first part of job-hunt is figuring out where you go: the more time you spent in preparation, the less time you spent on the pavement.

21.When speaking about job matters, you can’t do without the words position, job, vacancy, opening, employment. Below are the attributes they usually go well with.

a)Using these attributes, make phrases according to the model. Note that there is no article before phrases with the word employment.

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Model:

a/the seasonal job, a/the tenured position, a/the new opening, etc; but temporary employment

b) Pick out 3–5 phrases from the above and explain their meaning. Use the structure

A … is one which …

Model:

A demanding job is one which requires a lot of patience and energy.

22.Below are other attributes that go well with the words position, job, vacancy, opening. Note that unlike words for profession or occupation, specific job titles are written in capital letters.

banker / banking; engineer / engineering / Mechanical Engineer; teacher / teaching / Teacher; Administrator / administrative; nurse / nursing; clerk / clerical / Accounts Receivable Clerk; secretary / secretarial / Sales Secretary; manager / managerial / Production Manager; typist; mechanic; academic; researcher / Market Researcher; Receptionist; Switchboard Operator; accountant / Senior Accountant; librarian / Exchange Librarian, etc.

a)Using these attributes, make phrases according to the model. Use the table below. Note that there is no article after “of” with words for both professions and job titles; but after “as” and “for”, with job titles only.

Model:

a / the secretarial position

a / the position of secretary, a / the position of Administrative Assistant

a / the position as a secretary but a / the position as Administrative Assistant

an / the opening for a secretary but an / the opening for Administrative Assistant

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23.Below are the verbs that usually go well with the words position, job, vacancy, opening, employment. Make verb phrases according to the table. Note that there is no article before the word employment.

Model:

To find employment, to look for a / the position, to have a / the vacancy, to accept employment with the firm, etc.

24.When dealing with job matters, you will have to easily use the above words in your speech. To be able to do that,

a) make extended verb phrases with the words from Exs. 21–23.

Model:

To leave a job of secretary, to look for a managerial position, to find employment as a mechanic

b)make up sentences of your own about your present (past or prospective) employment. Work together as a group or in pairs.

Model:

St. 1: They only provide employment for seasonal workers.

St. 2: I’m looking for an academic position with a university.

St. 3: I’ve recently left my job of secretary with the NY office of this firm.

St. 4: I found employment as a mechanic three years ago.

St. 5: Do you have any vacancy for recent graduates?

25.Your job with the firm has come to an end. Below are the verbs that terminate your employment.

a)Match the columns A, B, C, D (columns B and C being optional) to form a verb phrase. Work in pairs.

Model:

To be dismissed from one’s job for being late.

To make someone’s job redundant* in the course of downsizing*.

To lay someone off from his job at the factory due to decreased load.

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b) Make up sentences of your own using the phrases from a).

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Model:

When a factory closes down, the workers are made redundant.

I was laid off when trade was bad and there was no work for me.

He was fired as incompetent.

c)Working together as a group or in pairs, discuss your own employment histories.

26.Do you know the type of compensation you may get for your job?

a)Guess the meaning of these words by choosing one of the options:

Wages

–money spent on waging a war or rebel in a country;

–money given for an ancient coin or vase in an antique-shop;

–money paid to an employee at relatively short intervals (usually figured on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis), especially for manual or physical labor.

Salary

–the act of selling goods at prices lower than usual;

–money given for separating a part from the whole;

–fixed payment at longer intervals (figured on a monthly or semimonthly basis), especially to clerical or professional workers.

Severance pay

–money paid for doing several works simultaneously;

–payment for the amount of work done, not for length of time you work;

–extra pay given to an employee who is dismissed through no fault of his own.

Compensation

–money insufficient for establishing decent living standards;

–transfer of money to another bank or banking account made by a hacker;

–general term for salary and wages, but at the formal, not neutral, level of speech.

b)Describe the type of compensation you get now (used to get, would like to get). Use “to be given” with “severance pay”.

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Model:

St. 1: Are you salaried* or paid by the hour or day?

St. 2: I am doing manual labor and get paid on a piece-rate schedule / scale, so I get wages.

St. 3: I am doing high-level professional work and get paid on a monthly basis, so I get salary / am salaried.

St. 4: When the company I was working for went bankrupt / went into bankruptcy, I was given severance pay.

27.Here are some idiomatic phrases that you may need. They deal with types of work, working hours and types of compensation you get.

a) Match A and B to make full sentences, like in the pattern:

Model:

To do overtime means to work after usual hours for extra pay.

To go freelance means to start working independently for different employers.

b) Guess the meaning of these phrases. Work together as a group.

Model:

St. 1: To be on welfare means to receive money weekly from the state when you have no work.

St. 2: To be on nights or on the night shift means to work through the night. St. 3: To go freelance means to start working freelance.

To be:

to be out of work

To go:

freelance; on overtime; on short time; on double time; on shifts.

To be / to go:

on piece-work; on time-work; on nights / on the night shift; on days / on the day shift; on full-time; on part-time; on welfare.

c)Discuss your type of work, working hours, and type of compensation in short dialogs. Work together as a group or in pairs.

Model:

St. 1: Do you get paid monthly or by the hour?

St. 2: I work in an office and get paid monthly. I’m what they call “white collar”*.

St. 1: I see. And what is your working schedule?

St. 2: Well, I used to be on full time, but unfortunately there is not enough work for me now, so I have to go on short time.

28.Do you know the difference between the phrases “on the job” and “at work”?

a)If not, consider the two sentences:

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1.You are not allowed to do non-work related things (knitting, reading, drinking tea, etc) on the job.

2.We often discuss the latest news at work.

The first sentence answers the question “when”, while the second answers the question “where”. That is to say, the first sentence means something closer to “You are not allowed to do non-work related things while you are working”. The second sentence does not mean that you discuss news while you are working, but only during your breaks.

b) Assume you see two notices at a police station:

No drinking on the job.

No drinking at work.

Which of them means that: 1) you can’t drink in the police station, but if you go outside, it’s OK? 2) a policeman can’t drink when he is driving around in his car outside?

c)Finish up these short dialogs with one of the phrases:

A.: Where will you be on Thursday? How shall I contact you? B.: I’ll be …

A.: I really want to become an editor.

B.: Well, then, why not get some experience somewhere? You know, the best practical training occurs …

A.: How could the accident occur?

B.: It occurred because the foreman was “sleeping …” (figurative, meaning he was not doing what he should have been)

Key: at work; on the job; on the job.

d)What notices would you like to have at your working place or in your organization? Use the above phrases.

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