Discussion

1. Different cultures look for different qualities when selecting personnel. What are they?

2. What are the best ways to measure or evaluate technical skills?

3. How can you measure interpersonal skills?

4. What are the most common selection methods used by companies and organisations in your country, (e.g. interviews, intelligence tests)?

5. How would it feel to be “headhunted”?

6. Is the poaching of senior personnel from a company simply part of executive life, or is it an unethical activity?

7. In western countries, executives tend to switch jobs several times in their careers, whereas in Japan, with its policy of lifetime employment, most executives stay with one company throughout their working lives. Which system is better for the employer? And for the employee?

Exercises:

Ex. 1. Replace the underlined phrases with words and phrases from the box:

applicants their qualifications an interview his referees

turned down offered him the job had shortlisted CVs

had given them psychometric tests applications accepted

Fred had already (1) refused two job offers when he went for (2) a discussion to see if he was suitable for the job. They looked at his driving licence and contacted (3) previous employers Fred had mentioned in his application. A few days later, the supermarket (4) asked him if he would like the job and Fred (5) said yes.

Harry didn’t hear anything for six weeks, so he phoned the company. They told him that they had received a lot of (6) requests for the job. After looking at the (7) life stories of the (8) people asking for the job and looking at (9) what exams they had passed during their education, the company (10) had chosen six people to interview, done tests on their personality and intelligence and they had then given someone the job.

Ex. 2. Jobs, and people who do them, can be described as:

highly skilled (e.g. car designer)

skilled (car production manager)

semi-skilled (taxi driver)

unskilled (car cleaner)

What are these jobs considered to be? Each expression is used twice. Explain your answer.

1. teacher;

2. brain surgeon;

3. car worker on a production line;

4. airline pilot;

5. bus driver;

6. office manager;

7. office cleaner;

8. labourer (a person doing basic work on a building site).

Give more examples of jobs for each category.

Ex. 3. Job ads usually contain a number of requirements to potential candidates. Below, you will find some of them. Match words from column A with their definitions from column B.

A	B
1) self-starters, proactive, self-motivated, self-driven	a) naturally very good at what they do
2) methodical, systematic, organized	b) very keen to do well in their job
3) computer-literate	c) good with numbers
4) motivated	d) good at working on their own
5) talented	e) can work in a planned, orderly way
6) team players	f) good with computers
7) numerate	g) people who work well with other people

What qualities mentioned above do you consider the most important? Do you have any of them? Which ones? Can they be taught? Or are they born ones?

Ex. 4. Look at these job advertisements. Are there any which would interest you? Explain why. Do you have the qualifications and experience to apply for them? If none of the jobs interests you, explain why. Tell your partner what kind of job would be most suitable for you.