JOB INTERVIEW.- Session 2.- Job ads.
Situation
Read the text and listen to the situation.
Another day begins at British Corporation. Lourdes and Susana are at work very early because they want to finish the CV they started writing the previous day.
- Lourdes: I think we need to revise what we did yesterday and we'll be finished.
- Susana: That's fantastic, but didn't Mr Parker say that we need to write a covering letter too? What exactly is that?
- Lourdes: A cover letter is a document that you usually send with your CV.
- Susana: And what things do you need to include in a cover letter?
- Lourdes: Let me see. In this website it says that a cover letter" provides detailed information on why you are qualified for the job you are applying for."
- Susana: Ok, so we need to say why we are the right people for the job.
- Lourdes: Yes, that's it! It continues: "Your cover letter may make the difference between getting a job interview and having your CV ignored, so, it makes good sense to devote the necessary time and effort to writing effective cover letters."
- Susana: Wow, so, it´s very important to get your covering letter right, isn't it?
- Lourdes: Yes, I should think so.
- Susana: Don't worry, I'm sure we'll write an impressive cover letter. Shall we start?
Now it's your turn
Write in the forum:
- What about you? Have you ever written a covering letter in English or in your own language?
- What things do you need to take into account when writing a formal letter?
- Is it important to make a good first impression?
1.- What to say. Looking for a job.
Quotation
“Never turn down a job because you think it's too small; you don't know where it can lead” Julia Morgan
Situation
Lourdes has had a good idea: "I think we need to look for a job ad first. Then we'll reply to that advert in order to make the letter sound more real."
"That's fantastic, but where can we find a real job ad?", replies Susana.
"Well", says Lourdes, "I think we might be lucky with this website. Look at this one. It sounds like an interesting position:"
JOB AD
F.t. junior legal secretary – established city firm.
A great role to start your career as a legal secretary is now avail. Ideally, you will have one year’s office exp with a secretarial qualification. Additionally, you will have a typing speed of 40 – 50 wpm. Good knowledge of Microsoft Word req'd. You will have excellent communication skills.
Susana looks puzzled: "Ok, I don't understand half of it. What do all these abbreviations mean?"
"Hmmm", Lourdes seems to be thinking really hard. " I don't know, but we'll find out. Don't worry".
Think about it
Can you help Lourdes and Susana? What do you think the abbreviations in the ad mean?
F.t.
avail
wpm
req'd
1.1.- Job ads.
What is the first thing people do when they are looking for a job? They usually take a look at the job vacancies section of the newspaper or they surf the Internet in order to look for job ads. Did you know that space in newspapers is expensive? Some of the most common terms used in job advertisements are abbreviations, that is why some people find job ads rather confusing.
| Abbreviations | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Exp / Exp'd | Experience / Experienced. |
| P.a. | Per annum (the whole year). |
| P.w. | Per Week. |
| P.h. | Per hour. |
| CV | Curriculum vitae, also called Résumé. |
| Emp Agy | Employment advertised by an agency. |
| Ref. | Reference. |
| Ccdl | Clear current driving licence. |
| Req'd | Required. |
| F.t. | Full time. |
| P.t. | Part time. |
| Avail | Available. |
| Pd. Train | Paid training. |
| Sal. | Salary. |
| Info. | Information. |
| Immed. | Immediate / Inmediately. |
| a.m. / p.m. | Day / night. |
| Mgr | Manager. |
| Wk | Week. |
| Mo | Month. |
| Yr | Year. |
Translation
1.2.- Now put it into practice (I).
Read the following job advertisements and do the exercises.
OPPORTUNITIES TO START NOW!
TOURISM INFORMATION OFFICER
Working with a young team of highly motivated people. The role involves general administration, invoicing, liaising with clients. Candidates must have a strong copy typing speed and be IT literate. Immed. start. 1 yr exp. req'd. Call Oxford Street now on 030 9384 6723.
SECRETARY
Excellent opportunities in temporary work. Mature, exp'd secretary req'd for holiday cover. $8.50 p.h. Flexible work schedule. Word, Excel, Copy Typing and Shorthand preferred. CV required. For an application form and further info, please write quoting ref. ES/50/34 to Human Resources, Civic Centre, Rainbow Road, Florida SW3 5TN.
RECEPTIONIST
Receptionist is required for Blue Chip firm in Maryland. Applicants should have strong communication and interpersonal skills. F.t.- 38 hrs p.w. Exp. no essential. Training is provided. Competitive salary. Call Peter. Target Employment, 15A Hill Street, Richmond, Surrey, TW5 2TF. Phone: 020 6735 0100 Fax: 020 6735 8765.
Now it's your turn
What do the abbreviated phrases stand for?
- TOURISM INFORMATION OFFICER:
- Immed. .
- Yr. .
- Exp. req'd. .
- SECRETARY:
- Exp'd. .
- Req'd. .
- CV. .
- Info. .
- Ref. .
- RECEPTIONIST:
- F.t. .
- Hrs. .
- P.w. .
- Exp. .
Now it's your turn
Match the correct word from the list below to each of the sentences from a job ad.
| Sentences | Match | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Must have excellent communication _______. | 1. Able. | |
| Must be available to work _______, holidays, and overtime. | 2. Dependable. | |
| Must be flexible, _______, trustworthy. | 3. Experience. | |
| Must have a positive attitude, and work well _______. | 4. Motivate. | |
| Must be _______ to speak English and German. | 5. Prepared. | |
| Must be able to _______ young people. | 6. Skills. | |
| Must be _______ to travel. | 7. Unsupervised. | |
| Must be enthusiastic and have work _______. | 8. Weekends. |
1.3.- Writing a covering letter.
Once you find a job you're interested in, you need to submit your CV to the company in question. The letter of application you send with your CV is sometimes called a covering letter. It is usually the first direct contact between a candidate and an employer, so make sure it is well-written and presented. It should normally contain 3-4 paragraphs.
Here is a list of points you should include:
- Say that you would like to apply.
- Say where you found out about the job.
- Say why you would like the job.
- Say why you are qualified to do the job. Include both objective (education, work experience) and subjective (what you think about yourself) information.
- Say you can provide more information if necessary.
- Say when you would be available for interview.
Remember to:
- Address your covering letter to a specific person.
- Customize your covering letter to the position you are applying to.
- State the elements of your background that are relevant to the position.
- Provide any information specifically requested
- Market yourself.
- Keep the tone and content professional.
- Be clear, concise, and focused.
- Proofread your letter.
Useful language:
- If you do not know the person's name start with Dear Sir/ Madam and finish with Yours faithfully.
- If you know the person's surname Dear Mr/Ms/ Mrs López and finish with Yours sincerely.
Layout/style:
- Put your address in the top right-hand corner with the date underneath.
- Put the name and address of the person you are writing to on the left.
- Don't use contractions.
- Write your full name under your signature.
- Put I look forward to hearing from you if you would like a reply.
Translation
Click to read the Spanish translation.
A step ahead
There are many web pages devoted to CVs and covering letters. Here you have a few good ones:
2.- How to say it. Phrasal verbs.
Think about it
Read the following sentences carefully. What type of verbs are they? Can you guess their meaning?
- Mr. Parker checked in at the hotel before the meeting.
- He checked out at the hotel around noon, and then he took a taxi to the airport.
Phrasal Verbs.
Phrasal Verbs in English are expressions in which a verb is followed by one or more particles (adverbs or prepositions). The meaning of a phrasal verb is different from the meaning of the verb alone and it may have hundreds of combinations.
Example:
- He put the books on the table.
- Paul put on his coat and went to the street.
- Mr. Parker has put off the meeting till tomorrow.
- Oh quickly! Put out the fire!
Try not to memorize many phrasal verbs at once, but rather, try to learn them as you come across them. Notice that most phrasal verbs may have different meanings depending on the context.
Phrasal verbs, like any other type of verbs, can be transitive or intransitive. That is, they can be followed by a direct or indirect object. Example:
How did you get to the party?
I set off at 9 o'clock.
- Most transitive verbs allow you to separate the particle from the verb by placing the direct object in the middle. If the direct object is a noun it can be placed either in the middle or at the end, however if the particle is a pronoun it can only be placed between the verb and the particle.
Example:
I'm going to pick up my boss at 3 o'clock.
I'm going to pick my boss up at 3 o'clock.
I'm going to pick him up at 3 o'clock. - However, some transitive verbs, all intransitive verbs and two-particle phrasal verbs cannot be separated. Example:
John is looking for his keys.
John is looking for them.
She came up with the problem.
Translation
2.1.- Phrasal verbs related to Finance and Banking.
DEAL WITH.
Study these sentences:
- Deal with meaning “handle.”
- The management failed to deal with all the problems within the company.
- I told him I deal with all foreign sales.
- Deal with meaning “do business with.”
- I’d rather deal with you guys.
- We’ll continue to deal with the Russian government.
- Deal with meaning “cover, be concerned with.”
- The guidelines deal with topics such as sales and marketing.
- Her newspaper articles often dealt with problems at work.
SET UP.
Study these sentences:
- Set up meaning “build /put up a structure.”
- The Company set up a temporary office in the city .
- Set up meaning “make plans/establish something.”
- He set up a meeting with his boss to discuss his ideas.
- British Corporation set up a website linked to a database of consumer products.
- Set up as an idiom meaning “build /put up a structure.”
- The company wanted to set up shop in London and New York
WORK ON.
Study these sentences:
- Work on meaning “spend time on something.”
- British Corporation is working on a new project.
- The company will work on reducing debt.
- Work on meaning “try to persuade someone to do something.”
- She has been working on me to join her team.
COME IN.
Study these sentences:
- Come in meaning “enter a place.”
- I come in every week for my paycheck.
- Come in meaning “join an organization/situation.”
- He came in as the new head of the department.
- .Come in meaning “finish a race in first/last... position.”
- He was disappointed to come in second in the competition.
2.2.- Now you put it into practice (II).
Now it's your turn
Correct the errors in these sentences. There is one error in each sentence:
- The Internet Connection Wizard setted up my Internet connection.
- Please setting up a meeting with Larry for Thursday at 9 a.m.
- Using the loans from the SBA, they managed to set up shopping in Northern California.
- The trick is to sets up an excellent marketing and distribution system.
- Rockwell is in the process of set up a trade center.
Now it's your turn
Fill in the gaps using a phrasal verb from the list below. Pay attention to verbal tenses.
come into → work on → deal with → set up → come in
The translators have to thousands of pages of documents.
Some of the CV we receive from Northern Europe.
The manager is a new campaign at the moment.
He has already made enough money to his own business.
On Saint Valentine's Day, my colleague the office holding a bunch of flowers.
Now it's your turn
Match the beginning of each sentence with the most appropriate ending:
| A | Match | B |
|---|---|---|
| US consumer data came in | 1. as the new director two years ago. | |
| The manager has been | 2. to deal with the most important issues in the meeting. | |
| We just had time | 3. working on the project for over a month. | |
| Paul came in | 4. a low-cost airline called BI. | |
| IBM is setting up | 5. by email this morning. | |
| Although her colleagues worked on | 6. her changing her mind, she finally resigned. |
3.- Words you need. Formal letters.
As we saw in Unit 3, there are different types of formal letters. In this section we are going to concentrate on covering letters.
Covering letters, cover letters or letters of application are formal letters. Some of the most frequently used expressions you may need when writing a formal letter are:
Opening sentences:
- I saw your advertisement in ....
- I have seen / read your advertisement in ....
- I am writing about the advert in ....
- I would like to apply for the vacancy advertised in ...
- Please consider my application for the post of ... advertised in ...
Body sentences:
- As you can see from my curriculum, ...
- I studied...
- I have been working as a ... for ....
- I like ... (travelling, working with people, using computers, ...)
- Please find enclosed CV and recent photograph.
Closing sentences:
- I hope you will grant me an interview.
- I hope you consider me for an interview.
- I look forward to an interview.
- I would be available for an interview at any time.
- I can supply you with the name of 3 references.
- Please contact me if you need any further details.
- I look forward to hearing from you soon.
In a formal letter, you should include:
Addresses:
- Your address: it should be written in the top right-hand corner of the letter.
- The address of the person you are writing to: it should be written on the left, starting below your address.
Date:
You can write the date on the right below the address you are writing to.
Formal emails and letters have the same basic structure. However, there are some differences that you have to be aware of:
- In a letter, you enclose documents. In an email, you attach documents.
- An email already includes the sending date and your contact details, so you do not need to write any addresses or the date.
For less formal emails, you can begin with ‘Dear Fred’, or even ‘Hi Fred’ for a colleague.
3.1.- Tips for writing a covering letter.
Let's take a look at the following tips to write a good covering letter.
- Be brief and to the point. Most of the time a cover letter for a job application only has to state that you are applying for a position and that the application and supporting materials are enclosed. That's it.
- Make no mistake about it. Absolutely no errors. Your cover letter must be perfection itself. A typo, a poor printing job, a misspelling - mistakes will make a poor impression because they imply that you don't care.
- Avoid fancy fonts and colors. You are not creating a flyer or a poster. So use a business font such as Arial. No colors. Black on white reproduces easily. Use a plain white paper.
- Keep it short.. Your cover letter should be one page in length and perfectly centered. The cover letter and resume are never folded. They are placed in an envelope large enough to accommodate them unfolded.
Text adapted from http://privateschool.about.com/cs/employment/a/coverletters.htm
Now it's your turn
Find words or expressions in the text above which are similar in meaning to:
- Using very few words. .
- A mistake in a printed document. .
- With decorations, complicated. .
- An announcement printed on a piece of paper that is given to people. .
- Open, extended. .
Think about it
Give your opinion in the forum.
What do you think about the tips above? What advice would you give someone on how to write a covering letter?
3.2.- Titles and abbreviations.
A title is a word or phrase that refers to a person's place in society or in a profession. We normally use the abbreviations instead of the full word.
- Mr is the abbreviation for Mister. It is used before a man's name. The plural form is Messrs. Mr is used sometimes before the position a person holds.
- Yes, Mr President / Chairman.
- Mrs is the abbreviation for Mistress. It is used before a married woman's name and it is pronounced /misiz/.
- Mrs Blanco is receiving visitors.
- Ms is written before a woman's name, but we do not specify if she is married or not. It is pronounced as /miz/.
- I sent an e-mail to Ms Swam yesterday.
- Miss is used before the name of a woman who is not married or who is not using her husband's surname. It is also used for girls. It is pronounced /mis/. In some schools, students call "Miss" their women teachers.
- Good evening, Miss Haynes.
- I love Miss White´s lessons.
- You use all the above titles in spoken or written form to refer to people in a polite way or when you do not know them well.
- Sir is the title used when we don't know the name of a man. Note that it is used alone. It is used in commercial and official letters. The plural form is "Sirs or Gentlemen". Sir is also used in schools by students to refer to their male teacher, by shop assistants and waiters.
- Dear Sir: (American style) Dear Sir, (British) - salutation in letters.
- What would you like to drink, sir?
- Madam is used to refer to a woman when we don't know her name. It is used as a salutation in official and business letters. In speech, it is used by shop assistants and waiters.
- Dear Madam,...
- Can I help you, madam?
- Dr. is the title for Doctor and Prof. is the title for Professor.
Now it's your turn
Insert the correct title before people's names in the following text.
My boss, Freeman, has two partners: Peter Stimpson and his wife Jackie Stimpson. My boss's daughter, Linda Freeman, is 19 and sometimes works as a temp in our company. His son works in the local hospital as a doctor; everybody calls him Freeman. My boss's wife, Freeman, is also an important businesswoman in town, she owns a huge insurance company. Her employees call her Billings, because nobody knows her marital status and she wants to keep her father's surname.
3.3.- Dates.
When we write a formal letter, we have to write the date on the right, under the address of the person we are writing to. How do we write it, though?
- BRITISH STYLE: Day + Month + Year.
- 9 August 1976 / 9th August 1976
The British write the day followed by the month and then the year. They use both the cardinal and the ordinal number for the day.
- AMERICAN STYLE: Month + Day + Year.
- August 9th, 1976
The Americans write the month first and then the day. They put a comma between the day (using the ordinal number) and the year. This can be more confusing when filling forms because dates are written as series of numbers.
- British style: 9.8.1976 9/8/1976 9 Aug, 1976 (Day + Month + Year.)
- American style: 8.9.1976 8/9/1976 Aug. 9th, 1976 (Month + Day + Year.)
PRONUNCIATION
Dates can be written in different ways, but they share the same pronunciation. We always say "the" before the day. Americans sometimes pronounce it "August nine".
- August the ninth / the ninth of August.
The day of the week is usually mentioned before the date itself.
- What date is today? It's Friday the ninth of August / It's Friday August the ninth.
The year is usually mentioned after the day and month.
- I was born on the ninth of August, nineteen seventy six.
ON
In British English you say that something happens on a particular day.
- I got married on Sunday 4th September.
Americans sometimes leave out "on".
- I got married Sunday September 4th.
The 19...'s
When you refer to the 1960's -sixties- , you are referring to the years between 1960 and 1969. You can also specify by saying the early 80's (eighties: 1980-85) or the late 70's (seventies: 1975-79)
Now it's your turn
Two interesting websites with exercises to practise dates in written and spoken English:
Appendix.- Licenses of resources.
| Resources (1) | Resources information (1) | Resources (2) | Resources information (2) |
|---|---|---|---|
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By: David Weinberger. License: CC by-nc-sa. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dweinberger/563919/ |
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By: SOCIALisBETTER. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27620885@N02/2654393745/in/photostream/ |
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By: SOCIALisBETTER. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/27620885@N02/2655221272/in/photostream/ |
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By: Steven Damron. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadsnaps/3676812422/ |
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By: DaveBleasdale. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sidelong/2469153152/ |
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By: Calsidyrose. License: CC by 2.0. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/calsidyrose/5717134392 |
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By: Ian Wilson. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/foolstopzanet/151936713/ |
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By: Rene Jakobson. License: CC by-nc-sa 2.0. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/renej/442171804/ |
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By: Gyrus. License: CC by-nc-sa. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gyrus/132436475/ |
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By: saxarocks. License: CC by-nc-sa. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/saxarocks/3502603724/ |
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By: Alan Cleaver. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/alancleaver/4320245924/ |
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By: Cliff Johnson. License: CC by-nc. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/disneyspeak/3444081205/ |
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By: LittleMissPip. License: CC by. From: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pcb85/4258475681/ |