Jobs and how to get one

Have you ever thought about how many work areas and different jobs are available on the job market? Have you ever tried to find a job or at least part-time employment? If so, what did you do? Did you contact the Employment Agency or went through the small adds in the papers or the Internet? Are you aware of the rules that apply to formal writing? Do you know how to write a good letter of application or a CV?

I’m sure we are all aware of the crisis and the recession consequences so we know it’s extremely difficult to find a job these days. So when we face the so-called real world, we need to be prepared and we need to know exactly what we are capable of and what we are looking for.

There are thousands of different jobs out there. Here are just some job areas possible: accounting and finance, insurance, advertising, aerospace and aviation, art and entertainment, publishing, law enforcement or security, automotive, legal, banking, management or executive, business development, manufacturing, clerical & administrative, construction, engineering, quality control, real estate, transportation and logistics, maintenance, green jobs and many more. You might want to find a job for yourself by checking different web pages where you might come across different application forms which you complete with your information – if this happens, take your time and think hard before writing any information.

 

Activity 1. Use one of the words to complete each sentence: deal, work, responsible, of, manage, under, responsibility:

1. I work for Engineering & Warehouses.

2. I ……… the production process in a subsidiary in Leeds.

3. I am in charge ……… the Research and Development.

4. About 280 people work ……… me.

5. Coordination between marketing and sales is my ……….

6. I ……… with a lot of difficult customers.

7. I’m ……… for a marketing budget of over €245 thousand.

 

Activity 2. Match these jobs to their job description:

a development engineer	a product planner	a geologist
a quality controller	a field engineer	a mechanic
a software programmer	an architect	a civil engineer
	a chemical engineer

 

e. g. Works for an IT company, writes codes, updates and debugs programmes. a software programmer

1. Repairs and services machines and equipment, works for a steel producer ……….

2. Works with pharmaceuticals, food, mineral processing and chemicals ……….

3. Works for an oil company, analyses rocks and minerals from the sea bed ……….

4. Works for a car producer, checks and inspects the finished cars and writes reports ……….

5. Builds roads, bridges and viaducts ……….

6. Designs new parts and products, works with CAD technology, and works for an aerospace company ……….

7. Works for a construction company and is responsible for planning and designing new factories and buildings ……….

8. Works for an engineering company and organises and checks production schedules ……….

9. Works for a telecommunications company, spends a lot of time travelling to companies to repair and replace or install telephone systems ……….

 

Which professionals from above have to use a foreign language on a daily basis?

 

Activity 3. Complete the exercise below with the correct word ( stay, installed, working, installing, work, design, install, travelling, travel, develops, involves ):

I’m Tom Packman and I work for a company called Plugs and Lights, Ltd. We ……… and ……… exterior and interior lighting systems for architectural applications, mostly in large buildings. At the moment we’re ……… on new lighting for York Cathedral. Last year we ……… a new lighting system outside the Westminster Abbey. My name is Magdalena Smith. I’m an engineer in the software industry. I work for a company called Ideas and more, Ltd., that ……… language recognition software. My work ……… developing products for the telecommunications industry. We sell our software to almost every country in the world. That is why I ……… a lot to have meeting with our existing and potential customers. At the moment, I’m ……… a new system in China for their mobile phone network. Several specialists, especially engineers will ……… there for about three months, but I’m ……… back and forth all the time to keep an eye on the work and to keep up with the current situation back at the office.

 

Activity 4. Choose the best word from the brackets to fill the gap:

1. I had a 9-to-5 job (job, work) when I left school but I didn’t do it for long because I hated getting up early and the boredom of the routine.

2. We have a ……… (flexible, repetitive) system, but everyone must be here between 11 and 4.

3. I work from ……… (house, home) and simply send my work over the Internet; I only sometimes visit my co-workers at the company.

4. I sit in front of the computer all day, just drawing different kind of plans. This work is mentally ……… (tiring, routine).

5. This is the most ……… (stimulating, repetitive) job I’ve ever had. There is never a boring minute; I really like it a lot.

6. We all look forward to 5 o’clock because then we can ……… (shift, clock) off for the day and finally go home.

7. The 7.15 train is always full of ……… (commuters, telecommuters) who travel to London for work.

8. I’m at ….. (work, job) by 8.45 and I leave for home at exactly 5 o’clock.

9. The difficult thing is that my home is my office so I’m there 24 ……… (hours, minutes) a day.

10. We turned one of our rooms into an ……… (office, storage) and that’s where I do all my work which is sometimes rather boring.

11. If you want to get a good job, you need the right ……… (papers, qualifications).

12. My job is really ……… (mentally, physically) demanding as I work in the mine.