A Plan for Launching an Effective Job-search Campaign

UNIT 3. Starting a Career

PART 1. Choices Already Made and Still to Be Made

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn the decision-making strategy.

2. Analyze the major factors of job satisfaction.

3. Evaluate your personality traits and motivations.

Text 1. Choosing a Career Path

If you are an undergraduate in a foreign languages department, clearly you have already made most of the choices: you have espoused English for life. By the way, what motivated your choice a number of years ago? It's common knowledge that we have to decide about our future at a stage in our lives when we can easily be swayed by factors which have little or nothing to do with our actual needs and abilities. The trouble is that we often choose our careers for the wrong reasons.

Take, for instance, those numerous people push-guided by their parents, who have their own idea of what their children ought to do with their lives and what professions have a high rating on the modern job market. Some of these loving dads and moms want to see their child as a lawyer simply because they themselves wanted to practice law but failed to do it for this or that reason. At the same time, some of the young people thoughtlessly follow in their fathers' footsteps, or inherit the family business, because this is expected of them and they cannot imagine doing anything else. On the other hand, others decide against going their parents' way, saying that whatever they might do they will certainly not do what their parents did.

Many teenagers and young people model themselves after somebody they respect and admire. We may be persuaded to embark on a career for which we are unsuited by teachers or older friends, who want us to follow in their track because they simply like their job and think it's wonderful. Apart from pressures from parents, teachers and other people, we may be swayed by other factors, such as the glamour of a profession and its immense publicity. Many girls pass through the stage in their lives when they want to be "top models" or movie stars irrespective of their looks and abilities. Needles to say, another powerful factor determining the choices made is the prospect of earning "a lot of money". While the mechanism of money-making may be obscure for young people, they still understand that some professions are much better paid than others. This was the reason why in the early 1990s thousands of young people in this country rushed into banking, finance and law, only to become redundant after the crisis of 1998.

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Whatever your motives were, it looks at the present moment that you have made a good move choosing English for your profession. In a non-English setting of our country there is a growing demand for foreign language specialists whose target language is English. The phenomenon of a "shrinking world" has intensified the already existing need for a common language for wider communication, and English seems to be a wonderful candidate for this role. It is widely used for purposes such as business and international trade or in order to gain access to scientific, technical and literary materials that exist mainly in English. The implication is that English is a valuable asset in career advancement that gives you a definite advantage.

At the same time you cannot but understand that to merely "know English" is not in itself much of an asset nowadays, because many other people know it too. Some people would tell you that English is not a profession, but a must for everyone. To survive the new trends and changes, it is good insurance to have other back-up skills to add to your language skills. If you are a student of a pedagogical university you have those major skills already — that is, the ability to teach English. The forecast is that the demand for teachers will continue to grow and by far outstrip the supply. Teaching opportunities tend to vary with changes in economic conditions: new institutions of learning mushroom in this country, including fee-paying secondary schools, gymnasiums, colleges and courses. Another popular area of teaching English is on-the-job or in-service training where a company may contract you to teach their staff on the company premises. If you need more flexibility on account of your family status, you may teach from home. With positive trends in society's attitude towards small business, you can build your own network and either give one-to-one lessons or teach in a group setting.

Already, within the university walls, some of the undergraduates acquire secretarial skills and study professional typing, filing and business correspondence which may be a great asset in modern offices. The prospects for secretarial positions appear excellent — they are on the list of demand jobs in the category of service industries. If you possess the required skills of communication in both written and spoken English, your chances of getting a job as a personal assistant look very good. The secretarial route is naturally maligned by some university graduates, who feel overqualified for this position, but it can provide a way into many careers. Besides, if you start as a secretary you can get a valuable insight into the working of the company. Secretarial temping during the summer time, for example, will help you acquire new skills, and try yourself at a career apart from college.

Some other undergraduates feel lacking and uncompetitive on the modern job market, and make up their minds to further their education and add a degree in a different field to the list of their achievements. However, if you would like to stay on in education, doing your Master's or a post-graduate course, you need to look closely at your motives. If you have a genuine passion for your subject and want to make a career in the academic world, or you know you need a further degree for the

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field of work you plan to enter, your choice is good. However, what you are to ask yourself is: do you really enjoy studying, acquiring theoretical and practical knowledge, spending hours in the library for independent research? Are you a self-starter as far as studies are concerned, or are you just feeling immature and afraid to leave the university world and start a career of your own? Should this be the case, you may be overestimating the value of academic qualifications at the expense of practical experience.

So, as you see, you have not made all your final choices: you've chosen the direction but you can follow different paths. At this time of your life, you can make more intelligent and conscious choices, especially if you approach them as an effective decision maker.

Decision making is almost universally defined as choosing between alternatives or narrowing your choice. In our particular case, the process of decision making can be broken down into three stages or steps:

1. Information gathering stage. What you are expected to do at this particular stage
is to explore the market, and identify the target jobs and positions that can fit
your qualifications. For the information search you can rely on your network,
study the stories of other graduates of your department, and go through the job
advertisements in the press or job sites on the Internet.

2. Evaluation stage. This stage requires assessment of the relative merits and
demerits of the job, in terms of your own personality, priorities and
motivations. We must not forget that social influence has a great impact on
decision-making behavior and if we don't want to make a wrong or a biased
one, we need to be sure that we are listening to our own voice, instead of being
influenced by social pressure or rule of thumb.

3. Choice stage. The third and the final stage is the actual choice — selecting a
particular alternative among those available to suit your particular personality
and qualifications at that moment. The success of this stage depends strongly
on the two previous stages — how complete and objective the initial list of
alternatives was, and how accurately we processed the information at hand.

Some people work to live: they are so busy making a living that they don't have time to make a life. Others live to work: their work makes them fulfilled, brings real satisfaction. These lucky ones would work even if they did not have to. Is it just a matter of good luck or is it choosing their route well? It ought to be easy to choose the right path: just do the things for which you have a natural talent. Your choice can be more grounded at present, as you have some life and sometimes even work experience — you've been around and observed people performing in various fields, you also know your priorities better. No matter how many career advisers you may consult, the most direct way to predict anybody's success in a career is to simply ask: "What would you like to do?"

Tasks

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b) Some people would definitely tell you that English is not a profession but a must for
everyone.

c) With the positive trends in the society's attitude towards small business you can build
your own network and give either one-to-one lessons or teach in a group setting.

d) Secretarial temping during the summer time will help you acquire new skills and try
yourself at a career apart from college.

e) Some people work to live, they are so busy making a living that they don't have time
to make a life. Others live to work: their work makes them fulfilled, brings real
satisfaction.

 

11. Read the text again and write out all the sentence starters such as: "by the way", "it's
common knowledge." These starters are responsible for providing the text with
logical structure and making it coherent. Classify these starters as to their functions
and meanings such as introductory starters, starters for expressing opinion, starters
denoting time, condition, and comparison. Are there any other groups that you can
single out?

12. Complete the design given below on the basis of the text and your own background
knowledge. Do you think there are some other paths available for the graduates of a
foreign languages department?

Text 2. Is There Such a Thing as a Dream Job?

A good job means different things to different people. You might be surprised to hear that some people would just like to do nothing and get paid. Others feel that the more they work, the happier they are, and they cannot wait till the weekend is over and Monday sets in. It is a proven fact that there are a lot of people who like mundane routine jobs but view a change as a disaster. In other words, they prefer to be told what to do. There are, however, adventurers and entrepreneurs who love risk-taking and decision making to be part of their day-to-day life. Some of us enjoy being solo and taking all the responsibilities for the work we do. There are also those who enjoy the feeling of being part of the team or belonging to an organization or a group of people. These people would never enjoy working free-lance: they will stick with their group no matter what happens. Besides solo workers and team-players there are leaders who like team-building and running a business or a team. It is not surprising that people like that will not enjoy working for a big, formal impersonal organization in which they will be viewed as an interchangeable part of the machine. Thus job satisfaction does not depend on the job alone, but on the jobholders as well.

There are several ways of evaluating a potential job or a job offer, but before we make a decision we need to look at the job itself. To avoid any role ambiguity, it i> reasonable to ask yourself whether you understand what will be expected of you in

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this or that position, in other words, to look into the nature of the job duties that each position may offer you. There is evidence to indicate that when students' majors coincide with the job duties their job satisfaction is expected to be higher. In other words, we enjoy doing what we know how to do, and what we feel professionally competent to do. However, we may not enjoy doing one and the same thing every day without any challenges and opportunities to grow and develop. "Boring" is a scary word for many people who want to enrich their minds and learn. Lots of people are also very sensitive to the status of their job: that is, the value which is attributed by the society to this or that profession, at a given moment in time. Instability of economy, downsizing, and constant changes in the market seriously affect job security, which for many people is a top value. Small businesses, joint ventures, commercial banks and investment companies in this country can provide many sad examples of how people who used to be highly paid and saw themselves at the top of their professions became redundant overnight with their company failing, downsizing or closing down. While in the West losing a job has been one of the career hazards for years, in Russia, with its desire to espouse a job for life, it may cause a substantial stress to some workers.

The pay is recognized to be a significant but complex and multidimensional factor in job satisfaction. Besides the salary being a major way to attain basic needs, it is also viewed by many people as a reflection of the value attributed to their work by the society and the company. With the advent of new international practices, benefits begin to be recognized as a very substantial part of the incentives. For example, fringe benefits like health insurance, free training or family vacations can be a substantial part of what an employee gets from his company. But material incentives, for all their importance, are not always number one: in all cultures there.ire people who would prefer status, the reputation of the company they work for, or moral satisfaction over the pay.

Promotion opportunities may be high on the priority list for many people. There are certain jobs and certain companies in which you reach your ceiling pretty fast. For example, in many big multinational companies, which graduates of Russian universities often view as a dream job market, it would be rather difficult to get a serious promotion unless you were on the profit-making line. As a personal assistant, for example, you can certainly raise your grade after you improve your professional skills, but it is very unlikely that you can get into the partner's chair which is taken by an American expatriate. It is easier to get a promotion in the sparsely saturated academic world, but often individuals who are promoted on the basis of seniority do not experience as much satisfaction as those who are promoted on the basis of job performance.

Most people view supervision or management as an important part of their jobs:hat may increase or decrease their job satisfaction. If the management is employee-centered, the supervisor takes a personal interest in his workers' welfare, and provides advice and assistance to the individual, people feel more important and satisfied. In many cases, people feel happier when they can participate in making

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decisions that affect their own jobs. In Russia, with its highly personalized touch in human relations, it is extremely important to have a boss who communicates with the workers on a personal as well as an official level. In America, more than a half of employees admit that managers do not always do a very good job in this dimension, seldom providing them with regular feedback or trying to solve their problems.

The nature of the work group ox people you work with is another important factor in job satisfaction. The work group may vary in age, social status and educational background. The same is true about the customers with whom you work. Working together with diversified groups may bring either satisfaction or disappointment and anxiety. For some teachers used to more or less homogeneous groups it is a great challenge to shift from one audience to another. We cannot but admit the fact that some of us are better teachers for young children and some others for adults, just as we may have preferences for colleagues who are our peers, seniors or juniors. Lots of people in this country are committed to their organizations because they like and respect the people who work there.

Working conditions may also have an effect on our job satisfaction. If the working conditions are good, and we work in attractive, clean surroundings, we find it easier to carry out our jobs. On the other hand, if the working conditions are poor we fine it more difficult to get things done. Many of us do not give working conditions a great deal of thought, unless they are extremely bad. Not all companies provide their employees with recreation facilities or even a place to have lunch. In Russia, where office space is always a problem, we often suffer from being crowded and having no personal space. If you live far away from your place of work, you might also suffer from endless commuting or spending hours in public transport or traffic. It is no surprise that lots of people look for the jobs which are within a reasonable reach fron: their homes.

Research reports that highly satisfied workers have better mental and physica. health, learn new job-related tasks more quickly and feel good about themselves ir. general. Consequently, they are more ready to be cooperative, helping co-worker-and customers. On the negative side, people whose jobs give them no satisfaction tend to feel nervous, tense, anxious, worried and distressed. They suffer from low self-esteem, and may develop inferiority complexes or different phobias.

Just as you don't marry the first man or woman you meet, you don't take the first job offered. However, even if you've made a mistake in judgment, don't let regret-rankle in your soul: you can always make a change! You don't have to stick to the job that makes you unhappy, making everybody around you unhappy too. But if yoi. have already made one wrong move, you need to grow cautious and analyze your losses to determine where you have made a mistake. Don't try to excuse yourself, bu: guard against a repetition of the same error.

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8. Read the text once again and find different sentence starters and connectives which may
express:

presenting the results of research; giving evidence; drawing a conclusion; providing additional information; providing illustrations; generalizing; specifying; contrasting (the positive with the negative).

Are there any other useful sentence starters and connectives which make the text easier to read and understand? What do they express? Make a list of them to be used as a language bank for further activities.

9. Make up a list of factors which define job satisfaction the way they are presented in the
text. Specify such generalized concepts as job itself. Fill out the following table
specifying the importance you attach to this or that factor. After the table is complete
rearrange the factors in order of their priority to you personally.

Factor    Universally important   Depends on the culture  Depends on the person

10. Conducting a survey on job satisfaction. This is a creative independent task that will require some time and effort. The students of the group are requested to establish contacts with former graduates of their department of their own university or another one with similar orientation. It is highLy recommended that the students try to approach former graduates who work in different fields such as teaching (in a secondary school, university, etc.), interpreting, doing office work or doing a post-graduate course. The tasks are: a) to identify the degree of job satisfaction, b) to assess the technical skills with which the University provided them for the job they hold, c) to specify the personality traits which help them to perform or frustrate them in performing the job that they hold.

Before conducting a survey the students are to prepare questionnaires which are to be filled out by the respondents, either in person or over the telephone. The questionnaires are to be processed, compared and presented in class discussion.

Prompts

It is recommended to encourage students to keep minutes and make notes of the major conclusions related to this or that career path as they are presented by others.

The final goal is to come out with conclusions and an assessment of each career path in terms of job satisfaction.

Text 3. A Personal Inventory Guide

Evaluating relative merits of the potential job cannot be effective without evaluating ourselves. It goes without saying that in the first place we need to identify whether our qualifications and technical skills fit the position that we find attractive However, it is much easier to evaluate our technical skills than understand our own personality and motives.

People are different: they interact with other people and situations in different ways. The word "personality" has an interesting origin. It can be traced to the Latin words persona, which can be translated as "to speak through." The Latin words were used to denote the masks worn by actors in ancient Greece and Rome. So the contemporary usage of the word stemmed from understanding "personality" as the

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face that the person (actor) displays to the public. Academic definitions of personality are concerned more with the person than with the role he plays, but most personality theorists recognize the person—situation interaction. Personality is at the root of how people view themselves and how they interact with others and with different situations.

How people affect others and how they understand and view themselves depend to a certain extent upon their external appearance (height, weight, facial features, color). It is universally acknowledged that good-looking people get what they want with less pain than those who were not born attractive. At the same time, it cannot be denied that "attractive" is a very subjective word depending on personal, cultural and historical standards. Moreover, people who are too attractive may have additional difficulties in their career advancement as compared to those of us who do not catch the public's eye immediately. You can hardly imagine a girl with the figure and looks of a top model to be suitable as a conference interpreter, unless you want everybody to look at the interpreter rather than concentrate on the subject of the discussion.

It is not so easy to change our external appearance but we can certainly improvise with our clothes and accessories. Many modern companies, especially in the West, have a so-called dress code, which is the style of clothes accepted in this or that company. Most law firms and banks will require their male workers to wear suits and ties all through the week with the exception of Friday, when in view of the coming weekend more casual clothes like pants and sweaters may be permitted. It is common practice to change a shirt every day. If you come to the office wearing the same outfit you wore yesterday, you risk being asked: "Where did you sleep last night?" In companies like that, women will certainly avoid wearing bright makeup and aggressive perfume, just as they will avoid wearing loud, provocative clothes. At the same time some computer companies may have a lot of specialists wearing pony-tails and jeans, especially if they spend much of their time working with hardware. So the clothes we wear should conform to the nature of our occupation, as well as to the standards and rules shared in the organization we work for. Unless you are a clothes designer, it is not appropriate to introduce your personal style, especially during the orientation period in a well-established company.

Although external appearance and the impression we produce are highly important, it is still internal personality traits which are instrumental for understanding how effectively a person will interact with this or that group of people or situation. Sometimes we tend to be simplistic and try to describe personality by a single dominant characteristic (strong, weak or "nice" which is a frequent substitute for "nothing special"). The most significant traits for job performance on which personality theorists agree can be briefly summarized as follows:

1. Extraversion. Social, talkative and assertive.

2. Agreeableness. Good-natured, cooperative and trusting.

3. Conscientiousness. Responsible, dependable, persistent and achievement-
oriented.

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4. Emotional stability. Viewed from a negative standpoint: tense, insecure and
nervous.

5. Openness to experience. Imaginative, artistically sensitive and intellectual.

It is true that people demonstrate different personality traits in different job situations but most of these "big five" traits have an impact on job performance and indicate the importance of the role that personality traits play in career success. Another approach to the analysis of personality is associated with the motives that people pursue in their day-to-day life depending on their personality traits. There are universal motives which are shared by most people: the motive to be loved, the motive to belong and the motive to be safe. However, even these motives are demonstrated by different individuals to a different extent. Power motives and achievement motives are not as universal as those mentioned above: it takes a leader's personality to be driven by the power motive. Thus we can see that different individuals can be attracted by certain roles which help them satisfy their personal needs, such as a desire to govern or care for others. And different jobs predetermine different roles: a road policeman dealing with a drunken driver does not play the same role as a hospital nurse or an interpreter. A typical description of personality types might include the following:

Authoritarian: shows tendency for liking authority and exercising power.

Affi/iative: shows tendency for building close relationships with others.

Conformist: shows tendency for thinking and acting the same as others do.

Aggressive: shows tendency towards aggressive behavior in order to achieve aims.

Co-operative: shows tendency to work closely with others in performing tasks.

Achieving: shows tendency towards achieving status, career success and praise.

As we can see from the above, there's no such thing as a "pure type" because people usually combine features belonging to different types. We may also change gradually from one type to another as we gain more experience and maturity, or at least we learn to demonstrate different features to different people in different situations. Nevertheless personality types do exist, as you might have noticed if you had an opportunity to observe very young children with hereditary inclination to a certain personality type. The type is not static because it will be subject to various environmental and socialization experiences and learning. But at the stage of life that you are in at the moment, each of you presents a "product" of family, education system, society and work experience if any. This product has its value (moderately high, no doubt) but to become competitive on the modern job market you must find your niche or your target customer. The more successfully you do it, the more in demand you will be and the more you can expect to earn.

Tasks

1. Read the text and write out all the definitions which are given in it. Look up the wore "personality" in several dictionaries and make a list of definitions. Prepare a small tal­on the meaning and usage of the word. Don't forget to speak about its origin. Use the expressions from the text such as to have (an interesting) origin, to be traced (down) tc to denote, contemporary usage, to stem from, to be at the root of.

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PART 2. Exploring What the Market Has to Offer

Learning Objectives:

1. Structure the informative text into paragraphs with connectives and
sentence starters.

2. Write a report and performance appraisal.

3. Extract the relevant information from a job ad.

Section 1. Teaching: New Challenges and Opportunities

The Optimistic Approach

Life does change, doesn't it? Political, national and economic considerations are closely interlaced with each other but they all influence the status of teaching English at this or that particular time. Viewed at the highest level, political considerations have to do with the particular administration in power, and how it views the question of foreign languages in general. With the President of Russia. V. Putin, setting a good example as a student of English, and a fluent user of German, the attitude towards us, foreign language teachers, seems to be taking a turn for the better. National considerations in this country cannot prevent English from becoming the language of international communication, because Russia has no problem with her nationhood, and our national language is not afraid of the intervention of English. It is also important that, historically, Russians have a high regard and appreciation of both the English language and the culture it represents. Economic considerations for teaching and learning English are more than considerations: they are imperatives. Globalization makes our planet a smaller place, integrating financial, information and trading systems, and the role of English in the process of modernization, science and technology is significant. So it seems that, considering political trends, international ties and national concerns, the graduate of an English department at the beginning of the 21st century seems to be in the right place at the right time. So clever, clever us! However, if you think that it's time to rejoice and relax, forget about it. You might not be aware of what you are getting yourself into. On obtaining a degree about thirty years ago, the graduates of pedagogical universities marched straight into secondary schools with a unified curriculum, syllabus, textbooks and objectives. It was much easier to obtain knowledge of how to teach the language, due to the uniformity of the programs and language needs, and the audience that we faced in the classroom. If you did not get a placement in a secondary school, you could, with luck, find your way into the university staff and teach at a specialized English department, or plunge into the language for science and technology, and teach students of technical institutes who considered English to be more of a curse than of a blessing. Some of us still look back dewy-eyed because the school for teaching foreign languages in Russia thrived, the theory of the language was given much attention, and we all seemed to be very thorough and attentive to every detail. Perestroika reached behind the secure barricade of the university walls, and brought new challenges. It reached all the

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institutions teaching English, and challenged the existing standards of language competence. The effectiveness of students' performance, which used to be viewed in terms of linguistic effectiveness (grammar, vocabulary, phonetics, etc.) acquired new dimensions of para-linguistic (body language, facial expressions, etc.) and extra-linguistic competence (cultural awareness). The bottom line of this competence is the effective usage of English for communication purposes in the future careers of the students: thus performance objectives replaced purely educational objectives, or learning the language for its own sake. To provide the students with this competence in a constantly changing universe, teachers had to familiarize themselves with real-life situations and new relevant areas of knowledge which might require the knowledge of English on the part of our students. Innovative teachers had to acquire computer and business correspondence skills, to learn about negotiations and reports, and study the subject matter of customer service, business ethics and international business culture. Without awareness of what goes on in the world of business, we cannot claim to be effective teachers of communication in that world. Before perestroika, when teaching the language, we used to go deeper, now we probably have to go wider. But it was not only the approach which changed in this way — our audiences changed too. Workers and engineers on the oil rigs of Russian-American joint ventures, accountants of representative offices of foreign companies, people who were going to work overseas, young managers who planned to take MBA courses in Britain or the U.S. could not attend classes for years, laboriously studying articles and tenses, practicing spelling and transcription. Their careers, and sometimes their survival, depended on learning the basics really fast. So the time span available for training became pitfall number one. However, it was not the whole story: these people were mostly adults and not secondary school children, some of them occupied high executive or administrative positions, so it was an entirely new audience. How would you, for example, like to teach English to the President of Russia? Would you set him home tasks and give bad marks? The teachers of yesteryear had to make adaptations to an entirely new, demanding and extremely busy audience for whom English was not a subject, but an instrument for career advancement. Besides changing our teaching styles, teaching people like that also meant leaving our familiar environment and school setting; it meant teaching on location (how would you like going to Siberia?) or probably in a spaciou-presidential office, run in-house or on-the-job training programs leaving the familiar security of a classroom in which you are always the boss. While teaching English one-to-one can be considered a real luxury (if "the other one" is pleasant and teachable enough), we often had to teach English to a multi-level, multi-age and multi-background group with different language backgrounds, different job positions and characters. Sometimes this team, assorted and brought together for different reasons, presented nothing short of "a Russian salad", which seemed to be hard to digest at times. Most of the modern teachers, even those who teach at schools and universities, subscribe to the opinion that now more than ever there ь no such thing as a homogeneous class in terms of personality and ability. But ever this challenge was easier to take than the fact that we did not know quite well wha: kind of English was to be taught. Owing to the variety of teaching situations we founc

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ourselves in, we could hardly expect to have books and ready-made materials for each of them. Nobody could give us the right textbook, a plan or a program to teach happily ever after: there was no ready-made course — we had to design it, tailor it and get our students to like the way they looked in it! The worst thing in it was that the planning of courses and the writing of materials require specialized background of a kind which was glossed over or ignored in many university programs in applied linguistics, English language teaching and teacher training. So all of us novice designers and writers had to work on the basis of our best intuitions, trying to bring;ogether the complexity of human language with a wide variety of circumstances in which our students might need to use English. Thus we learned the concepts of needs assessment, audience analysis and course design through information gathering and fact-finding. The bottom line of our professional success was the affirmative answer to a very simple question: does the English that we teach really work? Though we found the process of such learning hard, our pains paid off in the end: those who survived the hard test of perestroika have become highly competitive professionals who could design and develop courses for fee-paying secondary' schools, universities, gymnasiums, business schools and multi-profile private lessons. The teachers who survived the unrest and discouragement of the first years of perestroika got their reward in full — they have become part of the modern business world without giving up the occupation they love. There's hardly any risk that these professionals may become redundant. If you want to be one of us don't team up with the whiners: the harder you work the luckier you get!

Study support

A paragraph consists of no less than three sentences which treat the same topic. When changing to the next subject or point we usually change paragraphs. This change is often indicated by a word or a phrase that links it with the previous one.

The first sentence in the paragraph usually introduces the new subject and the other sentences in the paragraph develop, specify or support this sentence. To make a well-formed paragraph it is also necessary to use linking devices or connectors which make it easier to read and understand paragraphs and whole texts. A piece of writing is coherent if it is clearly organized and has a logical sequence of ideas. A paragraph or a section of a text is cohesive if the sentences in this piece are well constructed and well linked together.

Tasks

1. As you can see, the text given above is not split into paragraphs and it is difficult to
comprehend the main points. Read the text very attentively and split it into paragraphs
(no less than 7). To make this assignment easier, use the Study support.

2. Look at the paragraphs and explain why you have split the text the way you did. Did you
take a lead from any special words which to your mind indicate the transition from one
paragraph to another? Compare the paragraphing that different students made in
different ways and discuss the reasons for decision making.

3. Write out all the linking devices and comment on their meaning and their functions. The
classification of linking devices as to their function is to be presented in the vocabulary
list at the end of the present section.

4. The text given above presents an optimistic outlook on teaching profession. However,
opinions may differ. Find below the responses of a pessimist who holds the opposite

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PART 3. Practical Guidance to Job-seekers

Learning Objectives:

1. Work out a plan for job hunting.

2. Compile a portfolio for effective job search.

3. Learn the strategy for being an efficient interviewee.

Section 1. Pathways to Getting a Job

If you are approaching the end of your university course and have not started your job hunt, it's time to get busy! We hope that after making a personal inventory and carrying out market research, as outlined in the previous sections, you've made up your mind what career path to follow. However, it is not sufficient just to know what you'd like to do: it is necessary to collect your resources, focus your energy and launch an effective job-search campaign. Though a lucky chance is what you may strongly hope for, it is not good to bank on it alone; a successful job hunt is a combination of planning, tireless persistence and faith.

The pathways leading to a gainful employment may be different for different people in different cultures. The success of each one of them depends on the economic situation in the country and in the world, the personal qualifications of a ob-seeker and the condition of the industry in which a candidate would like to be nlaced. But, for all the differences, there are some pathways which exist in Russia as in most other countries all over the world.

Help wanted ads are universally recognized because they provide an immediate connection between a job seeker and his potential employer. Depending on the reputation and position of the company, they may place their ads almost anywhere, from highly respectable newspapers and magazines to a lamp post near the metro station. The latter may promise to pay you a thousand dollars a month, but the fact that they don't specify any professional background or qualification requirements should caution you against trusting them too much.

Other ads may offer you work in advertising promotion, which sounds very promising but may mean nothing more than slipping advertising flyers into mail boxes, or handing out free samples of a new product. Another notorious catch is to offer the job of a personnel manager to a candidate who does not realize that his only responsibility will be to recruit other unfortunates to sell such products as Herbalife. It may also be not mentioned in the ad that the job will involve a substantial cash investment. As you can see from the above, it is always necessary to clear up the information given in the ad by contacting the advertiser. If the information is denied, it is likely that the motive of the advertiser is to hook another victim for a scheme which is not quite legal or fair.

At the same time, there are many sources from which you can pick out a very reliable ad; for example many western companies place their ads in Career Forum, Exclusive Personnel and Moscow Tribune — free newspapers which can be picked up in big supermarkets, restaurants and hotels. These newspapers also publish ads

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placed by employment agencies. In times of economic prosperity, these ads may be. numerous; they look very inviting and offer you a lot of lures and promises. But in time of recession, the companies do not offer you a lot and place the emphasis on the qualifications, work experience and personal qualities they desire. Thus ads can serve as a very accurate indicator of the situation in the economy and the labor market. But no matter what the situation might be, a potential candidate has the right to ask for information about the potential employer, salary and other job characteristics.

Another popular area for job hunting is provided by the Internet. Man companies nowadays put job announcements and company profiles on-line. If yuo. take full advantage of this modern resource and "let your fingers do the walking" yuo. will maximize your time spent on job hunting.

"Situation wanted" ads are placed by the job-seekers who expect the employers to contact them. Some cynical job hunters claim that these ads will never get you gainful employment. However, in this country as in any other place in the world, people who are looking for job opportunities place their ads into the situation wanted column of different newspapers and magazines. For example, domestic help or private lessons in Russian and English are very often advertised in such newspapers as Moscow News and others. You probably know a number of people who managed to find very decent clients through the ad which they placed in some office or educational institution. If you decide to try this pathway, pay attention to the phrasing of your ad: don't make it too personal or superior; make it businesslike! To stay out of harm's way,be sure you interview every potential client over the telephone before you make an appointment. and ask professional, detailed questions which may show you the seriousness of his intentions, and demonstrate your professional competence.

Employment agencies in this country are often criticized and called on the carpet for their ineptness. The reason for this criticism is that in most cases they arrange a kind of "blind date" between a potential employer and a candidate.It is true that most of the agencies are interested in top level executive professionals, and are not too keen on young graduates with no work experience. It is especially true for private employment agencies which operate on a fee-paid basis, with the fee being paid either by the employer or the applicant. But that again depends on the situation in the job market: when business is active, employment agencies can help you a lot to find a job, especially in the field of administration.

Most countries have State Employment Service, which plays an extremely significant role in times of recession. The staff of the service does counseling andtesting for those people who need to upgrade their skills to find a job on the modern job market. Though it is not very likely that at present a graduate of a foreign languages department may have to apply to the State Employment Service for a job we should not forget about it.

For all the value of the pathways mentioned above, many experts will tell you that most of the best jobs are not even publicly advertised: these job vacancies belong to the so called "hidden job market." There are two ways to reach this market: by networking and "cold" calls.

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Networking is one of the most popular business words nowadays. Broadly speaking, it involves establishing a system of valuable connections which can bring you interesting career opportunities. In contrast to "good old boys" connections, which sometimes imply nepotism, networking is healthy and productive. If done correctly, it can be mutually beneficial for those who make referrals and for those who get them. Every one of you has his/her personal network already which includes:

• family members,

• school contacts such as present and former instructors, group chums, members
of administration,

• business acquaintances like clients, former employers,

• social acquaintances like friends, tennis partners and so on.

A list of people who may be helpful to you in your job search may be enlarged by geometrical progression as one person is a link to another. However, no matter how large, this network may work only if you observe the three golden rules:

• Project your career ambitions: let people know what you can do and what you
would like to do!

• Excel in everything you do; there is no such thing as a small job: people will
remember you if you are a hard and diligent worker!

• Socialize if you want people to remember you: a telephone call to congratulate
your former professor at Christmas may bring you an excellent job opportunity; a
business card given at an exhibition may find its way into the hands of the perfect
client!

It is true of course that your loving parents will do their best to find you a job irrespective of your abilities and qualifications, but remember: the imperative of the market economy is that everyone earns what he takes home, so it will still be up to you to keep the job that you get.

Cold calling is often used in selling to describe making the rounds of potential customers without previous appointments. Thus in job hunting American experts use this term for making contacts with potential employers without any invitation on their part. Cold calls are not for the timid: you must be aggressive and pushy in presenting yourself either in person or over the telephone, to convince the potential employer that you are just the one that they want. Besides legwork and telephoning it includes sending your resumes or letters of application to companies which you identify for yourself through a variety of sources. Though chances are rather slim, you may still hope to be in the right place at the right time.

It is very hard to predict the way you will find your dream job. Some people will tell you that they really got where they are through sheer good luck. They may be right, but never forget that it is not enough to get a lucky chance: you must know how to keep it. While you are praying for Lady Luck not to pass you by, it's worth while trying to put together all the approaches mentioned above into a multi-profile job hunting campaign, and start implementing it straight away!

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A Plan for Launching an Effective Job-search Campaign

Design a plan for your personal job-search campaign, share it with your fellow students and discuss in class.

Study support

A plan cannot be a plan if it is not structured properly. However, this structuring can be based on different principles. If it is a plan of a certain course of action it can be arranged in a step-by-step sequence in which the actions are placed one after another. Numbering is very effective in a plan, same as sentence starters denoting sequence such as first(ly), second(ly), finally.

A plan like this tends to be a little simplistic when used for the complicated campaign in question. We can successfully start with the initial assumptions for taking a certain course of action, such as the economic situation in the country and the condition of the industry in which we intend to look for a job. Another valuable assumption is provided by evaluating personal qualifications of a job-seeker.

The assumptions mentioned above can serve as a basis for a certain course of action using concrete ways of job hunting which can be evaluated as effective or ineffective, depending on the assumptions mentioned above.

When writing a plan, do not forget to give a name to each section. Your computer can help you with a lay-out if you use bullets and numbering.

Section 2. Writing for the Job

Study support

A job-seeker's portfolio contains a resume, application forms which you may be requested to fill out, an application letter which is frequently enclosed with your resume, and letters of recommendation obtained from teachers and colleagues. Different companies may offer you their own sets of forms to be filled out and submitted, as well as different psychological and professional tests. The advice given below, however, can help you learn the basics for presenting your personal details, qualifications and skills on paper.

A. Resume

Make Your Resume a Tool for Getting a Job Interview

There is a lot of controversy and debate about whether a resume is necessary, or whether it is a sheer waste of time. Many employment consultants, particularly in this country, will tell you that employers are just likely to provide you with a standard application form where the necessary facts are to be included and all your efforts to create a resume will be wasted. It is true that for a variety of routine or low-paying jobs, resumes are not needed. Thus, if you are applying for a temporary waitressing position during the summertime, you will probably need no fancy resume, and the job will be yours with no extra formalities. But if you are a career-minded individual exploring various opportunities in the area of administration or teaching, a resume will undoubtedly improve your chances of getting the job you want. Most of the companies placing a job ad in the newspaper will never invite you for an interview before they have seen your resume. But even if a resume was not specifically requested, be sure you have one in your folder when going to a job interview, no

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matter what position you would like to get, and leave it with your potential employer no that he may consider you as a candidate later, even if a job was not offered to you mmediately.

Types of resumes. You have probably heard that the word "resume" is an American '.ariant for the British '"curriculum vitae" or "CV". However, Americans also use the name CV for resumes which are compiled by individuals in academic fields, as well.is in the professions of law, medicine and the sciences. Such a CV may feature the scholarly background of a professional, together with universities attended, degrees earned, professional positions and published works. If you apply for an academic position, your CV should also include the record of your academic achievements: all:he details about your educational qualifications, grades, and areas of research in which you specialized. Thus, it might be a good idea to mention the topic of your course and graduation project, together with the grade you earned for them.

By contrast the word "resume" is more often used internationally by people applying for managerial and executive positions. The most traditional resume is a chronological resume in which work experience and educational background highlights are listed either in chronological or reverse chronological order in a sequential fashion year-by-year. For a candidate with work experience in one line of work, with no big time-gaps between different jobs this type of resume is probably the most appropriate.

A functional resume gives emphasis to general work skills, without specifying the dates and all the places of work. This type is recommended for those people who have miscellaneous jobs and skills, have been self-employed for a long time, or enter the work market after a long time-gap. The choice of the type of resume depends on many things such as job objectives,and educational and professional background. All this proves that there is no such thing as a model resume to copy: you can learn the basic rules, but it's up to you to learn to sell yourself on paper.

The structure of a resume. As you may already know, a traditional resume most often includes such sections as professional background, education and personal background or details. Some employment consultants recommend including a line for "career objective" at the top of your resume; others argue that if you indicate your career objective, you might reduce your chances of being viewed for a different position in the same company. It makes sense to indicate your career objective when you send your resume to an employment agency, just to facilitate the search process for the recruiters, but it is not necessary to emphasize it when you send your resume with a letter of application in response to a specific help-wanted ad. Two other small sections that can be included are "hobbies" or "interests", which can show your personality in a better light, and "references" where you can just mention "references on hand" or "references available on request", indicating that you can provide them at a job interview.

Obviously it is not the number of sections, but their contents which causes a lot of difficulties even for an experienced resume writer. The question is: what is to be put in and what is to be left out? A conscientious resume writer will laboriously try to include even,' subject that was studied at school and every little job that he ever

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performed. However, we must never forget that personnel officers are inundated with resumes, and what they appreciate is brevity and conciseness. Even a top executive with a lot of work experience cannot be allowed more than a two page resume, to say nothing of a young graduate, whose limit is a page. If you have tried your hand at various jobs in different companies, don't just list previous jobs with lots of difficult company names (which are very often incomprehensible for your potential employer), but give the information about what you did in this company, together with the evidence that you were able to develop certain skills. For example, if you worked as a teacher of English, you should specify the aspect of the language you taught, the level of your audience, your familiarity with certain teaching aids, etc.:

—   teacher of English to preschoolers, familiar with modern
communicative methods of teaching.

If you worked as a PA, you can specify what you did and what skills you developed as in:

—   PA to General Manager responsible for:

• Business correspondence,

• Customer service,

• Arranging meetings and presentations.

The second criterion to be used in selecting relevant information for your resume is the requirements of your potential job. Experts will tell you that every effective resume is to be tailored to the needs of the job: you should stress that you have the skills they require, such as communication, organizing paperwork, course design and others.

Another area for conflicting opinions about the anatomy of a resume is the personal section. Especially in the U.S., with its strong movement against different kinds of discrimination, applicants are not recommended to include information about marital status and age. At the same time it is quite clear that most of the hiring decisions are not made on an age-blind basis: your age will show anyway from your year of graduation. It is very important to concentrate on the skills that you have, such as language skills and computer skills, which can be a very useful asset in your job search.

Presentation. You may be surprised at the number of mistakes people make in their resumes: you may come across a resume in which an applicant claims to have excellent typing skills, but makes a spelling mistake in her own name. Poor computer skills manifest themselves in badly laid-out resumes with no margins and a poor structure. A resume should be easy on the eye — use bold type for headings and bullet points for noteworthy achievements. The text should be arranged into thought groups or blocks under each heading so that your potential employer need not spend hours trying to decipher it. A good resume is easy to skim: unless you want yours to go into the wastepaper basket keep it short and neatly laid out!

Do not resort to any gimmicks to make your resume stand out of the crowd: plain white A4 paper with neat laser printing is best for your goal. Remember, there is no such thing as a standard resume; your creativity and common sense are your basic assets!

Inu

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E.Galkina demonstrated excellent abilities in English. She was a diligent, hard­working and creative student who always excelled in all the tasks and exercises. She combined her studies at the University with the career of a high-school teacher and managed to do it very successfully.

E.Galkina is a highly intelligent young professional, and a fast learner who is always ready to develop and grow. Her teaching abilities are also excellent as she can teach English to different age groups in different settings. She also has a pleasing personality which combines tact and modesty with strong motivation and perseverance.

In the future I can see E.Galkina in any people-oriented job which can give her an opportunity of self-fulfillment.

Professor (Name)

Moscow State Pedagogical University.

Home phone:...

E-mail:...

Section 3. How to Make the Most of a Job Interview

If you've done your paperwork right, managed to arouse an employer's interest and landed a job interview, your real work is just beginning. It's one thing to impress somebody on paper or over the telephone, but it's another thing to impress in the flesh. A job interview is a business appointment in which everything counts in conveying a good impression. Experts will tell you that advance preparation is the key to interview success.

Before the interview. Before you go to a job interview, find out all you can about the company. This used to be a very difficult job at the beginning of perestroika, but at present there is much more publicity about the operations of different companies. Most of them will have the company's profile on-line, and publish brochures and company reports. If you have gotten the interview through a recruitment agency or through your network, don't hesitate to ask for information about the company. If you cannot get as much information as you want, it makes sense to locate the company's premises beforehand, so go by and look at the way the office and the staff and customers look. Many young graduates, especially if they are applying for several jobs, use a one-size-fits-ali approach because they don't realize that companies are more different than they might think. If you apply for a job at an educational establishment, it may be even easier to do the research by going inside and talking to the students and staff.

Depending on the results of your research, you are supposed to prepare an interview outfit that will make you look your very best. In most places you are not expected to wear a Chanel suit, but even if you are fresh from school don't think that your favorite blue jeans, an oversized sweater and screen-printed T-shirt will be right for projecting a businesslike image. Things like that are out of sync in a business office. If you want to teach, dressing more conservatively will help you make the leap from a student to a teacher, and you will be taken more seriously as a prospective

 

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candidate for whatever position you apply. At any age, a well-fitted suit or coordinated skirt and blouse with matching accessories for females can make them look and feel more self-confident.

For some reason, Russian young people tend to favor black and wear it in any situation. Of course, nobody expects you to look like an open beach umbrella, but it is very hard to look memorable in monochrome, and black is not the most cheerful color for a business interview.

Russian women are notorious for wearing a lot of jewelry which is considered to be a status symbol. Even if you don't feel fully dressed without it, leave yards of golden chains, jumbo-sized rings and your collection of bracelets at home: less is best! Aggressive scent that you may wear for a job interview can become more aggressive in a closed space, and give your interviewer a headache. Exercise moderation in your choices!

It is much easier to change your clothes than to change your appearance altogether, and appearance does count: we all know that a good appearance engenders a feeling of self-confidence and well-being. There is one thing that we all can afford, and that is proper care in personal hygiene, which will give us a fresh, clean feeling. We can easily spoil the effect of an exemplary appearance if our dai!\ routine does not include a shower, a change of underwear and the use of deodorant and mouthwash. A woman's hands are regarded as a symbol of femininity. To look attractive, hands must be perfectly clean, fingernails well-manicured, but never of Dragon-lady length to interfere with efficient typing and other office routines. If you are a female endowed with a beautiful head of hair which you like to wear loose, you will do better if you put it up in a bun — at least for the interview. Don't go hard on the make-up: at a close range, heavily applied make-up looks hard. After all you don't want to look like a mannequin come to life!

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