Episode 0244

Hello everyone and welcome to EnglishPod. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we have a new lesson in our series about interviewing for a new job. This is of course at the elementary level.

That's right. So this is part four of our interview series. Remember we are taking a look each week at giving you tips and also the proper language for when you have an interview in English and on this occasion we're going to talk about our work experience.

Okay, you remember we talked a little bit about educational experience and educational background. Well, today is all about your last couple of jobs.

Mhm. All right, so I think we should just listen to the dialogue for the first time and we'll be back in a bit with language takeaway.

Right, Rebecca. Now I see that after graduating from university, your first job was...

for a local paper in York, called The York Herald.

Actually, I started with them as an intern. I was really keen on getting some experience in journalism and this seemed like a good first step.

Certainly.

And after your internship?

They seemed impressed and offered me a position as a junior local news reporter.

I ended up staying two years there actually.

I was in charge of the sports news section of the newspaper.

Yes, I see. But you decided to leave them in 2006, right?

Yes, that's right. My husband and I moved to London and so I managed to find a position with a national newspaper based in London.

To London Weekly, right?

Yes. In some ways, it was a step down from my previous job, but it did offer me much better prospects for the future.

All right, we're back so now we've picked out a couple of key words and we're going to take a look at those now on language takeaway.

So, Marco, a lot of people don't start out as a professional with a job. They have something else first. What is this?

That's right, a very popular way to begin your work experience, you become an intern or you work as an intern.

Okay, so the name of the job we could say is intern. I'm an intern or he's an intern at my company.

Exactly. So usually interns work at a company. Uh usually they're not paid and uh or if they are, it's a very, very little pay. And the purpose of an internship or to work as an intern is to gain experience.

That's right. So it's basically like a study opportunity for a job that you know you want.

I could be an intern at a media company and I could learn all about media, but it's not really a full job.

Exactly. And usually it it serves as an opportunity to maybe continue working at that company in a full-time job.

So you become an intern and the noun or what you are doing is called an internship.

So I'm an intern, but what I have is an internship.

Right. It's like saying I have a job. I have an internship, but I am an intern.

Exactly.

All right, so we've covered those two words now. Let's move on to when she's describing her work experience in The York Herald.

and she described it as a very good first step.

Okay, so a first step, you think about your foot, your step, you're moving, it means the very first thing you do when you're heading in some direction.

Right, and professionally, I guess your first steps are maybe becoming an intern.

Right, or you could say my first step was working in the mailroom at this big movie studio, but later I became, you know, famous movie producer.

Exactly. So, uh that's kind of like uh the way that you begin your professional life.

And uh well, then they started talking about the newspapers and actually Rebecca was offered a position as a junior local news reporter.

Okay, so junior means usually lower ranking or not um not experienced.

Someone who is just starting out, and of course, after junior, we have senior. So a senior news reporter is someone who's worked for many, many years as a reporter.

Mhm. Usually, I guess a junior news reporter would make make less money than a senior news reporter.

Exactly. You could also say junior executive or senior executive.

Junior manager.

These are ways of describing length of experience.

And in this case, she's junior, but what kind of uh job does she have? Well, she is a news reporter for local issues.

Okay, so she's a local news reporter. Now what exactly does that mean if you're a local news reporter or for local issues?

Well, if I live in Chicago and I'm a local news reporter, I only write or report the news about Chicago.

It's it's a way of describing the things in my area.

So it's the opposite of our next phrase, national news reporter.

Okay, so if you are a national news reporter or a national manager of maybe a company, then that means that you oversee things in the whole country.

That's right. So local is my city or my county, but in the case of national, we're talking about the whole country, nation, national.

So national is an adjective, but we could even go further than this. What if I am a reporter and I talk about foreign countries, I talk about France and South Africa and even Iceland.

Then I guess you would be an international news reporter.

Exactly. And I guess also at the executive level you can have an international marketing manager, right?

That's right. International marketing manager, national marketing manager. These are very important ways to divide work to say he is the international manager. Here's the the national manager. This tells you the the kind of the size of this person's job.

Exactly.

Okay. So now more or less you know how these jobs can be divided, junior, senior, national, local, etcetera.

So, um, I think we should go back to the dialogue. Let's listen to this dialogue again and uh we'll be back in a bit.

Right, Rebecca. Now I see that after graduating from university, your first job was...

for a local paper in York, called The York Herald.

Actually, I started with them as an intern. I was really keen on getting some experience in journalism and this seemed like a good first step.

Certainly.

And after your internship?

They seemed impressed and offered me a position as a junior local news reporter.

I ended up staying two years there actually.

I was in charge of the sports news section of the newspaper.

Yes, I see. But you decided to leave them in 2006, right?

Yes, that's right. My husband and I moved to London and so I managed to find a position with a national newspaper based in London.

To London Weekly, right?

Yes. In some ways, it was a step down from my previous job, but it did offer me much better prospects for the future.

All right, so now let's start with a couple of phrases and phrasal verbs on fluency builder.

Okay, in today's dialogue we heard a lot of really wonderful phrases, Marco. Some of them are ways of making your experiences sound better, more professional even.

Uh for example, this first one, sorry, Rebecca's talking about her first job in York and she says I was in charge of the sports news section.

In charge of. So that phrase, I was in charge of or to be in charge of, what does this describe?

This describes responsibility.

Basically, she's saying I was responsible for or I had to manage the sports news section. She's taking credit for this this job that was important.

Okay, so this is a key phrase because this is the typical phrase that you use to describe your responsibilities or to describe what you did in your previous job position or your previous job.

So right, I could ask you, when you were in marketing, what were you in charge of?

Right, and then you say, well, I was in charge of and then you explain your responsibilities or what you did.

I was in charge of our national accounts or I was in charge of the local news.

Exactly. So this is a very simple phrase, just remember it, I was in charge of and then you can start explaining what were your responsibilities, what you did in your previous job.

Mhm. All right, moving on now towards the end of that paragraph, uh Rebecca says that, well, being in charge of the sports news section was really fun and it really helped her build my skills, it really helped me build my skills.

So to build your skills, or in this case, I build my skills, uh means that I, um, I have some skills, but maybe they're not really developed. Maybe, you know, I just finished college. I want more experience.

Well, in that time during my first job, I built my skills.

Um, I become better at writing or making, having interviews, things like that.

Exactly. So when you build your skills, you kind of improve your abilities or you gain more experience.

Mhm.

All right. And another interesting phrase coming up here when Rebecca talked about moving to London with her husband, she said, I managed to find a position with a national newspaper.

Okay. So I managed to or you could say to manage to do something.

Uh this is a really interesting phrase because it's another way of saying to be able to or um to succeed at something.

Okay, so don't confuse it with uh manager or to manage people. That is also correct to obviously it exists, but to manage to do something is to, as you said, to be able to do something.

Right. So for example, um I was running really late yesterday and I had a ticket for a train at five o'clock. I thought I would miss the train, but I managed to get to the train on time. That means I was able to get on the train on time.

Exactly. Okay, so you managed to find a job, I managed to get to the train on time, I was able to.

Mhm. All right. And towards the end, Rebecca talked about her job at the London Weekly and she described it as a step down from my previous job.

Okay, is this a good thing or a bad thing, Marco?

Uh to be a step down in something is a bad thing. It's to reduce in level or to decrease.

Okay, so basically she's saying, listen, I had this really great job in York and I took a new job in London and the new job it it wasn't as good in many ways.

Because maybe she had um less responsibility or maybe it paid less.

So this is a way of saying it wasn't as good as my last job.

Okay, so her new job was a step down from her previous job.

You could say I think his new girlfriend's a bit of a step down, if you know what I mean.

Exactly. So usually you're comparing, right? You're you're making a comparison between something from the past to now.

Exactly. Mhm.

Okay, so a step down.

Why don't we go back and listen to the dialogue for the very last time and we'll be back to talk to you in a bit.

Right, Rebecca. Now I see that after graduating from university, your first job was...

for a local paper in York, called The York Herald.

Actually, I started with them as an intern. I was really keen on getting some experience in journalism and this seemed like a good first step.

Certainly.

And after your internship?

They seemed impressed and offered me a position as a junior local news reporter.

I ended up staying two years there actually.

I was in charge of the sports news section of the newspaper.

Yes, I see. But you decided to leave them in 2006, right?

Yes, that's right. My husband and I moved to London and so I managed to find a position with a national newspaper based in London.

To London Weekly, right?

Yes. In some ways, it was a step down from my previous job, but it did offer me much better prospects for the future.

All right, so talking about internships and interns, it seems that usually they they get uh it's not very exciting to become an intern because it ends up that the office people just make you, you know, make coffee or uh or copies and stuff like that. You're not really gaining much work experience.

That is the reputation in the United States for internships. So basically when you agree to do an internship, sometimes you have to apply to do an internship. It's a very long process.

Um you end up, like you say, making coffee for people or photocopying reports and this is really boring work.

Right. I think yeah, that that is the reputation that many places have uh like you say in the United States, but also uh I don't know, I guess it it does seem in a way the only opportunity in order to be able to get into an industry or a company. Maybe it's a really good company like I don't know, like uh like Procter and Gamble.

Mhm.

And uh how else are you going to be able to get in there with no job experience?

Well, that's right. And a lot of people know that an internship doesn't really give you work experience, but they'd still give it, um, they still think that it it gives you some edge or some advantage when you're looking for jobs later.

Because if I write down on my my resume, we were talking earlier about resumes, if I write down on my resume that I was an intern at Proctor and Gamble, wow, that's really impressive.

Right, it looks good.

Mhm. All right, so this is an interesting topic. Let us know if you were ever an intern. Maybe you started out as an internship or maybe you're doing one now.

Was it better than we say? Did you do anything else other than making coffee? We really hope so and uh we we look forward to hearing about your experiences.

All right, we'll see everyone at EnglishPod.com and uh until next time. Bye.

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Turned out or result in.

End up.

Be responsible for.

In charge of.

Be able to.

Manage to.

A decrease or reduction in size or amount.

Step down.

A mental picture of something to come.

Prospect.

Let's try that faster.

Be responsible for.

In charge of.

A mental picture of something to come.

Prospect.

Turned out or result in.

End up.

Be able to.

Manage to.

A decrease or reduction in size or amount.

Step down.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

End up.

If you don't start driving more carefully, you're going to end up in an accident.

End up.

We had meetings with several different suppliers, and we ended up choosing Acme because of their excellent customer service.

End up.

Which country do you think will end up winning the FIFA World Cup 2010?

In charge of.

This is Elizabeth. She's in charge of our Chilean customer accounts.

In charge of.

Annie, we would like to put you in charge of this project.

In charge of.

Roberta has been in charge of the sales department for three years now.

Manage to.

It was difficult to keep a straight face, but I managed not to laugh.

Manage to.

I have so many things to do this week. I don't know how I'll manage to get through them all.

Manage to.

It's almost impossible to get weekend tickets to the Shanghai World Expo now, but Ben managed to get a pair.

Step down.

After the scandal hit the news, Mr. Williams decided to step down as mayor.

Step down.

Going from corporate CFO to working at a startup may seem like a step down to some, but Jackie is excited about the change.

Step down.

Bill Gates stepped down as CEO of Microsoft in 2000 to devote more time to creating software.

Prospect.

The prospect of living and working abroad is very appealing.

Prospect.

Your son has been accepted to four different universities. Wow, he has so many prospects open to him.

Prospect.

It's true, Q3 was rough, but I think our prospects look very good for the rest of the year.