Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast
number 43. You're listening to English as a Second
Language podcast. The podcast that helps you
learn English every day. My name is Dr. Jeff
McQuillan coming to you from the Center for Educational
Development in Los Angeles, California. Visit
our website for more information on this podcast.
Our website is www .eslpod .com. Today's topic
is Getting a job interview Lucy is going to talk
about her job interview. Let's listen in I've
finally landed my first interview well Actually,
that's not really true I have been on many interviews
for part -time jobs. This is my first interview
for a full -time job. In less than two months,
I will graduate from Arizona University. After
a lot of back and forth, trying to decide on
a major, I finally decided to double major. I
would study both political science and marketing.
These are not majors that usually go together.
In fact, most people thought I was crazy. After
a lot of soul searching, I decided to combine
my two main interests. One, politics, and two,
getting a job. Those are my two priorities. I
thought that if I get degrees in these fields,
I could cast a wide net when going job hunting.
And that's what I'm trying to do now. Since I
don't know if I want to work in the public or
private sector, I've applied for jobs in both.
In the public sector, I could work for the government.
Maybe one day I could even be a speech writer
for the president. Okay, maybe I should shoot
a little lower. In the private sector, I could
work for private organizations such as museums,
schools, or programs. Some of those are non -profit.
Or I could work for a company. Everybody tells
me that that's where the money is. I haven't
decided yet. I'm planning to apply for a lot
of jobs, and we'll see what happens. What I want
now is just to get some job offers Then I can
start being picky Today Lucy talked to us about
her first interview She started by saying I've
finally landed my first interview. To land an
interview or to land a job means to get, to obtain
a job. We use that particular verb landed usually
when we are talking about a job or an interview
that is often difficult to get. She said that
she has had many interviews in the past for part
-time jobs but this was her first interview for
a full -time job. A part -time job is any job
that is less than usually 35 or 40 hours a week
in the United States. A full -time job is something
that is 40 hours or more. 40 hours is the typical
work week in the United States, Monday through
Friday, eight hours each. Anything less than
that in terms of hours is considered part -time
jobs. Lucy said that she will be graduating from
Arizona University in two months. And after a
lot of back and forth, trying to decide on a
major, she decided to double major. A couple
of expressions there. The first is back and forth.
When someone says, I went back and forth about
my decision, they mean they changed their minds.
They weren't quite sure. Should I wear a red
shirt or a blue shirt? I went back and forth,
meaning first I thought blue, then I thought
red, and later I decided on blue. So that is
going back and forth about a decision. A major,
you probably know, is a specialization at the
university. You can major in economics. You can
major in history. It's what you study for in
college or at the university. A double major
would of course be someone who has two specializations.
In this case, Lucy has a double major in political
science or the study of politics. government
and marketing marketing is selling goods and
services selling things to other people in order
to get them to buy it you have to market your
project your your product it includes advertising
for example is part of marketing In colleges
we have majors and we also have in the United
States minors. Minors is another type of specialization
but one that you receive less, take less classes
for. So you could major in political science
and minor in marketing. That means your degree
will be in political science with a minor in
marketing. It usually requires taking less classes
for a minor than for a major. Lucy said that
her two majors don't usually go together. To
go together here means that they're not usually
matched. They're not compatible. something that
goes together is something that matches or is
compatible for example a blue shirt and black
pants would go together but a red shirt and green
pants would not go together unless perhaps you
are Santa Claus I don't know anyway Another expression
that Lucy used was soul searching. She said after
a lot of soul searching she decided on her priorities.
Soul searching means thinking very seriously,
very deeply about your decision. It usually means
that a person had difficulty coming to or making
the decision. I did a lot of soul searching.
I thought about what was important for me, what
my values were, and so forth. A soul, of course,
S -O -U -L, is your sort of spirit, your life
spirit, in many religions. believe that humans
have souls. Lucy said that she was going to cast
a wide net when going job hunting. To cast a
wide net means here to look extensively, to look
a lot around in many different areas. If you
are casting a wide net for a new employee, you
would interview many, many possible candidates
or people who wanted the job. That would be casting
a wide net to look in many different places or
in many different areas. A net is what we use
to catch fish. It's made usually of rope. and
you put it in the water and it's of course many
holes in it and you pull the net up and if you're
lucky you have some fish inside the net. So to
cast a wide net is a fishing term meaning to
cast a net over a big area and here it means
to look in many different places. Job hunting
is the same as job looking or looking for a job
We use that particular verb to hunt To mean usually
people who are trying to Kill animals you hunt
an animal a deer or you can hunt certain birds
but here we're treating job as if it were type
of animal, so we say job hunting. It's a very
common expression in English in the United States.
Lucy mentioned that she wasn't sure if she wanted
to work in the public or private sector. A sector
is a area or part of the economy or of business.
The public sector means the government, the state
government, the federal government, the local
government. Those are all the public sector or
the public area of the economy. The other possibility
is the private sector. This is everything that's
not the government. Private businesses and organizations
and companies are all part of the private sector.
A sector can mean any part of the economy. We
also talk about, for example, the housing sector.
That means the people involved in selling, buying,
and building houses. You can use that term for
almost anything. The retail sector means stores
that are involved in selling things. Lucy went
on and said that she perhaps could become a speechwriter
for the president as the term implies Speech
writer is someone who writes speeches for someone
else The president usually doesn't write his
own speeches. He hires people to write them for
him That should be pretty obvious Lucy said that
she may not necessarily try to become a speechwriter,
that instead she would shoot a little lower.
Once again, that's something of a hunting term.
Maybe that says something about American English
and American psychology, that we have so many
expressions like that. In any case, To shoot
a little lower means to be less ambitious, to
look for something less important, not so high
in terms of this type of job. We can use that
expression for jobs. We can use that expression
for any goal or any objective that you have.
I wanted to come in first place the swimming
competition but I decided to shoot a little lower
and go for third place meaning I'm not going
to I'm going to make my goal something less one
of the places that Lucy said she might want to
work was museums schools or other programs and
that these are often non -profit. A non -profit
organization is an organization that doesn't
try to make money. It just tries to survive.
Hospitals, schools, churches, all of these are
non -profit organizations. And in the United
States, They receive special treatment or special
favors when it comes to paying taxes. ESL Podcast
is a non -profit venture, a non -profit organization.
Lucy also said that she was going to apply for
lot of jobs to apply for a job means to go fill
out an application or a piece of paper where
you tell the person what your experiences are
what your education is and so forth so we use
that expression for any kind of job to apply
for a job hopefully if you are successful you
get a job offer a job offer is sometimes called
an offer of employment it means that a company
or individual wants to hire you wants to make
you one of their employees so they send you a
letter or more likely call you on the telephone
and say we would like to offer you the job means
we want to give the job to you and the noun for
that is job offers Lucy ended by saying that
if she gets some job offers then she can be picky
picky p i c k y means to be very selective to
be very uh... to choose only the things that
you really want we can use we use this expression
picky often in a somewhat negative way for somebody
who for example only likes to eat certain kinds
of food and it has to be just right and if it
isn't perfect they complain we often say this
kind of person is picky meaning they're too selective
they only want certain things and can't accept
anything less than that. That is being picky.
Well, we won't be picky. We hope that all of
you who are listening will email us and tell
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Our email address is eslpod at eslpod .com For
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for our podcast and we hope that you enjoy it.
My name is Jeff McQuillen. That's going to do
it for today from the Center for Educational
Development in Los Angeles. We'll see you next
time on ESL Podcast. 2005.