Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast
number 44. You're listening to English as a Second
Language podcast number 44. I'm Dr. Jeff McQuillen
from the Center for Educational Development.
in Los Angeles, California. For more information
about this podcast, visit our website at www
.eslpod .com Today's topic is going to be about
preparing for an interview. Lucy is going to
tell us about her experiences in preparing for
an interview. Let's get started. My interview
is today. It is with a marketing company. It
is a large corporation with headquarters in San
Francisco, California. It also has satellite
offices across the US and in Europe. I'm not
sure if this would be the right fit for me, but
I'm keeping an open mind. I got some sound advice
from my aunt. She said that I should be confident,
but not cocky. That means I have to look for
opportunities to talk about my qualifications.
But don't make the mistake of boasting or worse,
making things up. I do that sometimes when I
get really nervous. My brain stops working and
my mouth takes over. I need to be respectful
but not meek. I want to be professional with
everyone, my coworkers and my bosses. But I don't
want them to think that I would let my coworkers
walk all over me. I should show them that I'm
a team player. Nobody likes a person who tries
to grab the limelight all of the time, especially
if they're new, like me. Okay, I think I'm ready.
I have my resume, my transcript, and the address
of the office where I'm going for the interview.
Now, all I need are my shoes. Lucy talked today
about how to prepare for an interview. She began
or started off. To start off means the same as
to begin. Lucy started off by talking about how
she was interviewing with a large corporation
with its headquarters in San Francisco. A corporation,
as you probably know, is the same as a company,
although we often use it to mean a very large
company. Microsoft and Apple are large corporations.
Headquarters refers to the place where the company
or any organization has its main offices or its
biggest office. For example, the headquarters
of General Motors automobile company is in Detroit,
Michigan. The headquarters of the United Nations
is in New York City. Usually when we talk about
a company's headquarters we are implying or indicating
that they have smaller offices in other cities.
These smaller offices are sometimes called satellite
offices. Now the word satellite is also the term
we use to describe what we put up in space. For
example, A weather satellite takes pictures of
the earth. Lucy explains that she's not sure
if the job she is interviewing for is the right
fit for her. But she's keeping an open mind.
When something is the right fit, it means that
It's a good match for the person. The verb to
fit is also used when we try on a piece of clothing,
a shirt for example. And it's related to this
expression of right fit. If something is a good
fit, we mean it isn't too big and it isn't too
small. Notice the difference here. When we are
talking about clothing, we say, a good fit. And
when we are talking about a situation or something
like a job, we say, the right fit. To keep an
open mind means not to make up your mind, not
to decide, to leave all your possibilities available.
The opposite of an open mind is a closed mind,
which is used to describe someone who doesn't
like new ideas or has already decided. or made
up his mind. Usually, to say someone has an open
mind or keeps an open mind is a good thing and
closed mind has a negative meaning. Lucy also
says she got some sound advice from her aunt.
Sound advice is good advice when someone gives
you their opinion that is useful and wise or
intelligent. One thing her aunt told her was
not to be too cocky. Someone who is cocky is
someone who is too confident, who thinks he's
better than everyone else. Someone who is cocky
likes to boast, which means to tell other people
how good he or she is. It's another negative
term to describe someone. He's cocky or she's
cocky. I guess we have a lot of negative terms
in today's podcast. Oh well. The opposite of
cocky would be meek. M -e -e -k. Meek. To be
meek means that you're not confident enough that
you are too modest about what you've done. Lucy
was told that she shouldn't make things up. To
make things up is a polite or nice way of saying
to lie, to not tell the truth. We sometimes use
this expression with Children, for example, don't
make things up. When people get in trouble, they
often make things up or lie. Lucy also says that
she wants to be a professional, but that she
doesn't want her coworkers to walk all over her.
Co -workers are, of course, people you work with.
A similar expression would be your fellow workers
or your fellow employees. When someone says,
it's my fellow worker or my fellow student, That
term fellow means someone who is also like you.
We use the expression to walk all over me. To
refer to a situation when a person doesn't defend
herself. When other people get to do whatever
they want. and the person doesn't stop them.
They walk all over her. They tell her what to
do. They don't listen to anything that she says.
It implies that a person is very meek, very weak
to walk all over someone. Lucy also says that
she wants to be a team player, not someone who
tries to grab the limelight all the time. To
be a team player means to cooperate or work well
with other people. It's a common expression in
American You are supposed to work with others
like you were players on a sports team. You are
supposed to cooperate with other people. To grab
the limelight means to capture or to get the
attention of other people. It is also a negative
term referring to someone who always tries to
be the focus of attention. That word limelight
refers to an old type of very strong light that
used to be used in theaters for plays. to light
up the stage. But we don't actually use limelights
anymore. But the expression is still with us.
Someone who tries to get attention. That's going
to do it for today's English as a Second Language
podcast. As always, we ask you to email us and
tell us who you are. and what country you are
from. Our email address is eslpod at eslpod .com.
From Los Angeles, California, this is Dr. Jeff
McQuillan. We'll see you next time on ESL Podcast.
ESL Podcast is produced by the Center for Educational
Development in Los Angeles, California. This
podcast is copyright 2005.