What to look for?

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 490.

Part 1

II. READING

I. PRE-READING

TO WORK

UNIT 1. HOW TO FIND A GREAT PLACE

Part 1

Answer the following questions:

1. Your friends are looking for a job. What strategies can you suggest?

2. Have you ever looked for a job? What were your steps in landing a job offer?

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

To join a company

To earn big bucks

Steady promotion

To be laid off

To research employers

High growth rates

Low employee turnover

To land a job offer

To take the passive route

Job-search specialists

A library-intensive research effort

To identify fast growing companies

A strong competitive advantage

Strong starting salaries

A real energetic environment

Job security and growth rate

v Cultural notes

GPA - grade point average, a measure of scholastic attainment computed
by dividing the total number of grade points received by the total number of credits taken.

Internship - a period of serving as an intern, i.e. someone (a student or a recent graduate) working as an apprentice or trainee to gain experience in an occupation.

Major - a field of study in which a student specializes.

Minor - a subject or course of study pursued secondarily to a major subject or course.

To interview on campus - to question and evaluate a person for a job on the college or university grounds.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

Bet you'd like to join a company where you can earn big bucks, lots of responsibility and steady promotions without the threat of being laid offin a year. That was John Dittig's goal as he neared graduation from the University of South Florida in Tampa. So during his final semester, he spent hours researching potential employers.

"I looked at about 100 company profiles on CD-ROM at the library, and selected those in the area that had high growth rates, low turnover and not a lot of competition," he says. Based on those criteria, one company jumped off the screen: Tech Data Corp., a wholesale distributor of PCs, printers and software based in Clearwater.

"I had a good GPA and two internships, and I guess because I interview well, I landed 10 job offers," says Dittig, a marketing major who graduated in '94. But none of those companies held the appeal of Tech Data, so he launched a full-court press to join his first choice.

Before interviewing with Tech Data's marketing director, Dittig wrote up a 40-page analysis of the company, focusing on its strengths, on its weaknesses, opportunities and threats. "The director was very impressed, and so was I, since my research didn't turn up many weaknesses."

Landing a job at a great company is every new grad's dream. But making it a reality seems to stump most student job hunters. They take the passive route of responding to only those companies that post positions or interview on campus. Yet according to job-search specialists, you can earn offers from the nation's fastest-growing, most attractive employers by researching them thoroughly, then preparing thoughtfully for interviews.

"Your goal is to find companies doing something very well that people want to pay for," says Jack Plunkett, president of Plunkett Research Ltd. in Galveston, Texas. "But that requires a library-intensive research effort, which few students are willing to do."

Identifying fast-growth companies is Mr. Plunkett's forte. He relies on several key criteria, including a consistent history of sales growth and a strong competitive advantage. When asked by the journal Managing Your Career to cite the nation's 25 best companies for new college graduates, he added low employee turnover, financial stability and strong starting salaries and benefits as factors to create the adjacent list. In it you'll find a wide range of promising employers nationwide, including Tech Data.

"As soon as I walked in the door here, I could feel it was a real energetic, dynamic environment," says Dittig, now a product manager. "And while the compensation and benefits were good, the job security and growth rate were even more important.”

v Comprehension check

o Answer the following questions using information from the article to support your ideas. Remember to use the article vocabulary to the maximum:

1. What is your idea of a great company? List all possible criteria which you may rely on when choosing a place to work.

2. Which research strategies are applicable in our country, which are not? Why?

3. What can stump most student job hunters?