III. AFTER READING

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 505.

Part 3

Part 2

Part 1

II. READING

I. PRE-READING

UNIT 2. TAKE A YEAR OFF

o Answer the following questions:

1. Do you know what career to pursue? What factors determine your future career choice?

2. Have you thought over different options? Would you like to spend a year after graduation researching various options, trying your hand at something not in your line?

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

To pursue career

To lack experience

To seek a position

To land a job

To be on the path to a successful career

To be intellectually unrewarding

To hang out with someone

A stimulating profession and environment

The time off from school

To focus on one's career goals

To make a conscious career choice

To commit to a career path

To take a year off

To assess one's interests and talents

Long-term career decisions

To have a direction

To concentrate on adding to one's life experience

A sabbatical

To boost one's self-confidence

To be handicapped by a lack of focus and direction

Hands-on experience

An unlikely career move

v Cultural notes

Graduate school – a school, usually a division at university, offering courses leading to degrees more advanced than the bachelor's degree.

Graduate work – work, involved in academic study beyond the first or bachelor's degree.

Liberal arts[1] - academic college courses providing general knowledge and comprising the arts, humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

When Sarah Mackey graduated from the University of the South in Sewanee, Tenn., with an English degree, she wasn't sure what career topursue. She knew graduate work was in her future, but she was torn between becoming a chef or a lawyer. Since her parents are attorneys, Mackey was more familiar with the practice of law than with professional cooking. But she wanted to choose a career because it was right for her, not because of her parents' influence. So she postponed the decision, and gave herself a year to experiment in the culinary arts.

Although she lacked experience, Mackey sought a position with the better restaurants in her hometown of Little Hock, Ark. After mailing letters and offering to cook dinner for the owners as part of the interview process, she landed a good job with a chef fairly rapidly. From there, she progressed to desserts - and was clearly on the path to a successful culinary career.

There was a problem, though: Mackey found working l2-hour days in the kitchen physically grueling and intellectually unrewarding. While she respected and admired her co-workers, she couldn't imagine spending the rest of her life hanging out with them. Once she realized she needed a more stimulating profession and environment, the decision to attend law school became easy.

After studying law at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville and becoming an associate with a large firm, Mackey says the time off from school made her more practical and helped her focus on her career goals. The same is true for a friend of Mackey's who entered law school after a year working as an engineer. She's glad she made a conscious career choice, instead of just defaulting into graduate school.

If you aren't ready to commit to a career path, consider taking a year off to learn more about yourself and where you fit in the workplace. But make sure that your time off works for you by taking the following steps:

Assess your interests and talents. What do you like to do and are really good at? Many new graduates don't know enough of themselves or the business world to make long-term career decisions, says Neil Hull, president of the Center for Interim Programs in Boston.

"Students are expected to have a direction when they graduate. But many people are really clueless." he says. "They don't need a 'track'; they need to experiment with their options.”

To gain self-knowledge, structure your first-year activities around specific fields that intrigue you and concentrate on adding to you life experience. One driven young woman volunteered on a dairy farm in Illinois, interned with deaf children in Connecticut, participated in a three-month outdoor program in Africa and volunteered in an orphanage in Nepal during her year off, says Bull, who specializes in planning such sabbaticals.

Experiences like that can teach you wonderful things about yourself, boost your self-confidence and enlarge your capacity to appreciate people from other cultures. In a workplace characterized by diversity and instability, such insight can bring immeasurable benefits.

Explore new ways to get work experience. A lack of job experience hampers many new graduates' career pursuits, says Ann Rudolf, coordinator of the School-to-Work Transition program at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. Liberal-arts majors especially may be handicapped by a lack of focus and direction, since they're often unsure how to translate their degrees into practical career choices.

To avoid this problem, take advantage of internship, apprenticeship, co-op and part-time job opportunities while you're a student, Rudolf advises. However, it isn't too late to seek out and participate in such programs after graduation.

Consider a 40-year-old who took courses at DePaul University to facilitate an unlikely career move from financial services to arts administration. Even though she had worked for years, the student still needed hands-on experience in her new field. Through library research, she learned about an internship at a Chicago museum. Although she was the oldest applicant and wasn't a full-time student, museum officials appreciated her maturity and determination and accepted her into the program.

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 are your options if you are not ready to commit to a career path?

2. What is necessary to make long-term career decisions?

3. What factors may hamper many new graduates' career prospects?

4. What should you learn about yourself and how can you do it?

o Explain what is meant by:

To have a direction

Experiment with one's options

Workplace characterized by diversity and instability

To translate one's degree into practical career choice

Internship

Apprenticeship

Co-op

Unlikely career move

o Translate in written the paragraph beginning from “To gain self-knowledge…” up to “…such insight can bring immeasurable benefits”.

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

To globe trot

To prevent somebody from making a premature commitment to a career

To hunger for adventure

To lose one's perspective

To increase one's marketability

To have a flaw

To give a distinct employment advantage

To goof off

To send a positive message

To hit the ground running

A front-runner candidate

To gain experience and exposure to a variety of employers

To get on track

Fruitless job hunting

To land a position

To market one's skills

Interpersonal skills

v Cultural note

Double major – two fields of study in which a student specializes, e.g. finance and art history.

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

If graduation is upon you and you still don't know what you want to be when you grow up, don't despair. It may take time and experimentation to figure it out. Try to enjoy the journey.

Give yourself permission to globe trot. A year of travel can provide a unique opportunity to assess your goals and prevent you from making a premature commitment to a career that isn't really right for you.

If you're hungering for adventure, don't be afraid to move around and see the world. Open your eyes to new places, people and experiences, but don't lose your perspective. You want to learn things that will increase your marketability while you're having fun. Kristy French, a graduate of Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., knew a year abroad would help her grow. So she made plans to teach in Santiago, Chile, where she had college friends she could live with. But once French got there, she discovered that her well-planned journey had a flaw. Although she was an English major who was also fluent in Spanish, she couldn't make a living teaching English as a second language.

Instead of coming home disillusioned, she sought out other jobs and landed a one year contract position doing public relations and sales support for a Chilean company. When she returns to the U.S., her combined sales, public relations and international experience should give her a distinct employment advantage.

As you travel, focus on building skills that will enable you to work doing what you really want to do, advises Rudolf, a former university relations director for Sun Microsystems Inc. in Mountain View, Calif.

"It's not acceptable to say 'I was tired and wanted to goof off for a year.' You have to send a positive message about what you did with that time," she says. "At Sun, we wanted people who could hit the ground running. Anyone who took the time to get some practical work experience would definitely be a front-runner candidate. It doesn't matter whether that experience is gained in school or the year after graduation... or isn't even directly related to your field."

When Rudolf's son Mark was unsure how to put his Spanish and Portuguese double major to work, he experimented with temporary secretarial assignments to gain experience and exposure to a variety of employers. The College of William and Mary graduate realized it might take a while to figure out what he wanted to do and get on track. Today, he works in sales support for the international division of a major computer company, where he regularly converses in Spanish with customers.

Mix business with pleasure. After six months of fruitless job hunting, a graduate of the Thunderbird School of International Management in Glendale, Ariz., decided to change his approach. An avid skier, he became a ski instructor in Colorado and used his foreign-language skills to help students from around the world master the slopes.

The year off did him good. He returned to his job search with greater energy, confidence and focus and found employers were more receptive to his experience than he'd expected. He soon landed a position in international sales in Chicago.

While some new graduates worry that a transition year will put them behind schedule, their fears usually are unfounded. A career isn't a race to the finish line. Taking time to expand your experience, explore your options and discover your passions can only work to your advantage.

Market your skills wisely. Whether employers approve of your year off depends on how you position it. The ski instructor can argue that his skiing interest demonstrates his ambition and competitiveness, while his teaching proves he has good communication and interpersonal skills and the ability to work independently. These characteristics are valued highly in today's job market.

''It's all a matter of perception," says Ann Rudolf. "The real key is to learn how to market your experience. If you can find a way to sell it, employers will buy it.”

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 should you do to be a front-runner candidate?

2. Is it possible for you to mix business with pleasure? Explain your answer.

3. What qualities are highly valued in today's job market?

o Explain what is meant by:

To globe trot

To lose perspective

To improve one's marketability

Distinct employment advantage

To send a positive message

To gain exposure to a variety of employers

A career isn't a race to the finish line

To market one's skills and experience

v Active vocabulary

o Study the following vocabulary items and collocations:

A transition year

To review something in terms of …

Newfound experience

To translate one's experience into line items on the resume

To deviate from some proverbial “fast-track” career path

To step out of the mold

To garner job offers

To try one's hand at something

Start date

To head for

To get the acting bug out of one's system

To settle into a traditional business career

A stint

To generate interest

Fallback skills

o Read the text. Do the comprehension check below:

When your transition year is complete, assess thoughtfully where you've been and what you've learned, both about yourself and the job market. Start by reviewing your time off in terms of your newly acquired skills and accomplishments. What can you do now that you couldn't before you started? Which employers might be interested in your newfound experience? Don't underestimate the ''softer skills" you developed, such as new attitudes and character traits. Most employers prefer candidates who are willing to learn and experiment and aren't afraid to talk to people.

Next, translate your experience into line items on your resume. The ski instructor, for example, listed his ‘Employee-of-the-Month' award for outstanding customer service. Even if your year off was primarily for rest and relaxation, you can sell interviewers on the fact that you're now eager to start your career with their company. Every employer wants to hire people who will work enthusiastically. Once you're ready to begin, it doesn't matter if you deviated from some proverbial "fast-track" career path before.

"I think it's vital for [new graduates] to give themselves permission to step out of the mold," says Neil Bull in Boston.

Of course, leaving the mold involves some danger, as one ambitious young business student learned. After graduating from the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, he had no trouble garnering job offers. But what he really wanted to do was try his hand at acting.

After convincing the management-consulting firm that hired him to postpone his start date for six months, he packed his bags and headed for Los Angeles. He believed that if he could finally get the acting bug out of his system, he could settle comfortably and happily into a traditional business career.

Instead, he discovered that six months wasn't enough time to build a Hollywood career. But during that stint, he generated enough interest to convince himself that he did, indeed, have a chance to make it as an actor. Although he returned to the management-consulting firm, he hasn't lost or forgotten his interest in acting. In fact, he's looking forward to taking a whole year off to try his hand in Hollywood again. And if he doesn't make it, he knows he has a great set of fallback skills he can use to support himself.

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. How can you assess whether your year off was successful or not?

2. What does the expression “to step out of the mold” mean? Have you or your acquaintances happened to try this? Describe the circumstances.

3. What your fallback skills can be of help in case you do not make it in your field?

v Make up sentences using the following phrases. Mind the article vocabulary:

To market one's experience

To be on the path to a successful career

A conscious career choice

To have a direction

To make a living

v Write out all the pieces of advice given in the article and answer all the questions. Assess the advice and the questions: can they be helpful in your situation?

v Read two articles on pages 77, 79 in order to find out how to make your year off really count.

v Write a part of your resume describing different skills of yours having market value.