Task 7. Read the following texts and underline useful words and phrases for talking about one’s recruitment.

1. The process of finding people for particular jobs is recruitment, or, especially in American English, hiring. Someone who has been recruited is a recruit, or, in American English, a hire. The company employs or hires them; they join the company. A company may recruit employees directly or use outside recruiters, recruitment agencies or employment agencies. Outside specialists called headhunters may be called on to headhunt people for very important jobs, persuading them to leave the organizations they already work for. This process is called headhunting.

2. Fred is a van driver, but he was fed up with long trips. He looked in the situations vacant pages of his local newspaper, where a local supermarket was advertising for van drivers for a new delivery service. He applied for the job by completing an application form and sending it in.

Harry is a building engineer. He saw a job in the appointments pages of one of the national papers. He made an application sending in his CV and a covering letter explaining why he wanted the job and why he was the right person for it.

Notes:

* Situation, post, position – formal words often used in job advertisements and applications.

* BrE – CV; AmE – resume;

BrE – covering letter; AmE – cover letter.

3. The head of recruitment department talks about the selection process the company uses to recruit people:

We advertise in national newspapers. We look at the backgrounds of applicants: their experience of different jobs and their educational qualifications. We invite the most interesting candidates to a group discussion. Then we have individual interviews with each candidate. We also ask the candidates to do written psychometric tests to assess their intelligence and personality. After this we shortlist three or four candidates. We check their references by writing to their referees: previous employers or teachers that candidates have named in their applications. If the references are OK, we ask the candidates to come back for more interviews. Finally, we offer the job to someone, and if they turn it down we have to think again. If they accept it, we hire them. We only appoint someone if we find the right person.

 

Task 8. Complete the sentences with the words from the box.

recruited    hired    accepts    turns down headhunt    offers apply appoint

1. I phoned to check on my application, but they said they’d already ___________ someone.

2. This job is so important; I think we need to ____________ someone.

3. The selection process has lasted three months, but we are going to ___________ someone next week.

4. I hope she ________, because if she ___________ the job, we’ll have to start looking again.

5. The last applicant was very strong, but I understand he’s had two other ________ already.

6. They’ve finally ___________ a new receptionist.

7. Computer programmers wanted. Only those with UNIX experience should ______________.

 

Task 9. Replace the underlined phrases with correct forms of words and expressions from task 7.

John has already (1) refused two job offers when he went for (2) a discussion to see if he was suitable for a job. They looked at his driving license and contacted (3) previous employers Fred has mentioned in his application. A few days later, the supermarket (4) asked him if he would like the job and Fred (5) said yes.

Harry didn’t hear anything for six weeks, so he phoned the company. They told him that they had received a lot of (6) requests for the job. After looking at the (7) life stories of the (8) the people asking for the job and looking at (9) what exams they have passed during their education, the company (10) had chosen six people to interview, had done tests on their personality and intelligence and they had then given someone the job.

 

Task 10. Learn the following terms.

A skill is the ability to do something well, especially because you have learnt how to do it and practiced it. Jobs, and the people who do them, can be described as:

• Highly skilled – e.g. a car designer
• Skilled – e.g. a car production manager
• Semi-skilled – e.g. a taxi driver
• Unskilled – e.g. a car cleaner

You can say that someone is skilled at or skilled in something, or you can say that someone is good with something.

 

Task 11. Are these jobs generally considered to be highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled or unskilled? Each expression is used twice.

1. a teacher

2. a brain surgeon

3. a car worker on a production line

4. an airline pilot

5. an office cleaner

6. a worker

7. a bus driver

8. an office manager