Professional English: How to talk about your career

Hi, my name is Rebecca from www.engvid.com. In today's lesson, you will learn about 24

different words to talk about your working life. You'll need these words if you want

to be able to talk about your career or about someone else's professional life. So let's

get started. I've divided the vocabulary into two parts.

On this side, we'll see words which the applicant or the employee, the future employee is going

to need; things that a person who is applying for a job or someone who works somewhere,

these words apply to them. And the words on this side refer to things that the employer

does, that the company does. Okay? So let's start with what a person does when

he's looking... He or she is looking for a job. So the first thing is to "look for a

job". That could mean that you look at classified ads, you go online; you look for a job. Another

way to say that is: "to seek employment", that's a formal way to say it. "To seek" means

to look for, and "employment" means work or a job.

Next, you would probably "apply". After you see a position that interests you or a job

that interests you, you would apply for that position, you would fill out perhaps an application

form or send in a letter. And also "submit" which means to formally give in or send in,

to submit your resume, to submit your CV. CV is curriculum vitae. In some places, they

say: "CV", and in other places, they say: "resume". It's the same thing, but you need

to apply and submit it. So these are the first three things that someone who's looking for

a job or a job applicant is going to do. Let's jump on to this side now to see what

the employer does, and then later, we'll come back to a couple of other things which the

person can do. Okay? So what does the employer usually do? After they have gone through the

applications, they will invite some people for an "interview" and they will interview

that person. Next, they'll make a list which is... That

process is called: "to shortlist". "To shortlist" means let's say that they interviewed 20 people

and now they're going to choose about three people or five people, and from those five

or three, they will choose one person finally because there's one position available. So

when they take out of the 20, they make it three or five, that's called... That process

is called shortlisting. They shortlist the candidates. So the first thing you can hope,

after being interviewed, is that you will be shortlisted. And then, hopefully, you will

also be chosen for the position. So if that happens, the company decides to

"hire" someone or to "recruit" a new employee, to recruit someone. Both words are used.

After that, if necessary, but not always, they may have to "train" that person to teach

them how to do the job. At some later point in their career, it may be also necessary

to "retrain" that person. "Re"-anything usually means to do something again.

Next, after the person has been hired and perhaps trained, the person will be "placed"

in a particular department, in a branch, in a division, in a particular location. They

will placed there means they will be put in that position.

Next, a variety of things can occur, can happen in the course of a person's career. A person

could be "transferred". You see the arrow? Transfer means your position, the level of

your position doesn't change necessarily, but you might be just moved. "To transfer"

means to move to another branch, to another location, to another country, - right? - another

department, another division. You are transferred. Another thing that can happen if you're doing

very well is you might be "promoted". Here we see the arrow pointing up. So, "to promote"

means to get a higher level position. Usually, but not always, that includes a higher salary

as well. Then you may be... That's referred to as a "raise", but it doesn't always happen.

Sometimes you get a higher position without the extra money.

What can also happen, but very rarely, - but it does happen sometimes -, is instead of

getting promoted, a person might be demo-... "Demoted". So "demoted" means to get a lower

position. This doesn't usually happen. Sometimes it can happen, for example: in the army, a

person might be demoted for something bad that they did.

Next: we come to different ways in which a person can be asked to leave work. There are

three different ways so let me explain because the difference is actually very important.

A person might be "laid off". Another way to say that is: "to make someone redundant".

A person might be laid off or made redundant. I'll explain what that means. A person might

be "retrenched", or: "dismissed", or: "terminated". Now, let me explain the difference. When companies

lay off employees, they don't usually lay off one employee. They lay off a number of

employees, sometimes it could be a hundred employees, it could be a thousand employees.

And why does that happen? It has nothing to do with employee performance; it has to do

with other... other reasons. The economy may be bad or the sales may be down, and so on.

And so the company is forced to lay off hundreds of workers. Right? So when the company lays

off a number of workers, then they are telling them to go, but again, it's only temporarily.

Usually it's temporarily. Sometimes if the... If the economy continues to be really bad,

it can become permanent, but layoffs are often temporary. Sometimes when things improve then

they may be rehired. So if someone is laid off, it's much easier for that person to get

another job because if they're fired, for example, then that's going to be more difficult

for them to get another job. All right. Now, next one is: "retrench". When

a company retrenches employees, it's similar to the layoff, but it's for different reasons.

Retrenchment happens when a company is trying to restructure itself, reorganize its finances.

And so, it may decide to reduce expenses in a number of different ways. Sometimes it does

it by shortening working hours, by lowering salaries, and finally, if they have no choice

and no other way to save enough money, they may actually ask employees to go. So those

employees would then be retrenched. Again, it doesn't usually just happen to one person

at all; it happens to many people, maybe hundreds. So layoffs and retrenchments are similar,

except that retrenchment is often looked at, technically, as more permanent, and layoffs,

as I mentioned, might be temporary. The next situation is number 11 here, is a

person could be "dismissed" or "terminated." And what does that mean? Okay? That means

something quite different from being laid off, because when you're laid off, as I said,

it's not your fault. But if you're dismissed or terminated, it may be because the company

is specifically unhappy with that person's performance, or that person is perpetually

late, or that person's work is not up to standard, and so on. Right? So the company dismisses

that particular person. The official word for that is to be "dismissed" or to be "terminated".

The slang for that is to be "fired" or "sacked". In North America, the slang is: "to be fired".

In England, the slang tends to be: "to be sacked". All right?

So that's what can happen from the employer's point of view. Let's go back for a minute

and talk about a few other things that the employee can do.

Sometimes, you may get a better job and so you decide to leave the company where you

work and go to another company, so you "resign". This is something you do by yourself. You

decide to resign. The slang for that is to: "quit". "I quit", famous words. So, if you

decide to resign, you will probably submit a letter of resignation. All right? That goes

with resigning. And the last thing that an employee usually

does, - it depends on what age in different countries -, is to "retire". So what does

it mean to retire? "To retire" means to stop working because you've reached an age when,

legally, you are forced to stop working. And these... The age varies in different countries,

but it can be anywhere from 60 to 65 in most places. All right? Of course, if you work

for yourself, you may never retire. And in other countries, the retirement age might

be quite different. All right? So, this is some essential vocabulary that

you need to be able to talk about your business life, your working life, your career. All

right? If you would like to do a quiz on this subject, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

Thank you very much for watching, and good luck with your career. Bye for now.