Quot;My work at the foreign trade company
Quot;I Want to be a Businessman
My father is working for an international company as a managing director.
I have been several times at his office. I like it very much to be there.
My father is very busy. He often comes late from work. But I can see that he likes his job. And he always finds the time to spend with me and mom.
Sometimes he tells us about the difficult situations, which his company faces. It is so interesting to listen to him. It seems to me that you need to have a very creative mind to be a businessman.
My father is a friendly person and he is easy to talk to. I respect my father and I want to become a businessman too. I think our country needs good businesspeople to strengthen its economy.
After I finish school I'm going to enter the university and study marketing or management. I haven't decided yet exactly what will I study.
Manager deals mainly with people. It studies what is necessary to do that people worked better and were not offended.
Marketing deals with market research and commercial activity in general.
I still have time to think and choose.
Quot;I Want to be a Journalist
I decided to be a journalist. I think it is an interesting and useful profession.
I like to watch TV, listen to the radio, read newspapers and magazines. I like everything which connected with mass media.
I have a hobby. My friends and I are publishing a small newspaper once a month in our school. We write articles about school events, life of young people, jokes, draw pictures and caricatures. My favourite school subjects are history and literature.
I like the profession of a journalist. They meet many people. They try to understand what is going on in the world, or the country, or the city and try to explain it to other people.
I think that the work of a journalist is very much like that of historian. A historian studies and tries to explain events of the past and a journalist does the same about the present.
But for me to be a journalist is much more interesting than to be a historian because you deal with real events that are happening right now so you can even influence them.
So journalists can influence the history. That is why I want to be a journalist.
Quot;Business trips
Business trips are just part of doing business. A company tries to choose only its best people to represent it. Trips can happen in or out of the country.
And there are as many reasons to go on a business as there are places to go: to sign contracts, to discuss terms of delivery, payment or shipment, to have tests, to consult, to improve one's professional skills, to provide support.
Representatives of the companies involved usually make preliminary arrangements in order to meet. Whether a long-term or short-term trip, the itinerary must be carefully planned by the head of a department or another executive. After the trip, an employee is ordinarily expected to give a full financial accounting of the trip to his boss.
Sightseeing, cultural events and just plain relaxing are a regular part of every business trip. And no businessman would dare forget to buy gifts for relatives, friends and colleagues while on a business trip to an interesting, new location.
These trips are important because they contribute to the expansion of a company's business relationships and help that company succeed in the competitive world market.
Business today is international in character, and business people often have to travel. On a business trip people might meet colleagues and business partners for the first time. Often, colleagues from different countries experience cultural difficulties, that is, they are surprised by strange, to them, social conventions in a new place.
Different cultures do things differently! Management styles also differ from country to country. It's often useful when doing business in a foreign land, to get some advice from a special agency which consults on questions of international business.
These days business trips are very important because face to face meetings are more valuable to profitable business than any other type of strategy.
Quot;Choosing a Career
Choosing a career is not an easy matter. I am leaving school in two years and I haven't yet decided which profession to choose.
There are a lot of interesting things in the world, so it is difficult to make the right choice.
In childhood I wanted to be a pilot, then I wanted to become a fireman. But now I have to think about my future career seriously. Some people are good at Maths, Physics and Biology, others enjoy History, Literature and Geography.
In my opinion I am good at foreign languages. My favorite language is English. I like it very much and I want to be either a teacher of English or an interpreter. I like watching films in English, reading books in the original and listening to music in English.
I think that young people should ask themselves: What am I interested in? What do I want to become? When they find the answer, they will have the goal to achieve. And then they should do everything to achieve this goal. If you are good at Maths and you want your profession to be connected with this subject, you should start studying it very seriously. The same is with other subjects.
My father wants me to follow in his footsteps and become a businessman. But I am not interested in business or economics. I have always been bad at these subjects and I want my profession to be connected with English.
My mother says that I should choose my future occupation myself. But I am still not sure what to choose. Of course there are a lot of special books about different professions. In addition, a lot of universities and institutes have open house days, so I can go there and choose a good place for my future studies.
However, it is very difficult to enter a university. If you do not have money and if you are not a genius, you will never enter a good university or an institute. I have some friends who were in this situation and they had to choose a career not to their interests and liking.
But some young people still do not know which career to choose even after they finish school, so they have to waste time deciding, or go to find a job. For men it is harder because they may be taken to the Army, that's why a lot of them enter any institute or university just not to become soldiers.
Sometimes young people choose a career they are interested in, they enter a university and after some time they understand that this occupation is not for them, they get poor marks and have to leave the university.
The problem of choosing a career is very widespread among young people and they should think about it seriously before making any decisions.
quot;My work at the foreign trade company
Hello, my name is Maxim Sviridov. I work as a manager at the company. It is Russian company which works on the business travel market. Two weeks ago I was sent by the administration of our company to London where I studied the English travel companies, their traditions, their marketing and management. Now my business trip is coming to the end and I want to share with you my impressions of English business world. First of all English businessmen are well known all over the world for their honesty and decency. If an Englishman gives you his word he will keep it in any case. Besides that, nothing can prevent him from refusing the once taken decision. Of course, there are some exclusions, but they are so rare that nobody should put attention on them. During the last two weeks my working day was approximately the same. Early in the morning I took a taxi to my hosts' headquarters, which is situated in the City - the business heart of London. First of all I usually asked Ms. Lapital - my secretary if there were any letters or cables for me. Then she gave me my correspondence and fresh newspapers and I followed to my office-room. There I studied all documents that had come for my name and wrote a short report about previous business day and then faxed it to my native company in Vladivostok.
After that I went to Mr. Forsberg's office-room to get tasks for the new day and ask some questions about their company, its history, traditions, clients, and so on. After that I usually did what Mr. Forsberg asked. My usual job was meeting with potential clients, discussing their rest plans and offering the services of Mr. Forsberg's company. I usually met with 10 or 12 people a day. They were representatives of different social groups and communicating with them increased my knowledge of England and Englishmen, their psychology greatly. This business trip was a great chance for me and I hope I used this chance fully.
Now I know a lot about Western business world, about travel business and this knowledge will, of course, help my in my future career.
7 Карьерная лестница"
Getting a job
When Paul left school he applied for (= wrote an official request for) a job in the accounts department of a local engineering company. They gave him a job as a trainee (= a very junior person in a company). He didn't earn very much but they gave him a lot of training (= organised help and advice with learning the job), and sent him on training courses.
Note: Training is an uncountable noun, so you cannot say 'a training'. You can only talk about training (in general), or a training course (if you want to refer to just one). Here you can use the verbs do or go on: I did/went on several training courses last year.
Moving up
Paul worked hard at the company and his prospects (= future possibilities in the job) looked good. After his first year he got a good pay rise (= more money), and after two years he was promoted (= given a higher position with more money and responsibility). After six years he was in charge of (= responsible for/the boss of) the accounts department with five other employees (= workers in the company) under him ( = under his responsibility/ authority).
Leaving the company
By the time Paul was 30, however, he decided he wanted a fresh challenge (= a new exciting situation). He was keen to work abroad, so he resigned from his company (= officially told the company he was leaving his job; you can also say 'he quit the company') and started looking for a new job with a bigger company. After a couple of months he managed to find a job with an international company which involved (= included) a lot of foreign travel. He was very excited about the new job and at first he really enjoyed the travelling, but...
Hard times
After about six months, Paul started to dislike the constant moving around, and after a year he hated it; he hated living in hotels, and he never really made any friends in the new company. Unfortunately his work was not satisfactory either and finally he was sacked (= told to leave the company/ dismissed/given the sack) a year later.
After that, Paul found things much more difficult. He was unemployed (= out of work/without a job) for over a year. He had to sell his car and move out of his new house. Things were looking bad and in the end Paul had to accept a part-time job (= working only some or the day or some of the week) on a fruit and vegetable stall in a market.
Happier times
To his surprise, Paul loved the market. He made lots of friends and enjoyed working out in the open air. After two years, he took over (= took control of) the stall. Two years later he opened a second stall, and after ten years he had fifteen stalls. Last year Paul retired (= stopped working completely) at the age of 55, a very rich man.
8 It is difficult to choose a profession"
Two occupations attract me a lot. I like to talk with small children and explain things to them and I like to write computer programs. I often think which one is most favourable and can not decide which profession to choose. I was born in a family of a teacher. When I was a little girl I went to school with my mother attending her lessons. I watched her and I wanted my mother to be a favourite and most respected teacher and the older friend for the pupils. Once our English teacher caught a cold. I was in the 9th form then and was fond of English. The head teacher asked me to give an English lesson in the 5th form. I entered the classroom and was terrified at first with all those pupils' eyes stared at me. But I tried to get concentrated and said "Good morning" in a quite and friendly voice. Then it was all right. I wanted the pupils to like English just like I do. We read, wrote, sang songs, asked and answered questions. Since then I gave English lessons for several times when the teacher was absent and it was an exciting experience. So, I know the job well and I was quite certain which profession should I choose until daddy bought a personal computer. Since then everything has changed much.
First it was impossible for me to understand how it works. Now I am an amateur programmer and my father says that I am certainly have an ability for programming. I still have a year ahead to decide, but now I am not quite sure...