Unit III choosing a career Conversational topic: My future profession

Finishing school is the beginning of an independent life for millions of school-leavers. It is the beginning of a far more serious examination of your knowledge, abilities and character. We usually say that all roads are open before our school-leavers: vocational and technical schools, institutes and universities. But actually it is difficult to make up one’s mind and choose one of the hundreds of jobs. While at school everybody changed his mind a lot of times and couldn’t decide which science or field of industry to specialize in.

At schools there are industrial centers that are supposed to help in choosing a job. Teachers and parents also advise pupils, but still very few of them take a clear-cut view of what they want to do. Generally pupils are not realistic in thinking about jobs. They have dreams of playing football for some big clubs, or becoming pop stars, or heart transplant surgeons or international experts of some kind. Teachers and parents try to channel that enthusiasm into something more realistic, to get the pupils away from their fantasy level without knocking the dream completely. But often it doesn’t work and school-leavers get disappointed in life.

While choosing a job many factors should be taken into consideration: wages and salaries, job-satisfaction, opportunities to travel and to see much, etc. It’s common knowledge that among all professions engineering is one of the most ancient occupations in history. The principal work of the engineer is design. He has to design machines, structures, equipment, products, etc. The engineer must combine many of the characteristics of the scientist, research engineer and technologist; he must preserve and enrich the best traditions of national and foreign engineering. Such work requires creative ability and knowledge of scientific principles. The engineer must also have an understanding of the various properties and available materials. They must keep up with changes in their profession.

After finishing the university everyone becomes an applicant for a particular job. It is necessary to keep in mind that every applicant is very closely inspected, so a good business suit will be the right thing to wear. All the clothes won’t be scruffy or casual, but well pressed and in a good taste. The applicant must not fiddle with his hair or chew his nails as it can be very off-putting and only highlight his nervousness. The applicant should smile pleasantly and shake a hand firmly looking straight into the eyes of his interviewer. Psychologists also say that an applicant’s posture is relevant, so the applicant should lean forward and not slouch back to show interest and willingness.

The applicant must present his Curriculum Vitae (CV) or Resume, which is expected to be handwritten. A CV is a documentary record of your education, qualifications and employment history. It is like an outline with information about yourself written under particular headings: name; address; e-mail; homepage; phone; nationality; date of birth; marital status; education; work experience; military service; languages; hobbies; areas of knowledge and experience. The information is written in phrases that tell something about what you are interested in, what a kind of job you are looking for, and what a kind of work experience the applicant has. It is also a lot more. When applying for any kind of job any applicant is trying to sell his skills to the employer. Spending a little time getting your CV right is therefore well worth the effort involved.