Essential English for Professional Communication
Job Interview Success
Key Aptitudes for Interviews
- Able to work in a team
- Able to work under pressure
- Ambitious
- Careful
- Careless (Note: This is typically a weakness, not an aptitude)
- Punctual
Effective Interview Phrases
Here are some positive phrases to use during a job interview:
- I’m looking for new challenges.
- I want to develop my skills, my strengths, and gain more experience.
- One of my weaknesses is that I put a lot of effort into details, and I’m a perfectionist.
Interview Vocabulary: Strengths & Weaknesses
- Strengths: Enthusiastic, creative, dedicated, organized, responsible, hard-working, energetic, good at working in a team.
- Weaknesses: Self-critical, overthinker, impatient, find it hard to say no, procrastinator.
Work-Life Balance & Workplace Terms
Understanding Work-Life Balance Vocabulary
- Idle chit-chat
- Informal talk that is irrelevant to work.
- Parental leave
- A period of time a parent takes off work to care for children.
- To bounce ideas off someone
- To share ideas with someone in order to get feedback.
- To wear someone out
- To make someone very tired.
- To clock in
- To record the time you begin work.
- To make a concession
- To give or allow something in order to end an argument or conflict.
- Paid on a pro-rata basis
- Calculated according to how many hours you work.
- A freelancer
- A person who sells their services or work by the hour or day.
- A commute
- A regular journey between work and home.
- To be left to your own devices
- To be allowed to decide what to do by yourself.
Common Workplace Roles & Work Styles
Key Work-Related Definitions
- Agency worker
- A person who has a contract with a hiring company that sends them to work for other companies.
- Self-employment
- Finding work for yourself instead of working for an employer.
- Working remotely
- A way of working where you don’t have to be in the office all the time.
- Working flexibly
- A way of working that allows you to choose when and where you work.
- Digital nomad
- A person who can work anywhere in the world because they use technology to keep in touch with their employer; they can travel around the world.
- Apprentice
- A person who is learning new skills on the job and is also paid a small amount of money.
- Intern
- A person who works in a company for a limited time to get job experience, often without being paid.
- Shift work
- A system where the workplace is always open and workers have to come in at different times of the day and night.
- Full-time work
- A type of job that takes up all of a working week.
- Zero-hours contract
- A way of working which depends on how much work is available; the employer does not have to offer you a minimum number of hours.
- Temporary employee
- A person who has arranged to work in a company for a short period of time.
Essential Work Terms & Spanish Translations
Common Employment Statuses
- Parental leave: Baja por paternidad
- Made redundant: Reducir la plantilla (To reduce the workforce/staff)
- On Strike: En huelga
- Unemployed: Desempleado
- Retired: Jubilado
- Fired: Despedido
- Sick leave: Baja por enfermedad
Mastering Reported Speech
Reported speech is used to tell someone what another person said without using their exact words. Pay attention to tense changes and pronouns.
Reporting Statements
When reporting statements, the tense usually shifts back in time.
- Pete told Jo that his parents had nothing in common.
- Gran admitted to me that their neighbours had just gone on holiday.
- Sue confessed to Lucy that Leo had been speaking to Gemma when she had seen him that morning.
- Ricardo told the class that his great-grandparents had had nine children.
- I told Cathy that I was coming home the following week.
Reporting Suggestions, Commands & Reminders
Different verbs are used to report suggestions, commands, and reminders, often followed by an infinitive or a ‘that’ clause.
- Mairi suggested to Sean that they watch a DVD after dinner.
- Misha warned Vanessa not to go out with Jim because he was nasty.
- David reminded Ali to call me the next day.
- Cassie ordered Don not to touch her iPad again.
- Mum recommended that I try the new Chinese restaurant because it’s great.
Reporting Questions
When reporting questions, we use ‘if’ or ‘whether’ for yes/no questions, and question words (who, what, where, why, etc.) for information questions. The word order changes to a statement order (subject + verb).
- Rob asked me when he would see me again.
- Steve asked Mia if she was going to the cinema that night.
- Sophie asked her brother if Kyle had called her while she was out.
- Ama asked me why I had broken up with Rosie.
- The waiter asked us if we had booked a table.