Domowa kwarantanna to czas, który warto spożytkować mądrze. Business English to darmowa lekcja angielskiego bo nauki języka nigdy dość. A teraz właśnie gdy masz więcej czasu dla siebie przypomnij sobie użyteczne frazy Business English.
BiznesTuba oraz INFOR
Razem z wydawnictwem INFOR polecamy:
Interview with the ice Queen czyli rozmowa kwalifikacyjna z królową śniegu….
W pierwszej lekcji przeczytają Państwo o tym, jak George ubiegał się
o pracę w dziale szkoleń. Wspomina swoją poprzednią pracę, kiedy
pracował w Anglii jako menedżer HR i sam zatrudniał pracowników.
Teraz znalazł się po przeciwnej stronie, a do tego w obcym kraju. Prze-
żył niemały szok, zderzając się z inną kulturą, a także z nie zawsze
dobrymi praktykami.
Business English
I arrived in Warsaw on a Sunday night. Monday morning I bought
the newspaper and emailed CV’s to about twenty companies. Remark-
ably, within minutes, invitations to interview started coming in and in
total I attended about ten interviews during the first week.
As a former HR manager who had not been on the employee’s side
of the table for some years, I was intrigued to see how the interviews
would be conducted. When I worked in England, I was a Personnel
Manager for a project employing approximately 150 new people each
year; recruitment therefore occupied a fair proportion of my time. Al-
though the jobs varied from manual to managerial and occasionally
the more exotic, „audio historian”. I adopted the same approach to every interview. Having identified candidates by reference to the job
and person specifications, I generated a set of questions common to
all but with some scope for improvisation.
I always collected the candidate from reception and engaged in
idle small talk about the weather and traffic. The first task was to
relax the candidate. This would be achieved through informality, hu-
mour, body language and by using open, non-threatening questions.
This did not mean that it was a „soft” interview, merely that I felt it
necessary to create a relaxed atmosphere before the benefit of more
probing questions could be realised. Whilst I would later assess
their answers against a set of evaluation criteria and fill in the Can-
didate Evaluation Form, I would try to take a holistic view of the whole
person and consider how they would fit into the organisation.
How then would my Warsaw experience compare?
All of the positions that I applied for were in HRD. Perhaps I was just unlucky but about half of my interviewers were late – anywhere from five to forty five minutes. When I was met, I felt very English and aware of how important ice-breaking was to me. I could see that I wasn’t going to get it as it was straight down to business. I’d better shape up and knuckle down, I thought. The interview styles that I experienced
were generally the same but were perhaps best characterised by the „Ice Queen.” She had her clipboard and set of questions at the ready. Without warning, she fired over the first question, „What makes a good trainer?” „Hm, a fair question” I thought.
I rambled a little but overall, I think my answer was good. I looked to
see how it had been received. The Ice Queen gave nothing away and
lobbed the next one over. „Why do you want to work for us?” Well,
I was beginning to wonder if I did. I talked about opportunities to de-
velop and hoped that there might be a thaw but clearly, winter was
here to stay as her face remained frozen from emotion. The steely
gaze continued as the interrogation gathered speed. „What are your
salary expectations?” Now I was in real trouble. Having only been in
the city for two days, I had no idea of market rates and barely knew
the value of the zloty! I really have no idea. „I replied. „What do you
suggest?” Well, it got a reaction at least. She was exasperated.
To cut a long story short, we chose not to „cooperate” and
whilst other interviews weren’t quite as frosty, I soon learnt not to
expect the approach that I’d adopted in the UK. I think a major contrast between the UK and Poland is about directness and it is important to differentiate between those factors that are about cultural norms and those that are about good or bad practice.
Well, by hook or by crook, I landed a job at a bank and I’m al-
ready casting my gaze over the training budget. Find out how it goes
next lesson!
Business English – Glossary:
- Intrigued (fascinated) – zaintrygowany
- To conduct an interview (to run
an interview) – przeprowadzić
rozmowę kwalifikacyjną - The jobs varied from X to Y (there
were different types of jobs)
– dostępny był szeroki wybór
stanowisk – od X do Y
- To adopt the approach (to decide
to behave in a specific way
about something) – przyjąć
postawę - Job and person specifications –
(details regarding the candidate
and the job) – szczegółowy opis
stanowiska i kandydata
- Scope (range) – zakres
- Idle small talk (unimportant chat)
– rozmowa o niczym, gadka szmatka
- Probing questions (investigating
questions) – badawcze pytania
- To assess the answers (to judge/mark
the answers) – ocenić odpo wiedzi
- A set of evaluation criteria (a number
of important points used to meas-
ure/judge something) – zestaw kry-
teriów oceny
- HRD (Human Resource Develop-
ment) – rozwój zasobów ludzkich
Shape up and knuckle down
(be serious and concentrate)
– skupić się i przygotować do walki
- A clip-board (board for notes)
– podkładka do robienia notatek
- To ramble (talk unclearly) – mówić
bez ładu i składu
- (To) thaw (melt) – topnieć jak śnieg;
odwilż - Steely gaze (direct, cold look)
– chłodne spojrzenie - Market rates (how much people
are now paid for doing certain jobs)
– stawki rynkowe - Exasperated (really irritated)
– rozdrażniony
- To cut a long story short (anyway…)
– krótko mówiąc
- Frosty (cold, unfriendly) – chłodny,
nieprzyjemny - To differentiate (make or see a dif-
ference) – rozróżniać, różnicować - By hook or by crook (using any
method possible) – po trupach do
celu, nie przebierając w środkach - To land a job (get a job) – dostać
pracę - To find out (learn about)
– dowiedzieć się o czymś
