実践ビジネス英語 Wednesday, August 19
1) Umemura mentions recent reports that the job market is improving. And Breakstone confirms that H&B is hiring again. She says companies are competing more actively to secure talented employees in a seller's market and that H&B is going all out to attract good staff including using headhunters and offering sign-on bonuses. Companies particularly want the people known as passive candidates, she says.
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Recovering Job Market (1)
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2) Things are looking up.
The situation is getting better, improving, such as, "'Things are looking up' for the manufacturing industry thanks to lower prices for raw materials." Or "'Things are looking up' for Sarah. She finally found a new job."
3) What do you make of ...?
What is your opinion of something? In a sense of "What do you think it means? How do you interpreter it?" Things like, "'What do you make of' this sales drop? Are customers getting tired of our products?" Or "Tom has been very quiet lately. 'What do you make of' that? Is he upset about something?"
4) talented
Up towards the top, Kay Breakstone says, "Competition among companies to attract 'talented' people has become much more intense."
5) cut payrolls to save money
"Payroll" can refer to two things, the total amount of money, a company pays to its employees or the number of payed employees it has. And sometimes these two things overlap other times it's one or the other, depends on the situation. You'll hear things like, "Company X couldn't make payroll last month," that means it couldn't secure enough money to fully pay all its employees' salaries.
6) seller's market
Around the middle, Kay Breakstone says, "It's a 'seller's market' for people with the right skill sets." There's more demand than supply in a seller's market. So you get higher prices and better terms for sellers. If it's a "seller's market" in the housing industry, right, then more people want to buy houses than available so the sellers can ask high prices and such.
⇔ buyer's market
7) back on a growth track
About two-thirds of the way down, Breakstone says, "Now that the economy is back on a growth track, we're making an all-out effort to attract top-notch talent." So they are back on the course, the path it leads to growth. You can also say, "Back on a recovery track." "Our sales are 'back on a recovering track.' Thank goodness."
8) top-notch
A "notch" is a small cut or indentation often made as a record or a mark of something, so "top-notch" means excellent, very high quality. For example, "She is a 'top-notch' public speaker. Her presentations are always fascinating."
9) high performer
A "high performer" is someone or something that performs very well, produces excellent results. The opposite expression would be "low performer," such as, "Tablet computers and printers were our 'low performers' last year. Their sales were down ten percent."
10) talent
About two-thirds of the way down Breakstone says, "We're making an all-out effort to attract top-notch talent." That she means "talented" people, skilled people. Earlier on, she used the word "talented" the adjective. This is the noun. And just as a usage note, we don't say "talent" in English to mean someone who appears on TV and such. In that case, we'd say, "a TV personality" or a "radio personality."
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実践ビジネス英語 Thursday, August 20
1) Breakstone describes passive candidates as people in stable jobs with good track records who are not actively looking to change companies. According to a headhunter friend of hers, they are called the prize ponies of the job market. Lyons asks what skills and qualities are most valued by potential employers. And Pearson quotes an executive search company's CEO as looking particularly for a learning agility.
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Recovering Job Market (2)
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2) highly valued employee
Considered very valuable, regarded highly. The verb "value" can also mean assign a monetary value to. So you could say, "Company X will acquire Company Z in a deal 'valued' at ten billion dollars." Or "That painting is 'valued' at ten million dollars.
3)That's for sure.
Lyons says, "I imagine they present quite a challenge for headhunters." And Breakstone replies, "That's for sure."
4) prize
This adjective refers to things that we consider especially valuable that we are especially proud of their very high quality. It's extremely common to hear the expression "prize possession." "That car is his 'prize possession.' He just considers it very valuable. He loves it etc.
5) ponies
"Prize ponies" uses the of image of race horses win a lot. So they are highly valuable. Everybody wants them.
6) executive search company
This is a headhunting company that finds candidates for executive level positions. And "executive" can be shorten to "exec" too, such as "We're meeting with their marketing 'execs' today over lunch."
7) in someone's book
In someone's opinion, in other words. But there's a nuance here of according to their beliefs, their personal principles. Like, for me, I could say, "Staying at a luxury hotel is a waste of money 'in my book.' All you do is sleep there."
8) learning agility
Here "agility" is talking about the ability to think quickly, to think in an intelligent way. But "agility" and "agile" can also refer to physical movement, such as, "He is the top player on the team because he is so 'agile.'"
9) performance record
At the beginning, Breakstone says, "Passive candidates are people with solid, stable positions who have racked up an impressive 'performance record.'" Their "performance record" is the history of how they've done, what they have or haven't achieved. Things like, "Her 'performance record' is especially strong in acquiring new clients." Or, "Company X has a terrible 'performance record' with
laser printers."
10) present quite a challenge
About a third of the way down, Lyons says, "I imagine they 'present quite a challenge' for headhunters." You could also say, "They 'pose' quite a challenge." They give someone a challenge, for someone it's difficult to get or achieve, such as, "The client's demands 'present quite a challenge.' I don't think we can finish in time." Or "The company's order to cut expenses 'poses a real challenge.' We are already operating on a shoestring."
11) all the more
Breakstone says, "The fact that these employees love their work makes them 'all the more' attractive as candidates for recruitment." We use "all the more" when X makes Y greater in some way. You could also say "that much more," such as "Jane's experience makes her 'all the more' attractive to recruiters." Or "Jane's experience makes her 'that much more' attractive to recruiters."
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実践ビジネス英語 Friday, August 20
1) The CEO Pearson read about defines learning agility as a candidates' curiosity, readiness to grow and learn and their ability to think outside the norm. The CEO said it was important to ascertain how a person thinks, their approach to leadership. And how well they work under pressure. Breakstone looks how a candidate presents themselves and how effectively they speak.
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Recovering Job Market (3)
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2) tall order
A goal that's difficult to fulfill, to achieve, things like, "Finishing by next week is quite a 'tall order.'" Or "Finding someone to do this much overtime is a 'tall order.'"
3) not quite
It doesn't go that far, in other words. Imagine someone asked, "Did Mary get fired?" You might answer, "'Not quite.' But she is on probation for six months." We also say things like, "This report is 'not quite' good enough. The language needs to be polished."
4) make a decision under pressure
Decide while experiencing pressure of some kind, while facing pressure. You can also say things like, "We had an early deadline today but everyone stayed calm 'under pressure.'"
5) present oneself
"'Present oneself' refers to how we depict ourselves, how we submit ourselves for a consideration. This covers things like our clothes, our hair, our manner of speaking what we say. My first job in high school was at an ice cream parlor. So I wore a bright red dress to the interview to present myself as a cheerful, energetic person.
6) at the top of someone's list
This is number one, the top in some list of things that we want to do that we consider important that we like. So wide range of things it can apply to. We also say "top someone's list" like, "The Colosseum 'tops my list' of things to see in Rome."
7) negative
Here "negative" is a noun meaning a feature that isn't considered positive, that's undesirable. For example, "The biggest 'negative' about that job is the hours. There's so much overtime." Or "The location is the biggest 'negative' about that venue. It's hard to get to."
8) inarticulate
Can't speak clearly or effectively, doesn't express oneself well at all. And I think for me, this word "inarticulate" feels very strong so I often say "not very articulate" in a lot of situations, soften it a little bit. Things like, "Her speech was 'not very articulate.' People looked confused at times."
9) polished
Here "polished" means refined. The flaws have been removed. Things like "Her speech wasn't very 'polished.' She kept looking through her notes and saying "um" a lot." Or, to use the verb, "I want to 'polish' the language in the sales pitch a little more."
10) walk on water
Up at the top, Collins says, "Do these job candidates have to be able to 'walk on water' too?" And this is a reference to Jesus literally walking on top of water in the Bible, and she means "do they have to perform miracles too?" We also say "walk on air," which means a person is very happy, elated like they are floating in the
air. You could say, "Sarah has been 'walking on air' since she got that promotion."
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【原稿チェック： Hiromi, Ina, Hiroko】
【ディクテーション： Sanae】
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