You're learning with nine to five English. Business English for the workplace.
Hi Tim here with another 9 to 5 English lesson.
In today's lesson we're going to learn how to talk about your job.
There are lots of situations where you meet someone
new and you want to tell them about your job.
Maybe they ask you about it or you just want to introduce yourself so how do you
do that do you just say I am a Salesman and that's it
No you need to say a bit more than that. You can certainly start by saying what
your job is and you could use the job name like salesperson or engineer or you
could say you are in a certain field you might also want to mention your position
so rather than just salesperson maybe you're a regional sales rep and besides
your job or position it's a good idea to say where you work I don't mean the
location I mean the company or type of company so you can name the company or
just say what kind of company it is let's practice some examples of talking
about your job in this way listen to each example then repeat it yourself
ready let's get started I'm in sales with a large pharmaceutical
company I'm a senior engineer at fuller associates
I work as a sales associate with city insurance
I'm a marketing manager with BPT
I'm currently the accountant for a small auto parts company
that was pretty straightforward wasn't it as you heard we used the present
simple tense to state simple facts like this so we just say I am an engineer or
use the short form I'm an engineer and notice you can say you work with at or
for a company but is that all I mean if you just mention your job and company
people won't always understand what you actually do so you can tell people what
your main duties or responsibilities are I don't mean a long list of duties I
mean what you mainly do and to talk about our main duties we usually start
with I and a strong verbs such as organize or handle or lead and whatever
you organize or handle or lead will be extra information that helps your
listener understand your job that might mean mentioning specific people or
places or activities let's practice talking about your main duties once
again repeat the examples after you hear them
I handle tax issues for our larger clients
I take care of all the scheduling
I follow up with customers to make sure they're satisfied with our service
I supervise our branches in the southeast region
I head up the sales team all right so that's how we talk about our main duties
but how does all this sound in real life let's listen to a short dialogue between
two people meeting for the first time the first person asks about the other
person's line of work which is like asking what someone's job is nice to
meet you John so what line of work are you in I'm in marketing with BT
industries oh is that right and what kind of marketing do you do I handle all
our online and print advertising did you hear how that worked the first person
asked about line of work the second person started by saying he
is in marketing and names the company the other person sounds interested so
the second person uses a strong verb to talk about his main duties now it's your
turn to practice will repeat the dialogue but this time we're going to
beep out the second speakers words you will have to say those parts yourself
remember to start by mentioning the job and the company then you'll give your
main duties here we go nice to meet you John
so what line of work are you in
oh is that right and what kind of marketing do you do
so that's how we introduce our job to someone of course sometimes we go into a
little more detail either about the work we do or about the company we work for
and if you tune in to the next couple of lessons that's exactly what you'll learn