Welcome to English as a Second Language podcast number 552, Reviewing Job Applications.
This is English as a Second Language podcast, episode 552.
I'm your host, Dr Jeff McQuillan, coming to you from the Center for Educational Development in beautiful Los Angeles, California.
The best way to improve your English is to listen to this episode and to look at the 8-10 page learning guide that we have on our website for this episode and all of our current episodes.
Go to eslpodcom, become a member of ESL Podcast and you can download those learning guides for every current episode.
This episode is a dialogue between Missy and Jonathan.
They are talking about people who are applying for work at their company, people who are asking to be hired as employees.
It's going to go over a lot of different vocabulary related to interviews and job applications.
Let's get started.
Okay, let's sort this stack of applications into three piles.
Good candidates, those worth a second look, and definite no's.
Well, that didn't take long.
With this poor economy, I thought we'd get an embarrassment of riches.
But these applications are pretty pathetic.
Yeah, well, it might have something to do with the salary we're offering.
Not everybody is willing to work for peanuts.
Some of these applicants have never held down a job before and don't have a single reference.
These others don't seem to be able to hold on to a job, job hopping every few months.
Well, at least we have these two standouts.
They both have the right educational background and level of experience.
Should we call them in for interviews?
Yeah, and I hope they haven't already been snatched up by another company You and me both.
Missy says to Jonathan okay, let's sort this stack of applications into three piles.
Let's sort, let's organize this stack, S-T-A-C-K, of applications.
A stack of is a large number of objects that are placed on top of each other, so that you have vertically several things on top of each other.
We talk about a stack of papers.
We could refer to a stack of plates in the kitchen, one on top of the other.
Missy's talking about a stack of applications.
An application is the written information that someone who is trying to get a job at your company fills out or completes and gives to you.
It gives you their basic information.
Missy wants to sort the stack of applications into three piles.
A pile is a group of things that are in the same place, either next to each other or on top of each other, but not very organized.
A stack would probably be considered organized, but a pile would be things that would not be very neat.
Maybe some things are crooked.
Some things aren't exactly on top of the other things.
That would be a pile of things.
I should mention that stack has a couple of different meanings in English besides this one.
Take a look at your learning guide for some additional definitions.
So Missy wants to sort the applications into three piles.
Good candidates, those worth a second look, and definite no's.
A candidate is a person who wants to receive a particular position or get a particular job.
So a job candidate would be somebody who wanted to work at your company.
A political candidate would be someone who wanted to have a certain political office the president, a senator, and so forth.
The expression worth a second look means that this person or this thing is is good enough, has good enough qualities or characteristics that you want to consider it a little more.
It may not be perfect, but it's good enough.
You say, okay, well, these are good candidates, definite yes people.
These are people who aren't perfect, but we want to look at more closely again.
They're worth a second look.
Jonathan says.
The expression an embarrassment of riches means you have too much of a good thing or you have too many good things to choose from.
He's saying here that he thought they would get lots of good applications too many for them to choose from but instead they got applications that were pathetic.
P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C.
Something that is pathetic is very sad.
In this case, very disappointing.
It's not good enough.
Pathetic is a very strong, very negative way of describing something.
Jonathan says, I only see two of these people as employee material.
The word material here means something that is used in a particular way for some particular purpose.
In this case, these are people who might make good employees.
They're employee material.
Material has other meanings in English.
Take a look at the learning guide for some more detailed explanations of those.
Missy says yeah well, it might have something to do with the salary we're offering, the amount of money that we will pay this person.
Not everybody is willing to work for peanuts.
The expression to work for peanuts means to work for very little pay, to work at a very low-paying job.
Missy is saying here that the reason they didn't get a lot of good applications is that people don't want to work for such a low salary.
Jonathan says, isn't that the truth?
Meaning, I agree with you completely.
Some of these applicants have never held down a job before.
To hold down a job means to have and to keep a job for a long time, or at least a reasonable amount of time.
More than a week, let's say.
Jonathan says many of these applicants don't have a single reference.
A reference in this dialogue means a person who is familiar with your work, who knows you and who is willing to give their opinion about you to the employer, to the person or the persons that are interviewing you.
For example, when I applied for a job at the university, I needed to give them three references.
Three is pretty common for U.S. jobs.
Those could be my professors.
They could be other people I worked with.
They couldn't be my wife or my mother.
You don't give your family members as references, although sometimes people will ask for a personal reference, and that will mean a friend who knows you very well.
But usually for a job, you have professional references, people that you've worked with or worked for.
Jonathan says these other applicants don't seem to be able to hold on to a job.
Job hopping every few months.
To hold on to a job is to keep a job.
It's similar to hold down a job.
To hold on to anything means to keep it for a long time.
So, to hold on to a job means to keep the job for a long time.
To hop, H-O-P, usually means to jump up a short distance in the air while you're going forward.
We talk about a rabbit, the animal, who hops.
They go up and down in the air as they are moving forward instead of walking, for example.
Well, job hopping means jumping, going from one job to another frequently.
Every few months or every year you have a new job.
That would be job hopping.
Bar hopping would be going to different bars frequently. to have different drinks.
This is called a pub crawl, C-R-A-W-L, in England.
But in the United States, we usually talk about bar hopping.
But we're not bar hopping in this dialogue.
We're talking about people who are job hopping.
Missy says, well, at least we have these two standouts.
A standout.
One word is a person who is much better than everyone else, who's obviously more qualified.
Missy says they both have the right educational background, meaning they have the right kind of education.
They've studied the right things for this job.
They also have the right level of experience.
They've worked at this kind of job for a long time.
Should we call them in for interviews?
Meaning?
Should we ask them to come to the office and meet with us formally so we can ask them questions in an interview?
Jonathan says, yeah, and I hope they haven't already been snatched up by another company.
To snatch S-N-A-T-C-H up is a phrasal verb meaning to grab, to get or use something very quickly before other people can get it or use it.
After Christmas, on December 26th, all the big shopping stores, the shopping malls, have sales where they lower the price on things.
And people get there very early.
I mean ridiculously early, 5 o'clock in the morning, 4 o'clock in the morning, so they can get the good prices, because they want to snatch up all of the good things at low prices before other people get there and take them before they don't have any more left.
So Jonathan is hoping that these two standouts have not been snatched up, have not been already hired by another company.
Missy says, you and me both.
You and me both means that I completely agree with you.
I completely agree with what you said.
Notice.
Grammatically it should be you and I, but we don't say you and I.
The expression is you and me both.
Now let's listen to the dialogue, this time at a normal speed.
Okay, let's sort this stack of applications into three piles.
Good candidates, those worth a second look, and definite no's.
Well, that didn't take long.
With this poor economy, I thought we'd get an embarrassment of riches.
But these applications are pretty pathetic.
I only see two of these people as employee material.
Yeah, well, it might have something to do with the salary we're offering.
Not everybody is willing to work for peanuts.
Isn't that the truth?
Some of these applicants have never held down a job before and don't have a single reference.
These others don't seem to be able to hold on to a job, job hopping every few months.
Well, at least we have these two standouts.
They both have the right educational background and level of experience.
Should we call them in for interviews?
Yeah, and I hope they haven't already been snatched up by another company.
You and me both.
We have an embarrassment of riches at ESL Podcast when it comes to our scripts.
That's because they're written by our standout script writer, Dr. Lucy Say.
From Los Angeles, California, I'm Jeff McQuillan.
Thank you for listening.
Come back and listen to us next time on ESL Podcast.
English as a Second Language podcast is written and produced by Dr Lucy Say, hosted by Dr Jeff McQuillan.
Copyright 2010 by the Center for Educational Development.
