work

Part 1-style questions

Examiner: What do you do?

Sasha: I do a job-share with a friend in a boutique … I enjoy it … I like working with customers … unfortunately it’s only temporary work but one of the perks of the job is I get a discount on the clothes …

Examiner: Do you have any career plans yet?

Carly: Yes … I’d like to be my own boss one day … I’m interested in programming and I’d like to create apps for myself or for other companies … I know being self employed would be a challenge but the idea of doing a nine-to-five job doesn’t appeal to me at all …

Examiner: What do you see yourself doing in 10 years time?

Marie: I’d hope to be working … not a high-powered job … but I’m quite a creative person so something where I can work with my hands would be nice … as long as I’m not stuck behind a desk doing something boring  in a dead-end job I’ll be happy …

Part 2-style task

Describe your ideal job. You should say:

• what this job is
• whether you would need any qualifications
• whether it would be easy to find work

and say why you would enjoy this job in particular.

Max: I’ve always loved watching wildlife programmes on TV and often thought how much I’d enjoy working with animals … perhaps in a safari park … something like that … you’d probably need a degree to have any chance of being called for an interview and whether there are many full-time jobs I don’t know … I’m sure a lot of parks rely on voluntary work so it might not be easy … and it probably wouldn’t be well-paid either but money isn’t everything … I’d get so much job satisfaction … I can’t imagine it being the kind of job where you get stuck in a rut … and I think I’d be good at it as well … I’d love to work with animals I enjoy manual work and I’m a good team player … so even though the working conditions might not be the best I think that would be my ideal job …

Part 3-style questions

Examiner: If there are a limited number of jobs available who should be given priority, young people or older people with more experience?

Anna: Things are so different these days … a few years ago older employees would often take early retirement or go onto part-time contracts and there were always opportunities for younger people but now jobs are so scarce … I think younger people need to be given the chance whenever possible …

Examiner: What are some of the important things a candidate should find out before accepting a job?

Ali: Well … you’d need to know about your area of responsibility … and your salary of course and then there are things like holiday entitlement … maternity or paternity leave … if you’re thinking of having children … and what the situation is regarding sick leave … that kind of thing …

Examiner: What are the advantages of having your own business rather than working for someone else?

Julie: Well … unfortunately being an employee at the moment is very stressful … people have very heavy workloads … they’re always under pressure to meet deadlines … running your own business isn’t easy … but I do think it would be far more satisfying …