Lesson 3: The secret of my success (pre-class)

Task 1. Read the title, introduction and text headings. Think over the following questions.

1. Which jobs do you think are the most and least prestigious?
2. What qualifications, personal qualities, work experience, etc. would you need in order to get one of these jobs? What might hold you back from achieving your aim?

Task 2. Read the strategy and then for questions 1-7 choose from people (A-C). The people may be chosen more than once.

Which person ...

1. overcame a financially disadvantaged background to become successful?

2. was rewarded for all the effort put into a work placement?

3. believes that personal recommendation was the main factor in obtaining a job?

4. appreciated being offered encouragement and expertise as a student?

5. is aware that knowing influential people would have been a career benefit?

6. used to feel depressed by the lack of job opportunities?

7. had a false career start?

What it takes to land a top job
Three high-flying graduates talk about what it takes to land a top job in one of the elite professions.
A: The barrister
At the age of nine, without a word of English, Hashi was sent from Kenya to live in Britain, where he was raised exclusively on state benefits, with very little to live on. 'I attended badly performing schools and was always moving around between different relatives.' Despite this, Hashi managed to scrape through his exams and get into university to study law. Much later, having done a master's degree, he was set on becoming a barrister so that he could represent people in court. 'But first you have to do a work placement where you shadow a barrister. Unfortunately, it took me 18 months before I was accepted because I didn't have any contacts in the profession. It isn't fair, but there is no point trying to pick a fight with a system: Now a junior barrister at a top firm, Hashi attributes this outstanding achievement against the odds to a combination of the people who believed in him, the scholarships and loans which enabled him to afford the course, strong self-discipline and a lot of hard work.

B: The fashion designer
Having set her heart from childhood on a career in costume design, Lilly worked in the theatre straight after school, only to realize that this job wasn't for her. Literature, which she tried next, bored her. 'So I sent some drawings off and was accepted for an art degree, which I loved because I had tutors who were clued up and knew what they were talking about. But it was the head of the course on my master's degree in fashion who really helped me to develop my confidence and individual style. Every summer, I was taken on for a three-month work placement, organized by the college. I took these really seriously — I can't understand people who are half-hearted about them. In my second year, I was making prints 16 hours a day for a famous designer and some of them got used in his fashion collection.' However, though Lilly did work for a number of renowned designers, there were also discouragingly long periods of unemployment before she finally got a permanent job.

C: The banker
While still at the London School of Economics (LSE), Wen Du got some work experience in banking. 'LSE helps you to find these work placements but it's still quite tough, so I had to do loads of networking. When you are eventually looking for a job, you need certain academic qualifications so companies will be interested in interviewing you. But, after that, it's more about how much you know about banking, so experience while you are still at university is vital. I was working 12-13 hours a day during my placements but you take long hours in stride provided you are learning. After I finished university, I was offered a job at one of my work placements. However, I had the opportunity to do a master's degree in finance, so I did that first. For me, salary isn't the main priority in a first job; it's about how much you can learn and how much responsibility your line manager will give you. I now have a job that has always interested me, thanks to friends that worked here and could vouch for me.

Task 3. Read the strategy and then for questions 1-5 choose from people (A-C). The people may be chosen more than once.

1. to succeed in doing something with difficulty, especially in passing an exam

2. to be with somebody who is doing a particular job, so that you can learn about it

3. to say or think that something is the result of a particular thing

4. you do or achieve something although there were a lot of problems and you were not likely to succeed

5. to deal with something calmly and easily

6. to say that (someone or something) is honest, true, or good