Unit 5Careers and ProfessionsThink ahead/Warm upWhat kind of career would you like to follow after your graduation? /what would you like to do after your graduation?What characteristics and skills do you need to be successful in that job? /what characteristics and skills do you think are the prerequisite for a job?Part 1Task 2Exercise 11. F2.T3.F4.TExercise 21.find assignments on the company’s core project/ work on core project2.build a relationship with the boss3.Be prepared.Part 2Task 1Exercise 1English level: fluent, got the certificate of the Secondary English TrainingHealth condition: in top conditionWorking experience: two years of nursing experience, and nowworking as a nurse in a hospitalHeight: one meter and sixty-eight centimeters/168cmEyesight: never had any vision problemsStrengths: friendliness, open-minded attitude, a warm personality Weak points: hard to tell others when she does n’t like what they are doingExercise 2flying into the blue skyworking with peoplequite fluentmake the passenger relaxed and happyin top conditionany vision problemspeak in another languageuse gestures and draw picturesTask2Exercise 1C A B A DExercise 21. space store run2. technical computer-related3. health paid vacation4. training5. startupAdditional listeningExercise 21.a decade2.fortune’s best companies to work for list3.flexibility, financial security, opportunity to get things done4.make a positive impact on the environment5.form a green strategy groupPart 1Task 2Recession- proof your jobHistory shows that employers generally stop hiring and start staff during a downturn. The most recent recession in 1991 and 2001 saw significant job cuts as soon as the recession started. So far, government debt on the job’s market shows that hiring is slowing but many economists believe we’ll see layoffs in the coming month.So what can you do to recession-proof your job? Our placement firm challenger gray & Christmas makes a few suggestions.Fir st, find assignments on the company’s core projects. If the effort is central to the firm’s revenue, working there makes you that much safer. Secondly, build a relationship with the boss. Many employees fly under the radar in a time of cutbacks, being more than just and enormous name on the payroll can help keep your job safe. Finally, be prepared. In a downturn, it’s important to have savings ready, should you be laid off and brush up the resume.With the ABC news money minute, I’m Betsy stark in New Y ork.Job interviewInterviewer=I applicant=AI: what made you decide on this type of occupation?a: oh, to tell you the truth, I love the sky. When I was a child, I imagined flying into the blue sky some day. Now, I think the day has come. My dream will come true. And I like traveling very much and I enjoy working with people.I: can you make yourself understood in English without too much difficulty?A: yes, I think I am quite fluent in English; I got the certificate of the secondary English training last month.I: do you know what the responsibilities are for a stewardess?A: the main responsibility of the stewardess is to make the passengers relaxed and happy during the flight. And good service is also important.I: are you in good health?A: I just had a complete physical examination and I am I top condition.I: have you had any nursing experience?A: yes, I have two years of nursing experience, and now I am working a nurse in a hospital.I: how tall are you? What about your weight?A: my weight is one meter and sixty-eight centimeters. I’ve never had any vision problems.I: what would you say are your strengths and weaknesses?A: one of my strengths is my friendliness and open-minded attitude and also I think I have a warm personality. But sometimes, I f ind it is hard to tell others when I don’t like they are doing.I: if a passenger can’t understand what you say, what should you do?A: I will try to speak in another language or I’ll try my best to use gestures and drawpictures.Job huntingA: so, have you found a job yet?B: no, but, I have a few leads, so things are looking up.A: but isn’t that what you always say?B: well…uh…this time is different.A: what are you looking for this time then?B: actually, I want to work for a web hosting company.A: what would you do there?B: well, in a nutshell, you know web hosting companies provide space for people to store and run their websites. Does it sound like I know what I’m talking about? A: oh, yeah, sort of.B: well, and then, sort of? Well, they allow people to run the websites without having to buy and maintain their own servers，and I’d like to work in technical support, you know, helping customer resolve computer-related problems with their sites.And you know I’m a good communicator.A: so, how’s the pay for that kind of job?B: well, most people I know start out with a very reasonable salary; you can earn pay increases depending on your performance.A: so, what about benefits?B: oh, the benefits are pretty good. They provide health insurance, two weeks of paid vacation a year, and opportunities for advancement. And in the end, I’d like to work in a management position. Y ou know, sitting back, enjoying the view out of the twentieth-story window of the office building. Something like that.A: well, is there long-term security in a job like that?B: uhh. That’s hard to tell. I mean, the internet is booming, and these kinds of companies are sprouting up everywhere, which is a good thing, but just like the dot-com era, you never know how long things will last.a: well, have you ever thought about going back to school to improve your job skills? B: wait, wait. What are you suggesting?A: well, you know, more training might help you land a better job.B: wh…wh…are you trying to say something about my current job? I mean, is threw something going on here? I mean, what are you saying?A: you know, you did drop out of college.B: I know, I know, but I don’t know. I’ just seeing my current job at McDonald’s as a startup. Y eah, but, you know, I don’t have th e resources to go back to school atthe moment, however, the job I am looking at will pay for some classes after in have been with the company for six months.A: well, it looks like you have things planned out this time.B: if I last that long.Google: the best company to work forA little more than a decade ago, Google was an internet startup headquartered in a garage.Today it’s the world’s largest search engine, with 50 offices globally and more than 12,000 employees. For the second straight year, i t’s also no.1 on fortune’s best companies to work for list; what’s fueling the growth? Employees say it’s the flexibility, financial security of course, and the opportunity to get things done. “Right now, we are standing in front of just one part of our large 1.6 megawatt solar installation. These are the solar panels that are providing clear electricity to our buildings.” Robyn beavers have been leading the green business and operations can make a positive impact on the environment, but also we can do in a way that makes sense to our bottom line.” Keeping Google green hasn’t always been part of her job description. When I first tarried at Google, I was one of the assistants to the two co-founders Larry page and Sergey Brin. I started in May, 2004, which is right before the IPO of Google. A really interesting thing about Google is that, it always encourages some employees to try new things; I went to Larry and Sergey and proposed that we form a green strategy group. And although I was their current direct report and I would have been inconvenient to lose me. Their INFOL support actually helps me found this team within Google.”“this session is really just a brainstorming session…” mobility within departments is not uncommon. In part because of a 20-percent-time initiative, allowing employees to spend on day a week on a project of their choice. “I talk to a lot of people of Google, and they found that once they started here and you learn so much about the company and there are so many opportunities, they are enc ouraged to seize them, so it’s easy to start in one job, work really hard at it for a couple of years, and then find a new opportunity to pursue.”A brief introduction to Google (which can be found on the internet, if you are interested, you can find more.)IntroductionGoogle is a Web search engine owned by Google, Inc., and is the most used search engine on the Web, related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google receives several hundred million queries each day through its various services.Google search was originally developed by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1997. The Google headquarters, the Googolplex, is located in Mountain View, California. As of 30 September 2008 the company has 20,123 full-time employees.History of GoogleGoogle began in January 1996, as a research project by Larry Page, who was soon joined by Sergey Brin, two Ph.D. students at Stanford University in California. They hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better ranking of results than existing techniques, which ranked results according to the number of times the search term appeared on a page. Their search engine was originally nicknamed "Backrub" because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site. A small search engine called Rankdex was already exploring a similar strategy.Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally, the search engine used the Stanford University website with the domain . The domain was registered on 15 September 1997, and the company was incorporated as Google Inc. on 4 September 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California. The total initial investment raised for the new company amounted to almost US$1.1 million, inc luding a US$100,000 check by Andy Bechtolsheim, one of the founders of Sun Microsystems.In March 1999, the company moved into offices in Palo Alto, home to several other noted Silicon Valley technology startups. After quickly outgrowing two other sites, the company leased a complex of buildings in Mountain View at 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway from Silicon Graphics (SGI) in 2003.The company has remained at this location ever since, and the complex has since come to be known as the Googolplex (a play on the word googolplex). In 2006, Google bought the property from SGI for US$319 million.The Google search engine attracted a loyal following among the growing number of Internet users, who liked its simple design and useful results. In 2000, Google began selling advertisements associated with search keywords. The ads were text-based to maintain an uncluttered page design and to maximize page loading speed. Keywords were sold based on a combination of price bid and clickthroughs, with bidding starting at US$.05 per click. This model of selling keyword advertising was pioneered by (later renamed Overture Services, before being acquired by Yahoo! and rebranded as Yahoo! Search Marketing). was an Idea lab spin offcreated by Bill Gross, and was the first company to successfully provide a pay-for-placement search service. Overture Services later sued Google over alleged infringements of Overture'spay-per-click and bidding patents by Google's Ad Words service. The case was settled out of court, with Google agreeing to issue shares of common stock to Yahoo! in exchange for a perpetual license.. Thus, while many of its dot-com rivals failed in the new Internet marketplace, Google quietly rose in stature while generating revenue.The name "Google" originated from a common misspelling of the word "googol”, which refers to 10100, the number represented by a 1 followed by one hundred zeros. Having found its way increasingly into everyday language, the verb "Google", was added to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary in 2006, meaning "to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet."A patent describing part of the Google ranking mechanism (Page Rank) was granted on 4 September 2001. The patent was officially assigned to Stanford University and lists Lawrence Page as the inventor.。