新編大學英語第二冊unit3 Text B: Summer Job Planning
UNIT 3 AFTER-CLASS READING 1; New College English (II)
Summer Job Planning
1 Assuming that you know what you want to do after college and you may be considered shortsighted these days if you have not picked a career by the time you enter college you should start thinking about a job even before you graduate.
2 What companies or organizations have the job you want? Let's say you majored in English or history and you want to write a great novel. You need a job to support and educate you. You have to select from a list of several possibilities, not unlike choosing an option from the 'menu on the screen of a personal computer. Your options might include:
A. Working for a publishing company
B. Writing for a scientific company
C. Working for a public relations firm
D. Going to graduate school to postpone decision
E. None of these
3 If you select option A, for example, it would be a good idea to write letters while you are in college to a dozen or more publishing houses and ask for an interview with the personnel director. If you happen to have a contact such as an editor who might be willing to meet with you, so much the better
4 Make every effort to have an interview. You should be familiar with the company before your interview and your aim should be to express to the personnel manager your interest in working for the company. You might ask if a summer job (with pay, if possible) or an internship is available. In many cases interns do receive a small stipend; in others no pay is offered.
5 It is important at this stage of your life to find a summer job that will enhance your future career. If you cannot find one in your field, then the alternative is to take another type of summer job lifeguard, housepainter, landscaper, waitress, or worker in a retail store or supermarket. These jobs tend to pay quite well, and you can save enough for many college expenses. That aspect has to be weighed against the fact that they might not help your career plans. Any summer job that requires hard work and a certain amount of responsibility is good for your r?I found that the only organization that would hire me (except for restaurants) was Filene's, the big Boston department store that operated a summer branch on Cape Cod, where my family vacationed. During my freshman year at college I paid a visit to the Northampton, Mass. branch, a year-round operation. I asked for a job selling on Saturdays and a job the following summer. I was hired on the spot. The following summer the manager of the Northampton shop assumed management of the Cape Cod branch for the summer, and she asked me to come along as a salesgirl.
8 All through college I earned my expenses by working for Filene's on the Cape during the summer months and on Saturdays and sale days during the college years. I also conceived and wrote copy for the advertisements that Filene's ran in our college newspaper during the winter, and an art major did the drawings based on my ideas. By the time I was a senior I knew that I did not want to go into retailing, but it was my hedge against the future. I knew from conversations with the store manager that if I could not find a newspaper reporting job I could find a spot on the Filene's training squad, and use that step toward a writing job.
