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BEC : Resumes -Vocabulary

Hello, this is AJ. Let’s get started with the vocabulary lesson. So the first word is ‘concrete’, concrete. Now, here we’re using it as an adjective. Concrete means real.

The most direct meaning of that word is something you can actually pick up and hold and feel. It’s real. It’s solid.

When we’re talking about ‘concrete accomplishments’, ‘concrete achievements’, we’re kind of talking about things that are measurable, things that can be seen. So when you talk about a concrete accomplishment, it really needs to be something that’s solid, that’s measurable, especially if it’s measurable. If you can say I started a program and our sales increased 10%. That’s a great concrete achievement because, again, it can be measured. It’s kind of real. Concrete means hard, solid, real.

The next phrase is ‘big ticket item’, a big ticket item. In this conversation a big ticket item really means kind of like a big idea or a very important idea. In sales a big ticket item means a very expensive item. ‘Ticket’ kind of means price ticket, so a big ticket item means something that’s expensive or it’s at the top or it’s very, very, very important.

Okay, ‘resume’ we’ve talked about. A resume is a one or two page paper with your name, your contact information, your job history and your education. It’s the way you kind of advertise yourself for new positions.

Okay, ‘to coordinate’ as a verb, to coordinate. To coordinate means to organize really, to organize, to manage. It has the idea of there are many parts or many people involved and you’re helping to organize them all to achieve something. So you can coordinate a project. It means you’re organizing the project.

‘Fluff stuff’ –This is kind of an idiom, fluff stuff, fluff. Fluff is really the opposite of concrete. Fluff means something that is not important. It’s not really hard or solid or real.

It’s more kind of light, unimportant. So, for example, people will put fluff stuff on their resume. They put fluff on their resume. It means they put stuff on there just to fill it up to make it look big or look long, but it’s not actually very important stuff. It may sound good, but it’s not real.

I don’t know an example of this, but you might put something on there that just really is not a real accomplishment. That would be fluff. So that’s not what you want, you want the concrete things, things that are real and solid.

Next phrase is ‘track record’. A track record is a history. So it really means history, a track record. So a track record of accomplishments means a history of accomplishments.

‘Interviewee’. Interviewee is the person who wants the job. They’re being interviewed.

They’re the ones answering the questions. The ‘interviewer’, they’re the one who is doing the hiring. They are the ones asking the questions. They are leading the interview.

The interviewee is the guest. They’re answering the questions. They want the job.

A ‘sales pitch’, pitch. A sales pitch is just a sales presentation really. It’s a little speech or a little talk that’s designed to sell something.

‘Nuts and bolts’, the nuts and bolts of something really means the details of something; what makes it work. So if we’re talking about the nuts and bolts of a resume it means the parts that make it work; the details. You’ve got the accomplishments.

You’ve got your job history. You’ve got your education history. Those are the nuts and bolts. Those are the details of the resume.

‘Head count’, head count --Head count just means the number of people in a group.

So if you reduce head count that might be a good thing. If you are the manager of a department and you reduce the number of people in the department but you still get the same results, you still make the same money, everything is the same, but with fewer people then that’s more efficient. That’s more productive so that could be a good situation, reducing head count, reducing the number of people.

‘Dot your i’s and cross your t’s’. That just means to be very careful about the details.

It means to check all the details and be sure all of the details are correct. So with this resume it means to check it. Make sure the spelling is correct. All the little, small details, make sure they’re all good.

‘Traumatic’, that word traumatic, the word traumatic means very, very painful, emotionally painful; very emotionally painful. Going to a job interview can be traumatic.

It can be very emotionally painful. Sometimes this word has the idea of emotional pain that will last a long time. Something really bad happens to you and then you always remember it and for some people job searching is that way.

‘Out of date’ –If your resume is out of date it means it’s not current, it’s not fresh. Out of date means old. Out of date means it’s not ready for today. We can talk about, for example, out of date food. We can talk about food that is out of date. It means it’s old.

It’s not fresh anymore. Well, your resume can be out of date. If you don’t have your most recent job on your resume, maybe it’s five years old, then it’s out of date. It’s not current. It’s not fresh.

‘To network’, used as a verb, to network, this is a common business phrase you hear all the time. To network means to meet people. It means just to consciously, it means to think about it, consciously go out and meet people for the purpose of business or the purpose of hopefully getting a job in the future or just the purpose of helping each other or just building a network. So it can be used as a noun too. ‘A network’ is a group of connected people. ‘To network’ means to go out and meet people and build your network.

My dad said ‘viola’, viola. Viola it’s like aha! There’s no meaning it’s just something you say that shows kind of like surprise. It has the idea that something suddenly happens.

Viola! I was at the bank and, viola, they gave me money. It means something suddenly happened that may be a little surprising.

‘To downsize’ –I think we’ve mentioned this one before, but to downsize means to cut people, to cut employees. It’s a common word used in American companies. When they have to cut employees they’ll say we are downsizing or we need to downsize.

‘Over the water cooler’, over the water cooler - That’s kind of an idiom and it means like informally. So if you talk to people over the water cooler it’s the idea that’s it’s not a formal business discussion. Like, for example, maybe you’re in the lunch room or the break room and you’re just chatting. Maybe you’re chatting about a movie you saw or just casually chatting. It’s not official, so over the water cooler. If you say oh, I was talking over the water cooler and I head some information. It just means you were talking casually to somebody.

Okay and, finally, ‘low and behold’. Low and behold means you use it just before you a state a result. So you say I worked hard and then, low and behold, I got more money.

Low and behold announces a result. You use it before you say a result. It’s very, very casual.

That’s all. Those are all of our phrases for this conversation. As always, just listen to each of the audios in the set every day for seven, 10 or 14 days. The more you listen to each one, the more you repeat, the deeper these new words go into your conscious, into your brain, the deeper the grammar goes into your brain and the deeper the pronunciation goes in.

You learn it more and more deeply so you can use it more automatically, so you can understand it in real conversations instantly. That takes repetition. Repetition is required.

You nee to do this every day and repeat these same lessons again and again and again, seven days, eight days, nine days, 14 days in a row.

All right, see you next time. Bye-bye.

The End.