STARTING A JOB at an English speaking company - Tips and Vocabulary

Starting a job at an English speaking company can be a challenge. So much new information, meeting new people, and lots of conversations. Although listening is important, knowing what to say when you speak is important too. So for people who speak English as a 2nd language, today we're going to discuss some tips and vocabulary that we can use to make starting work at an English speaking employer as easy, simple, and stress free as possible. We'll hear some idioms, phrasal verbs, and more formal ways to express your ideas, to ask questions, to clarify information, and to introduce yourself. At the end we'll have a vocabulary quiz to see if you can remember what you learned, and a speaking challenge to get you talking!

Transcript

Introduction

Welcome back to the Breakout Business English podcast. Helping you to communicate better at work. Hi everyone, my name is Chris and I’m an online business English coach and tutor. Thank you so much for stopping by and for today we’re going to talk about how to make starting a new job a great experience.

We’re going to look at some natural, native, and professional ways to communicate with your colleagues in the first days of a new job and some tips that you can use to make sure everything goes smoothly! We’re going to go through some great vocabulary that can help you out, then finally, we’re going to finish with a quiz to see what you remember from today’s podcast. Oh, and I’ll leave you with a speaking challenge too! So let’s get started with our first tip today.

—----------------

1

Introduce yourself to your new colleagues

If you’re looking for a numerical goal for your first few days, how about aiming for as many introductions as possible. So many people start new jobs and immediately disappear into their shells. They are scared to talk to people, even more scared to introduce themselves, and when they do finally find the courage to meet one of their colleagues it ends up being a really stressful experience! As with so many things, the more you introduce yourself, the more natural it will feel, and the more relaxed you will feel at work. Remember, everyone was new once, so most people will be very happy to welcome you to the team. Let’s take a look at some natural and native phrases to use in your introductions.

Hi, I’m Chris. I’m just getting settled in here. 

I’m still learning how everything works around here, trying to take it all in

I’m just learning the ropes right now, there’s a lot to take on board

There are so many phrases and idioms that we can use when meeting people for the first time! And, of course, using idioms is great in less formal conversations with native speakers. Don’t forget however, non-native English speakers might not know some of these!

Let’s start with “I’m just learning the ropes”. This is an idiom that likely comes from the UK’s long history of shipping and boats. Many years ago, if you started work on a ship, there were always a lot of ropes. Ropes to pull up sails, ropes to hold things down, ropes to move things. Almost everything was connected to a rope! One of the first things that you needed to do was to learn what all of these did! So, today, we use the idiom “learn the ropes” to talk about learning the basics of a job or skill. It’s a great phrase!

We also heard there, “I’m just getting settled in”. We often hear this when people move into a new house, or maybe arrive at a hotel for a short stay. This is the phrasal verb, “to settle in”, which means to become familiar with somewhere new and start to feel happy and comfortable there. For instance, “how is your son settling in at his new school?” or maybe, “welcome to the team, I’ll leave you to get settled in. If you need anything, just ask”.

—-----------------

2

Understand how your performance is assessed 

If you’re starting a new job then there’s a good chance that you’re making a big change professionally. Maybe you’ve moved into a more senior role, maybe you’ve taken a similar role in a different organisation, or maybe you’ve changed industries entirely. If you’re anything like me you’ve worked in several industries over the course of your career. There’s a good chance that, given this change, the way that your performance is assessed in the role will change too. Maybe you think you know how your performance is assessed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry and ask the question! Something as important as this is probably not something we should be guessing or making assumptions about. Perhaps there are more targets than you thought there were, or you might be pleasantly surprised to find that you have a lot more freedom than you thought you did. Either way, here are some great ways to bring up this issue with your managers and have a conversation about how your performance will be assessed.

I’d love to know how often I’ll have performance reviews and what kinds of things you take into account when assessing how I’m doing.

What kind of KPIs should I be aware of?

What are the most important targets that I should be shooting for? Is there anything that you think I might struggle with that I should be aware of?

Let’s take a look at that vocabulary there and start with KPIs. KPI is an acronym that stands for key performance indicator and is an idea that is present in a lot of industries. This is usually a number or statistic that you need to aim for or that your managers will be hoping for. If you’re lucky you have few, or even no KPIs at all, however I’ve definitely worked in environments with lots of KPIs.

We also heard there the phrase “shooting for” to be “shooting for something”. When we talk about numbers that we want to achieve or goals we can also call these targets. Just as I can shoot a target with a weapon, I can also shoot for a target in my work. For instance, we might say, “we’re shooting for a 10pm finish, however, this meeting might run late”. Or maybe, “I want you to shoot for a 10% improvement this quarter.”

—------------------

3

Ask for clarification if necessary

One of the best pieces of advice that I ever heard on the topic of starting a new job was to listen twice as much as you talk, so I wanted to include it here. If you’re anything like me you probably love to talk. It’s something that I am very conscious of when I’m working with clients coaching them on their English communication skills. However, taking in information is going to be far more important than giving information out in the early stages of a new job. That being said, on this podcast we focus on what you say when you are the person speaking, so let’s focus for a moment on clarification. One thing that sometimes happens when you’re listening, especially if you’re listening to your second language, is that you might not be sure of some of the details of what you’re being told. Being ready and prepared to ask for clarification is a great skill to have when you’re new to a job. There’s going to be a lot of listening to do, and a lot of new information to take on board, so let's take a look at some really natural and native ways to ask for clarification of something that you’re being told.

Could you run through that one more time for me, I just want to make sure I know what I’m doing.

I just want to make sure I understand, would you mind going over that again please.

OK, I think I’ve got this, but I just want to double check. Could you tell me one more time from the top please?

That’s a lot to take on board, would you might just walking me through it one more time please

There were some great phrasal verbs there that we can use to ask someone to explain something, or talk about the details of something. We heard, “could you run though that”, “would you mind going over that”, and “would you mind walking me through it”. All of these are great ways to ask for details, especially complicated details. Feel free to try those out next time you want someone to repeat something for you.

My favourite piece of vocabulary here is “from the top”. This is a phrase that we often hear at concerts or in the theatre, however, it’s very common in workplaces too. This means to do something from the beginning or the start. We often use it when repeating an activity or when we have to begin something again. For instance, “could you explain that to me once more from the top please?” Or maybe, “This project took two years so let’s just take it from top and I’ll explain how we got started”.

—-----------------

4

Volunteer for tasks and show willing

Everyone likes someone who wants to get their hands dirty and hit the ground running. You might find that your managers in your new role want you to sit back and learn for your first few days. Maybe you’re shadowing a colleague, following them around throughout the day and finding out what it’s really like to do the job. However, every manager likes a colleague who is willing to put themselves forward for tasks. To raise their hand and volunteer for a task or a team. So if it’s your first few days, here are some natural and native sounding phrases and sentences that you can use to offer your time and energy to help out your colleagues.

If it’s possible, I’d love to roll my sleeves up and do some work

I’ve been excited to hit the ground running so I’d like to jump in and help out

I’m happy to start pulling my weight straight away 

I’m happy to chip in if you think I could be of use

Idioms and phrasal verbs are key to sounding more native and natural, but also to understanding native speakers. Let’s talk through some of the vocabulary we heard in those examples. The first piece of vocabulary there was to “roll up your sleeves”. Well, what are sleeves? These are the parts of your clothes that cover your arms, the part of your shirt or coat that goes from the shoulder to your wrist. If you’re doing anything particularly complicated then you might not want these to be in the way. In some situations it might even be dangerous, especially if you’re working in a factory or doing some kind of manual work. So, we say that we’re going to “roll up our sleeves” when we intend to do some practical, hands on work.

We also heard there, “I’m happy to start pulling my weight”. This is another great idiom. Imagine that you’re rowing a boat. There is a team of people all pulling hard on the oars to make the boat move. If you’re pulling your weight then you’re doing your fair share of the work. After all, if you’re in a boat and you’re not pulling your weight, then someone else might have to work harder! So if we say that someone “needs to start pulling his weight”, we’re saying that they are not working hard enough and that the rest of the team is having to do more work as a result.

—-----------------

5

Ask for feedback

We talked earlier about understanding how your performance will be assessed, which is indeed important. However, getting feedback more frequently on how you’re performing is essential. It’s this feedback that allows us to think about what we’re doing and make changes to improve our performance. To course correct if we’re not doing things quite the right way. In the early stages of a job you will find that some managers and colleagues are great at offering feedback. However, for a lot of people, this doesn’t come naturally. Therefore, one thing that we can do is to invite this feedback from our colleagues. Let them know that you want to hear how you’re doing. You want to hear what you’re doing wrong and what you could be doing better. Let’s hear some great ways to invite feedback from your colleagues.

How do you think I’m getting on?

How am I doing so far? What do you think? So far so good?

Have you noticed anything that I could be doing better? 

“So far so good” is a phrase I really enjoy using. Maybe because it sounds so bouncy, like it’s a lyric from a song. So far so good means that, up to now, at this point, something is OK. It tells us that the part of the process or project that has already been completed has been successful. It doesn’t say anything about the future, it talks about performance up to and including the present. For instance, “How is your new car?”, “So far, so good. I’ve still got to take it on a really long drive however, and it hasn’t rained yet so I’ll let you know if anything changes”. Or maybe, “How is your new job going?”, “So far so good, everyone seems really nice and I’m really enjoying the work”.

—-----------------

Vocabulary quiz

OK, let’s take a look back at some of the vocabulary that we’ve discussed today and see what you can remember. Let’s start with this one.

Which idiom could we use if you’re ready to do some serious work? To work hard and to commit real time and effort to a task. This idiom includes a word that describes a part of your clothing. The part of your shirt that goes between your shoulder and your wrist is called your sleeve and this idiom is, to roll up your sleeves. Or to roll your sleeves up. For instance, “I’ve spent all week watching my new colleagues at work and now I’m excited to roll my sleeves up and join them”. 

Which phrase can we use to talk about something that we’re going to do, or explain, or discuss, starting at the very beginning. This is a place that we go from, and that place is not the bottom, it is the top. For instance, “thanks for explaining that to me. When the rest of the team arrive I’ll explain it to them from the top”.

Which bouncy sounding phrase can we use to say that up to this current moment in time, something is going well. If everything is OK so far, then we can say, “so far so good”. As in, “how is the project going?”, “so far so good, but the hard work starts next week”.

Let’s remind ourselves of a phrasal verb now. This phrasal verb is used to talk about becoming comfortable in a new role or place. The preposition in this phrasal verb is “in” and the verb begins with an “s”, and that word is “settle”. So this phrasal verb is, “settle in”. For instance, “take some time to get settled in and then we can go for a coffee”. Or, in a very common question to hear in your first few days in a new job, “how are you settling in?”

—----------------

Speaking challenge

Alright, let’s jump into a speaking challenge. The way this works is that I’m going to give you a question related to today’s topic. My challenge for you is to answer that question using as much of today’s vocabulary and as many of the ideas from today’s podcast as possible. If you feel like you can answer today’s question in a few seconds or a couple of sentences then set a stopwatch and see how long you can speak for. I would love it if you could spend 2 minutes or more speaking on the topic. On the other hand, if you find that you speak for too long then maybe you can try to limit yourself to 2 minutes! Either way, speaking is a really important part of improving your English. Even if it’s on your own, it’s still an important component of remembering this vocabulary and these ideas. So, how about this for today’s question. 

What did you find was the most challenging thing about the last job you started? How about the most enjoyable?

So there’s our question for today. At the end of today’s podcast I invite you to spend a couple of minutes speaking on this topic. Maybe you’ve got some thoughts that you’d like to discuss!

—----------

Outro

That is about all we have time for today, thank you so much for listening. I really hope you found today’s podcast useful. Starting a new job is something that everyone does at least once, so I’m glad we could discuss it today. Don’t forget that if you’d like to work with me to improve the way that you communicate at work then go to www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com, that’s www.breakoutbusinessenglish.com. If you’re listening to this on Apple podcasts then please feel free to leave a review, it really helps me out. So until next time, my name is Chris, this is the Breakout Business English podcast, and I’ll see you next time.