2 VIP Class Notes (Ally)[S]

Read some news in English each day

Vocabulary

bureaucratic: office politics (adj)
ie. Some local governments in China are being bureaucratic is dealing with the citizen’s issues.

corny: typical/disgusting/ tu wei
ie. I know it sounds corny, but you are really my soulmate.

fidgeting: small actions with hands, touching all sorts of stuff, playing with hair etc. for sb who’s uneasy
ie. DT was fidgeting in his press conference.

stagnant: unmoving not changing 停滞的; 不发展的; 无变化的
ie. I don’t like to remain stagnant professionally.

heritage: legacy
ie. Kobe Bryant left a huge heritage/legacy.

amicable: less than friendly 心平气和的; 友善的
ie. We need an amicable work environment

intertwined: 缠结，缠绕在一起; 紧密相连
ie. Their destinies are intertwined.

correspondence: tong xin
ie. All your correspondence is in English.

stake: something that matters (at stake)
ie. You would do better if your career was at stake.
ie. With our relationship at stake, I suggest you answer my question very carefully.

Grammar

people-pleasers

“make a difference” – have a great influence
ie. I want to quit my job because I don’t feel like I can make a difference. (I don’t matter)
ie. Be someone who can make a difference in the world.

leadership (noun)= management level (of company/of country)

“excuse my French”

It also could be digital way of clubs.
Or it could also be a “club” in a digital sense.

Everything about work would not be fun.
Nothing about work is supposed to be fun.

They always talk bad of people.
They always talk behind people’s backs.

Everyone who has a good relationship with would leave this company.

My next job, I will pay more attention to the atmosphere of this company.
For my next job/when I get the next opportunity, I would consider/think about the work environment/atmosphere a bit more.

At this age, I’m supposed to be mature. (<– you’re not mature)
But I am mature, as a 33 year-old adult.
But I am 33, so this is how mature I’m supposed to be./I’m supposed to be mature, like this.

It is reasonable that parents should raise their kids by themselves, not by their grandparents.
Parents should raise their kids by themselves, not just handing them off to the grandparents.

I want to be a reasonable person at work, but my stupid colleagues keep driving me crazy.
I think Hermes bags are very pretty, but their price is unreasonable. (crazy)

Parent should raise their kids by their grandparents.
Parents should raise/Grandparents should raise.
The kids should be raised by their grandparents.

Q: Tell me about yourself
A: I have more than 10 years exp in CRM. So I think I’m quite expert in this field. I’m here for interviewing the CRManager position and I think I’m quite suitable for this job for the below three reasons. The first one is about my working exp; the position I am applying for has a lot of similarities to my last job, they are in the same industry and they’re targeting the same end clients, so I’m quite sure I know about this industry. Also, I have a v good understanding of our end consumers. The second reason is I think I am a very logical person and I have very good leadership. i think I can lead our team to a success in the future. The last but not least is I feel it’s a little bit challenging to myself. Even though I have similar exp in the past, I also feel it’s a challenging position because we’re living in the world with rapid changes in the digital world, so I want to make a difference to my last job and I want to be outstanding in this field. So I’m not doing the same thing as before and I want to be outstanding for this part.

Edited:

A: I have more than 10 years of exp in CRM. So I think I’m quite an/the expert in this field. I’m here to interview for the CRManager position and I think I’m suitable for this job for the following three reasons. The first one is about my work exp; the position I am applying for has a lot of similarities with my last job, they are in the same industry and they target the same end clients, so I am familiar with/good knowledge of this industry. Also, due to my extensive exp/long history of working with clients/maintaining relationships with clients, I have a v good understanding of our end consumers. The second reason is that I think I am a very logical person and I have very good leadership abilities. I think I can lead our team to many successes in the future. Last but not least, even though I have similar exp in the past, I also feel this may be a new challenge to me. We’re living in a world with rapid changes in the digital world, and I believe that I must adapt to these changes/I must grow as quickly as this world changes. That’s why I want to be different and I welcome new challenges in this job. So I’m not doing the same thing as before and I want to be outstanding in this field.

Q: Biggest strength/weakness
A: I think I’m a very strategic, logical person. This is the skills that I’ve been improving in the past working experience. The reason why I left my last job is because I think the management they don’t have a clear strategy and directions towards the market. I think I also have have very good abilities of execution and I also pay attention to the details, so i can get my projects done in a very perfect way. As for my weaknesses, I’m not very good at socializing with people. I want to find a company with a very easy relationship among the colleagues. I also have some difficulties in dealing with pressure.

A: I think I’m a very strategic, logical person. This is the skill set that I’ve been improving on in the past years working as a CRM. The reason why I left my last job is that I think the management team didn’t have a clear strategy and directions towards the market. So I felt very lost, and there were a lot of inconsistencies in their directions. I also have very good abilities of execution and I always pay attention to the details, so I can get my projects done efficiently in a professional way. I always make sure they’re up to my standards, which are quite high. As for my weaknesses, I’m not very good at socializing with people. So I’m looking for a company with a very easy work environment among the colleagues. 

Q: Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
A: I see myself as a marketing manager in the next 5 years. I have a accumulated a lot of project experiences in the past few years so I think I am very confident of leading a project independently by myself. So I am facing two ways of my career path. One is go for the leader in the specific CRM field, like I can lead a team focused on CRM. The other one is to extend my responsibilities to other fields, like digital or branding.
A: I see myself as a CRM leader or marketing manager in the next 5 years. I have a accumulated a lot of project experiences in the past few years so I think I am very confident to lead a project independently. I am very excited to accomplish successes in work by myself. Right now, I am facing two different career paths; one vertical and one horizontal. I can stick to CRM, and with hard work, eventually become a leader in the specific CRM field. I can lead a team focused on CRM. The other path is to extend my role/knowledge to other fields, like digital or branding. I am equally excited by both opportunities, so I’ll just see where my opportunities take me.

Q: How do you deal with difficulties/failure? Tell me about one time when you met a difficult situation at work.
A: There would be two types of difficulties. One is the professional or projects difficulties, I’m quite sure I can handle all the projects difficulties by myself. I can ask for advice from my friends or my colleagues, eventually this kind of problems can be solved. The other is the politics difficulties, like the interest conflict between two departments, in this case I would go to my boss for help. For example, I’m doing a project data integration, from marketing point of view I think marketing CRM is supposed to lead this project, while our E-commerce team thinks they should lead the project. We had a meeting with our CEO to ask for his support in this project. We persuaded the CEO to support us, because I gave him very solid case references in the market. And he thinks we’re reasonable of doing this.
A:I have met/encountered two types of difficulties in my work. One is the difficulties relating to specific projects/work responsibilities, I’m quite confident that I can handle all the projects difficulties by myself. If I can’t, I wouldn’t hesitate to ask for advice from my friends or my colleagues, and with teamwork, this kind of problems can be solved. The other is the bureaucratic difficulties, like a inter-departmental/ conflict of interest between two departments, in this case, I would go to my boss for help. For example, I did/was responsible for a data integration project. From my/our/the marketing point of view, I think marketing CRM is supposed to lead this project, while our E-commerce team thinks they should lead the project. We had a meeting with our CEO to ask for his support. I really did my homework on this one; I prepared a thorough powerpoint with solid case references. In the end, we persuaded the CEO to support us; he thought our reasons were very valid./it’s reasonable to give us this project.

Pronunciation

kind – k+I+n+d

“A” and “ee”

maintain – mane+tane (not mainten) = may+n + tay+n