Unit 1B

Word

Definition

Example

networking

the activity of meeting people who might be useful to know, especially in your job

He spent the evening doing networking.

cold-calling

the act of phoning or visiting a possible customer to try to sell them a product or service without being asked by the customer to do so

He was prepared for a lot of knocking on doors and cold-calling to drum up business.

shear

to cut the wool off a sheep:

The farmer taught her how to shear sheep.

typo

a small mistake in a text made when it was typed or printed

The text was full of typos.

sought-after

wanted by many people and usually of high quality or rare

At the age of 17 she is already one of Hollywood's most sought-after actresses.

struggle

to experience difficulty and make a very great effort in order to do something

I've been struggling to understand this article all afternoon.

complain

to say that something is wrong or not satisfactory

Lots of people have complained about the noise.

bucket list

a list of the things that a person would like to do or achieve before they die:

I have so many things on my bucket list yet to do.

miss the point

to not understand something correctly or what is important about it

What you say is true, but you've missed the point of my argument.

fair enough

used to admit that something is reasonable or acceptable

I think we should split the bill.' 'Fair enough.'

hold your own

to be as successful as other people or things in a situation

Josie can hold her own in any argument.

keep your nose to the gridnstone

to work very hard for a long time

She kept her nose to the grindstone all year and got the exam results she wanted.

challenging

difficult in an interesting or enjoyable way

It sounds good but the job's pretty challenging.

rewarding

providing personal satisfaction

I think being a nurse is a very rewarding job

repetitive

repetitive and persistent

I couldn't work on a factory production line. It's such a repetitive job

expectation

what you expect to happen or what you expect something to be like

My expectations were a bit unrealistic.

genuine

if something is genuine, it really is what it seems to be

If those are genuine diamonds, they'll be worth a fortune!

cause

to make something happen

Her actions caused us a lot of problems.

tedious

boring, repetitive, or slow or long

Debugging code can be a tedious process without the correct knowledge and tools.

career ladder

jobs that a person has

You need to work hard if you want to move up the career ladder

be fired

to be forced to leave your job

I think Jodie is going to be fired tomorrow.

be sacked

to remove someone from a job, usually because they have done something wrong or badly, or sometimes as a way of saving the cost of employing them

They sacked her for being late.

perks

benefits provided by the company

Many agencies are trying to retain personnel by providing perks at work

benefits

an advantage such as medical insurance, life insurance, and sick pay, that employees receive from their employer in addition to money

There's something empowering about a steady pay cheque, fixed work hours and company benefits.

civil servant

a person who works for local, state, or esp. the federal government

He was the only career civil servant to become an under secretary of Treasury.

staff

all the people employed by a particular organization

200 assembly line workers and 30 sales staff were employed there