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Lesson 5

Job

These days, landing a good job after graduation isn’t a

walk in the park. In fact, it’s an intense struggle for survival,
where only thestrongest, the smartest, the most attractive,

the most persistent, or the luckiest gets the job. It’s not that not
enough jobs exist in Korea indeed there are high paying 3D

jobs or other lucrative blue collar jobs. It’s that more and more
Koreans are picky about the kind of job they what to have. More and more people desire

white collar jobs. They want more benefits, higher pay, less work and more free time. Being

a workaholic isn’t fashionable these days: having the weekend off to go mountain climbing
or picnicking at the park have become the norm. But fantasies aren’t realities, and desires

are not always met, because the truth is, even graduates from the top ranking universities
couldn’t get the job of their dreams, these days. Several factors converged to decrease the

employment rate: world wide economic depression, downsizing of companies due to auto-
mation of work, increased dissatisfaction with job conditions resulting to a higher resignation

rate, and so on... So the question people ask these days is: “How can I increase my chances
of getting a job in a highly competitive job market”? Everyone wants to get a head start over

the others: have a higher TOEIC score, greater communication skills, attend more extra cur-
ricular institutes, etc. It’s even considered smart to get your kid at school earlier than normal,

and have him come home later at night.

Comprehension

1. Why is being a workaholic not fashionable these days?
2. What are the several factors that decrease the employment rate?
Questions

1. What is the perfect job?
2. What do we need to get a job?
3. How do we compete in the job market?

Vocabulary & Expressions

struggle: To be strenuously engaged with a problem, task, or undertaking
persistent: persisting, esp. in spite of opposition, obstacles, discouragement, etc.
workaholic: a person who works compulsively at the expense of other pursuits
downsizing: to reduce in number; cut back
converge: to tend to a common result, conclusion, etc.
blue collar: of or pertaining to wage-earning workers who wear work clothes or
other specialized clothing on the job, as mechanics, longshoremen, and miners.

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