Lesson Plan: Your Résumé: Employers Want Skills Not Passion
II. While Reading Tasks
Word Inference
- landed |ˈlandid|verb- informal succeed in obtaining or achieving (something desirable), esp. in the face of strong competition: she landed the starring role in a new film.
- stultifying stultify |ˈstəltəˌfī| (usu. as adj. stultifying) cause to lose enthusiasm and initiative, esp. as a result of a tedious or restrictive routine: the mentally stultifying effects of a disadvantaged home.
- academic ic |ˌakəˈdemik|-adjective-of or relating to education and scholarship: academic achievement | he had no academic qualifications.
- flounder |ˈfloundər| verb-struggle mentally; show or feel great confusion: she floundered, not knowing quite what to say.
- typical |ˈtipikəl| adjective- having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing: a typical day | a typical example of 1930s art deco | typical symptoms.
- quest |kwest| noun- a long or arduous search for something: the quest for a reliable vaccine has intensified.
- millennials noun- Millennials (also known as the Millennial Generation[1] or Generation Y) are the demographic cohort following Generation X. There are no precise dates when the generation starts and ends. Researchers and commentators use birth years ranging from the early 1980s to the early 2000s.
- Stereotypes |ˈsterēəˌtīp, ˈsti(ə)r-|noun-a widely held but fixed and oversimplified image or idea of a particular type of person or thing: the stereotype of the woman as the carer.
- passion |ˈpaSHən| noun- an intense desire or enthusiasm for something: the English have a passion for gardens.
- impact |ˈimˌpakt| noun-the effect or influence of one person, thing, or action, on another: our regional measures have had a significant impact on unemployment.
Source: New Oxford American Dictionary
Reading Comprehension
True /False/NA-Statements
- F- The author states that millennials have an obsession with passion.
- T-The author has interviewed and hired hundreds of millennials in the last five years.
- T- The woman in the story described her passion as a skill.
- F- The economists at MIT agree that jobs aligned with people’s passions usually have the lowest median salaries.
- F- Cal Newport’s term for this is the “passion trap.”
- NA-Harvard University has many jobs available in the field of business.
- F- The candidates that consistently get hired quickly, advance the fastest.
- T-The author knows millennials who dislike the work they’re doing and end up quitting.
- F- The idea that you should “follow your passion” is dated advice.
- NA- The author will write a book about this experience.
Grammar Focus
Preposition Exercise
The students who are most successful in the job market describe passion in different terms. Take one professional I know, a social media marketer (not one of the cool ones). The coreof his job involves testing combinations of pictures and advertising copy to see what people will click on. When his client was selling men’s ties, he spent full workdays uploading photos ofnecktie-wearing cats toFacebook. He always talks about his work in terms of the impact it has on other people, rather than on himself.
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