Business English idioms Job interview lesson 2
good morning oh and in case i don’t see
you
good afternoon good evening and good
night
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business english idioms job interview
sam currently runs his own company
selling used office furniture online
he’s tired of running his own business
and wants to get a job with a big
company
i see from your resume that you’re
running your own show as the owner of
old officechair.com that’s right
i’ve carved out a niche selling used
office chairs over the internet
that sounds like a great business i was
making money hand over fist after the
dot com bust
companies were going belly up every day
and i snapped up all their chairs for a
song
but these days it’s becoming harder and
harder to find used chairs
wouldn’t you rather continue working for
yourself now
i’m tired of working for myself i can
see the writing on the wall
you’ll jump ship when you think of
another good business idea
no i won’t i’d always wanted to be an
entrepreneur but
i got that out of my system i realize
now that it’s not all it’s cracked up to
be
it certainly isn’t you work really hard
and you’re just as likely to strike out
as you are to strike it rich tell me
about it
my best friend invested all this money
in starting a company
he ended up losing his shirt right
we all know people like that one final
point about the position
as you know this is a large corporation
are you sure you wouldn’t be happier at
a startup
startups are exciting but at this point
in my life i’m looking for stability
over excitement
i’ve got four kids at home and they like
to eat
i hear what you’re saying we could use
somebody around here who thinks like an
entrepreneur
if you’re someone who can take the ball
and run with it you’d be a great
addition
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to run one’s own show to run one’s own
business
to have control over an entire business
or a part of a business
example anne can’t imagine working for
somebody else
she loves running her own show
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to carve out a niche to start a
specialty business
to successfully create or get something
especially a work position
by working for it example our graphic
designer really carved out a niche for
himself with that series of innovative
ads
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hand over fist if you say that someone
is making or losing money hand over fist
you mean that they are getting or losing
a lot of money very quickly
example nobody denied the company was
losing money hand over fist
to go belly up to go bankrupt
to fail completely example the business
went belly up during the long recession
to snap up to buy for a very good price
to buy a large supply of something to
immediately take advantage of an
opportunity
examples monica snapped up dozens of
inexpensive silk scarves to sell at her
clothing boutique
i’d snap up his offer if i were you
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for a song cheaply inexpensively
example she was wearing a beautiful head
which she’d picked up for a song in
camden market
to read or see the writing on the wall
to notice and interpret apparent signs
or indications that something will or
is about to happen in the future example
no one told him he was going to be fired
but he could see the writing on the wall
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startup a small business usually one
that’s been operating five years or less
example julie took a chance by leaving
her secured job at ibm to join a risky
startup
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to jump ship to quit a job to leave a
job suddenly
example the best employees jumped ship
at the first
opportunity
to get something out of one system to do
something enough so that you do not want
to do it any longer
example tom had always wanted to be a
lawyer
but after his summer internship at a law
firm he got that out of his system
not all it’s cracked up to be not as
great as people think
example the new software isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be
to strike out to fail example
i’m sorry to hear that you struck out on
the job interview
i’m sure something else will come along
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soon
to strike it rich to attain sudden
financial success to get rich quickly
example he struck it rich on the stock
market when he was only 24. tell me
about it
i know and i agree because i have
experienced the same thing
always said as a response to what
someone has just said
example i get so annoyed with steve tell
me about it
he drives me crazy
to lose one shirt
to lose a lot of money because of a bad
bet or investment
example many investors lost their shirts
when the market crashed
to take the ball and run with it
to take an idea or plan that someone
else has started and develop it
example we had a very vague idea of what
we wanted
but the marketing team just took the
ball and ran with it
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you