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