BE 340: What Do You Do? 3 Ways to Describe Your Job
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This is the Business English Podcast, Episode 340. What do you do? Three ways to describe your job.

Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English. Get the English skills you need to achieve your dreams in global business. For a presentation, a meeting, or your office party, this is Real Business English with your favorite American hosts, Lindsay and Michelle, coming to you from New York City and Colorado, USA. Welcome to the Business English podcast from All Ears English.

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That's allearsenglish.com slash fluency score. Hello, Michelle. How are you doing today? Good, Lindsay. I'm excited for this episode. We put a little bit of extra planning into today's episode. So it's going to be a fun one. What do you think, Lindsay? Yeah. Michelle, do you describe your career differently depending on who you speak to? That's the question of the day.

Absolutely.

And we touched on this a bit during episode 332, and we decided that it's just a really important connection topic, and we wanted to dive into it in a whole episode. Yeah. And why is this so important, Michelle? I mean, why does it matter that we frame what we do differently depending on who we talk to?

Yeah. Well, just we need to be able to be prepared to share our work with many different people, not just people who are in the business world, because this can build connection. It can bring you closer to people and maybe it can even help with networking. Yeah, exactly. And I'm sure there are many examples, honestly, of even, you know, like,

married partners, you know, like a husband and a wife, for example, where the husband or the wife doesn't know what the other does. Yes. Oh, yeah. They just don't know because it's immediately the person goes into the technicalities speaking about it as if they were talking to a colleague. And that's what we're trying to avoid doing.

Right? Yes. Yes. It can be easy when you're in it to think everybody knows about this. And it's just not true. So, I mean, I've definitely had conversations with my friends where they're trying to explain their job to me. And I think like maybe they're using too much jargon. And you're just thinking, okay, sure. That sounds good. Very interesting. Right? Yeah.

We definitely want to avoid that. Yeah. This is about relating to people. And it's also on a deeper level about being known because you want, if it's someone important in your life, you want them to know what you actually do every day, 40 hours of your life every week, you're going somewhere doing something. You want them to know that. But if you do break into that insider language, they won't, they'll just, and it's not that they even, that we turn off our brains when someone starts to get too technical. Yeah.

Sometimes. It's true. Yeah, we do. You just kind of start thinking about what you're going to have for dinner later or something like that. Your mind wanders. It's true. So, yeah, we don't want you guys to have that moment where you're breaking the connection. So we want you to be able to be prepared for these different scenarios in a way that many native English speakers I don't think are. Yep, exactly.

So Michelle, clearly this matters, right? Yes, it does. So today we are doing something very special. We're going to do something a little bit different. We are going to take one particular job and explain different ways to describe that job, depending on who you're talking to.

So we will talk about how you can build your own responses so that you can be prepared. So don't think, oh, if the job we pick isn't your job, it's not for you. No, we're teaching you the phrases, some different keywords that you can use that are different depending on who you're speaking to.

All right. I'm looking forward to that. But first, I do want to do a shout out to Alberto Moss from Italy, who left us a five-star review in Apple Podcasts on October 25th. He said, it's an amazing podcast to learn English and create new effective connections. So useful. Thank you, Alberto. And this is a special request to all of our listeners. Guys, if you want to hear your name announced on the show as well, go ahead and

leave that review wherever you consume this podcast, whether it's in the app or whether it's in Apple Podcasts or Spotify, leave a review. All right. Definitely. Thank you so much.

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So, okay, let's go for it. So today we are going to talk about if you are a product marketer. So let's imagine you do marketing for a makeup company. So that's going to be our example, our job for today. So, Linda,

Lindsay, what are we going to share? Who are we going to be prepared to talk to? Yes. Three very different people with different levels of knowledge and understanding. One, a teenager. Maybe it's a teenager, like an 18-year-old kid who's your friend's kid, right? Your friend has a kid and they're about 18. A colleague in your industry...

such as like at a conference, for example, they're in your industry, but they don't work at your company. And the third is an adult friend who works in a different industry. So these are three very different buckets, different things that we're gonna have to say.

Yeah. Explain what we do. Yeah. Oh, this is so interesting. So, of course, you might not be saying we're going to give kind of a paragraph answer. You're not going to be saying this is a paragraph answer with nobody commenting or anything. Yeah. Because there may be more of a back and forth. But today we're going to be focusing on the differences in language generally. OK. OK. Got it. Yes. Yes.

So let's get into it then, Michelle, for the teenager. Let's say that maybe your friend brings their kid to lunch. Okay. And the teenager asked you, what do you do anyways? Right? Yes, exactly. And what would you say, Michelle, in this case, to a teenager? Yeah. Okay. So here's an example.

I'm a marketer for a makeup company. What that means is I find ways to get as many people as possible to know about our company's makeup and understand why they should buy it. So basically, I might use social media flyers or even contest promotions to get people excited about the makeup so they want to buy it.

Nice. So we're really bringing this down to their level. Let's dissect this first one, Michelle, and let's look at the phrases that are strategically used to speak to someone that age, essentially. I mean, certainly these phrases would work for any age, but someone that's really totally not in the working world and definitely not in your industry. Okay. Right. Right. Exactly. So we used phrases like what this means or what that means. We also used

basically. You could also say something a little bit more direct. A marketer is someone who... So that might be for a little bit younger. Yeah. You may or may not need that. For an 18-year-old, I think they probably know what marketing is, but you're going into more detail of explaining exactly what you do. Right? Yeah. Maybe for a 10-year-old, you would say a marketer is, right? Exactly. Exactly. And then...

I was using more basic language. I wasn't going to use jargon. I was using simpler words, verbs like find, understand, buy it, know. And also adjectives like excited. Right. So just not not jargony words, basically. Yeah.

I love that. And I like how, again, going back to the simplification of these verbs, you know, fine, understand, buy it. And now I just want to highlight that again, because you're going to see the contrast when we get into someone in our industry, the difference. And it's dramatic. And we need to be ready to do this in English. I also love how you mentioned social media, because that teenager probably knows about social media. Yeah, exactly.

So thinking of things that might relate to that person that they know about. So being aware of who you're speaking to, what age groups might be interested in different things. So and the third thing that I did was I did use lists. I kind of broke things down in a specific way. So I said I might use social media, flyers or even contest promotion. So sometimes breaking it down like that and maybe slowing down a little bit when you say it could be helpful.

I love it. I love it. And this works for exactly that reason. You've, you have really taken, I think those simple verbs, the list, the keywords that they know, social media, flyers, um, you're basically spelling it out for the person. So Michelle, do we have an

example if someone asks you what you do this age group might ask you yeah okay here we go what do you do Michelle I co-host a podcast called Allers English do you listen to any podcasts I'm basically a radio show host and we teach English on this show

We might teach how to say certain things in English or even information about what life is like in the U.S. We really want to help people who want to learn and practice their English. Yeah. What's interesting is nowadays, I think you could get away with just saying, I think the word podcast has now gone mainstream. So you may...

Maybe you need the radio piece, but maybe more interesting in 2013, when we put out, we were looking for you and Jessica, right? You guys came on in 2014. I wrote the job as being...

be an ESL radio show host. And I knew I had to do that because at that time, I didn't know what a podcast was. Right. Right. And so that's really interesting too. Think about not just age group, but it's like time periods. We've had to do these things over time as things have gone more mainstream. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Good point. So, Lindsay, now we're going to move on to the next one. This is about when you speak to a colleague in your industry. So let's say you're at a conference or another event. Lindsay, how might this sound for the product marketer? Okay, should I go ahead and read this now? Sure. Okay, here we go. So you asked me, oh, we run into each other at maybe a happy hour at a conference.

And what do you do? Right? I'm head of product marketing of the product marketing team over at Sparkle. Specifically, I work cross-functionally with the creative team and use market research to analyze current trends in the industry. We utilize a lot of social media and other typical marketing strategies like SEO to ramp up and gauge interest.

Ooh, much different, much different, right? Totally different. You imagine if you said that to the teenager, like, Oh, okay, lady. I don't know. It's true. It's true. And they wouldn't care. Right? The point is you want people to care because then again, they know you. So let's

Let's go into dissecting this, Michelle. What did we start with here? - Okay, so here, well, we used phrases like specifically, and then we used a more advanced language. And this one did have some jargon. So we might say something like head of, over at, right? So over at, it,

is showing that you know, you probably know this company. Exactly. Right? Over at Sparkle, right? Because we're in the same industry. So you say, oh, I'm over at this company. You wouldn't say that to the teenager. And that could be its own episode. The difference between at and over at. We can do that another day. But yes, it's an insider thing where we're at this conference and everyone at this conference knows the big players.

Right. Sparkle is one of the big players. And so saying over at, you could say at Sparkle, you can get a, that's totally fine. It's not wrong, but this creates a sense of, of insider community, um,

yeah, just insider-ness, you know, sparkle. I'm over there. I'm over there. Right. Right. And then, um, I said specifically, um, I, so I said, Oh, another word I use is analyze. Yeah. Um, and industry, the industry, the industry, very, very, um,

professional sounding. Yeah, insider. And then I said, typical, utilize, ramp up, gauge, SEO. So things that you would know if you are in the industry. Yes. And then you were sharing more about you being the head. So head of, now let's talk about Lindsay, you wanted to highlight this cross-functional and cross-functionally. Can you share a little bit more about that?

Yeah, because I know this is a term that's used a lot in the corporate world. It's kind of a feels like kind of a buzz term right now or very common term. You may need you may need this 100 percent if you go on an interview to describe what you do, what you did at your previous company. So cross-functionally means, you know, teams coming together where, you know, you work. Let's say you work in product marketing.

marketing, but you also collaborate with the development team with or the product development team or the coding team or the design team cross functional or cross functionally?

Super important to know that term these days. Yeah. Yeah, that's good. I'm glad that you brought that to our attention. So, Lindsay, I'm sorry. I realize I didn't give you much of a heads up. But if you feel comfortable, if you want to share about how you would use this with your role, would you? Wow. If I imagine going to a podcast conference, Michelle, I would tell someone I work at Allers English. I would say specifically I...

Work cross-functionally with consultants and with our team, with our podcast team to create products, to market those products, and to build licensing partnerships. And to move All Ears English to the forefront of our industry.

This is just very much a spur of the moment example. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, but I like that. To the forefront. To the forefront of our industry. Of our industry. Right. So you're of our industry, right? Yeah, because you're at a podcasting conference. 100%. Yes. And that would actually, my example would probably actually work better at an ESL conference.

to be exact. We're in two industries. We're in the podcasting industry and we're in the ESL industry, right? We straddle both in a way. So it's interesting. But if I'm talking about All Ears English becoming a known brand name, I'm more talking about the language learning industry. Right. Which is... Right. Yeah. So very interesting. But the idea of the industry and our industry is a way of talking to people who are also in that space. Yeah.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. So let's do the third one. So this is if you're talking to an adult friend who is in a different industry. So again, they're a little bit, they're older, but they still don't know about your industry. So back to product marketing. So I work in product marketing. So I supervise the marketing team at Sparkle Cosmetics.

Have you heard of it? I work with my team to do a lot of social media strategizing and ads. So a lot of my days are filled with meetings about consumer trends and finding ways to reach new customers. Yeah. Yeah. And there's, there's a subtle difference here. It's not that subtle, but there is a bit, I think it's a bigger, less of a jump to go to this person versus the teenager who has maybe not worked in the working world yet. Right. It's,

So what did we do here, Michelle? So first one, you use phrases like what? So I, or have you heard of it? So just, I mean, you could say this to the kid too, but they might not know about the makeup. Actually, maybe they do. Yeah.

Yeah. And just, I want to reemphasize this. Um, probably you're not going to speak this long, right. On your own. And we said this at the beginning, you're not going to have this monologue. Um, it's just that we're just doing this for the sake of example, right? Probably you're, you are going to pull the other person in. Have you heard of it? And then you're going to wait for the answer, right? Yeah. Right. Just to be clear on that. Yes. That's very important. Yeah. Don't keep, don't do a monologue. Um,

And then, yeah, more advanced language than to the teenager, but not quite as specific. So like social media strategizing. Yeah. To the teenager, I believe I said we use social, you know, strategies like social media. Here is a social media strategizing. So it's just a little bit more advanced.

It's more advanced, but it's also pretty self-explanatory. When you say social media, I think, okay, I know what social media is. I know what strategize means. So I can basically gather what you're doing, right? And then you share about your typical day. I like this. So a lot of my days are filled. This is a nice way to share what you do instead of a fancy definition of what that person does, saying how you fill your days, what happens during your typical

day, right? Yeah, absolutely. So that's a really great way to relate to someone. And again, you're not going to use this if you're... I mean...

if you're a doctor, you know, it's, or, you know, you're a very specific kind of doctor. You might not say, Oh my, these are, I think this is for the jobs that are a little bit like, what do they do? Yeah. No more nebulous, kind of unclear. Right. Right. Yeah. Right. We know you're a doctor. You're probably seeing patients. If you're a dentist, you're seeing patients, right? Exactly. Yes. Exactly.

Exactly. Exactly. So just as an example, I could say I co-host a podcast teaching ESL called All Ears English. So I'm on the mic a lot. I work on a team to plan and record episodes based on specific topics in the English language and in American culture. It's a lot of fun. Exactly. It is fun.

I love this. So we're going to skip a role play today, I think, Michelle, because we nailed it here. You know, guys, I hope it was clear the differences between these three buckets, these three types of people. Michelle, is there another episode that our listeners should check out right now? Right. So that was episode 332. So that was the episode where we got this idea was don't hit a brick wall when asking someone about their job. So don't

Very important to listen to that one along with this one because you can see kind of the evolution and how we got to this. Yeah, it's kind of fun. We mentioned that at the top, but go check out 332 because you'll see how this came up.

And then you'll have a more cohesive understanding of this entire topic. I think we, if you have a follow-up question for our listeners, guys, send it in to supportedallersenglish. We'll try to answer it because there might be some follow-up questions coming out of this episode. This is a hefty episode today, Michelle. This is, yes, this is a meaty one. So, and you know, as far as the takeaway goes, one thing I would say now that you guys have heard this one, Mm-hmm.

Write down the phrases that we used and how we talked about it and try and do this exercise for yourself. That's why I did it for myself, you know, and Lindsay was working on it, how we would use it to describe our jobs to different people. And I think that that could be a really helpful activity just to get lots of different practice. Even if, okay, maybe, oh, what am I? Maybe you don't know any teenagers. It doesn't matter. Maybe you just want to practice experience

Exploring different ways to say the same thing. Yes, 100%. We hope that you're able to go and use this and meet a variety of people. But if you're not able to use this in real life, you're building your vocabulary by knowing different ways to say, like Michelle said, the same thing, which is such a good exercise for flexibility and spontaneity in English, right? That's what we want. That's what we want. Yes. I love it. And it's not that you can't overlap some of the, like some of these would work for

many of the categories that we talked about, but we gave you what we feel were the best buckets to put all of them in today. Very good. Michelle, you have a good day. I'll talk to you very soon on the next episode. Okay. All right. All right. Bye, Lindsay. Bye, guys. Bye. Bye.

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