1 . BANK OF BARODA
INDIA’S INTERNATIONAL BANK
Bank of Baroda, a principal India Public Sector Bank having Global presence in 25 countries and operating in UK for 60 years requires consultants for carrying out administrative jobs on a fixed term contract basis for our London branches and offices.
The candidates should possess at least a degree and basic accounting knowledge.
They should be familiar with computer — expert in MS Office, use of Internet with good communication skills, flexible in approach, self-motivated, able to work on their own initiatives as well as in teams.
Initial salary payable (all inclusive annually) will be approximately £17,000 — for consultants.
Applicants possessing the above and having the right to live and work in UK who are able to provide satisfactory references from two UK residents/employers will be considered for the position.To apply, please send your CV along with passport size photograph at htm.nk@bankofbaroda.com to reach on or before 15 February 2018
1. Which of the following is true of Bank of Baroda?A.It has a recorded of 60 years. |
B.It is enrolling consultants for London branches. |
C.It is second to none India Public Sector Banks. |
D.It needs office administrators who can work outside UK |
A.major in Accounting |
B.be good at working with others |
C.be critical in taking new approaches |
D.have a basic knowledge of MS Office |
A.have two British citizens recommend you |
B.send your CV by the end of February, 2018 |
C.email your CV alone at htm.uk@bankofbaroda.com |
D.be an overseas graduate with a passport that is still valid |
2 . Since its founding in 1923, Yellow Corporation has been a leader in the transportation industry, using trucks to transport goods between points in Canada, the United States, and Mexico. For decades, Yellow achieved success by concentrating virtually all of its attention on increasing efficiency at every turn. Yellow has long been a master at ensuring that trucks are full before they have a warehouse, and it has also developed precisely time delivery schedules.
Unfortunately, Yellow eventually fell victim to its own success. As operational efficiency increased, customer service received less and less attention, and before long, newer and more responsive companies were taking away the firm’s customers. Accompanying this problem was the fact that the customers most likely to seek a more service-oriented transportation provider were also the ones willing to pay high prices for the extra service. As a result, Yellow’s financial performance began to decline, slowly at first, but then more dramatically. Naturally, the decline in profit led to even worse across-the-board service.
To help turn Yellow around, the board of directors offered Bill Zollars the position of CEO. Already a highly respected manager, Zollars was attracted by the opportunity to revitalize the carrier. Zollars quickly learned that organizational change at Yellow would have to be fundamental. Over a period of decades, people throughout the company were often willing to do only the minimal amount necessary to get their jobs done. Zollars knew that he had to alter the attitudes, behavior, and performance of 30,000 employees. He began by improving communication. The CEO spent 18 months traveling to several hundred locations, and at each site, he talked face-to-face with customers and with employees at all levels. He asked for opinions and provided his own message---namely, that enhanced customer service was to become the firm’s new focus.
Zollars’s plan consisted of more than promises and motivational speeches. While previous leaders often didn’t focus on problems and refused to reveal information about the firm’s performance, Zollars openly acknowledged the company’s defect rate---the percentage of shipments that were late, wrong, or damaged. Employees were shocked to find that the rate was 40 percent, but that knowledge was necessary to enhance motivation and set a benchmark for improvement. Zollars also instituted the company’s first ongoing program for surveying customer satisfaction, and the results were reported openly throughout the company. Zollars made a real effort to listen to employees, gave them authority to make decisions, and developed an enviable reputation for honesty and commitment. “If people doing the work don’t believe what’s coming from the leadership,” says Zollars, “it doesn’t get implemented.”
1. What caused Yellow Corporation’s financial performance to decline?A.There was suddenly some difficulty finding enough warehouses. |
B.Fewer customers were willing to pay high prices for extra services. |
C.More transportation providers emerged with the market expanding. |
D.It put more emphasis on operational efficiency than on customer service. |
A.He communicated with customers in person. |
B.He employed some highly respected managers. |
C.He reevaluated all the employee’s performance. |
D.He estimated the minimal amount of job each should do. |
A.the precise calculation of the company’s defect rate |
B.the ongoing survey of the employers’ satisfaction |
C.the improvement of the leadership’s confidence |
D.the revelation of information to the employees |
A.The CEOs of Yellow Corporation |
B.The Future at Yellow Corporation |
C.The Success of Yellow Corporation |
D.The Turnaround at Yellow Corporation |
3 . The professional life of 22-year-old David Bloomfield takes many shapes. You might see him as a bad-tempered businessman, a money-hungry nephew, a suspicious neighbour or a jealous husband. Sometimes he may be a murder victim — or he may be a cold-hearted killer. David is a member of an acting company called Nightshade, who create and perform “interactive murder mysteries”.
Although these events can be held in someone’s home, they usually take place in a hotel, where guests come for an evening or a weekend. Having planned out a story in which at least one character will be killed, the actors play the main parts themselves. There is no stage — the audience is part of the scene as the action unfolds. Members of the audience share meals and conversations with the characters, they can ask questions and they listen for clues. At the end, like Poirot or Miss Marple, they have to solve the mystery and work out who the killer is.
David has been working with Nightshade for two years. At school he studied drama and he had learned roles in school theatre productions. But he might never have thought of this particular job if he hadn’t had a stroke of luck. He explains, “I was working at weekends as a waiter at the Grange Hotel where the company performs regularly. I’d watched their performances and I knew how the event worked. So when one of the actors became ill, I volunteered to take his part. It was a last-minute decision and they were taking a big risk with me, but I must have done quite well because they invited me to stay with them for the rest of the season. And I’m still with them now.”
David is enthusiastic about his work. Mixing with the audience makes it a real challenge, he says, “Every event is different. You can’t just rely on a script like most actors and you never know quite what to expect. You have to be creative and quick-thinking to create a convincing character while keeping the mystery alive. I love all that. It must be great to work in films or on a TV mystery series like Poirot, but I know I’d miss what you get from interacting with a live audience.”
1. Which of the following statements is true of interactive murder mysteries?A.Audience prefer to be given roles to play. |
B.What actors can do includes changing the storyline. |
C.Actors don’t know the endings before the performance. |
D.It is usually the audience who find out who the murder is. |
A.It happened by chance. | B.It was what he dreamed of. |
C.He prepared for it for a long time. | D.He needed a part-time job then. |
A.he was invited to keep acting with Nightshade |
B.he volunteered to replace someone who was ill |
C.Nightshade made a risky decision when they employed him |
D.Nightshade waited until the last minute to decide to have him on the stage |
A.The audience are enthusiastic. | B.The mysteries are hard to crack. |
C.The scripts themselves are unusual. | D.The interactive events are unpredictable. |
4 . Millions of people pass through the gates of Disney’s entertainment parks in California, Florida and Japan each year. What makes these places an almost universal attraction? What makes foreign kings and queens and other important people want to visit these Disney parks? Well, one reason is the way they’re treated once they get there. The people at Disney go out of their way to serve their “guests”, as they prefer to call them, and to see that they enjoy themselves.
All new employees, from vice presidents to part-time workers, begin their employment by attending Disney University and taking “Traditions I”. Here, they learn about the company’s history, how it is managed, and why it is successful. They are shown how each department relates to the whole. All employees are shown how their part is important in making the park a success.
After passing “Traditions I”, the employees go on to do more specialized training for their specific jobs. No detail is missed. A simple job like taking tickets requires four eight-hour days of training. When one ticket taker was asked why it took so much training for such a simple, ordinary job, he replied, “What happens if someone wants to know where the restrooms are, when the parade starts or what bus to take back to the campgrounds? We need to know the answers or where to get them quickly. Our constant aim is to helps our guests enjoy the party.”
Even Disney’s managers get involved in the daily management of the park. Every year, the mangers leave their desks and business suits and put on special service clothes. For a full week, the bosses sell hot dogs or ice cream, take tickets or drive the monorail (单轨车), and take up any of the 100 jobs that make the entertainment park come alive. The managers agree that this week helps them to see the company’s goals more clearly.
All these efforts to serve the public well have made Walt Disney Productions famous. Disney is considered by many as the best mass service provider in America or the world. As one longtime business observer once said, “How Disney treats people, communicates with them, rewards them, is in my view the very reason for his fifty years of success… I have watched, very carefully and with great respect and admiration, the theory and with great respect and admiration, the theory and practice of selling satisfaction and serving millions of people on a daily basis, successfully. It is what Disney does best.”
1. The first day they come to Disney parks, all new employees ________.A.begin by receiving on-the-job training |
B.must learn several jobs |
C.begin as ticket takers |
D.have started to get specialized training |
A.set a good example for employees |
B.remind themselves of their beginnings at Disney |
C.gain a better view of the company’s objectives |
D.replace employees on holiday |
A.Tourists learn the history of Disney in its entertainment parks. |
B.Disney attracts people almost from all over the world. |
C.Parades are regularly held in Disney’s entertainment parks. |
D.Disney’s managers are able to do almost all kinds of work in the Disney parks. |
A.how Disney employees are trained |
B.the history and traditions of the Disney enterprises |
C.why Disney enterprises make a lot of money |
D.the importance Disney places on serving people well |
5 . What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? How about an ice-cream taster?
Yes, there really is a job where you can get paid to taste ice-cream. Just ask John Harrion, an “Official Taste Tester” for the past 21 years. Testing helps manufacturers to be sure of a product’s quality. During his career Harrison has been responsible for approving large quantities of the sweet ice cream — as well as for developing over 75 flavors (味道).
Some people think that it would be easy to do this job, after all, you just have to like ice cream, right? No — there’s more to the job than that, says Harrison, who has a degree in chemistry. He points out that a dairy or food-science degree would be very useful to someone wanting a career in this “cool” field.
In a typical morning on the job, Harrison tastes and assesses 60 ice-cream samples. He lets the ice cream warm up to about 12℉. Harrison explains, “You get more flavor from warmer ice cream, which is why some kids like to stir it, creating ice-cream soup.”
While the ice cream warms up, Harrison looks over the samples and grades each one on its appearance. “Tasting begins with the eyes,” he explains. He checks to see if the ice cream is attractive and asks himself, “Does the product have the color expected from that flavor?” Next it’s time to taste!
Continuing to think up new ideas, try out new flavors, and test samples from so many kinds of ice cream each day keeps Harrison busy but happy — working at one cool job.
1. What does the “cool field” refer to according to the passage?A.chemistry experimenting. | B.Ice-cream manufacturing. |
C.Ice-creaming tasting. | D.food science researching. |
A.keep a diary of work | B.have a degree in related subjects |
C.have new ideas every day | D.find out new flavors each day |
A.He stirs the ice cream. | B.He examines the color of the ice cream. |
C.He tastes the flavor of the ice cream. | D.He lets the ice cream warm up. |
6 . Suppose you become a leader in an organization. It’s very likely that you’ll want to have volunteers to help with the organization’s activities.
Let’s begin with the question of why people volunteer. Researchers have identified several factors that motivate people to get involved. For example, people volunteer to express personal values related to unselfishness, to expand their range of experiences, and to strengthen social relationships. If volunteer positions do not meet these needs, people may not wish to participate.
People also volunteer because they are required to do so. To increase levels of community service, some schools have launched compulsory volunteer programs. Unfortunately, these programs can shift people’s wish of participation from an internal factor (e.g., “I volunteer because it’s important to me”) to an external factor (e.g., “I volunteer because I’m required to do so”).
Once people begin to volunteer, what leads them to remain in their positions over time? To answer this question, researchers have conducted follow-up studies in which they track volunteers over time. Having followed 238 volunteers in Florida over a year, they have found that one of the most important factors that influenced their satisfaction as volunteers was the amount of suffering they experienced in their volunteer positions. This result may lead to practical advice. The researchers note that attention should be given to “training methods that would prepare volunteers for troublesome situations or provide them with strategies for coping with the problem they do experience”.
A.Another study of 302 volunteers at hospitals in Chicago focused on individual differences in the degree to which people view “volunteer” as an important social role. |
B.To select volunteers, you may need to understand the motivations of the people you wish to attract. |
C.When that happens, people become less likely to volunteer in the future. |
D.So it is of great importance to study volunteer behaviors and how to organize volunteer activities. |
E.To do so, it should help to understand why people undertake volunteer work and what keeps their interest in the work. |
F.These results also suggest that continued efforts might focus on developing a volunteer role identity. |
There is no better feeling than walking away from your desk in the evening with a sense of deep satisfaction for a job well done.
Empty your inbox.
If you leave a tiring and undesirable task until the next day, you will walk away from your desk with a dark cloud hanging over you and a sense of fear. On the other hand, try to complete the task before you leave the office, and you will walk away with a feeling of freedom and victory.
Do something nice for someone else.
The key here is intentionality. Plan to end your day by doing something specific and beneficial for someone in your life—a partner, friend, family member, customer, etc. You will feel better when doing a good deed to others. It is impossible to do something nice for someone without feeling better yourself.
Say thank you.
Take a moment before you shut things down for the day to be thankful for your life.
A.Determine what will make tomorrow special. |
B.Regardless of what else has happened in a day, ending it with thanks is a rewarding approach. |
C.Finish the task as far as possible before you leave. |
D.Keeping your inbox empty makes you more effective. |
E.In fact, a whole unproductive day can end with just 15 hyper-productive minutes. |
F.Nothing else throughout your day could possibly be so bad. |
8 . If you are a recent social science graduate who has had to listen to jokes about unemployment from your computer major classmates, you may have had the last laugh. There are many advantages for the social science major because this high-tech “Information Age” demands people who are flexible and who have good communication skills.
There are many social science majors in large companies who fill important positions. For example, a number of research studies found that social science majors had achieved greater managerial success than those who had technical training or pre-professional courses. Studies show that social science majors are most suited for change, which is the leading feature of the kind of high speed, high-pressure, high-tech world we now live in.
Social science majors are not only experiencing success in their long-term company jobs, but they are also finding jobs more easily. A study showed that many companies had filled a large percentage of their entry-level positions with social science graduates. The study also showed that the most sought-after quality in a person who was looking for a job was communication skills, noted as “very important” by 92 percent of the companies. Social science majors have these skills, often without knowing how important they are. It is probably due to these skills that they have been offered a wide variety of positions.
Finally, although some social science majors may still find it more difficult than their technically trained classmates to land the first job, recent graduates report that they don’t regret their choice of study.
1. Compared with graduates of other subjects, social science graduates _____.A.are ready to change when situations change |
B.are better able to deal with difficulties |
C.are equally good at computer skills |
D.are likely to give others pressure |
A.Willingness to take low-paid jobs. | B.Readiness to gain high-tech knowledge. |
C.Skills in expressing themselves. | D.Part-time work experience. |
A.keep for some time | B.successfully get |
C.immediately start | D.lose regretfully |
9 . Have you ever heard of Big Data or are you familiar with Data Scientists and Data Engineers? They are probably new job titles, but the core job roles have been around for a while. Traditionally, anyone who analyzed data would be called a “data analyst” and anyone who created backend platforms to support data analysis would be a “Business intelligence (BI) Developer”.
Here’s an overview of the roles of the Data Analyst, BI Developer, Data Scientist and Data Engineer.
Data Analysts are experienced data professionals in their organization who can question and process data, provide reports, summarize and visualize data. They have a strong understanding of how to influence existing tools and methods to solve a problem.
Skills: Data Analysts need to have a baseline understanding of some core skills: statistics, data munging, data visualization, exploratory data analysis, Tools: Microsoft Excel, SPSS, SPSS Modeler, SAS, SAS Miner, SQL, Microsoft Access, Tableau, SSAS.
Additionally, they work with databases, both relational and multidimensional, and should have great SQL development skills to integrate data from different resources. They use all of these skills to meet the enterprise-wide self-service needs. BI Developers are typically not expected to perform data analyses.
Data Engineers are the data professionals who prepare the “big data” infrastructure to be analyzed by Data Scientists.
They might also run some ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) on top of big datasets and create big data warehouses that can be used for reporting or analysis by data scientists.
A.In this case, the curious Data Scientist is expected to explore the data, come up with the right questions, and provide interesting findings! |
B.Business intelligence Developers are data experts that interact more closely with internal stakeholders to understand the reporting needs. |
C.With the emergence of big data, new roles began popping up in corporations and research centers -- namely, Data Scientists and Data Engineers. |
D.This is why it is essential to know computer science fundamentals and programming, including experience with languages and database (big/small) technologies. |
E.And they also help people from across the company understand specific questions with ad-hocreports and charts. |
F.They are software engineers who design, build, integrate data from various resources, and manage big data. |
10 . When Liam McGee departed as president of Bank of America in August, his explanation was surprisingly straight up. Rather than cloaking his exit in the usual vague excuse, he came right out and said he was leaving “to pursue my goal of running a company.” Broadcasting his ambition was “very much my decision,” McGee says. Within two weeks, he was talking for the first time with the board of Hartford Financial Services Group, which named him CEO and chairman on September 29.
McGee says leaving without a position lined up gave him time to reflect on what kinds of company he wanted to run. It also sent a clear message to the outside world about his aspirations. And McGee isn’t alone. In recent weeks the No. 2 executives at Avon and American Express quit with the explanation that they were looking for a CEO post. As boards scrutinize succession plans in response to shareholder pressure, executives who don’t get the nod also may wish to move on. A turbulent business environment also has senior managers cautious of letting vague pronouncements cloud their reputations.
As the first signs of recovery begin to take hold, deputy chiefs may be more willing to make the jump without a net. In the third quarter, CEO turnover was down 23% from a year ago as nervous boards stuck with the leaders they had, according to Liberum Research. As the economy picks up, opportunities will abound for aspiring leaders.
The decision to quit a senior position to look for a better one is unconventional. For years executives and headhunters have adhered to the rule that the most attractive CEO candidates are the ones who must be poached. Says Korn Ferry, senior partner Dennis Carey: “I can’t think of a single search I’ve done where a board has not instructed me to look at sitting CEOs first.”
Those who jumped without a job haven’t always landed in top positions quickly. Ellen Marram quit as chief of Tropicana when the business became part of PepsiCo (PEP) a decade ago, saying she wanted to be a CEO. It was a year before she became head of a tiny internet-based commodities exchange. Robert Willemstad left Citigroup in 2005 with ambitions to be a CEO. He finally took that post at a major financial institution three years later.
Many recruiters say the old disgrace is fading for top performers. The financial crisis has made it more acceptable to be between jobs or to leave a bad one. “The traditional rule was it’s safer to stay where you are, but that’s been fundamentally inverted,” says one headhunter. “The people who’ve been hurt the worst are those who’ve stayed too long.”
1. When McGee announced his departure, his manner can best be described as being _______.A.arrogant. | B.frank. | C.self-centered. | D.impulsive. |
A.their expectation of better financial status | B.their need to reflect on their private life |
C.their strained relations with the boards | D.their pursuit of new career goals |
A.top performers used to cling to their posts |
B.loyalty of top performers is getting out-dated |
C.top performers care more about reputations |
D.it’s safer to stick to the traditional rules |
A.CEOs; Where to Go? | B.CEOs: All the Way Up? |
C.Top Managers Jump without a Net | D.The Only Way Out for Top Performers |