UNIT 7: LISTENING 1: Changing Ways to Climb the Ladder

Professor: How many of you are……….. working? Right. Now, how many of you would like to be in
exactly the same jobs five or ten years from now? None? Well, I (1) ………… that one of the main reasons
you are ………your education is so that (2) ………….. you can get your dream job. Of course, the right
education or ……….is important, but take a minute to think about the answer to this question. Say you want
to be the next CEO of a (3) ………….. company.What steps, other than getting a strong education, should
you take to reach that goal? The answer you give to that question today is ………….(4) …………. different
than the answer that students sitting in those seats gave twenty-five or thirty years ago. In fact, todays (5)
………… path is very different from the one that was common even a few ………ago. Today, I ’m going to
talk about these two different …….of career (6)……………. First, lets focus on the more
…………….model for advancement. A good picture of this model would be a ……………climbing up a
single (7) ………, one step at a time. In this situation, a worker would start at a large company, just out of
high school or……….. The worker would stay with the company, receiving (8) ……….. after ………..and
rising from the bottom of the ladder, ……..working in the mail room, to working in an office, to…………,
and so on. Are there any questions? Yes?
Student 1: So, these workers would just stay at the same companies for their entire careers?
Professor: Exactly. Traditionally, workers were usually ………to their companies. They (9) ………… their
entire working lives to the same company. This is true about both office work and……… work, like working
in a (10) ………….. The workers stayed at the company and climbed the ladder as far as they could, at
which point, they would……… stop moving up. In return, the company was (11) …………. and ………..the
workers. The workers ……….on the company to pay them during their working lives and take care of them
once they were too old to work. Yes?
Student 2: I think this model is similar to the business (12) ………… in other countries.
Professor:…………... Many countries in Asia follow this business model. In fact, a popular CEO in Japan
…………..said in an interview that he views his workers as his family. He feels (13) …………. for them,
just as they feel a……………. to the company. Not (14) , this mode……………l works best in cultures that
have more traditional family………….. Specifically, this model works well when the father can ……………
a lot of time to work, and the mother is able to stay at home with the family. This traditional (15)
…………..is very different from the second model that I want to talk about today.
The second model is one that you will probably be more ……….with. In contrast to the single ladder model,
try to picture a person (16) ………….. several different ladders, stepping from one step on one ladder to a
step on another ladder. In other words, instead of staying at one company, hoping for a promotion, these
workers move from one company to another. Sometimes the move is (17) …………... By that, I mean
sometimes the person leaves one ………..at a company for a similar position in a different company, maybe
for better pay or for the (18) ………….. of a quick promotion. On the other hand, often the worker is able to
move to a position one, two, or even three steps higher than their (19) ………….. position. In fact, jumping
up a few steps at a time, something that would be almost …………..in a (20) ………….. career path, is
actually quite common in this model, and now business………. are getting to the top an (21)…………… of
four years faster than in the days of the traditional model. In the new model, workers are starting their
………at smaller companies rather than bigger ones. They move in and out of………. as positions open, and
they can move faster or more slowly toward their (22) ……………, depending on their personal situations.
Questions?
Student 3: I can see why someone would want to move quickly up the ladder. But why would someone
want to move more slowly?
Professor: That’s a great question, and it moves us into the final part of this………... Why would someone
want to slow down their career path? Well, now that the traditional family (23) …………… has changed and
women are a major part of the (24)……….., the needs of the workers to balance career and family have
changed. Men often want to spend more time with their children than they were (24)…………… to spend in
the past. This social change is ………..a main reason for the change from a traditional single-ladder model to
a many-ladder model.
Another reason many companies no longer take care of their workers the way they did in the past is because
of (25) ………… change. Workers can no longer count on continuing to receive money from their (26)
………… after they turn sixty-five and (27) …………... As a result, workers usually don’t feel the same
sense of (28) …………. that they used to. Their …………is to learn as much as they can at one company
before moving on to another. Although this model might make some more traditional workers (29)
………….., it has become very common in North America. In fact, this year …………………(30)
………….. of all workers will be …………in the new model as they climb to the top of their…………….

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