Workplace English: How to Introduce Your Job and Position in English

In this lesson, we will learn the names of some common jobs or positions in business and useful vocabulary to describe what people do. We will also learn how we can use information about our job when we introduce ourselves to a new business contact. At the end of this module, you'll feel more confident in talking about what you do in English in professional situations.

As you saw in lesson two, people in business often ask each other's jobs. When we want to know someone's job, we usually ask 'What do you do?' Listen to these people answer this question with their job titles. "I'm the Executive Director." "I'm a Project Manager." "I'm an Assistant Manager." "I'm a Software Developer." Now listen to four more people. "I'm an Administrative Assistant." "I'm a Customer Service Agent." "I'm a Human Resources Coordinator." "I'm a Brain Surgeon." Really? No. Actually, "I'm a Systems Analyst." Can you match the job title with the picture? You can find these job titles in many companies and organizations. But what exactly does an analyst do? Let's do a quick exercise to help us understand these titles better.

I used to want to be a Software Developer, but I decided to keep teaching. Let's do the second part of this exercise. Are you ready? People will also want to know where you work. You can use expressions like this: "I work for Expedia." "I work for Amazon." You can also use 'At'. Usually the other person knows where the workplace is located. For example, in Seattle, it might become them for someone to say, "I work at Starbucks." "I work at Boeing."

We can use 'in' with a department of the organization or an industry. "I work in Human Resources." "I work in IT." "I work in advertising." We use 'with' when we want to say we are part of a team or a representative of the organization. "I'm with Costco." "I'm with the University of Washington."