Idiom: a company town

Definition: a town dominated by one industry or company Examples: When the coal mine closed, the company town faced a severe economic crisis. I come from a company town, where one company owns everything — the stores, the banks, the houses, and everything else....

Raise the bar, and then break it down

Text of the speech: Raising the Bar on Yourself Raising the bar on yourself. What does that mean? Well, “to raise the bar” simply means, “to set a higher standard”. Raising the bar on yourself just means setting a higher standard for yourself. At first, it sounds...

Idiom: a bigwig

Definition: an important person, or a leader of the group Examples: When the company’s bigwigs came to visit the factory, we all had to change our work schedules to accomodate them. That guy is the head of Marketing, he is a real bigwig in the company.  If you...

Idiom: to run short

Definition: to not have enough (in quantity) Examples: At the factory, we ran short of an important part, and had to close the production line. They ran short of gasoline at the gas station and had to close early.  

Idiom: to drum up business

Definition:  to create new business, to find new customers Examples: Sales have been very slow lately. Do you have any ideas for drumming up business? Our production capacity is too low to meet demand.  We don’t need more salespeople to drum up business, we need...

Idiom: a dog-eat-dog world

Definition:  a cruel and aggressive world, where people only look out for themselves Examples: Your company fired you two days after you had a heart attack? Well, it’s certainly a dog-eat-dog world! Be wary of your other competitors, especially in this industry....

Idiom: to throw cold water (on something)

Definition: to discourage, to remove hope Example: Steve wanted to expand the business into China, but his boss threw cold water on the idea, and told him to focus on the domestic business. I was eager to try our big new software system with the new customer, but they...

Idiom: brownie points

Definition: Credit for doing a good deed, or for giving someone a compliment (usually a boss, teacher, or other authority) Examples: When I told the boss his new suit was very handsome, the other employees laughed and said I was just trying to score brownie points....

No one cares what you want

Should you put an objective on your CV, or not? Probably not. Here’s a typical objective: "A challenging managerial position in marketing at a growing FMCG company." What’s wrong with this statement? First, it’s about you, and what you want...