In this chapter, Лена and her mother discuss Лена's chosen field – journalism. Наталья Ивановна, as you remember, thinks that this is an “интересная профессия.” The question might be – but what does it take to get a good job in Russia these days? Let's visit one of the largest Russian online resources devoted to issues of gainful employment,

http://zarplata.ru

1			Аs you learn from the horizontal bar immediately below the logo, the name of this site comes from the title of a popular magazine (журнал) «Работа & Зарплата». You have encountered the noun ‘работa’ many times in this chapter. What about ‘зарплата’? ‘Зарплата’ is actually an abbreviation of the phrase ‘заработная плата.’ The noun ‘плата’ is derived from the verb платить, meaning ‘to pay’ (you will practice this verb in Chapter 5). The adjective ‘заработный’ and its feminine form ‘заработная’ come from a noun you should be able to recognize. What is it? In this case, the prefix ‘за-’ means ‘for.’ How would you now translate the expression ‘заработная плата’ and the word ‘зарплата’?
2			Farther to the right on the same horizontal bar where the title of the magazine is located, you should see a counter with the words: Вакансий: ____, Резюме: ____. Both of these words are cognates, that is, they should be recognizable to you from your knowledge of English (note: ‘вакансий’ is the genitive plural of the noun ‘вакансия.’ You will learn to form the genitive plural forms and understand why one is used here in Book Two). While these words have analogs in English, these analogs are not really used in North American job postings. To what “Classifieds” employment section categories do these terms correspond?
3			In the center of the page there is a large table entitled “Горячие вакансии.” ‘Горячий’ means ‘hot.’ Glance through these listings (there should be ten or twelve of these). Do you see any names of positions/professions that occur more than just once or twice? If you do not know the word of the most popular position, look it up in a dictionary. What field does this job come from?
4			To the left of some of these postings you’ll see numbers, followed either by a dollar sign or the abbreviation ‘руб.’ (рублей, rubles). Do you think this amount of money is what is being advertised as weekly, monthly or annual salary? Identify the highest-paying and the lowest-paying job (if you need to convert rubles to US dollars, you can use the currency converter at http://www.xe.com/ucc/). Do these positions belong to the most popular category you identified in the previous question? If they do not, and you don’t know the names of these positions, look them up. We are used to thinking of salaries in terms of annual income. What appears to be an average annual salary for these jobs?
5			Follow the links to these postings and compare their format and content. What type of information is usually provided about a job? Hint: If you don’t understand the names of the categories, try to infer the meaning by comparing the different postings. For instance, for many of these jobs, one of the categories is ‘гражданство.’ You may not know this word, but if you look at several postings, you’ll see that almost all of them have ‘Россия’ next to this category. Do you now have a better sense what this word might mean? You may want to double-check your guess in the dictionary – to be absolutely certain. What differences between these postings and a typical American job posting do you notice? For instance, what categories are present in the Russian posting that are usually omitted in the American version? Why might this be?
6			Based on what you have discovered, discuss with your classmates and instructor what jobs seem to be most in demand in Russia today (remember: these listings change daily!). Knowing what you know now, what advice would you give Лена about her future profession?
7			А ЧТО ДАЛЬШЕ? Зарплата.Ру contains a wealth of information on the Russian job market, professional preparation, and major employment agencies For an English-language take on finding and securing a job in Russia, visit http://www.jobs-in-europe.net/russia.html http://www.hro.ru More extensive Russian-language sites with postings and analytical articles are at http://www.joblist.ru http://www.rabota.ru