Career and promotion

Task 1. Study carefully all the given information and learn the vocabulary you have not been familiar with.

A. One man's career

When Simon started work, he was at the very bottom of the career ladder [2]. He had quite a dead-end job [3] doing run-of-the-mill [4] tasks. He stayed there for a couple of years, but then decided he had to get out of a rut [5]. He pulled out all the stops [6] and managed to persuade his manager that he should be given more responsibility. The deputy manager got the sack [7] for incompetence and Simon stepped into his shoes [8]. For several months he was rushed off his feet [9] and he had his work cut out [10] to keep on top of things. But he was soon recognised as an up-and-coming [11] young businessman and he was headhunted [12] by a rival company forone of their top jobs. Simon had climbed to the top of the career ladder [13].