HUGO: Hi Chantal. What did you think of the talk, then?

CHANTAL: Hi Hugo. I thought it was good once I’d moved seats.

HUGO: Oh- were the people beside you chatting or something?

CHANTAL: It wasn’t that. I went early so that I’d get a seat and not have to stand, but then this guy sat right in front of me and he was so tall!

HUGO: It’s hard to see through people’s heads, isn’t it?

CHANTAL: Impossible! Anyway, to answer your question, I thought it was really interesting, especially what the speaker said about the job market.

HUGO: Me too. I mean we know we’re going into a really competitive field so it’s obvious that we may struggle to get work.

CHANTAL: That’s right – and we know we can’t all have that ‘dream job’.

HUGO: Yeah, but it looks like there’s a whole range of … areas of work that we hadn’t even thought of – like fashion journalism, for instance.

CHANTAL: Yeah – I wasn’t expecting so many career options.

HUGO: Mmm. Overall, she had quite a strong message, didn’t she?

CHANTAL: She did. She kept saying things like ‘I know you all think this, but …’ and then she’d tell us how it really is.

HUGO: Perhaps she thinks students are a bit narrow-minded about the industry.

CHANTAL: It was a bit harsh, though! We know it’s a tough industry.

HUGO: Yeah – and we’re only first years, after all. We’ve got a lot to learn.

CHANTAL: Exactly. Do you think our secondary-school education should have been more career-focused?

HUGO: Well, we had numerous talks on careers, which was good, but none of them were very inspiring. They could have asked more people like today’s speaker to talk to us.

CHANTAL: I agree. We were told about lots of different careers – just when we needed to be, but not by the experts who really know stuff.

HUGO: So did today’s talk influence your thoughts on what career you’d like to take up in the future?

CHANTAL: Well. I promised myself that I’d go through this course and keep an open mind till the end.

HUGO: But I think it’s better to pick an area of the industry now and then aim to get better and better at it.

CHANTAL: Well, I think we’ll just have to differ on that issue!

HUGO: One thing’s for certain, though. From what she said, we’ll be unpaid assistants in the industry for quite a long time.

CHANTAL: Mmm.

HUGO: I’m prepared for that, aren’t you?

CHANTAL: Actually, I’m not going to accept that view.

HUGO: Really? But she knows it’s the case- and everyone else says the same.

CHANTAL: That doesn’t mean it has to be true for me.

HUGO: OK. Well – I hope you’re right!