Background - working experiences

[djalma]

Test No. incompl/advan-7 "Job Interview", question 1

Tell us something about your ......... in the engineering industry?

(a) foreground
(b) background
(c) knowledge
(d) history

Test No. incompl/advan-7 "Job Interview", answer 1

Tell us something about your background in the engineering industry?

Correct answer: (b) background
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is it true?

djalma

[Torsten]

Yes, background is the word needed here. It means work experience.

You can also say What is your professional background? asking a person to tell you more about what jobs they have worked in so far.
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Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary

[David1999]

Why not knowledge? Is it because we can only use knowledge in the engineering and not in engineering industry?

[Alan]

Hi David,

As you know, this is part of an interview and the candidate is being asked about his experiences and work within the engineering industry. 'Knowledge of' would be a question like: What do you know about the engineering industry? But that's not what the interviewer wants to know. He wants a description of the work that the candidate has actually done - his background and not how much he knows about engineering.

Hope that clarifies.

Alan
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