3.02.25 English for Business Chapter 16 Lesson 4Reading - 

Reading - career-development idioms
See idioms for professional development in context

You're going to read some excerpts from an article written by Jennifer Whiteford, CEO(chief executive officer) of "Directa", a company that produces podcasts aimed at promoting female entrepreneurs.Вы прочитаете выдержки из статьи, написанной Дженнифер Уайтфорд, исполнительным директором компании "Directa", которая выпускает подкасты, направленные на продвижение женщин-предпринимателей.

Part 1

By putting young female entrepreneurs in touch with more seasoned business people, our mission is to help them make significant changes in their careers. This includes overcoming barriers and obstacles they may be experiencing, and accessing opportunities they might have previously been denied.(и доступ к возможностям, которым ранее могли бы быть отказаны.)

Breaking the glass ceiling - the best title for the text.
In this paragraph, Jennifer refers to the barriers women face when progressing in their careers - "the glass ceiling".

Part 2

I created "Directa" because I can relate to the struggles women have in the workplace. After working as a product manager for a large organisation and not getting the promotions I felt I deserved, I left and launched my own business. This was, however, a real change of pace. I had to learn all about running a business on my own in an incredibly short space of time. Without a doubt, it was an incredibly steep learning curve.

Jennifer says it was easy to adapt to running her own company.- False

Jennifer said setting up her company was "a change of pace" - very different to what she did before.

Creating a new company was a steep learning curve for Jennifer.
Jennifer tells us that the whole process is a "steep learning curve" - extremely difficult.

Part 3

Being unable to delegate administrative work was one of the biggest challenges. Unfortunately, hiring support staff would have affected the company’s bottom line, as it would have meant additional expenses and, as a result, lower earnings. So, I had no choice but to sacrifice my sleep(пожертвовала моим сном) and burn the midnight oil to run the company effectively.

Why would hiring a team have affected the company's "bottom line"? -There would have been increased expenses and decreased profits.

Hiring new people would have affected the company's "bottom line" by increasing expenses and decreasing earnings.

What did Jennifer have to do in order to run the company effectively? -

She had to stay up late at night.
Jennifer had to stay up late ("burn the midnight oil") to complete her tasks.