Teacher Discussion Forums

A student is arguing that the phrase should be "He sent in his resume and hopes to get a job 'at' the company." It should be 'with' but, I can not find facts to prove my point. I would appreciate any ideas.

Thanks in advance!

"At" and "with" are both ok, I'd say.

The use of prepositions is always a little arbitrary.

"At" and "with" are both ok, I'd say.

Or in. It sounds like your student wants there to be one (and only one) correct way of saying something, but language (any language, as far as I know) simply doesn't work like that.

This reminds me of a student who asked me whether it was correct to say in the station or at the station. When I told her both were fine, she got very frustrated and asked "But which is better?". Basically she wanted me to give her one correct way she could say all the time. The better question would have been "Why are they both correct?"; the reason being that you can think of a station as a building which encloses you, so you can be in it, or a point on a map, so you can be at it. I leave it to you to think about why you can work at, with or in a company.

By the way, citrus, if the text you are quoting from is authentic, then there is the evidence that proves your point. Just because it's not what your student wants to see doesn't make it wrong. The problem is that your student can't accept that language isn't black and white.

'for' is also correct.

Is you sure?

Yea, I wasn't paying attention to the exact phrase:
He's hoping to work for/at IBM
He's hoping to get a job at/with IBM

If the person in question were touting for business for his company and trying to win a contract, I suppose one could say He's hoping to get a job for the company. It wouldn't mean the same thing as the others though.