[Alex80]

Hi everyone!
I'd like to write a letter to a friend giving him advice on how to get a job.But I came across some grammatical problems that are shown below:
"In the interview, you (should wear/ should be wearing) an informal suit....
The manager should feel you will be cooperative with your partners, and friendly to (people/ the people) you will contact with."
Can you help me please?

[susan53]

Hi Alex,

a) Either verb form is fine here. As always, grammatical form you choose depends on how you perceive the event.
In the interview, you should wear an informal suit... means that you see it as a permanent unchanging fact relevant to all interviews.
In the interview, you should be wearing an informal suit... means that you are "projecting" yourself into the specific situation and see it as an ongoing event during that specific interview.

b) And it's the same with the inclusion or omission of the article:
The manager should feel you will be cooperative with your partners, and friendly to people you will have contact with. ie any people who you happen to come into contact with during your work
The manager should feel you will be cooperative with your partners, and friendly to the people you will have contact with. This suggests you have a specific group of people in mind - maybe the clients of the company etc.

But notice that there was a mistake in the sentence that you missed : ...the people you will have contact with.

[Alex80]

Could you please explain to me why is" will contact" is incorrect? I intentially used "contact" as a verb in and I thought it might be OK.

[susan53]

Two reasons - grammar and meaning.

Grammar

1. To contact someone (verb - contact + object) Eg: I didn't feel well so I contacted my doctor.

2. To have contact with someone ( verb have + object contact (=noun) + prepositional phrase). EG. I haven't had any contact with John since our argument in 2005.


Meaning

1. To contact someone usually means to get in touch with them by phone, email, letter etc.

2. To have contact with someone can mean this but also means to meet them physically.

So which construction you choose will depend on the type of contact involved. I suspect that your sentence refers to all types - distanced contact and physical meetings (or possibly just physical meetings), so you'd probably need to say :
The manager should feel you will be ... friendly to people you will have contact with.