What is the correct answer to this sentence- " I ____________(look) for a job for two years before I got this one." Should it be "I had been looking for a job for two years before I got this one." Or "I had looked for a job for two years before I got this one"?
2 Answers
Both are correct, but the past perfect continuous puts more emphasis on the ongoing, perhaps lengthy and laborious, nature of the job-seeking.
I do think I had been looking for a job for two years before I got this one is smoother for me. Because you are talking about something which had been lasting for a period of time. During this time period this thing was happening all the time. So past perfect continuous seems much more appropriate here.