Talking About Your Job in English - Spoken English Lesson

Hi, I’m Mike and welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn how to talk about your job in English.

Where do you work?

What do you have to do in your job?

What kind of company do you work for?

In this class, you can learn how to answer questions like this in clear, detailed English.

Ready?

Let’s start!

Part one: introducing your job.

"I’m a ________": "I work in ________"; "I work for _________."

How would you complete these sentences?

You could say something like:

"I’m a writer.

I work in online education.

I work for a publishing company."

'I work in...' is used with a field, meaning a type of work.

So, you can say things like:

"I work in finance."

"I work in digital marketing."

You can also use 'work in' with a place or a department of a company.

For example:

"I work in the HR department of a financial firm."

"I work in a school, teaching modern languages."

Confused?

You can see that if you use 'work in' to talk about the type of work you do, you don’t

use an article like 'a' or 'the'.

If you use an article 'a' or 'the' after 'work in', it means you’re talking about the place

or department where you work.

'I work for…' is used with a company.

So, you could say:

"I’m a salesman.

I work for a mobile phone company."

"I work for a law firm based in Frankfurt."

Or even: "I run my own business, so I work for myself."

What can you say?

Can you make sentences like this to say something about your job?

Pause the video and try to make a sentence.

Say it aloud!

Next, let’s add more details to your answer.

Part two: describing your company.

"I work for a _________ company which __________"

Look at this sentence.

We need one adjective, and the end of the sentence after 'which'.

Any ideas?

For the adjectives, think about these ideas: is your company big or small?

Local or multinational?

For the part after 'which', ask yourself: what does your company do?

Does it make things, sell things, organise things?

Does it provide products, services, or both?

So, you could say:

"I work for an international electronics company which makes tablet computers."

"I work for a German company which does market research for other companies."

What if you don’t work for a company?

Here are some things you could say:

"I’m a freelancer."

Meaning: I work independently, for different people and companies.

"I’m self-employed."

Meaning: I work for myself, either freelance or I have my own business.

"I’m a business owner."

If you don’t work, and people ask you what you do, what can you say?

Here are some useful phrases:

"I’m between jobs at the moment."

Meaning: I’ve left one job, and haven’t found another yet.

This sounds nicer than saying, “I’m unemployed.”

"I’m taking some time out to…(travel, spend time with my kids, write a book, recover

from an illness, etc.)"

Meaning: I’m not working at the moment because I want to focus on something else.

"I’m retired."

What about you?

Do you work for a company?

What can you say about it?

If you don’t work for a company, how would you describe your work situation?

Part three: how to describe your job in more detail.

So what do you actually do all day?

Let’s see how you can describe your job in more detail.

Look at these sentences:

"I have to _________"; "I’m responsible for _________"; "Most of my time is spent

_________".

Let’s do some examples together.

We’ll start with a simple example.

"I’m a nurse.

I have to look after patients, give them medicine and make sure they’re comfortable.

I’m responsible for about 20-30 patients.

Most of my time is spent talking to patients and checking that everything is okay."

Next, let’s do a more detailed example.

"I have to design websites to the client’s specifications.

I’m responsible for the whole design process, so I have to take the client’s ideas and

turn them into a finished product.

Most of my time is spent experimenting with different designs and ideas and seeing what

looks good, because attention to detail is important in this kind of work."

Can you say something like this about your job and what you do?

Try to add details if you can.

Part four: saying how you feel about your job.

Now, you can hopefully say something about your job and where you work.

But here’s another question: do you like your job?

Why or why not?

Hopefully, you enjoy your job!

How could you describe a job which you like?

Of course, you could use general adjectives like 'good' or 'interesting', but here are

some specific adjectives you could use:

Stimulating :something which is stimulating is exciting and gives you energy.

Satisfying: means that your job gives you a sense of achievement.

Creative: you can use your imagination when you work.

Rewarding: this means your job gives you very positive feelings.

It’s often used to talk about jobs in which you help other people.

For example, teachers or nurses might describe their jobs as rewarding.

Challenging: challenging can be positive or negative, but if you use it to talk about

your job, it would have a positive meaning.

It means that your job is difficult, but in an interesting way which makes you think and

learn.

What if you don’t like your job?

Again, you can use general words like 'boring' or 'difficult', which are fine but very basic.

If you want to be more creative with your vocabulary, here are some things you could

say:

Exhausting: describes work which makes you feel very tired, either physically or mentally.

Thankless:if your work is thankless, no one notices or appreciates what you do.

Mind-numbing: extremely boring.

Dead-end: describes a job which has no prospects for the future.

If you have a dead-end job, you will never get promoted and the job will always be the

same.

Soul-destroying: describes a job which is extremely unpleasant and boring, and which

you really, really hate.

Part five: how to make a longer answer.

At this point, you should be able to introduce your work, say where you work, give details

about what you do and say how you feel about your work.

Let’s make some longer sample answers together.

First one:

"I’m a pharmacist.

I started my own small pharmacy, so I’m also a business owner.

I have to work as a pharmacist, of course, giving advice to patients and making sure

they have the right medicine.

However, I’m also responsible for the pharmacy, so I have to manage my staff, do the accounts,

and so on.

It’s stimulating work because I have to do many different things every day, so I never

get bored."

Clear?

Could you make an answer like this?

Let’s do one more:

"I’m a writer.

I work in online education.

I work for a big publishing company, which produces different educational materials that

are used all around the world.

I have to write lesson plans and materials for teachers to use in the classroom.

I spend most of my time thinking about how I can make different things fit together into

a lesson.

It’s very challenging work and it can be exhausting, but it’s also very creative

and satisfying, because I know people all around the world are using lessons which I

wrote."

Okay, now it’s your turn!

Try to make a longer answer like this talking about your job.

Use the vocabulary and structure from this lesson to help you.

If you want, you can post your answer in the video comments on YouTube.

We’ll give you some feedback on your answer.

That’s the end of the lesson.

I hope you learned some new ways to talk about your job and what you do.

Thanks very much for watching.

See you next time!