The word for today is job

 
Business English Course

A lot of English learners confuse the words job, work, and career. Today, I’m going to teach you how to use each one correctly – as well as various collocations (typical phrases) in which you can use these words. To learn practical English for your job and career, check out the Business English Course.

JOB (noun)

A job is a regular and official activity that you do, and receive money (a salary) for your activity. It is also called a profession or an occupation. You can have a full-time job (40 hours per week) or a part-time job (around 25 hours per week).

When someone is looking for a job, this is sometimes called the “job hunt” or “job search.” If you have a friend who’s looking for a job, you can ask them, “How’s the job hunt going?”

To find a job, you can check the job listings online or in the newspaper – these are small advertisements about job openings (job opportunities). The process of trying to get a specific job – when you send your resume or CV to a company – is called applying for a job.

If the company offers you the job and you say “yes,” then you have gotten the job!

To describe a person’s job, you can say it is:

• a demanding job (requires a lot of effort)
  “Being an emergency surgeon is a demanding job – you have to be on call 24 hours a day.”
  
• a fulfilling / rewarding job (it makes you feel good)
  “Working with refugee children was one of the most rewarding jobs I’ve had.”
• an entry-level job (a job that can be done by someone who is just beginning their career, which doesn’t require much experience or many skills)
  “Daniel got an entry-level job as an administrative assistant.”
• a dead-end job (a job that has no opportunities for advancement or promotions)
  “Being a truck driver is a dead-end job.”
• a high-powered job (a dynamic and important job)
  “After she published her book, she got a high-powered job as director of a national newspaper.”
• a lucrative job (a job where you earn a lot of money)
  “My mother wants me to marry a guy with a lucrative job – like a doctor or lawyer.”

The word job is a countable noun:

• Right after graduating from college, I worked two jobs so that I could pay off my student loans faster.
• Terry has had seven jobs in the past five years.

WORK (noun AND verb)

The word work is more general than “job” – whereas “job” is a specific occupation/profession, “work” refers to general efforts and activities done to accomplish a goal. “Work” can be done both inside an official job and outside a job!

• You can say you work at / for (a company): “I work at General Motors.”
• You can say you’re working on (a project / task): “I’m working on a market analysis” or “I’m working on improving customer satisfaction.”
• You can say you work with (people / objects): “I work with special needs children” or “I work with hazardous chemicals.”

The word work also refers to the context of your place of employment – so we can say:

“I start work at 7 AM.” (not “I start my job at 7 AM”)

“I finish / leave work at 4:30.” (not “I finish my job at 4:30”)
– An informal way to say “leave work” is “get off work” 

“We go to work by car.” (not “We go to our job by car”)

“I went to the bar with some friends from work.”

“I can’t access Facebook when I’m at work.” (not “at my job”)

“Work” is an uncountable noun, so it is not used in the plural:

• I have three works to do this week.
  
• I have three projects to do this week.
• I have three things / tasks to do this week.
• I have three assignments to do this week.

Exception: when talking about works of art / literature.

CAREER (noun)

Your career is the total progression of your professional life. It can include many different jobs over the years.

You can have a career in (a field) – for example, a career in politics / journalism / teaching / finance

Here are a few more collocations with career:

• embark on a career = begin a career
  
• pursue a career = make an effort to have a career
• a promising career = a career with good future potential
• a varied career = a career with jobs in many different areas
• career prospects = career opportunities
• switch your career = change your career
• career takes off = when someone’s career starts to become very successful
• at the height / peak of your career = at the most successful point in your career
• ruin your career = when your career is destroyed

Now try the quiz on the difference between job, work, and career!

Difference between Job, Work, and Career

Choose the best word to complete each sentence.

Congratulations — you have completed Difference between Job, Work, and Career.
You scored %%SCORE%% out of %%TOTAL%%.
Your performance has been rated as %%RATING%%

Your answers are highlighted below.

The term ‘job‘ can mean 1. A full or part-time position of paid employment. 2. A piece of work, usually at a specific price. 3. A specific task people do as part of the routine of their occupation. 4. A duty or responsibility. 5. A project, as in ‘The airport job took twelve months to complete.’ 5. The performance or execution of a task, as in “She did an excellent job.”

Informally, it can also refer to somebody’s pet going to the toilet. For example “I waited for my dog Tommy to do his job, after which we walked home,” means my dog went to the toilet. A bank job can mean a bank robbery, as in ‘There has been a wave of bank jobs in the suburbs.’

The Cambridge Dictionary has the following definition of the term:

“The regular work that a person does to earn money. A particular piece of work. Something that is your responsibility. A problem or activity that is difficult. A crime in which money or goods are stolen.”

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Etymology of ‘job’

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word ‘job’, with the meaning ‘piece of work, something to be done,’ emerged in the English language in Britain in the 1620s, from the phrase Jobbe of Worke (1550s), meaning ‘task, piece of work’.

Some etymologists suggest that it was a variant of Gobbe, which meant ‘mass, lump’, via the sense of ‘a cart-load’.

It was not until the 1650s that the meaning widened to include ‘work people do for pay’.

According to literary records, people first used the term with the meaning ‘a paid, permanent position of employment’ in 1858. From 1795, printers used the word as a slang for ‘piece of work of miscellaneous class’ (handbills, posters, etc.).

In the 1660s, also in Britain, ‘to job’ – as a verb – appeared with the meaning ‘to buy and sell as a broker’.

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Types of jobs

In society, most of us have multiple jobs. A person may be an employee, a parent, and homemaker. They are all, in fact, by definition, types of jobs.

People with specialized training in certain types of work, either have a:

– Trade: these are manual jobs. Examples include carpenters, auto mechanics, hairstylists, and bakers. Butchers, plumbers, and tree surgeons are also trades.

To become a tradesperson, you usually have to do a course and complete a period of practical work.

– Profession: for this type of job you need a university qualification. Examples include lawyers, doctors, dentists, architects, librarians, engineers, and pharmacists. Scientists, physicists, teachers, university professors, and geologists are also professions.

Between trades and professions, there are technical and administration jobs. For some of them, you need a university degree.

We call all other positions unskilled jobs. You do not need any formal qualifications for them. Examples include fruit pickers, maids, janitors, retail assistants, farm laborers, cleaners, etc.

Many CEOs of giant multinationals have no college degrees. In fact, many of them started off at the bottom of the employment ladder and worked their way up. Others went into business and became extremely successful and rich.

Richard Branson, the founder and CEO of the Virgin Group, left school at the age of 16. He has dyslexia and performed badly as a student.

In fact, his Headmaster Robert Drayson predicted that Branson would either end up in jail or become a millionaire. Today he has a net worth of over $5 billion.

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Is a vocation a job?

A vocation is a type of job to which an individual is especially drawn. In other words, they receive a ‘call’ or a summons from a higher entity.

Originally, the term was used just for religious callings. However, today we consider many several non-religious occupations as vocations. For example, teaching or medicine are vocations.

The vocation of a nurse or doctor is probably to be a ‘healer’.

Vocation may refer to work that is outside a person’s money-earning sphere of activity. For example, an entrepreneur might have a vocation as a Sunday school teacher or a youth sponsor.

Since the American engineer, social reformer and public intellectual Frank Parsons (1854-1908) published his Vocational Guidance in 1908, the use of the term ‘vocation’ has widened to include the notion of people using their talents and capabilities to good effect in selecting and enjoying a career.

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Full- and part-time jobs

In a full-time job, people work about thirty-five to forty hours per week. In a part-time job, however, the working week is much shorter.

The number of part-time jobs in the advanced economies has increased considerably since the turn of the century. Specifically, they have increased as a percentage of total jobs.

Jobs can also be categorized as self-employment, consulting, odd jobs, seasonal, temporary, or contract.

Most people receive money for the work they do. However, some don’t. Examples of unpaid jobs include interns, students, homemakers, and caregivers (UK: carers) of family members. Mentors and volunteers are also examples of unpaid work.

There are thousands of different types of jobs. According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, there are 27,966 different job titles.

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What is a day job?

‘Day job’ is a term that typically refers to low-paying work that people have while looking for their dream occupation.

For example, people may wait on tables in a restaurant or serve drinks in a bar while trying to become athletes, actors, musicians, successful authors. Many people also do this type of work while they are studying for a degree.

The implication of ‘day job’ is that the individual would gladly give it up if they managed to make a decent living from their real vocation.

If somebody is told ‘Don’t give up your day job,’ it is a humorous way of telling them that their singing, acting, writing, or artistic ability is bad.

Job Characteristics Theory is a theory of job design developed forty years ago that is widely used today as a framework to study how work outcomes, including employee **satisfaction and productivity, are affected by certain job features.

** Employee satisfaction or job satisfaction is the pleasure we get from doing our job.

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Job description

When a company has a job vacancy, it will try to fill it either internally or externally.

It will first write a job description, which includes everything the employee has to do. The description also has details of the salary, bonuses, qualifications required, etc. It will then place the description in a advert.

The advert will appear either on the company’s notice board or externally in newspapers or employment agencies.

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Video – What is a good quality job?

According to this OECD video, the quality of the jobs we have matter to our overall well-being.

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Hello, today we are going to talk about
jobs.

You’ll learn the difference between
notions “work” and “job”.

You’ll also listen to an interview about
some unusual jobs in the world.

First of all, let’s read these wise
quotations. Can you comment on them?

“Get happiness out of your work or you may
never know what happiness is”. (Edgar Bergen)

“Choose a job you love, and you will never
have to work a day in your life”. (Unknown author)

“When work is a pleasure, life is joy.
When work is duty, life is slavery.” (Maxim Gorky)

By the way, do you know the difference
between the words “work” and “job”?

We use job to talk about a
particular work activity that you do: What’s his job? He is a doctor.

It is a countable noun: He’s got
a job as a waiter. NOT He’s got a work as a waiter.

We use work to talk about
something you do as part of your job: I’ve got a lot of work to do today.

It is an uncountable noun: He’s
looking for work. NOT He’s looking for a work.

Work is also a verb: I work in London. NOT I job
in London.

Now it’s time to revise different kinds of
jobs.

Listen to the sounds A to F. What are the
names of these job?

How many other jobs do you know in
English?

Match the jobs with the pictures.

1.                
a lawyer

2.                
an accountant

3.                
an engineer

4.                
a mechanic

5.                
a photographer

6.                
a nurse

7.                
a waiter/waitress

8.                
a sportsman/sportswoman

9.                
an actor/actress

10.           
a businessman/businesswoman

Listen to the descriptions and guess the jobs.

1.                
This person takes pictures of
interesting places and people for magazines.

a photographer

2.                
This person finds out about
things that happen and then writes about them for newspapers and different
television channels.

3.                
a journalist

4.                
This person makes delicious
things for people to eat in restaurants.

a chef

5.                
You go to see this person if
you are ill. If you are feeling sick or sore, he gives you the right medicine.

a doctor

6.                
This person can repair your
car if there’s a problem with its engine.

a mechanic

7.                
These people act on a theater
stage and people go to watch them.

actors

Choose the phrases you know
from the list.

Match the phrases 1 – 11 to
definitions a) – k).

I’d like …

1.                
a good salary                 a)
a lot of money for doing your job

2.                
friendly colleagues         b)
nice people to work with

3.                
my own office                c)
an office only for you

4.                
long holidays                 d)
a lot of days off a year

5.                
a good boss                    e)
a good manager

6.                
job security                    f)
you know you’ll have the job for a long time

I’d like a job with …

7.                
flexible working hours   g)
you can choose when you start or finish

8.                
opportunities for travel   h)
the chance to travel as part of your job

9.                
opportunities for promotion     i)
the chance to get a better job in the company

10.           
holiday pay                    j)
you get paid when you’re on holiday

11.           
sick pay                         k)
you get paid when you’re ill

Choose the three things from the list that
are important to you and three things that are not important to you.

Look at the photos and choose three
phrases that you think are true for each job.

Harry: I’ve recently listened an interview with Michel Grey about his
amazing book “What do you do?” This book is a collection of articles about
people with strange jobs. He collected stories about unusual jobs from all over
the world.

First, match these words to pictures A – C:

Let’s check your guesses:

A: chewing gum, The Statue of Liberty.

B: rubbish, worms.

C: washing up liquid, strawberries, paint,
a sausage.

Interviewer: …. So you’re not talking about actors or shop assistant s.

Michel: No, all the people in the book have very strange jobs.

Interviewer: I see it’s organized into different industries, like the cleaning
industry. But isn’t cleaning a normal job?

Michel: Normally, yes. But did you know there’s a man in America called
Brad Fields and he cleans chewing gum off the Statue of Liberty? Well,
actually, he’s got a company called Gumbusters. But that’s all they do – they
clean gum off the streets and famous buildings of New York.

I: Oh, what a horrible job!

Michel: Yes, Americans chew 56 billion pieces of chewing gum a year.
Then they throw most of it onto the street. That’s a lot of cleaning.

I: OK, that job is quite unusual. But what about in the food
industry?

Michel: Well, when a company wants to
advertise food they sometimes need a food stylist. Their job is to make food
look good in advertisements.

I: I’ve never heard of that job before.

Michel: Well, there are only a few food stylists in Britain. For example,
when we look at a picture of strawberries and cream we’re really looking at strawberries
and white paint. And they paint sausages with washing-up liquid, then coffee,
to make them look natural.

I: So what’s the strangest job in your book, do you think?

Michel: Well, how about vermiculturalist?

I: What’s that?

Michel: A vermiculturalist is a worm farmer. These people manage farms
that only have worms. No other animals, only worms.

I: But why?

Michel: Well, worms like eating rubbish
and that’s good for the environment. So companies pay a worm farmer to clean up
their rubbish.

I: I see there’s also a chapter about artists. What strange jobs did
you find in …

Now choose the true sentences. Correct the
false sentences.

1. The jobs in the book are from different
countries. – True

2. Gumbusters only clean gum from the
Statue of Liberty. – False. They also clean gum off the streets and famous
buildings of New York.

3. Americans chew 56 million pieces of gum
a year. – True

4. Food stylists take photos of food. –
False. Their job is to make food look good in advertisements.

5. They paint sausages with washing up
liquid and coffee. – True

6. Worm farmers use pigs to eat rubbish. –
False. Worm farmers use worms to eat rubbish

Well, there are no pointless jobs. Some of
them are traditional, others are strange, but all of them should be respected.

As for me, I want to be a programmer. This
job offers a good salary and opportunities for promotion. What do you think?
Have you chosen your future job?

Remember the words by Ralph Marston:

What you do today can improve all your tomorrows.

An English proverb:

• Every man is an architect of his fortune.

architect [ˈɑ:kɪtekt]

fortune [ˈfɔ:tʃən]

What’s the theme of our lesson?

Jobs

Today at the lesson we will:

• revise the words for the topic «Jobs»;
• discuss important qualities for a successful career;
• tell about different kinds of jobs.

The aim of the lesson is:

• to speak about future career.

Concept Wheel Name the synonyms to the word

Jobs

What professions do you know?

professions

Choose a profession and tell about it.

What are their jobs?

Where do these people work?

What do they usually do at work?

teacher cashier professor nurse officer secretary postman accountant postal worker

2 extra

• 1) Someone who gets cash or pays out money in a shop is aan ____________.
• 2) Aan_______ is qualified and licensed to give people medical treatment.
• 3)Aan________ is an employee who does clerical and administrative work in an office for a person or organization.
• 4)Aan__________ is someone who can count well and keeps the money records of a business.
• 5) Someone with an important job in a military organization is aan _________.
• 6) Aan______ is a teacher of the highest academic rank in a college or university.
• 7) Aan_________ takes and brings letters and parcels as a job.

4) Someone who can count well and keeps the money records of a business.

• 6) A teacher of the highest academic rank in a college or university.

2) Aan_______is qualified and licensed to give people medical treatment.

7) Aan_____ takes and brings letters and parcels as a job.

1) Someone who gets cash or pays out money in a shop.

3)Aan________is an employee who does clerical and administrative work in an office for a person or organization.

5) Someone with an important job in a military organization

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Criteria: 0mistake – «5»

1 mistake – «4»

2-3mistakes – «3»

4-7mistakes- «2»

What qualities are required for the following professions.

Qualities for job:

friendly

brave

organised [ˈɔːɡ(ə)naɪzd]

fit

healthy

strong

сaring [ˈkɛə(r)ɪŋ]

patient

skilful

intelligent

careful

hardworking

likeable

efficient [ɪˈfɪʃənt]

calm [kɑ:m]

honest

responsible

practical

… .……

A: What is your job?

B: I’m aan______.

A: If you want to be a nice_____ , you should be_________ .

……… ..

There are a lot of factors influence your mind to choose a future career…

Prestige of a profession

Interests & Hobbies

Parents’ advice

Friends’ opinion

Teachers’ advice

Have you chosen your future profession? What do you want to be?

• In my opinion, I want to be….
• As for me, I’d like to be….
• To tell you the truth,….

• Unfortunately, I haven’t decided yet.

Questionnaire

• 1)Name: ____________________
• 2)Qualities: I am __________________
• 3) HobbiesInterests: I’m good at ___________
• 4) Where do you want to study?:
• I want to study at college/University/ Military Academy
• 5)Where do you want to work?:
• I want to work insideoutsidein an officein the army________
• 6) When do you want to work?:
• I’d like to work full-timepart-time overtime in the mornings___
• 7) How would you like to work?:
• I’d like to work with my handsother peoplea company______
• Salary:__________

I would recommend ______to be ….

You are a school career adviser.

• Recommend cadets what job to choose. Explain your choice.

Speaking

Say what job you would recommend cadets to choose. Use the following phrases:

He is …

patient

responsible

he is good at

… studies …

study at Military Academy

He likes/wants to..

work part-time / full-time

work overtime

He is ready to…

work with hands other people

wear a uniform

salary

well paid

I would recommend …

«Steps to success»

4 th step

Become a qualified specialist

3 rd step

Enter the University

2 nd step

Pass exams

1 st step

Study hard everyday

You are going to give a talk about your career plans . 1.5—-2 minutes

exam

Criteria:

10-12 sentences — «5»

8-10 «4»

6-7 «3»

0-5 2»

• Remember to say
• what job you want to do in future;
• what reasons of your choice, and why;
• whether your family approve of your career choice or not.
• You have to talk continuously.

Write a cinquain

a naval officer

1 noun

2 adjectives

3 verbs

1 word combination

HW

• You have received a letter from your English-speaking pen friend, Ben.
• … Yesterday I did a test to see which job is the most appropriate for me. According to the results I should become a doctor. But it would be absolutely impossible because I am afraid of blood…
• … What future career would you like to have, why? Do your parents agree with your choice? In what way will English be useful for your career?
• Write him a letter and answer his 3 questions.
• Write 100–120 words.
• Remember the rules of letter writing.

Now I know …

Now I can…

Do you know the words «Jobs» now?

I …

Can you describe the profession now?

What was interesting at the lesson?

What was difficult?