17/5/21

Hi there!
In this class, we’re going to review the vocabulary JOBS & PROFESSIONS.
In the first place, I’d like you to pay attention to the difference between words that are synonyms but
do not mean the same and cannot always be used one for another: job, work, post, position,
occupation, profession, career

Your JOB is the work that you do regularly in order to earn money, especially when you work for a
company or public organization. (countable)

WORK is used in a more general way to talk about activities that you do to earn money, either
working for a company or for yourself. (uncountable)

! Do not say 'what is your job?' or 'what is your work?'.

Say what do you do? or what do you do for a living?

POST and POSITION are more formal words for a job in a company or organization. They are used
especially in job advertisements and when you are talking about someone moving to a different job.

Use OCCUPATION to talk about the kind of work that someone usually does, for example if they are a
teacher, lawyer, driving instructor etc. Occupation is used mainly on official forms e.g. “State your
name, age, and occupation in the box below.”

! Do not use occupation to talk about your own job. Say, for example, “I am an accountant.”
(NOT My occupation is an accountant).

A PROFESSION is a kind of work for which you need special training and a good education, for
example teaching, law, or medicine, e.g. the legal profession

Your CAREER is the type of work that you do or hope to do for most of your life, e.g. “I'm interested in
a career in television.” “His career is more important to him than his family.”

To go on, so far in the book Headway Unit 3 you will come across jobs like these: football manager,
Head Teacher, Deep-sea diver, oil-well installer, and A&E doctor (Accident & Emergency), HR
manager, CEO, IT manager, Accountant, PA and Sales Director. Most of them are related to business.
Apart from those professions, it is important for us to know others like “Butcher /ˈbʊtʃə(r)/”, Baker,
Greengrocer, etc. who work at shops like “butcher’s, baker’s, Greengrocer’s” etc. Have you ever seen
these before? Do you remember others like these? Which ones? In this case, the focus is on the place
where they work, i.e. their workplace.
You can also find “blue-collar” jobs, “white-collar” jobs and “pink-collar” jobs. Do you know the
difference among them? Which jobs are which? I invite you to learn the differences among these
“color-collar” jobs here: https://www.typingadventure.com/pink-collar-vs-blue-collar-vs-white-collar-
jobs/

When we DEFINE jobs, we can do it in four different ways:

SINGULAR
1) A carpenter makes things from wood.
2) A carpenter is a person who makes things from wood.
PLURAL
3) Carpenters make things from wood.
4) Carpenters are people who make things from wood.
The way that almost always causes difficulty is number 2 because learners forget to add the “-s” to
the verb as the Relative Clause says “a person who…”
I invite you to study these different ways of defining jobs in the following links:
https://www.vocabulary.cl/Basic/Professions.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8tF2aQoukY&feature=emb_title

Furthermore, we can use many ADJECTIVES to describe jobs. The following ones collocate with the
word “job”. Then CLASSIFY them into: Positive (+), Negative (-) or Neutral (N).
· decent, good, great, worthwhile
· interesting
· high-powered, top (very important or successful)
· plum (a good job etc. that other people wish they had)
· cushy (a cushy job or life is very easy and does not need much effort), easy, simple,
· dream, ideal
· boring, dead-end (with low wages and no chance of progress), lousy (informal, esp. AmE), menial,
routine, undemanding
· rewarding
· challenging, (physically) demanding, difficult, taxing (needing a lot of effort)
· dangerous
· highly paid, high - paying, well-paid, well-paying (esp. AmE)
· badly paid, low-paid, low - paying (esp. AmE), poorly paid (esp. BrE)
· new
· current, first, previous
· full-time, part-time
· 9 - to-5
· regular, steady
· permanent, temporary
· holiday (BrE), summer
· evening, Saturday, weekend
· paid, unpaid
· manual (esp. BrE)
· semi-skilled, skilled, unskilled
· blue-collar, white-collar, pink-collar
· desk
· factory, office
· coaching, construction, manufacturing, teaching, etc.
· proper, real

Homework for Thursday 27th, May. On that Zoom class you’re going to present your charts, and after
that, you’re going to upload your answers to the forum called “Classification of jobs”. In groups,
you’re going to complete the following chart according to the category given:
GROUP 1

HIGH-POWERED or PLUM jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
GROUP 2

DEAD-END or UNDEMANDING DEFINITION WORKPLACE

jobs
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

GROUP 3

PHYSICALLY DEMANDING jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

GROUP 4

BLUE-COLLAR jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

GROUP 5

WHITE-COLLAR or OFFICE jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
 6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

GROUP 6

PINK-COLLAR jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)

GROUP 7

FACTORY jobs DEFINITION WORKPLACE

1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)