IELTS Work and Jobs Vocabulary: 40 Words + Collocations
By Miracle Team ·
Work is the topic most likely to come up in the first minute of your test. “Do you work or are you a student?” is one of the standard openers of Speaking Part 1, which makes this the one topic where a weak answer costs you before you have warmed up.
It then returns in Part 3 (“Will automation replace human workers?”) and in Task 2 essays about working hours, remote work and job satisfaction. Forty items below, each marked W (Writing), S (Speaking) or both.
Nouns (16)
| Word | Use it like this | Use |
|---|---|---|
| job satisfaction | a high level of job satisfaction | both |
| work–life balance | maintain a work–life balance | both |
| remote working | the shift to remote working | both |
| promotion | be up for a promotion | both |
| workforce | a skilled workforce | W |
| redundancy | face redundancy | W |
| salary | earn a decent salary | both |
| workload | a heavy workload | both |
| career prospects | good career prospects | both |
| colleague | get on well with colleagues | both |
| line manager | report to a line manager | S |
| unemployment | tackle youth unemployment | W |
| internship | do an unpaid internship | both |
| burnout | suffer burnout | both |
| shift | work night shifts | both |
| job security | offer job security | both |
Verbs (12)
| Word | Use it like this | Use |
|---|---|---|
| apply for | apply for a position | both |
| recruit | recruit new staff | W |
| resign | resign from a job | both |
| commute | commute to work | both |
| delegate | delegate tasks | W |
| negotiate | negotiate a salary | both |
| supervise | supervise a team | W |
| earn | earn a living | both |
| retire | retire early | both |
| hire | hire more staff | both |
| take on | take on extra responsibility | S |
| lay off | lay off workers | both |
Adjectives (12)
| Word | Use it like this | Use |
|---|---|---|
| rewarding | a rewarding career | both |
| stressful | a stressful job | both |
| flexible | flexible hours | both |
| demanding | a demanding role | both |
| full-time | a full-time position | both |
| part-time | part-time work | both |
| freelance | work on a freelance basis | both |
| skilled | skilled labour | W |
| monotonous | monotonous tasks | W |
| lucrative | a lucrative industry | W |
| competitive | a competitive job market | both |
| temporary | a temporary contract | both |
That is 16 + 12 + 12 = 40 items. Only nine are W-only — work is a topic people genuinely discuss, so most of this list is usable in conversation.
The opening question, and how it gets wasted
“Do you work or are you a student?” looks like small talk. It is actually your first scored utterance, and three answers waste it:
❌ Too short: “I work.”
❌ Memorised: “I am currently employed in the capacity of a marketing executive at a multinational corporation, where my responsibilities encompass…”
✅ Right length, natural: “I work — I’m in marketing, for a company that sells software to schools. I’ve been there about two years now, and the best part is honestly my colleagues.”
The third answer is two or three sentences, gives a detail the examiner can follow up on, and uses one item from this list (colleagues) without straining for it. That is the target for every Part 1 answer.
A useful rule for Part 1: answer, then add one piece of information nobody asked for. It gives the examiner something to work with and it stops you sounding clipped.
Why “boring job” is costing you marks
Work is the topic where vague adjectives are most tempting, because we describe jobs casually in every language. Upgrading them is quick:
| Vague | Precise |
|---|---|
| a boring job | monotonous tasks, no career prospects |
| a good job | rewarding, with a decent salary and job security |
| a hard job | demanding, with a heavy workload |
| a busy job | long shifts and constant overtime |
| I left my job | I resigned / I was laid off / I faced redundancy |
That last row matters: left my job hides the reason, while resigned, laid off and made redundant each tell a different story. Precision is not decoration — it carries meaning.
Common mistakes
- Work is uncountable; job is countable. I have a lot of work but I have a good job. A work and works (meaning employment) are wrong.
- Staff and people are plural. The staff are friendly. Staffs and peoples are errors.
- Advice, training, equipment and information stay uncountable in workplace essays too.
- Resign from, apply for, work for a company, work as a teacher, be responsible for. These prepositions are fixed.
- Salary vs wage vs income. Salary is annual and usually professional; wage is hourly; income is all money received. Earn a high income and earn a good salary both work; earn a high money does not.
- Made redundant, not fired for redundancy. He was made redundant (job eliminated) is different from he was fired (dismissed for cause) — mixing them changes the meaning.
- Overtime is uncountable. Do overtime or work overtime, never do overtimes.
The Part 3 arguments this feeds
Work questions in Part 3 and Task 2 cluster around four debates. Each has its own language:
Automation and jobs. Will machines replace human workers? Which sectors need a skilled workforce that cannot be automated? Overlaps directly with technology vocabulary.
Working hours and wellbeing. Do long shifts and heavy workloads cause burnout? Is a four-day week realistic? Overlaps with health vocabulary.
Remote versus office work. Does remote working improve work–life balance or damage collaboration? Note this debate barely existed in older practice material — it is now common.
Money versus satisfaction. Should people choose a lucrative career or a rewarding one? A reliable Part 3 question, and one where a personal example lands well.
Practising them
Work has an advantage over other topics: you already have opinions and experiences here. Use them. Write one true sentence per item about your own job, your parents’ jobs, or the job you want — and say the S and both items out loud until they are automatic. If you have nobody to practise with, these methods work alone.
The full set of ten topics is in IELTS vocabulary by topic, and the closest neighbour to this one is education vocabulary — questions about vocational training sit in both.