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jobs conversation questions for English learning

50 Jobs conversation questions

ESL Conversation Questions
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Jobs conversation questions

Questions about employment for speaking classes.

The 16 jobs in the picture from left to right are – carpenter, artist, flight attendant, painter, veterinarian, firefighter, pilot, chef, farmer, architect, cleaner, businessman, waiter, doctor, builder, and musician.

The difficult vocabulary on this worksheet includes – fired, laid off, well-paid, badly-paid, long hours, retire, manual labor, benefits, self-employed, and entire.

 

The jobs conversation questions are –

 

1 – What is a job? At what age should a person get one?

 

2 – Do you have a job? Would you like to have a job?

 

3 – What jobs do people in your family do?

 

4 – What do you think are the best and worst jobs in the world?

 

5 – What jobs do you think are exciting? What jobs are dangerous?

 

6 – Have you ever had a part-time job? What was it?

 

7 – Have you ever been fired or laid off? Why did it happen?

 

8 – Would you prefer to work indoors or outdoors?

 

9 – What jobs are well-paid and badly paid in your country?

 

10 – Do your parents have a say in what job you choose?

 

11 – In what jobs do people wear a uniform?

 

12 – What jobs are usually only for women? What jobs are mostly for men?

 

13 – What jobs require people to work long hours?

 

14 – How long would you need to study to get your dream job?

 

15 – Is it difficult to get a good job in your home country?

 

16 – Do you think being a housewife or househusband is a job?

 

17 – At what age do you expect to retire? What will you do then?

 

18 – Have you ever done manual labor? What did you do?

 

19 – What job do you expect to be doing in 10 years’ time?

 

20 – What is the best way to find a job where you live?

 

21 – Would you like to take a job overseas? In what country?

 

22 – What are some of the benefits of working at home?

 

23 – Do you think you will ever be self-employed?

 

24 – What jobs are dirty? What jobs are easy?

 

25 – Is it common for people in your country to have 1 job for their entire life?

25 discussion questions about jobs
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Jobs discussion questions 2

Here is a second worksheet and set of jobs conversation questions that are slightly more advanced. These questions are more suitable for students and adults who are currently employed or have worked before.

 

1 – How many different jobs do you think that you will have in your lifetime?


2 – What are 3 occupations that require high intelligence and a lot of brain power?


3 – Are there any jobs that you believe are underpaid or overpaid? Why do you think so?


4 – Do you know anyone who works more than one job? What do they do?


5 – Have you ever quit a job or been fired from one? What made this happen?


6 – Can you think of ten jobs related to the hospitality and tourism industries?


7 – Do you have to follow any health and safety rules in your job? What are they?


8 – Would you rather have a job manufacturing products or selling them? Why?


9 – What would you do if you lost your job tomorrow? Would you be able to survive?


10- Have you ever made up an excuse to not go to your job because you didn’t want to?


11- If you could choose a job that helps your local community, what would it be?


12- What is a profession that you think is ridiculous? Why do you think so?


13- Do you know someone who has been injured while doing their job? What happened?


14- What is a course or kind of study you could do to improve your job situation?


15- Would you like to have a job that involves working with animals? What would it be?


16- Do you know of any jobs in which employers provide meals for their workers?


17- What is an easy job people can get in your area that doesn’t require many skills?


18- How do you see AI affecting the world’s job marketplace? Does it worry you at all?


19- What are some jobs that require people to work in or on the ocean?


20- What jobs did your grandparents and great-grandparents do?


21- How do you feel about the typical 40-hour work week? Would you like it to change?


22- What kinds of part-time jobs do students do where you live? Are they paid well?


23- Do you know a person who has a very easy job? What tasks must they do each day?


24- Are there any jobs that you consider to be demeaning? What do they involve?


25- Do you think it would be easy or difficult to make a living as an artist? Why so?

An artisian in a workshop
Related job idioms

If you do a hatchet job on somebody, you attack them to destroy or hurt there reputation. This is usually done through the media or social media.

If you get a cushy job, it is very easy, usually fun and doesn’t require much effort at all.

If a person says they are between jobs, they are saying they currently don’t have one.

Odd jobs are small tasks or chores that don’t take a lot of time. You might stay home to do odd jobs around the house on a Sunday such as fixing and cleaning things. Alternatively a tradesman might do odd jobs around his/her town. This would be small pieces of work that only take a few hours or so.

Follow-up jobs activities

For further activities check out the jobs puzzles. They are a good way of reinforcing job vocabulary. There are also the jobs vocabulary worksheets to help students learn the names of different occupations.

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