Describe a Job You Would Like to Do
A Band 8 model answer for the IELTS Part 2 cue card about a job you would like, handling hypothetical language well, with Part 3 questions on work and careers.
Cue Card
Describe a job you would like to do in the future.
You should say:
- what the job is
- how you would get it
- what skills it needs
And explain why this job appeals to you.
Two traps here. The first is naming a job with no idea what it involves, which collapses the moment you have to describe the daily work. The second is describing your actual current job, which answers a different question.
The answer below picks something the speaker is not qualified for and is honest about that. Being realistic about the gap is what gives the answer somewhere to go.
Model Answer
Band 8The job I'd like is to work as a sound engineer for radio documentaries, which I'm aware is a fairly narrow thing to want.
I got interested through listening rather than through any technical background. There's a kind of documentary where you can hear the room, the traffic outside, somebody putting a cup down, and it makes the thing feel like you're standing there. I started noticing that the pieces I found most affecting weren't necessarily the ones with the best stories, they were the ones where the sound was doing half the work.
Getting there would be difficult and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. It's a small industry, the entry route is mostly through assisting somebody, and the pay at the start is apparently poor. Realistically I'd need to build a portfolio in my own time first, which I've started doing in a very amateur way, recording things and editing them badly. I'd probably also need a course of some kind, and I'd have to accept a significant drop in income for a couple of years.
The skills are a mixture, which is part of the appeal. There's the technical side, microphones and editing software, which is learnable and honestly the easier half. The harder part is editorial judgement, knowing which four seconds of a two hour recording carry the whole moment. What draws me to it is that combination. Most jobs are either technical or creative and this one refuses to be either, and I'd rather spend thirty years on a problem like that than on something I'd fully understand within a year.
Why This Answer Works
- It is honest about the obstacles. Poor pay, a small industry, a needed course, and a drop in income. Acknowledging cost makes the ambition credible instead of decorative.
- The reason for the interest is concrete. Hearing a cup being put down is a specific detail that explains an abstract preference in one image.
- It separates the two skill sets and ranks them. Saying the technical half is easier and the editorial judgement is harder shows real understanding of the job rather than a description of it.
- Conditionals and modals carry the whole answer. I'd need, I'd have to, would be difficult, I'd rather. This is precisely the language the card is designed to draw out.
Key Phrases to Steal
“which I'm aware is a fairly narrow thing to want”
Pre-empts the examiner's reaction. Sounds self-aware, not apologetic.
“I'm not going to pretend otherwise”
Direct phrase for acknowledging a difficulty. Confident rather than negative.
“in a very amateur way”
Honest qualifier that makes the claim believable.
“carry the whole moment”
Plain verb used figuratively about editing. Precise and unusual.
“refuses to be either”
Personification of a job. Compact and memorable.
Part 3 Follow-Up Questions
Is salary the most important factor when choosing a job?
It's the most important factor up to a point and then it stops being. Below a certain income, money determines whether you sleep well and whether an unexpected bill is a crisis, so it dominates everything. Above that threshold the research fairly consistently shows the returns flatten and other things matter more, autonomy especially, and whether you respect the people you work with. The difficulty is that the threshold is invisible from below.
Do you think people will change jobs more often in the future?
Almost certainly, and the trend is already well established. The old arrangement where a company trained you and kept you for forty years relied on a stability that mostly no longer exists, and loyalty stopped being reciprocal some time ago. What worries me slightly is that frequent movement makes deep expertise harder to build, since some skills only develop after years in one place. So people may end up more adaptable and less expert, which isn't obviously a good trade.
Should schools do more to prepare students for work?
More on the practical side, yes, though I'd be careful about how far that goes. Teaching students how to read a contract, how tax works, and how to behave in an interview would cost very little and help almost everyone. Training them for specific industries is riskier, because the industry may not look the same in ten years. The general capacities, writing clearly, arguing from evidence, working with people you didn't choose, hold their value much longer than any particular vocational skill.
Now Try It Out Loud
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