Work is a regular IELTS topic. Writing Task 2 asks what matters more when choosing a career, money or enjoying the job; whether it’s good that more and more people work from home; and whether it’s worth staying with one company for life. In Speaking Part 3, the examiner asks you to compare work today with a generation ago or to predict which jobs will disappear.
The trap in this topic is words that seem simple. Learners often write I have a big experience, but English says a lot of experience or extensive experience. And with an article, an experience isn’t work experience at all: it’s an event or something that happened to you, as in Working abroad was an unforgettable experience. Work has the same catch: “I found a good work” should be I found a good job, because work in the sense of employment is uncountable and never takes a. The examiner notices these straight away, even when the rest of your text is clean. Below are 28 collocations, the typical mistakes learners make with them and an example of how LetsWords gives feedback on a sentence you write yourself.
This page is part of our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide. Prices, taxes and income inequality are covered on the Economy page; this one looks at work from the employee’s point of view: finding a job, working conditions, careers and new ways of working.
Work and careers: words and collocations
Job hunting and careers
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| apply for a job | formally ask to be considered for a job | She applied for dozens of jobs before she received her first offer. |
| fill a vacancy | find someone for an open position | Small firms in rural areas often struggle to fill vacancies. |
| gain experience | develop skills by doing the work | Internships allow students to gain experience before they graduate. |
| pursue a career in | work towards a career in a particular field | After university, he decided to pursue a career in medicine. |
| career prospects | your chances of success in your career | Fluent English can significantly improve your career prospects. |
| climb the career ladder | move up to more senior positions | Climbing the career ladder often means accepting longer hours and more stress. |
| get promoted | be given a higher position | She got promoted to team leader after only two years. |
| job security | confidence that you won’t lose your job | Many people value job security more than a high salary. |
Working conditions
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| working conditions | the environment and terms you work under | Trade unions campaign for better working conditions in factories and warehouses. |
| a well-paid / low-paid job | a job with high / low pay | Without qualifications, young people often end up in low-paid jobs. |
| earn a good salary | be paid well | Software engineers usually earn a good salary even at the start of their careers. |
| work long hours | work many hours a day | Junior doctors often work long hours with very few breaks. |
| work overtime | work beyond your normal hours | Staff are expected to work overtime before major deadlines. |
| a heavy workload | a large amount of work | A heavy workload is one of the main causes of stress at work. |
| job satisfaction | the feeling that your work is worthwhile and enjoyable | For many teachers, job satisfaction matters more than pay. |
| meet a deadline | finish something by the required time | The team worked through the weekend to meet the deadline. |
New ways of working
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| work remotely | work away from the office, usually from home | Since 2020, millions of office employees have started to work remotely at least part of the week. |
| flexible working hours | a schedule you can adjust | Flexible working hours help parents combine a career with childcare. |
| work-life balance | the balance between your job and your personal life | A four-day week could give employees a healthier work-life balance. |
| be self-employed | work for yourself | Being self-employed gives you freedom but no paid holidays. |
| acquire new skills | learn new skills | Workers will need to acquire new skills throughout their working lives. |
| at risk of automation | likely to be replaced by machines | Routine office jobs are the most at risk of automation. |
Staff and companies
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| take responsibility for | accept that something is your duty or your fault | A good manager takes responsibility for the team’s mistakes. |
| work as part of a team | work well with other people | Employers look for graduates who can work as part of a team. |
| motivate employees | make staff want to work well | Public recognition can motivate employees as effectively as a pay rise. |
| staff turnover | the rate at which employees leave and are replaced | High staff turnover costs companies both time and money. |
| hand in your notice | formally tell your employer you’re leaving | He handed in his notice after the company cut his bonus. |
| be laid off | lose your job because the company cuts staff | Hundreds of workers were laid off when the factory closed. |
Common mistakes
I have a big experience in sales.
Correct: I have a lot of experience in sales. Or: I have extensive experience in sales.
Experience in the sense of skill and knowledge is uncountable and doesn’t go with big. To show how much, use a lot of, considerable or extensive. An experience, with the article, is a single event or something that happened to you.
My brother found a good work in a bank.
Correct: My brother found a good job at a bank.
Work is the activity, and it’s uncountable. A specific position with a title and a salary is a job. The difference is covered in detail in the work vs job exercise.
I work for this company for three years.
Correct: I have worked for this company for three years.
The job started in the past and continues now, so you need the present perfect: have worked … for three years.
Many factory workers get a cheap salary.
Correct: Many factory workers earn a low salary. Or: Many factory workers are low-paid.
Cheap describes things that don’t cost much to buy. Pay is low or high, and a job is low-paid or well-paid. The verb for money you receive for work is earn.
How LetsWords explains mistakes like these
Mistakes like these are almost invisible to the person who makes them: big experience and a good work feel natural when you’re translating in your head. That’s why LetsWords catches them in sentences you write yourself. Here’s what one task looks like.
You’re reviewing work remotely. LetsWords shows you a hint in your native language meaning “work away from the office”. You recall the English expression and write a sentence about new ways of working:
After the pandemic, many companies allowed to work remotely, and now people spend less time to get to work.
The feedback explains two mistakes:
- allowed to work → allowed staff to work: after allow, say who is allowed; without an object, the sentence sounds cut off;
- spend less time to get to work → spend less time commuting: after spend time, use the -ing form, and the daily journey to and from work is commuting.
After the pandemic, many companies allowed staff to work remotely, and now people spend less time commuting.
LetsWords explains each correction in your native language: Russian, Korean or Vietnamese. A few days later, the expression comes back in review, and you use it in a new situation, for example in an essay about work-life balance. That’s how a collocation from a list becomes one you recall from memory and write without mistakes.
Start practising with feedback on your mistakes
When you sign up, you choose IELTS as your goal and your level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.
Using these collocations in Writing Task 2
An exam-style task:
These days, many young people choose jobs that allow them to work from home, even when such jobs pay less. Do the advantages of this trend outweigh the disadvantages?
A body paragraph:
For many young professionals, the chance to work remotely is worth a smaller pay cheque because it offers a far better work-life balance. Without a daily commute, an employee can gain up to two hours a day for exercise, study or rest, and this tends to raise job satisfaction. Satisfied employees are less likely to hand in their notice, so firms that offer flexible working hours usually benefit from lower staff turnover and spend less on recruitment. In other words, a modest cut in pay can buy both sides something more valuable than money: stability.
Why the paragraph works. The task asks you to weigh up the advantages, and the paragraph shows them as a chain: a benefit for the employee becomes a benefit for the company. The collocations carry meaning rather than decorating the text: staff turnover replaces a long explanation that people keep leaving and the company has to keep hiring. Notice a smaller pay cheque, a natural way to say the salary will be lower. The IELTS Writing band descriptors for Band 7 in Lexical Resource mention an awareness of style and collocation, and accurate collocations like hand in your notice show the examiner exactly that.
Using them in Speaking
A Part 3 question: Do you think people will still work in offices in twenty years’ time?
Probably, but not five days a week. Some things are simply easier face to face, like training new staff or sorting out a problem quickly, so I don’t think offices will disappear. What will change is how we use them. People will work remotely most of the time and come in for meetings, and most of them will have flexible working hours. Honestly, that sounds like a healthier work-life balance for everyone.
In a spoken answer, the same collocations come with conversational touches like Honestly, sorting out and What will change is…: it sounds natural without losing precision.
Practise for free
- work vs job: work as an activity and as a position;
- career vs job: your current work vs your working life;
- salary vs wages: fixed yearly pay vs pay for hours worked;
- gain experience: develop skills by doing;
- apply for: formally ask for a job or a visa;
- meet a deadline: finish on time;
- burn out: become exhausted by work;
- lay off: let staff go.
You’ll find other exam topics in our IELTS vocabulary by topic guide.
From the list to real use
Knowing that experience is extensive, not big, isn’t enough: in the exam, you have to recall the word yourself at the right moment. Move from the list to real use with LetsWords: practise with the IELTS set for your level and add collocations from this page to your collection, for example gain experience or work-life balance. You recall each expression from a hint, write a sentence with it, and LetsWords points out the mistake and explains it in your native language, while spaced repetition brings the expression back until it feels natural. Then test the vocabulary in a full text: the IELTS Writing section has Task 2 questions on work, about remote work, changing careers, work-life balance, job security and pay, and a full answer gets detailed feedback on all four criteria, tied to what you wrote. When you sign up, you answer a few questions about your goal and level, and LetsWords picks the right practice for you. You can try the feedback before you pay.