Job in Spanish: Learn how to talk about jobs and occupations in Spanish (with audio)
¡Hola y bienvenidos a Spring Spanish! Yo soy Juan. (I am Juan) and I am un profesor (a teacher) at Spring Spanish.
That’s right! Ese es mi trabajo (that’s my job!) What about you? Can you talk about your occupation and job in Spanish? If not, keep reading, because today vamos a hablar de profesiones en español (we’re going to talk about professions in Spanish!)
So, whether you are un físico nuclear (a nuclear physicist), una doctora (a doctor), or even un payaso de profesión (a professional clown), in this article you’ll learn how to talk about your job and even the lack of one. Make sure to read until the very end because I’ll give you some great tips and common vocabulary you can use to talk about what you do.
1. Chunks to talk about your job in Spanish using the verb to be
In any common conversation in Spanish, people usually talk about their job. So if you don’t want to be left behind in your conversaciones con hispanohablantes (conversations with native Spanish speakers), you better learn your chunks, that is, word combinations in Spanish that you can learn by heart and use anywhere in your conversations because they never change.
Let’s learn some using the verb to be:
- Yo soy profesor de español. (I am a Spanish teacher.)
- Él es piloto de aviones. (He is an airplane pilot.)
- Ellas son futbolistas. (They are soccer players.) — female and plural
- Nosotros somos ingenieros. (We are engineers.) — masculine and plural
Of course, you need to know the word in Spanish for your job to be able to use these chunks, so stick around until the last part of this article, where I give you great and useful vocabulary para hablar de tu ocupación (to talk about your occupation)!
2. Chunks to talk about your jobs and occupations using the verb trabajar (to work)
There’s another common way to talk about your job, and that is using the verb trabajar (to work). This can be combined in chunks as follows:
- Yo trabajo en una panadería. (I work at a bakery store.)
- Ella trabaja en un restaurante. (She works at a restaurant.)
- Tú trabajas en un periódico. (You work at a newspaper.)
This is used if your job is common and can be directly associated with a location or a type of place. Si trabajas en un hospital, probablemente eres médico. (If you work at a hospital, you’re probably a doctor.)
3. Examples using the expression “trabajar como“
The other way is using the word como after the verb trabajar, like this:
- Ellos trabajan como bomberos. —This literally means “They work as firefighters”.
- Nosotras trabajamos como policías. (We work as policewomen.) — since nosotras is female and plural
- Yo trabajo como abogado. (I work as a lawyer.)
4. How to use the verb trabajar (to work) to describe details about your professions in Spanish
The particular thing about the verb trabajar is you can use it to describe different aspects of your occupation like these examples:
- Yo trabajo en casa. (I work from home.)
- Anna trabaja 5 horas diarias. (Anna works 5 hours a day.)
- Ellas trabajan muy duro. (They work very hard.)
- Arturo trabaja los sábados también. (Arturo works on Saturdays as well.)
5. How to ask questions related to other people’s jobs and occupations in Spanish
But what if you want to ask the other person about their job? Here are some friendly questions you may ask:
- ¿En qué trabajas? (What do you do for a living?)
- ¿Cuál es tu trabajo? (What’s your job?)
- ¿A qué te dedicas? (Literally, what do you dedicate yourself to?) — Another way to say “what’s your job?”
- ¿Cuál es tu profesión? (What’s your profession?)
You can also ask for details using chunks like these:
- ¿Te gusta tu trabajo? (Do you like your work?)
- ¿Qué es lo que menos/más te gusta de tu trabajo? (What do you like the least/most about your job?)
- ¿Desde cuándo trabajas como bombero? (How long have you been working as a firefighter?)
- ¿Hasta qué hora trabajas? (At what time do you get off of work?)
- ¿Qué haces en tu trabajo? (What do you do at your job?)
6. Don’t have a job? (Don’t) use these!
So what if you don’t have a job at the moment? Well, you’ve probably been in this kind of situations:
- ¡Estoy en búsqueda de un nuevo desafío! (I’m searching for a new challenge!) —Says someone who has never had a job and has no idea where to start
- Estoy en un proceso de cambio muy personal. (I’m in a very personal transformation process) — Says someone who is unemployed and has no clue on what to do next
- Mi antiguo empleador no valoró mis capacidades, así que me fui. (My previous employer didn’t value my skills, so I left) — Says someone who was fired and is unemployed now
If you don’t want to give any details, you can use “Estoy desempleado” (I’m unemployed) or “actualmente no tengo trabajo” (currently, I don’t have a job).
Of course, you can be unemployed for several reasons, but possibly you’re still studying or on an internship. In these cases, you can use:
- Estoy estudiando Ingeniería todavía. (I’m still studying Engineering.)
- Estoy haciendo pasantías para trabajar como abogada. (I’m doing an internship, so I can work as a lawyer.)
- Estoy terminando mi curso de electricista. (I’m finishing my electrician course.)
7. Spanish lessons: describe your job with this vocabulary
Sé que prometí enseñarte vocabulario (I know I promised to teach you some vocabulary), so let’s see some common professions:
- Policía (Police officer)
- Secretaria or secretario (Secretary)
- Taxi driver (Taxista)
- Médico (Doctor)
- Profesor (Teacher)
- Camarero or mesero (Waiter)
- Mécanico (Mechanic)
- Ingeniero (Engineer)
- Dentista (Dentist)
- Periodista (Journalist)
- Abogado (Lawyer)
- Artista (Artist)
- Empresario or Empresaria (Business person)
8. FREE Spanish language training with list of jobs and chunking kit
¡Muy bien! Now you know how to speak about your work in Spanish! Please tell me in the comments: ¿Cuál es tu trabajo? (what is your profession?) Use your favorite chunk of this article!
We have a whole series of Spanish beginner videos, so feel free to check out the other videos from me and the other Spring Spanish teachers on our channel!
Now, if you’re ready to take it a step further and get serious about learning Spanish, we have a free Spanish training on our website where you’ll discover the method we use in our Spring Spanish Academy to teach students to speak fluent Spanish. You also get some free sample Spanish lessons there that come straight from our Academy!
✔️ Cheat Sheet with 54 essential Spanish Chunks you’ll hear and use yourself in ANY Spanish conversation (and example sentences). Taken from our YouTube Teacher’s most popular videos!
✔️ 2 Bonus Cheat Sheets with Travel Chunks and Dating/Relationship Chunks
✔️ A Spanish Chunking Tutorial showing you the 1 technique that’ll help you make 100% of the Spanish from our videos roll off the tongue in just 5 minutes a day (you’re probably only using 50% of our lessons’ potential right now…)
