Theme 3.4: Jobs, Career Choices and Ambitions
Writing for Theme 3.4 covers a future career: the desired job and why it appeals, the skills or qualifications it requires, any part-time work or work experience completed, and a reasoned opinion on whether salary or job satisfaction matters more when choosing a career.
Before you start
Make sure you're comfortable with these topics first:
Method
- Read the bullets and separate the ambition itself (conditional/future - me gustaría ser, seré) from the skills or qualifications it needs (present tense) and from any past work experience (preterite).
- Plan the ambition with a clear justification (porque se me dan bien las matemáticas, porque quiero ayudar a la gente) rather than naming a job with no reason.
- Build the skills bullet listing what is needed (hace falta tener paciencia, es necesario sacar buenas notas) and what you are actively doing now to prepare (estoy aprendiendo, hago un curso de).
- Build the work-experience bullet in the preterite with a specific, concrete detail rather than a generic statement (trabajé en una tienda, donde aprendí a atender al público).
- Build the final opinion bullet comparing salary and job satisfaction using a comparative (más importante que) and a connective (sin embargo, por otro lado), and justify the choice with porque.
- Check the future tense's irregular stems (seré, tendré, podré, haré) and the conditional's shared -ía family of endings are not mixed up with each other.
- Check gender agreement on job nouns, which often change form (profesor/profesora, enfermero/enfermera, ingeniero/ingeniera) to match the writer's own gender.
Worked example
Write a short paragraph in Spanish for a careers workshop. Mention: what job you would like to do in the future; what skills or qualities it requires; any work experience you have done.
- PLAN the ambition and reason: quiero ser veterinaria porque me encantan los animales.
- PLAN the skills needed: paciencia, conocimientos de ciencias, don de gentes.
- BUILD the ambition sentence with the conditional for extra range alongside the simple statement: Me gustaría ser veterinaria en el futuro porque me encantan los animales y quiero cuidarlos.
- BUILD the skills sentence with an impersonal structure: Para este trabajo, hace falta tener mucha paciencia y buenos conocimientos de ciencias, así que estudio biología y química en el instituto.
- BUILD the work-experience sentence in the preterite with a subordinate clause: El año pasado, hice una semana de prácticas en una clínica veterinaria, donde ayudé a cuidar animales enfermos.
Practice questions
Try each question, then tap to reveal the answer.
Q1Give the future yo form of ser and of tener.Show answer
Answer: seré (irregular future stem ser-) and tendré (irregular future stem tendr-, from tener).
Q2Fill the gap with the correct feminine job noun: Mi madre es ___ (enfermero) en un hospital.Show answer
Answer: enfermera - job nouns ending in -o/-a change to agree with the person's gender: enfermero/enfermera.
Q3Correct the error: 'Para ser abogado, hace falta estudiar mucho años.'Show answer
Answer: Para ser abogado, hace falta estudiar muchos años - años is masculine plural, so mucho must become muchos.
Q4Translate into Spanish: 'I did a week of work experience in an office last summer.'Show answer
Answer: Hice una semana de prácticas laborales en una oficina el verano pasado.
Q5Translate into English: 'Para mí, la satisfacción laboral es más importante que el sueldo.'Show answer
Answer: For me, job satisfaction is more important than salary.
Q6Give the Spanish for 'to have people skills' and 'qualifications'.Show answer
Answer: tener don de gentes and las cualificaciones.
Q7Which structure means 'it takes/it is necessary to have' when talking about a skill for a job: hace falta tener or tengo falta?Show answer
Answer: hace falta tener (it is necessary to have/it takes) is the correct impersonal structure; tengo falta is not a correct Spanish phrase.
Exam-style questions
Written in the style of a GCSE Spanish exam paper, with a full mark scheme.
Write about your future career in Spanish. Answer all four bullet points in Spanish. Write approximately 40 words in Spanish. - what job you would like to do in the future - what qualities or skills are needed for this job - any work experience you have done - your opinion on what makes a job good
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Write for a careers magazine about your future career. You must mention: - describe the career you would like to have in the future and explain why it appeals to you - describe the skills and qualifications needed for this career and what you are doing to prepare - describe any part-time job or work experience you have had - give your opinion on whether salary or job satisfaction matters more when choosing a career
Show mark scheme
Tick each line you got. Your score builds from the marks on the scheme.
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See real GCSE Spanish past-paper questions, with official mark schemes →
Free printable worksheet
Want more practice on paper? Download the theme 3.4: jobs, career choices and ambitions worksheet pack - 13 pages of exam-style questions with a full mark scheme. One email opens every download in this browser for 14 days - no account, no card. Print it for personal and classroom use.
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