IELTS Cue Card Topic with Sample answer:

Describe the career you hope to have in the future.

• what the job is
• what it involves
• why you have chosen it

and explain why you are interested in this job

Sample answer:

(Job: Flight Attendant)

Today I am going to talk about the job I would like to do in the future. I will tell you what the job is, what it involves and why I’d like to do it – ‘though maybe not for ever!

The job I would like to do in the future is that of a Flight Attendant. The job role is also sometimes known as ‘air cabin crew’ or ‘air steward’, but they all they do the same thing.

The job of a flight attendant is basically to help passengers when they are flying. If you have ever travelled by plane, perhaps you think all they do is serve food and drinks. In fact, they have an important job. They have to provide excellent customer service in cramped conditions and are also responsible for keeping all the passengers comfortable and safe. Most are trained to give first aid, and if there was to be an emergency or security risk, they are the people who would help to get everybody safely off the plane. Many people who fly take no notice of the emergency briefing at the start of a flight, but fortunately air cabin crew practise emergency evacuation procedures so they would know what to do and be able to take charge if anything should go wrong.

Although from the outside it can look glamorous, the work of a flight attendant is actually really hard. For a start, you might have to work shifts and really anti-social hours. You also have to deal with a wide range of people.  Sometimes people who are flying are nervous about their journey, and then they can be a bit bad-tempered.  Occasionally passengers will drink too much free alcohol and that can make them behave badly too, particularly as at altitude alcohol has a stronger effect. Even so, however tired you are, and however rude the passengers might be, a good flight attendant has to smile and just ‘keep calm and carry on!’

The reason I would like to do this job, even though it is hard, is because I am studying languages. I would really like to be able to use my language skills in my job. Working as a member of the air cabin crew I would meet people from lots of different countries, and I would be able to use my language skills. I would particularly like to work on long-haul flights, and then I would get the opportunity to spend time in parts of the world that I could not otherwise afford to visit. If you do a long-haul flight, you get to take your rest breaks in different countries. I think that would be really exciting. I also think it would be great fun to work as part of a small team of other flight attendants. It helps that I enjoy working with customers too. I take a pride in delivering good service in my current part time job as a shop assistant, it gives me great job-satisfaction when a customer thanks me for my help. I expect it would be the same job satisfaction if a passenger thanked me for my help after a long or difficult flight.

The job of flight attendant is not very well paid, and working strange shifts would be difficult to do for a very long time. So perhaps it is a job I would only do for a short while, to gain experience, and travel the world. Later on, I might use that experience to help me get a job, perhaps as a tour manager… but that’s another story!

[ Written by – Lucy Marris | Careers Adviser (UK), TEFL teacher (Vietnam) ]