Talking about work is one of the most common topics in everyday conversation — whether you're meeting new people, job-hunting in Sweden, or just describing your life in Swedish. Here's the essential vocabulary for talking about jobs, workplaces, and careers.
The Basics: Job and Work
- Jobb — job (the everyday, casual word)
- Arbete — work (slightly more formal, used in official contexts like "arbetsmarknad," the job market)
- Att jobba / att arbeta — to work (both verbs are used, "jobba" more casually)
- Karriär — career
- Yrke — profession/occupation
Asking About Someone's Job
- Vad jobbar du med? — what do you do (for work)? (literally "what do you work with" — the standard, natural way to ask)
- Var jobbar du? — where do you work?
- Vad har du för jobb? — what job do you have?
Responding: "Jag jobbar som [profession]" — "I work as a [profession]," e.g. "Jag jobbar som lärare" (I work as a teacher).
Common Professions
- Lärare — teacher
- Ingenjör — engineer
- Sjuksköterska — nurse
- Läkare — doctor
- Programmerare — programmer
- Advokat — lawyer
- Chef — boss/manager (note: this is a false friend — it doesn't mean "chef" as in cook; a cook is "kock")
- Egenföretagare — self-employed / freelancer
The Workplace
- Kontor — office
- Kollega — colleague
- Möte — meeting
- Lön — salary/pay
- Semester — vacation (another false friend for English speakers — it means vacation, not an academic term period)
- Föräldraledighet — parental leave (a genuinely important word to know — Sweden's parental leave system is extensive and comes up often in conversation about work-life balance)
- Anställning — employment
- Att söka jobb — to job hunt / apply for jobs
Job Interview Vocabulary
- Intervju — interview
- CV — resume/CV (used the same way as in British English)
- Personligt brev — cover letter (literally "personal letter")
- Erfarenhet — experience
- Kompetens — skill/competence
- Anställningsintervju — job interview specifically
A Sample Exchange
A: Vad jobbar du med?
B: Jag jobbar som ingenjör på ett stort företag. Och du?
A: Jag är lärare. Jag jobbar på en skola i stan.
Translation: "What do you do for work?" / "I work as an engineer at a big company. And you?" / "I'm a teacher. I work at a school in town."
Being able to describe your own job and ask about someone else's is one of the most immediately useful conversational building blocks in Swedish — genuinely one of the first "real" conversations most learners have once past basic greetings.