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Describe a paid job you or someone you know ever did

IELTS Cue Card/ Candidate Task Card 171 with Model Answer:

Describe a paid job you or someone you know ever did.

You should say:

    - what the job was
    - how you/this person found this job
    - how long  you or this person worked in this job

and how you feel now about this job. 

[You will have to talk about the topic for one to two minutes. You have one minute to think about what you're going to say. You can make some notes to help you if you wish.]

Model Answer 1:
Last week my father asked to clean the garden before our house and paint the wooden wall as well. I was paid for the job.

We have a big garden before our house in Singapore. Usually, most of the houses here are large buildings but my father is a bit different from them. He does not prefer to have a building to be used as a residence. He likes gardening and if a new house is built, he is to lose the large garden. Due to his professional engagement, he was out of the country for around a month and when he returned the weeds were unusual in the garden. Usually, my father weeds the plants and cleans the other unnecessary elements from the plant, and also waters them regularly. Since the weeds were more and he had to remain busy for some other purposes, he asked me to clean the weeds and paint the garden walls. I agreed to his proposal and cleaned the entire garden, painted the walls and repaired some other tools as well. I completed the tasks sincerely and the garden looked gorgeous after the cleaning. As a result, my father was happy with my sincerity and paid me more than he promised.

I was appointed for the job based on some considerations and recommendations of my mom. I am a college student here and the eldest member of my family. So, it is an invisible responsibility of mine to do all the tasks which are not done by others. Sometimes I feel bored about the issue and when I am rewarded (like this one), I change my point of view. So, when my dad found his garden filled with weeds and craps, he was seeking a person to clean the garden perfectly. He could not manage time to clean the garden for he was supposed to be busy for one more week. When he shared the issue with mom, she told him that I have nothing to do after college and I am the most suitable one for this. Accordingly, dad proposed to me and I agreed to his proposal after some bargaining (!) about the price.

I had to work for about four long hours at a stretch to clean the entire garden. We live in a big house and the garden is placed right before the house. It is the largest private garden in the place where we live in the city. The garden owns different rare plants and most of the plants are brought from abroad. The numbers of plants are not few and thus it took around four hours for me to complete the cleaning. I had to cut the weeds, remove the dead leaves from the bottom of the plants, sometimes I had to cut the branches as well. I worked alone in the garden from 3.00pm to 7.00pm. Thus it took a long time for me. I started working after returning from my college. The most important and difficult tasks for me was cutting the weeds from the small flower plants. I also got hurt with the thrones during the sorting of the plants and when I was said to plant a few flower plants (which dad brought from his recent trip to Indonesia) I rejected the idea straight. It was impossible for me to work again with a spade to loosen the soil, plant the saplings and water them on the same day.

To be frank, the task was not interesting for me then but now I feel that if I get another chance, I will do it for free. Though I was irritated in beginning, I was feeling comfortable with the task. It was simple and the most interesting task was to sort the plants, separate the weeds from the plants and watering them all was also good. Besides, dad game 300 bucks for my labour which was unexpected. Initially, he told me that I would be paid by 150 bucks but lastly, he paid me the double amount for his fatherly affection. But now if he asks me for such a job, I will do it for free. I liked the job very much and planning to propose to my dad that I would keep the garden clean in his absence. As he is to visit in different countries in most of the time of a month, he does not need to worry about the garden anymore.



Model Answer 2:
Completing a thesis paper is really boring and so I hired one of my friends, John, to complete my thesis on climate change. He did that very well. Thank you for the smart question and I am going the tell everything in detail here.

Before the semester completion at the university, I was asked to submit the thesis paper and present it to the class. The thesis was about climate change and its overall impacts on humans, animals and the environment. So, it was really difficult for me to collect all the necessary information. Accordingly, I hired John to complete my thesis paper.

I had completed the initial tasks, collected necessary data and resources for the thesis paper. But I was unable to manage enough time to complete everything. So, I sought help from my friends and definitely it was a paid job. I posted the job on my social networking profile and many of the friends responded to it. But I picked John for some specific reasons. He was skilled in completing thesis paper. He just has submitted his own thesis paper and is well aware of everything of such a thesis completion project. So, after talking with him, I requested him to complete my project. I agreed to the payment that he demanded and in fact, it was a reasonable amount.

It took about a week for John to complete my entire thesis. As I said before, I collected all the necessary information and he just placed the information in their order. He worked almost day and night to make the thesis paper a successful one. By this time, I had to accompany him for each of the needs. Sometimes, I made the information clear to him or supported him with narratives and literature. The work was not as simple as it sounds. In line with John, I also had to participate in some other tasks for the thesis paper. The most challenging task was the formatting of the paper on the word processor. But John did it successfully for me.

I was worried about the thesis paper that if I could be able to submit it within the prescribed deadline. In fact, my final grades were depending on this thesis. If I could complete it by the time and the supervisor approves it, I would pass the course and be a graduate. But if there are troubles with the thesis, I need another semester to complete my graduation. So, it was really a matter of concern for me. Without the help of John, it would have been difficult for me to complete the thesis paper in due time. I did everything in time and have completed graduation. Now I am relaxed about the matter.

Idea Generation for this Cue Card Topic. 

Topic: Describe a paid job you or someone you know ever did.

1.  Repairing a mobile phone isn't easy if there is a serious software problem with that. But my aunt assigned me to the job to complete it and she paid for me for that work. In fact, I have a small shop here in Mumbai where I repair mobile phones and my aunt came to the shop with her non-functional iPhone 6S. It took about one and a half hour for me to complete the job perfectly. In fact, I did not have an idea that I would be able to do it. But somehow, I solved the problem. And the phone is working well now.

2.  Last week William got a job of completing an assignment from a student of our college. In fact, Roger gave him the job and paid for it. It was a three-page assignment on contemporary European literature. William took half of the day to complete the assignment. He had to do some research and spend the time to know about the writers of the present times. Finally, he finished the job within the deadline. He felt great after completing the job. Actually, he was in doubt if he could complete it on time or not.

3.  Mr Samuel is a researcher and he asked me last week to check some of his reports. The assignment was to check the proofs and spelling in the Spanish language. He paid me for the job. He is my next door neighbour and a perfect gentleman. As I asked him earlier about such jobs, he offered me this one. It took about two hours for me to complete the task. Initially, I felt a bit nervous about the job and finally, I did it. I felt glad after completing the task.

4.  Brian has recently got the job as a part-time guide for some foreigners here in Paris. He got the job from a recruiting website. In fact, he had been seeking a suitable job for him for a long time. And this time, he had some luck. It was a three-day long job and he had to spend the afternoons with the tourists. They took him sightseeing in the city. He also played the role of official photographer for the group. He feels great about the job and it has increased his confidence. He is now planning to build his career on this track and has taken some necessary measures.

5.  It may sound weird but I was paid to do some tasks for my neighbour Mr Robert. He offered me to collect some data samples from the streets here in Vietnam. Actually, he works for an international NGO that conducted a research on the use of cell phones among the local people. It was a tough job for me and took around five days to complete the entire process. I feel better now as it was really a hefty job. I had to work from dawn to dusk to collect data. And since, it was a sensitive issue to ask people about their mobile phone using behaviour, I had to be diplomatic.    

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