职业 / 工作

[James Bates]

Yesterday, I asked a Chinese person 您的职业是什么？
He corrected me saying "您的工作是什么？"
I was under the impression that the two were synonyms! Is 职业 dialectal or archaic or something?

 

[NewAmerica]

Yes they are synonyms. 职业 is more formal and permanent (the word is still in use, not archaic), which is far less used in colloquialism than 工作 (thus I guess that is why the Chinese corrected you).

 

[Skatinginbc]

The difference is like "what's your occupation" vs. "What's your job". The context is important in determining the word choice.

 

[James Bates]

谢谢您们！

 

[Yolandabfsu1213]

I agree with NewAmerica, but I would not correct you if I were asked the same question. （Actually I doubt whether it is "far less used"...）

By the way, I think 职业 often appears in phrases like 职业规划(career planning), 理想职业 (dream job), etc.

 

[retrogradedwithwind]

I also think 职业 is a usual word, and 工作 is more usual of course.

And since 您 was used in the sentence, 您的职业是什么 sounds more appropriate than 您的工作是什么 in my point of view.

 

[fyl]

It depends on the context. The two words are not exacly the same. I agree with Skatinginbc.
你的职业是什么？expect the answer to be a word like 'teacher' or 'education', and they are full answers.
你的工作是什么？expect the full answer to be 'math teacher at xxx school'. 工作 can be understood in many other ways too.
Basically, a 职业 has many specific job positions.
So the word choice depends on what you want to ask.

 

[Skatinginbc]

A: 我在青輔會當義工。
B: 真的喔, 好偉大。你在那裡的工作是什麼?
A: 清洗廁所。
B: 那你平常的職業又是什麼?
A: 小兒科醫生。