Big Salary/Job Satisfaction | Writing for Academic IELTS PDF Download

Question Statement

A big salary is much more important than job satisfaction. Do you agree or disagree? Provide relevant examples if necessary.

Ways to Answer

• When you are asked whether you agree (or disagree), you can look at both sides of the argument if you want.  This shows that you have good academic skills as you are able to see both sides of the issue. 
• It can also sometimes be a good idea to look at both sides of the argument because it may be easier for you to brainstorm ideas. 
• If you just look at one side, you may run out of ideas.

Choose Your Opinion & Generate Ideas

Agree or disagree question asks you to clearly determine whether you agree or disagree with the statement. Unlike questions that ask you to what extent do you agree or disagree, this question asks you to have a super-clear opinion. After you’ve decided your opinion, generate 2-3 supporting points for it.

For the task above you have two possible options:

1. You fully agree that a big salary is more important than job satisfaction
2. You completely disagree that a big salary is more important than job satisfaction

Now let’s generate supporting points for each of the opinions:

A big salary is more important

• Having a job with a high salary makes people feel satisfied no matter what kind of job they do
• Money is essential for survival and good living

Job satisfaction is more important

• Job satisfaction gives you a sense of fulfillment
• Doing what you like keeps you motivated and therefore leads to a career growth
• Money can’t buy happiness and it’s more pleasant to pursue what you’re interested in

For our essay, we’ll choose the second opinion.

Band 9 Answer Structure

After you’ve decided whether you agree or disagree and generated your supporting points, it’s time to start writing your essay.

There are a lot of ways to structure your essay, but we’ll use a structure that has been approved by many IELTS examiners to be high-scoring and coherent.

Band-9 essay structure:

1. Introduction
2. Body paragraph 1 - the 1st reason you agree/disagree
3. Body paragraph 2 - the 2nd reason you agree/disagree
4. Conclusion

Let’s take a look at each of these sections in detail.

Introduction

Write your introduction in two sentences:

• Sentence 1 - paraphrase the statement (you can use ‘it is argued/considered/thought that’ to start):

  It is often argued that it is more advantageous to choose a job with high wage, even if it doesn't appeal to you at all. 

• Sentence 2 - say whether you agree or disagree with it and extend your opinion:

  I completely disagree with this opinion and think that job satisfaction is much more important than salary.

Body paragraph 1 - the 1st reason you agree/disagree

• Sentence 1 - state the first reason you agree/disagree.

• This sentence should contain the main idea of the whole 1st paragraph.  Use words firstly or first of all to introduce the first reason. In our case we’ll use the reason that job satisfaction gives you a sense of fulfillment:

  First of all, I believe that job satisfaction gives people a sense of fulfillment that no money can guarantee.

• Sentences 2-3 - explain the reason.

  To explain the reason effectively, you can imagine that your examiner has no knowledge of this subject at all and you have to explain every detail:

  Even if someone is earning a high salary, but feels tensed and compromises with his conscience, this person won’t enjoy his life. While pursuing one’s interests will always bring pleasure and feeling of satisfaction. 

• Sentence 4 - example.

  It’s always good to give examples in your body paragraphs, even if you’re not asked to do it. In our case, the task asks you to provide relevant examples:

  For example, a lot of famous researchers made their career choices not because of appealing wages, but because they were passionate about science.

• Sentence 5 - a short summary of your ideas in this paragraph:

  That’s why it’s more important to choose the kind of work that makes you happy than to look only at a high salary.

Body paragraph 2 - the 2nd reason you agree/disagree

• Sentence 1 - state the second reason you agree/disagree.

  This statement should contain the main idea of the whole 2nd paragraph. Use the words secondly or moreover to introduce the second reason:

  Secondly, doing what you like keeps you motivated and therefore leads to career growth.

• Sentences 2-3 - explain the reason(assume that your examiner doesn’t understand the topic at all):

  In other words, there is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. People who love their jobs can easily excel in their fields of work and achieve better results than those, who put salary in the first place.

• Sentence 4 - support your idea with an example:

• For instance, Henry Miller decided to leave his everyday job despite a good wage and ventured to become a writer. And after enduring years of ups and downs, he became one of the most famous and well-paid authors of the twentieth century.

• Sentence 5 - a short summary of your thoughts in the 2nd paragraph.

  Thus, the advantages of jobs that keep you satisfied outweigh the drawbacks of a low salary in a long-term perspective.

Conclusion

• You can write the conclusion in one sentence that summarizes your opinion + 2 reasons for it:
• To conclude, I strongly believe that job satisfaction is more beneficial than a high salary because it makes people happy and motivated.
• DO NOT write new ideas in the conclusion!

Sample Answer

The following is just a sample answer discussing the answer in just one way. You may choose to write a different answer according to your own opinion. This is a full band-9 answer for IELTS agree or disagree question above:

It is often argued that it is more advantageous to choose a job with a high wage, even if it doesn't appeal to you at all. I completely disagree with this opinion and think that job satisfaction is much more important than salary.

First of all, I believe that job satisfaction gives people a sense of fulfilment that no money can guarantee. Even if someone is earning a high salary, but feels tensed and compromises with his conscience, this person won’t enjoy his life. Pursuing one’s interests will always bring pleasure and a feeling of satisfaction. For example, a lot of famous researchers made their career choices not because of appealing wages, but because they were passionate about science. That’s why it’s more important to choose the kind of work that makes you happy than to look only at a high salary.

Secondly, doing what you like keeps you motivated and therefore leads to career growth. In other words, there is a strong relationship between job satisfaction and productivity. People who love their jobs can easily excel in their fields of work and achieve better results than those, who put salary in the first place. For instance, Henry Miller decided to leave his everyday job despite a good wage and ventured to become a writer. After enduring years of ups and downs, he became one of the most famous and well-paid authors of the twentieth century. Thus, the advantages of jobs that keep you satisfied outweigh the drawbacks of a low salary in a long-term perspective.

To conclude, I strongly believe that job satisfaction is more beneficial than a high salary because it makes people happy and motivated.