"What do you do?" comes up early in any conversation with a Finn — usually after the weather and before anything personal. This lesson gives you fifty job titles to recognise, plus the handful of phrases you need to ask the question and answer it.
There's a pattern hiding in the list that makes it much easier than fifty separate words. Look at opettaja (teacher), kirjailija (writer), kääntäjä (translator), lentäjä (pilot). Every one ends in -ja or -jä, and every one is built from a verb: opettaa (to teach), kirjoittaa (to write), kääntää (to translate), lentää (to fly). That ending means "the person who does this," and once you spot it you can decode job titles you've never seen.
Trades and Services
teacher
opettaja
doctor
lääkäri
nurse
sairaanhoitaja
driver
kuljettaja
police officer
poliisi
firefighter
palomies
chef, cook
kokki
waiter
tarjoilija
salesperson
myyjä
shopkeeper
kauppias
baker
leipuri
farmer
maanviljelijä
builder
rakentaja
carpenter
puuseppä
electrician
sähköasentaja
plumber
putkimies
mechanic
mekaanikko
cleaner
siivooja
hairdresser
kampaaja
gardener
puutarhuri
Practice these words
opettaja
Quick notes:
- -mies literally means "man" and survives in a few older job words like palomies and putkimies. Gender-neutral alternatives exist (pelastaja, putkiasentaja) and are increasingly common in job ads.
- Lääkäri turns up inside other words: hammaslääkäri is a dentist ("tooth doctor"), eläinlääkäri is a vet ("animal doctor").
Office and Professional
engineer
insinööri
lawyer
juristi
accountant
kirjanpitäjä
manager
johtaja
secretary
sihteeri
programmer
ohjelmoija
researcher
tutkija
journalist
toimittaja
translator
kääntäjä
architect
arkkitehti
designer
suunnittelija
entrepreneur
yrittäjä
economist
ekonomisti
banker
pankkiiri
consultant
konsultti
Practice these words
insinööri
Quick note: yrittäjä — from yrittää, "to try" — is the Finnish word for entrepreneur or self-employed person. It's a common and respected answer to "what do you do."
Health, Care and Culture
dentist
hammaslääkäri
vet
eläinlääkäri
pharmacist
proviisori
psychologist
psykologi
childminder
lastenhoitaja
librarian
kirjastonhoitaja
musician
muusikko
artist
taiteilija
writer
kirjailija
actor
näyttelijä
photographer
valokuvaaja
athlete
urheilija
pilot
lentäjä
soldier
sotilas
priest
pappi
Practice these words
hammaslääkäri
Quick note: -hoitaja means "carer" and builds a whole family of jobs — sairaanhoitaja (nurse), lastenhoitaja (childminder), kirjastonhoitaja (librarian, literally "library carer").
Studying, Retired
student
opiskelija
pupil, schoolchild
oppilas
trainee
harjoittelija
unemployed
työtön
retired person
eläkeläinen
on parental leave
vanhempainvapaalla
Practice these words
opiskelija
Quick note: työtön is built from työ ("work") plus -tön, an ending meaning "without." The same ending gives koditon (homeless) and rahaton (broke).
Talking About Work
What do you do for a living?
Mitä teet työksesi?
What's your profession?
Mikä on ammattisi?
I'm a teacher.
Olen opettaja.
I'm a student.
Olen opiskelija.
Where do you work?
Missä olet töissä?
I work at a hospital.
Työskentelen sairaalassa.
I work from home.
Teen etätöitä.
I'm looking for work.
Etsin töitä.
I'm retired.
Olen eläkkeellä.
Do you like your job?
Pidätkö työstäsi?
Practice these words
Mitä teet työksesi?
Quick notes:
- Note that Finnish doesn't use "a" — olen opettaja is literally "I am teacher," and that's correct.
- Etätyö ("distance work") is the standard Finnish word for remote work, and teen etätöitä is how you say you work from home.
- Töissä means "at work" in general. Olen töissä is "I'm at work" or "I have a job," depending on context.
What to Know About Finnish Job Words
The -ja / -jä ending is the pattern worth internalising, because it turns verbs you already know into people. Opettaa → opettaja. Tutkia (to research) → tutkija. Kääntää (to translate) → kääntäjä. Rakentaa (to build) → rakentaja. Yrittää (to try) → yrittäjä. English does the same thing with -er, but Finnish does it far more consistently, so a verb from your vocabulary list is usually one syllable away from a job title. Whether you get -ja or -jä depends on the vowels in the word, and your ear will sort that out without a rule.
The second pattern is compounding. Finnish builds specific jobs by gluing a field onto a general word: hoitaja (carer) becomes sairaanhoitaja, lastenhoitaja, kirjastonhoitaja. Lääkäri (doctor) becomes hammaslääkäri, eläinlääkäri. This is why Finnish job titles look intimidatingly long — they're not single words, they're two or three words with the spaces removed. Split them at the seam and they usually explain themselves.
The last thing is cultural rather than linguistic. Finns ask what you do fairly directly and without status-checking behind it; job titles carry less social weight than in many countries, and the honest answers — työtön, eläkeläinen, opiskelija — are given plainly. There's no expectation that you dress up the answer, and "I'm between jobs" doesn't need the apologetic framing an English speaker might reach for.