شغل

What it means

شغل (shoghl) means job, occupation, or profession. The word is borrowed from Arabic, where the root Sh-Gh-L carries the sense of occupying someone or keeping them busy. In Persian شغل is the standard neutral term for what a person does for a living, used across all registers from formal documents to casual conversation. A related noun is شاغل (shâghel, one who is employed), and the compound بی‌شغل (bi-shoghl, without a job, unemployed) contrasts with شاغل. In formal contexts شغل often appears alongside حرفه (herfe, trade or vocation) and پیشه (pishe, a slightly more literary word for craft or calling), but شغل is the most commonly used of the three in everyday speech. The phrase شغل آزاد (shoghl-e âzâd) means self-employed or freelance work.

How to use it

• شغلت چیه؟ (shoghlet chie?) “What do you do for work?”
• شغل پدرم مهندسیه (shoghl-e pedaram mohandesiye) “My father’s job is engineering.”
• دنبال شغل مناسب میگردم (donbâl-e shoghl-e monâseb migardam) “I am looking for a suitable job.”
• شغلم رو دوست دارم (shoghlam ro dust dâram) “I like my job.”

Cultural note

In Iranian social interaction, asking شغلت چیه is a normal and expected question when meeting someone for the first time, not considered intrusive the way it might be in some other cultures. A person’s شغل is closely tied to their social standing and family honor, and the question of whether a young man has a stable شغل is often the first thing a potential bride’s family asks about him. The phrase شغل دولتی (shoghl-e dowlati, a government job) carries particular prestige because it implies job security, benefits, and a pension, values that remain strong priorities in Iranian middle-class family culture.

References

• Dehkhoda
• Vajehyab