Jobs word search: 72 careers from VET to PHOTOGRAPHER

This jobs word search hides 72 occupations, from VET and CHEF to ELECTRICIAN and PHOTOGRAPHER, twelve at a time on a 12×12 grid. It fits a careers lesson or a coffee break. No app and no sign-up, no interstitial before play, offline play once the site has loaded, and every letter reachable from the keyboard.

How to play the jobs word search

1. Twelve jobs are hidden across, down or diagonally, forwards or backwards.
2. Drag from the first letter to the last, or tap both in turn.
3. A correct find is banded in colour and struck off; wrong picks are ignored.
4. Hint marks the first letter of a word you have not found.
5. Long titles need room: PHOTOGRAPHER appears only on 12×12 grids and larger.

Jobs word search strategy

Job titles are among the longest words on the site, just over seven letters on average, and most of them end in one of four suffixes. That shapes the search more than anything else.

Suffixes are traps, starts are clues

Around thirty jobs end in ER (TEACHER, BAKER, PLUMBER, ENGINEER), seven end in IST (DENTIST, FLORIST, CHEMIST) and others in OR or IAN. Scanning for ER finds a pair on nearly every row. Look for the first two letters instead, which vary far more, or for a doubled letter such as the SS in PROFESSOR or the MM in PROGRAMMER: PH for PHARMACIST and PHOTOGRAPHER, EL for ELECTRICIAN, JO for JOURNALIST.

Rare letters

J opens JUDGE, JANITOR, JEWELER and JOURNALIST, and V appears in VET, DRIVER and DETECTIVE. K is in COOK, BAKER, BANKER and CLERK. There is no Q, X or Z in the list, so those letters in the grid are always fill.

Nested titles and the shortest job

GUARD sits inside LIFEGUARD, so only one of them can be in a grid, and a GUARD run next to LIFE is never a separate find. VET is the only three-letter job and the easiest to miss; leave it for a final row-by-row sweep once the long titles are banded.

Words in the jobs word search

The jobs list has 72 words. VET is the only three-letter title, and PHOTOGRAPHER, at twelve letters, shares the record for the longest word on the site with PASSIONFRUIT. Seven-letter titles are the most common, such as TEACHER, BARISTA, PLUMBER, MANAGER and SURGEON.

The list moves through the working world. Health: DOCTOR, NURSE, DENTIST, SURGEON, VET, PHARMACIST. Learning: TEACHER, PROFESSOR, TUTOR, LIBRARIAN. Food: CHEF, COOK, BAKER, BUTCHER, WAITER, BARISTA, FARMER, FISHERMAN. Building: BUILDER, CARPENTER, PLUMBER, ELECTRICIAN, MECHANIC, WELDER, ARCHITECT, ENGINEER. The arts and media: ARTIST, MUSICIAN, ACTOR, DANCER, AUTHOR, POET, EDITOR, JOURNALIST, PHOTOGRAPHER. Public service: FIREFIGHTER, DETECTIVE, JUDGE, LAWYER, SOLDIER, OFFICER, LIFEGUARD. Then the office, the shop and the lab, from CLERK and CASHIER to SCIENTIST, PROGRAMMER and ASTRONAUT.

JEWELER uses the American single-L spelling and PLUMBER keeps its silent B. TEACHER, NURSE and JANITOR also appear in the school theme, and COACH and REFEREE in sports.

Stats, hints and printables

The timer pauses when the tab is hidden, and Jobs stats (played, won, win rate, best and average time) stay in this browser. The first two hints are free; once ads are enabled, more cost a short ad or a 30-second wait. Every grid has a code such as A7K3Q to replay or share, and the printable page makes jobs sheets.

Plays anywhere, no app, no account

The jobs grid fits a phone or a classroom screen, and long titles can be selected by tapping just the first and last letter. Tidy Puzzles runs entirely in your browser: there is no app to install, no account to create and no interstitial before you can play. After the first visit the game also works offline, because each puzzle is generated on your device from a seed. Every board can be played with the keyboard alone, on a phone or a desktop, and your stats and unfinished puzzles stay in this browser rather than on a server.