Education and Occupation Survey Questions

Education level

Ask for the highest level completed, not the level attended, or you cannot tell a dropout from a graduate. The bigger trap is that these ladders do not translate: an option list built from the US system quietly forces every international respondent into an approximation, and you will never see it in the data because they all picked something.

• What is the highest level of education you have completed?

  Single choice
  Less than high schoolHigh school diploma or equivalentSome college, no degreeAssociate or vocational degreeBachelor's degreeMaster's degreeDoctorate or professional degreePrefer not to say

  The US ladder. Fine for a US-only audience, misleading for anyone else.

• What is the highest level of education you have completed? (international)

  Single choice
  Primary educationSecondary educationVocational or technical qualificationUndergraduate degreePostgraduate degreeDoctoratePrefer not to say

  Broad levels that survive translation. Less granular, but every respondent can find themselves, which is the trade worth making on an international survey.

• Are you currently studying?

  Single choice
  Yes, full-timeYes, part-timeNoPrefer not to say

  Separate from the level completed. A current student's highest completed level understates where they are heading, and for some analyses that matters.

• What was your main field of study?

  Short text

  Open text. Field-of-study dropdowns are always wrong at the edges, and coding a few hundred free-text answers is less work than defending a bad taxonomy.

• Do you hold any professional certifications or licences?

  Single choice
  YesNoPrefer not to say

  Often more relevant than a degree in trades, healthcare, finance, and IT — and routinely left out of education questions written by people with degrees.

Employment status

One list, and it has to include the people who are not in conventional employment: students, retirees, carers, the self-employed, and people not currently working. A status list that stops at full-time and part-time pushes roughly a third of a general population into whatever option looks least wrong.

• Which best describes your current employment status?

  Single choice
  Employed full-timeEmployed part-timeSelf-employed or freelanceBusiness ownerStudentNot currently workingRetiredUnable to workPrefer not to say

• Do you have more than one job or source of work?

  Single choice
  YesNoPrefer not to say

  Single-answer status questions hide this entirely, and it is increasingly common.

• How do you usually work?

  Single choice
  Fully on-siteHybridFully remoteVaries

• How many hours a week do you usually work?

  Single choice
  Under 1515-2930-3940-4950 or moreVaries a lot

  More informative than the full-time/part-time split, which means different things in different countries and contracts.

• How long have you been in your current role?

  Single choice
  Less than 6 months6-12 months1-3 years4-7 yearsMore than 7 years

Occupation and industry

Open text beats a dropdown here, and it is not close. Job titles are messy but specific; industry lists are tidy and nearly useless, because respondents disagree with your taxonomy and pick inconsistently. Collect titles, then code them afterward against a published classification if you need structured categories.

• What is your job title?

  Short text

  The single most useful occupation question. Code it afterward if you need categories — do not make the respondent do your taxonomy work.

• What do you do in your job?

  Long text

  Catches the cases where a title says nothing. "Analyst" and "Director" mean wildly different things across organizations.

• Which industry do you work in?

  Single choice
  TechnologyHealthcareEducationFinance or insuranceRetail or hospitalityManufacturingConstructionGovernment or public sectorNonprofitSomething else

  Only if you must have a structured field. Keep the list short — long industry dropdowns produce more inconsistency, not more precision.

• Which of these best describes your work? Select all that apply.

  Select all that apply
  Managing peopleManaging budgetsClient or customer facingTechnical or hands-onResearch or analysisAdministrative

  Function rather than title. Often the answer you actually wanted when you reached for an occupation question.

• Are you employed by an organization or working for yourself?

  Single choice
  Employed by an organizationWorking for myselfBothPrefer not to say

Seniority and organization

For B2B research this group usually matters more than education does — decision-making authority and company size predict buying behavior, where a degree does not. Ask about authority directly rather than inferring it from a job title, because titles inflate and deflate differently by company size.

• Which best describes your level?

  Single choice
  Individual contributorTeam leadManagerDirectorExecutive or C-levelOwner or founder

• What is your role in purchasing decisions for tools like this?

  Single choice
  I decideI recommend, someone else decidesI am one of several decidersI have no involvement

  The question B2B surveys actually need. Job seniority is a weak proxy for it.

• How many people work at your organization?

  Single choice
  Just me2-1011-5051-200201-1,000More than 1,000

• How many people do you manage?

  Single choice
  None1-56-20More than 20

• Which department are you in?

  Short text

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Frequently asked questions

Should I ask for job title as text or use a dropdown?

Text. Job titles are inconsistent across organizations, and any dropdown short enough to be usable will be wrong for a large share of respondents — who then pick whatever is closest and hand you data that looks structured but is not. Collect the title, then code it against a published classification if you need categories.

How should I ask about education on an international survey?

Use broad levels that translate — primary, secondary, vocational, undergraduate, postgraduate, doctorate — rather than a national ladder. US-specific options like "associate degree" or "some college" have no equivalent in most education systems, and respondents will pick an approximation you cannot detect afterward.

Do I need to ask about education at all?

In commercial research, usually not. Education is a weak predictor of most product behavior, and it is one of the more uncomfortable questions to answer. Role, seniority, and tenure in the field almost always tell you more about a professional audience, and people answer them more readily.