Job or Career? Is There a Difference?

So, you’ve decided that now is the right time to get a new career or pursue that new job.  What language do you use to describe your work habits?  How do you think and speak about what you get paid for?  Do you use ‘my career is’?  Or ‘my job is’?

Do you think of yourself as ‘career orientated’ or ‘career minded’?  Perhaps, do you see a career is something that comes with having a string of qualifications?  Is ‘having a career’ something better than ‘having a job’? Or are they same?

Generally, people assume the two are different.  They are, by definition, however can they be separated in reality?  One of the biggest differences between having a job and having a career could be that of attitude and thought.

Please, before you jump and down and list your qualifications carry on reading…

You see there is so much ambiguity, ideas and lies around careers and jobs for example:

1. A job does not include a career but a career usually involves many jobs
2. A job is a means to an end; a career is more personally fulfilling
3. A job is lower paid than a career role
4. A career is harder to achieve than getting a job
5. A career obviously involves many qualifications, having a career is very specialised

So, can you have a well thought out career that pays well: full of advancement, progression and promotional opportunities.  Yet you detest it.  No, you loathe it.  You cry going in and are depressed after your holidays.  Well, you are working a job.  You are working to pay the bills.  Your career does not fit your passion and purpose.

On the other hand.  Say, you call what you get paid for a job.  It may not have taken you years of qualifications to get there; it might not be well paid however it is lucrative in other ways.  You love it.  Everything about it.  The tasks. The people. The day-to-day role.  The customers.  Even though you may not think about it this way yet, you have a career.

Eh?

Do you need some definitions?

Okay…

Career: A chosen pursuit, occupation or profession.

Job: A task, or series of tasks you get paid for.

Please focus on the word CHOSEN.  So, whatever you have chosen to do.  That’s a career.   The job element is the tasks you undertake within that career.

People who have a career, also have a job, otherwise they would not have a career.  They get paid for carrying out tasks (jobs) that fit the career choice.  People who have jobs are still within a career choice.

A career is a path, full of choices, using your full skills, talents and experiences.  The path is not ‘job’ or ‘tasks’ yet it is made up of a lifelong journey that fully utilises your strengths and talents.  It encompasses your leisure, family, relationships; it’s made up of all the parts of you.  The fact you get paid for this is the job element.

How can you pursue a career that leads to carrying out jobs you get paid for?

Nothing Remains the Same

To constantly have a happy rewarding career journey of your choosing, stay alert to what it happening around you.  Recognise that in the jobs you carry out within your career there is a big world out there and flexibility, adaptability and willingness to accept change is key to surviving in these times.

Nothing is Ever Fully Learned

If you believe that when you finish formal education you are all set, then you may be disappointed.  Learning is lifelong, the brilliance of being an adult in the throws of a career path means that you also now can make the decisions of how, what and where you learn.  It’s never done.

You Are Never At A Crossroads

People feel that their careers are a choice to be made one path over another.  Crossroads suggest that one path is better than the other.  Careers are a lifelong path, twists, bends, humps, roundabouts, crossroads and the map is huge, the world is a large territory.  Start by realising that your career is a journey and sometimes we go places we are really not keen on or wish we had never went, however you can always get back in the driving seat, travel down different roads to see different destinations.  Get it?

Follow Your Passion

There is nothing more wasted than a dream, passion and purpose left to sizzle out and have no action taken upon it.  Even the impossible can become possible.  If you are constructing a career of your own choosing, choose what’s right for you at this moment.  And choices are always being made, and they can be changed along the way.

The Power Of Association

If a career is a journey of life, like the CV is a biography of your life.  Build up strong, meaningful and purposeful connections.  Everyone needs meaningful relationships and no one is except from this.  Associate with what you find valuable and it helps you recognise your strength, talents and uniqueness.

So is there a difference in career versus job?  Yes, by definition.  The jobs we carry out may be better to sit in alignment with our career journey: the roads we are choosing that sit well with us emotionally will ensure that we are working on tasks that are following our passion and purpose in our career planning, job hunting and career changes.