Job or Career

Job or Career: Which Do You Have?

By Holly Zenith; author of  "Emerging From the Pink Collar Ghetto," which you can learn more about here: http://hollyzenith.com/Resources/PCG/pcgad.html

If you look around online or in the bookstore, or if you get into conversations with people at parties and other events, you get the idea that a “career” is where all the action is. Your career is almost like a life separate from your own. Your career can be on the fast track. It can be derailed. It can stagnate. Blossom. But the important thing, it would seem, would be that you at least have one at all. If you don’t, then reams of coaches, resume-writing specialists, articles, websites, magazines, books, and high school guidance counselors are there to nudge you to get yourself one!

If you’re unhappy or unfulfilled, the gurus will assure you that it’s just that you’re in the wrong career. It most assuredly does not mean that you should bow out of having a career at all!

We know of people we graduated from high school with, and that some of them seemed to “go somewhere,” and others did not. You might hear things like “Remember Mary? She has a wonderful career!” or perhaps “Too bad about Hank, just working away at that job at the auto body shop. You’d think he’d want to go back to school and get a career.”

What’s the difference between a job and a career? Some people say that a job leads to nothing but more of the same, while a career leads to advancement, promotions, and more money. Other people say that within a career, you have jobs. In other words, the career is the journey, and the jobs are the stepping stones. Still others say that a career is intentional. It’s planned, nurtured, and attended to. A job is mindless – you show up, do as you’re told, and go home.

I say that the answer lies within your own attitude. If you like what you’re doing and want to continue indefinitely, it’s a career. If you don’t like it, it’s a job, no matter how far that ladder stretches above and below you.

For all we know, Mary had a nervous breakdown and quit her career to write her book. And Hank might be in absolute bliss – he loves working on cars all day, and his job never interferes with his time with his family during the evenings and on weekends.

And now for the question: Do you have a career, or do you have a job?

Holly Zenith started out as something lower than a file clerk, and then launched the career of her dreams. She recently authored "Emerging From the Pink Collar Ghetto," which you can learn more about here: http://hollyzenith.com/Resources/PCG/pcgad.html

It is estimated that the average worker will have 14 jobs in his or her working lifetime. It is no longer a bad thing to change jobs. But that doesn't mean you should wander aimlessly from company to company. If you know the difference between a job and career and think long-term, you will prosper wherever you go.

A job is:

A regular activity performed in exchange for payment

A position in which one is currently employed.

A career is:

A chosen pursuit; a profession or occupation.

The general course or progression of one's working life or one's professional achievements over time

Bottom line: your job is what you are doing today. Your career is what you’ve done over the past years and what you plan to do in the future. So when you think “career”, you have to think long-term. And when you think long-term, you begin to realize the following:

Everything you do counts

Everything you do needs to have a good reason behind it

You have to make good decisions

Always think “What’s my next step?”

What you do today determines your tomorrow

Mistakes can potentially haunt you for a long time

You should pay serious attention to this “career” thing. Your job feeds you and your family today. Your career will feed you and your family tomorrow and beyond.