Career vs Job
The words career and job are so common that we hardly pay attention to the differences between them. We speak of them as if they are interchangeable and in fact synonyms, whereas the fact is that career is different and distinct from the job that you may be doing at present. You can do several jobs during your life time. In the past, a person would have only one career that would consist of all the jobs he or she had done during his or her life time. However, nowadays, people like to have multiple careers as well as multiple jobs. If you too are confused about the differences between job and career, read on to remove all your doubts.
What is a Job?
A job is a regular activity that is performed in exchange for a payment. Let us look at some examples to make this idea clear for you. A vendor selling fruits is doing his job, while a biochemist working at a pharmaceutical company is doing his job. Even the president of US is a job that is currently being undertaken by President Barack Obama. One may get daily wages or he may get a salary in a month, but this is just a difference in the mode of payment, while the nature of job remains the same. A job may involve physical work or it may involve the use of brain such as writing or working on hardware or software. In short, a job is what a person is doing today in his life to earn money.
What is a Career?
Career is a word that is much broader than job, and may encompass many jobs that a person may have done in his life. It is a long journey, where a person makes use of his education, skills, knowledge, and experiences. Career of a person is a sum total of all the events, jobs, relationships, work, education, as well as leisure activities that may have been a part of the life of an individual. Career is what you have done in the past plus what you are planning to do in the rest of your life. So when one talks about his career, one does not always mean his job that he is doing at present but all that has happened so far and what lies ahead.
It is one’s career that has an impact on his future work life as it is full of experiences and all his learning that is a sort of fuel for future endeavors. Whereas, a job is the activity that one is involved with at the present to earn money, career is a long journey that is a series of mostly interconnected jobs. At times these jobs can even not be interconnected at all. It is possible for a person to switch from a job to another but both are counted in his career.
All careers have a different story to tell. A person may do a job teaching chemistry to students for many years before switching over as a lab technician in a hospital while someone else, who has worked as a salesman for years may get a settled job as an accountant. Someone might have sold used cars earlier in his career, but now may be a partner in a car showroom.
What is the difference between Career and Job?
• Definition of Career and Job:
• A job is what you are doing now to earn an income.
• A career is a lifetime of jobs taken together.
• Relationship between career and job:
• A career may be homogeneous consisting of similar, interrelated jobs or may be a shocker, consisting of jobs that are totally opposite to one another.
• There may be good as well as bad jobs in one’s career. One has to endure bad jobs keeping an eye on future goals.
• Term:
• Job is relatively short term.
• Career is long term.
• Multiple jobs and multiple careers:
• You will see people who are doing several jobs at a time. Generally, these jobs have something in common. For example, an accounts teacher can be conducting tuition classes other than his teaching at school. He may even do some book keeping. However, all of these are connected to the same field of accountancy.
• When it comes to multiple careers, people engage in different careers that mean jobs in different fields at the same time. For example, think of a lawyer. He is working in the legal field. Then, while working as a lawyer, he may become an active politician. So, he is engaged in a political career as well. So, here, a person has multiple careers.
Images Courtesy: career and job via Pixabay (Public Domain)