Member Questions

Ask a question

Do you have a job or a career? What is, for you, the difference?”

Asked by The Work It, Mom! Team on 13th December 2007

Leave answer

Comments so Far...

I have a job, but I would love to have a career. My job pays the bills and then some, but it's not fulfilling to me. My job helps me stay routine in life, but it does not enrich me. My idea of a career would be working in a field you truly are passionate about or doing a job you are passionate about. Having a career means that you can expound on your job over the future years and continue getting better at it and becoming more fulfilled. To me a career doesn't have a dead end but a job does.

I wonder sometimes how many people are just like me; didn't go to college right out of high school because no one in my family did and no one talked about, got a job to get a car and pay the bills and then found yourself in your 30's married with kids (or 1 kid) and longing to go to school, thirsting for knowledge. How many people don't realize what they like to do or what they are passionate about until they are almost 40? What are we supposed to do then? Who is going to hire 40 year-old people that have just found themselves? It's a good thing I have a sense of humor. :)

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Lori on 26th February 2008
i think i have both many times over. my full time 'job' is also part of my career but it isnt the overall aspiration of what i want out of life. however, i learn an extrodinary ammount of information about jobs, careers, people, processes, communication, and even creativity through this job and i can use that information in all aspects of my life.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Kate on 17th December 2007
Right now I have jobs. I put my career on hold to stay home with my daughter during the day. I work at night waitressing and tutoring to pay the bills. The tutoring is great to keep my on my feet for when I return to my career as a teacher, but I don't see myself being able to have a career as a tutor.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Christine on 17th December 2007
Wow, both Victoria and Marina raise great points. I feel I have a career. It is who I am, what I am, what I do. I know I'll be doing it for the rest of my life, I know I love it, I know it makes me happy and proud. My family comes first and that's never been an issue. There are even times I think of being momomomomomomomomomomom as a job but that doesn't put the "job" behind the "career"

That being said, there's a lot more to me than mom and voice talent. Who even knows what voice talent means?!!? I have so many irons out there that make the career wonderful. And there are so many great things that make the mom job worthwhile. Hmm, I guess for me the job and career thing meld together and become one.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Mandy Nelson - Dandysound on 14th December 2007
I have a job. I really, really like it, I also feel very passionate about it (been there for 10 years now) but to me it is just a mean to support my day-to-day expenses so I can enjoy all the things I like to do when I do not work. Career to me means putting your job ahead of everything else in your life. I do not believe human beings' purpose on this planet is to have a carrier. I think carrier is a necessity for people who feel a need of power (driven by either position or money), and cannot be satisfied with simple things. Usually wars fixes this problem; I have studied in history (not US history) that wars are (and have been for centuries) a recurrent event in many countries: when a country goes through a war, a lot of things are viewed from a different perspective and all the values are... re-evaluated. It kind of wakes you up and makes you a little humbler. But I digress... What was I talking about?

Flag as inappropriate Posted by m on 14th December 2007
My job is substitute teacher. My career is student.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Flea on 14th December 2007
I had a "job" for a while -- day care teacher, then substitute teacher in public schools. I wrote a lot more then because I was teaching other people's plans and I had no creative outlet. Now that I'm teaching full time, my plans and my teaching are my main creative outlet, and I write much less. I can't decide if that's a plus or a minus.

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Daisy on 14th December 2007
In my mind a job could be just that - a place where you go to every day to make a living. You could like it or hate it. It's just a means to an end. You are probably not passionate about what you do and if you could quit - you would. A career is much more of a long term vision. Your job is much more then just a pay check. You usually like what you do (or perhaps you are not crazy about your current position but it's a path to something bigger later on - i.e. career). I think you can have a job and a career simultaneously, but it doesn't always work out that way....

Flag as inappropriate Posted by Victoria on 13th December 2007