What is difference between job and career?: Job is an activity to earn money in an office or organization to support short-term requirements in life. A career is the total of education, training, skill or jobs or work in a particular field to satisfy the passion of life whether earning money, building expertise, or doing something different in society. In this article we have discussed in detail – about the difference between job and career in addition to work, profession and occupation. What is a job? What is a career? What is a career planning and comparison chart?
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What is difference between Job and Career?
I decided to write on the topic- the difference between job and career for various reasons. Nowadays parents, students, general or professional degree holders, and people, in general, are confused between work, a job, and a career. This confusion makes them not to take the right decision at either the beginning of taking admission in an educational or professional course or after completing education. They don’t think about their future course of action for a specific field they are interested in and have the passion for. That’s why I have written this article.
They don’t have a better understanding about the difference between job and career. As a result, it led them to think about earning a livelihood for self or family without thinking about their career that can last long. And thus they wander here and there throughout their life without having a fixed destination to reach there and get success and satisfaction in life.
However, the difference between job and career including work, occupation, and profession is more than their meanings. Understanding the real and practical difference between job and career can help parents, degree holders, job-seekers and others point out what it is they want to do according to their interest for a living or anything else in life.
To short out the above confusion mainly the difference between job and career urged by parents, degree holders, job seekers, career choosers, etc. I wrote this article for the present and future youngsters. So first, I would like to tell you about the work, then a job, and thereafter a career.
Also read it: What is a career?: Meaning, Definition, Synonyms of Career, Career Path, etc.
What is work?: Definition, as Verb and as Noun
Let’s define here “what is work” as a verb and as a noun, then we will discuss the difference between work, job, profession and occupation.
Definition of Work
Work as a Verb:
“Work is defined as to perform or fulfill duties or tasks physically or mentally especially in sustained effort under compulsion or necessity for a purpose of either earning wages or salary or accomplishing one’s desired goal or objective and have the interest in and passions of.” __ Dr. Md. Usmangani Ansari
Work as a Noun:
“Work is defined as a specific task, duty, function, or assignment of self or others often being a part or phase of some larger activity in which one exerts physical or mental effort to do or perform something for the purpose of earning a livelihood or fulfilling a goal or achieving an objective of life.” __ Dr. Md. Usmangani Ansari
Difference Between Work, Job, Profession, Occupation, and Career
Here you will know about the difference between work, job, profession, occupation, and career. Let’s start with work – work is anything where you expend effort, whether paid or not, such as you are cleaning your kitchen is hard work, or you work in a café, and farmers work on their farms. A job can be either a piece of work or an activity for which you are paid. A career is a lifetime progress and achievement of paid occupation.
A profession is a career with specialized education, high status and one requiring training, often at degree level. Occupation is usually a paid job, whether professional or not, but it can be unpaid like farming, business, etc. A career is some total of education, training, job, work, employment in one profession, trade, industry or occupation or in more than one to earn money as well as raise graphs of development and advancement in a particular field. I think you have been clarified about the difference between job and career, and work, profession, occupation too here.
What is a job?: Why you do job?
“A job is an official and regular activity that anyone does in an office, firm, or anywhere else and receives money in the form of salary to fulfill the needs of self and family.” __ Dr. Md. Usmangani Ansari
Let’s discuss here “what is a job’‘ in detail instead of the difference between job and career. A job is a regular official activity that anyone does for money as a salary or say paycheck to support basic needs and other requirements of oneself or family. It can be full-time or part-time such as 40 hours a week or around 25 hours a week respectively. It may also be for long or short-term i.e. for 6 months or 2 to 3 years. For doing a job one might need to learn certain skills connected with that role, but not all jobs require a specialized degree or advanced training.
Do you know the difference between employee and employer? The person who performs the job is known as an employee and the person for whom the job is performed is known as an employer. It involves mental or physical work or both. There is a fixed time for doing a job. Rights, duties, functions, responsibilities, and powers are associated with each job.
No doubt, the job is one of the best sources of regular income to earn a livelihood. That is why, most of the youngsters join jobs, just after completing their education to earn a steady income, gain some experience, get independent, and settle as soon as possible. Normally, people hold a job for a certain period. Once the purpose for which they joined the job is accomplished or when they get some better opportunity for life, they leave the job. Jobs also help prepare career seekers in making their career by providing valuable skills like time management and communication. Let’s know “what is career” in detail below to understand the difference between job and career.
What is a career? And why you make it
“Career provides an opportunity to learn skills for the foundation of required experiences through different jobs in the same field of interest that help to reach the top in the chosen profession and make life satisfied.” __ Dr. Md. Usmangani Ansari
A career is a long-term professional journey you may choose based on the interest and passions of your life. It is not confined to a job only, but it is a course of life, in which you employ your education, knowledge, skills, and competencies. It is the path you embark upon to fulfill your professional goals and ambitions. You may require a certain level of education or training to achieve these goals.
People pursuing careers often have set salaries with benefits such as stock options, retirement plans, pensions, and bonuses. They also gain benefits beyond money, like work satisfaction, personal pride, self-worth, and position in a hierarchy. I think the above discussion has clarified the difference between job and career. Let’s discuss more about the concept of career below.
Concept of Career
In other words, a career is not just making money to earn bread and butter, but it is something bigger. It is what a person loves to do, it is what a person interested in, it is what a person is passionate about, it is what that keeps a man working without getting distracted, it is something for which a person can take any kind of risk, it is what a person’s dream to see himself as, in the future, and it is what anyone may wish to be remembered forever.
Anyone can choose and make a career in a field of one’s choice and life passion. For examples, a career in
- agriculture or dairy farming
- politics or journalism
- teaching or finance
- IT or computer science
- space science or aviation or wildlife
- photography or cinematography or acting
- social work or business
- discovery and invention or
Anything else where one will be called for help, advice, leadership, decision making, and remembered forever for one’s contribution in the field is known as career.
How is job and career different?
Difference Between Career and Job
A job and a career are generally used in the same context, but they actually mean quite different things. While both are focused on how you earn your money, there is more difference between job and career than you may realise.
A job is planned generally for a short-term period and tends to focus purely on earning money to fulfill daily needs. White, a career is a series of related employment in one field that provides experience for your future and helps you earn a better paycheck and professional status in the industry.
In other words, a job is an activity that an individual does to fuel his livelihood, a career is something related to pursuing a passion in life. Therefore, it is important to know whether you’re looking for a job or for a career to plan your professional goals. Let’s explain the difference between career and job with the help of examples.
A teacher is doing the job of teaching, and a guard of protecting people, etc. People generally do the job without any passion because they are not getting any guidance and they don’t have any particular goal to achieve through that job. In other words, any work we do to earn money without thinking about the progress is called a job.
However, a career can be considered as a job but a job can’t be considered as a career every time. One can start his career from a job getting a very small amount of money with the focus of reaching to a reputed position after a particular period of time.
How to Start Career Making?: Career Planning
Let’s discuss the difference between job and career with an example. There is a boy who dreams to become a software engineer. He can start his career with any job of web-designing, Java Developer, or PHP Developer. But he doesn’t get this job. Then he starts his career with an internship where he gets paid less or none. With the help of internship experience, the boy gets a job as a programmer based on java language and after 6 years of job in different IT companies, he became the most wanted programmer in his field. Thus he becomes a software engineer and makes his career and future bright.
But, in the current scenario, many engineering graduates are opting for a job in a call center, retail, marketing, etc. without a goal of what to achieve in a particular field after a fixed time span. Such imperfect career decisions make them without a fixed field in which they can learn more, improve their confidence, and raise their career graph in the same industry.
I hope you have been able to understand the difference between career and job including work. And also it will help how one can choose a perfect job to start his career at the beginning.
Comparison Chart between Job & Career
Job Vs Career Comparison Chart: Difference Between Job and Career
Base of Comparison | Job | Career |
Definition | Job is an activity or task opted by an individual & performed to earn a livelihood | Creer is a journey of a professional working in a field following life’s passion |
One word difference | Job is ‘Trip’ | Career is ‘Journey’ |
Time Value | Time earn money | Time earn life’s passion and ambition |
Concept | Job is a means to earn money for fulfilling the needs | Career is an end in itself |
Duration | Job is short term working | Career is a long term working |
Qualification | Education and skills | Education, training, experience in a profession |
Objective | To earn regular income and job safety | /To do innovation, learning more, taking risks |
10 Main Difference Between Job and Career
There are important difference between job and career, for examples,
- Job is defined as a duty or task performed by an individual for getting a salary or wages. Whereas a career refers to an occupation or profession carried on by a person following his or her passion and interest for their entire life.
- A job is a trip, but a career is a journey for reaching a destination.
- In a job, anyone invests his/her time and skills to earn money, but when it is about a career, he/she invests time to achieve life dreams.
- A job is working for a fixed time while a career is working without a time limit. In working for a career you don’t know whether it is morning or afternoon or night, as you sleep late at night and wake up early just to learn and explore more and more with a passion.
- A job is a means to fulfill the needs of life, but a career is an end in itself, what a person pursues in life to satisfy a passion for life objective set before.
- A job maybe for the short term while a career is seen as a long-term dream of yours.
- A job may require education and skills while a career may need education, training but specialization and experiences in a particular field are required to be successful.
- A job has minimal impact on a person’s future work life, while a career provides experience and learning to fuel his/her future.
- A job provides few networking opportunities, but a career is loaded with them.
- Therefore by following the above difference, when you work at a job, you may do the minimum without annoying the boss. But in a career, you should go the extra mile without giving importance to assigned responsibility, doing tasks beyond your minimum job’s requirements.
How to Make Career?: Advice to Career Planner
We have learnt about the difference between career and job in detail. Here, you as beginning job seekers are advised not to try for money if you want to make your career. Instead you select or choose a field and industry where you can learn those skills and knowledge that will help you in the future. It might take a few years to earn bigger paychecks and have more interesting job responsibilities with the required authority. Thus the lower-level jobs with learning scope, in the beginning, can lead to great opportunities in time to come which will nurture your career in a better way.
Conclusion
Moreover, the real difference between job and career is in your attitude toward money, work, satisfaction, interest, passion, and dream of your life destination. Those who want to make a career, always think about their long-term goals. They think about what they can do now to achieve those goals in the future to reach the destination set before.
Best Wishes for Your Future Career!
FAQs Related to Difference Between Job and Career
Q. What is a job?
Ans. A job is an official activity that a person does for money to support basic needs and other requirements of oneself or family.
Q. What is a career?
Ans. Career is the sum total of a job or profession somebody has been trained for and also does for a long time that includes a series of jobs in a particular field and industry.
Q. What is an example of a job and a career?
Ans. Example of job is doing a supervisor job in an office. Whereas examples of career are doctor, lawyer etc.
Q. What is difference between job and career?
Ans. The difference between job and career is that a job is a short term goal to earn money to fulfill daily needs. However, a career is a long term goal to make it for building advancement in a field of interest and earn both more money, expertise, and respect in one’s field and industry of specialization.
Q. What are 3 differences between a job and a career?
Ans. Job is a duty a person performs for salary or wages whereas career is a profession or occupation a person does passionately for an entire life not only to earn only money but to work according to his or her interest.
Q. What is the difference between business and career?
Ans. Business is mainly related to the buying and selling of articles or products, sometimes it also includes manufacturing of products or providing a service as per skills to the needy. The main purpose of a business is to earn a profit. However, career is mainly work or activity or job as per interest that is based on the passion of a person.
Q. How is a job different from a career?
Ans. A job is a specific position of employment, often short-term, while a career encompasses a series of connected employment opportunities, providing experience, growth, and advancement in a chosen field.
Q. What defines a job compared to a career?
Ans. A job is typically a means to earn income, focusing on specific tasks, whereas a career is a lifelong journey involving professional development, skill-building, and pursuing long-term goals within a chosen profession.