[Career] Do you have a career or a job?
This statistics is alarming. Only 2% of the population have careers and the rest have jobs. The number was an eye opener to me. It made me dig further.
It made me ask difficult questions like what is a career vs what is a job? I found my answers after a lot of search and experiments. Here is what I learned in my quest.
Job is defined as an activity that you get paid for otherwise you wouldn't do it voluntarily. Jobs are not very desirable because they are not meaningful to life. They are not a center of our lives. A job is married with other parameters like financial reward, perks and more. It is a package and never stand-alone.
Work-life balance or harmony is a theory propagated from the jobs world because it is impossible to do something we don't enjoy and that too for a long period of time. We need a break. We need rest. We need to recuperate and rejuvenate before we go and do it again. We need external motivation. We need rewards, perks and incentives as main effect so that jobs can be done as a side effect.
On the other hand, a career is very demanding. All careers are for that matter. There is no end to a career. It takes a lot of work to excel in a field. Mastery comes with a huge sacrifice and price. To be the best at anything is a hard path. It is very competitive. The learning curve is steep. Learning anything takes works. Continuously learning and pushing envelopes is a hard path to take. But careers add immense meaning to life. Truth to be told, a career is not for everyone because it is never done and you are always working.
A career is the most satisfying thing because we take ownership intrinsically. We don't need rewards, perks or incentives to do what we love to do. The joy os doing the work is a main effect and everything else (finance, benefits, network etc) are side effects.
This distinction between a career and a job should help you ponder about your status quo.
The core of a career is the identity. The identity helps you choose a form (roles) and the form helps you perform the necessary functions (responsibilities). This lens helps you make career decisions ruthlessly. There is no playbook for careers because it is personal and it varies from person to person.
Your career is your responsibility. Choose it wisely!
Career >> Job
Are you building a career or switching jobs?
🥂 to careers!