Turn Your Job Into a Career

Are you working in a job because you must or are you working in a career that you love?

You may know the answer to this question immediately, or you may wonder the difference between jobs and careers. The dictionary defines a career as an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress, while a job is a paid position of regular employment. People work jobs just to make money, people work in careers to advance in status, importance, and financial rewards. People take jobs because they need them, people pursue careers to provide much more than basic needs. The difference for some is small, but for others the difference is very significant. The difference lies in motive and opportunity.

Working on Tasks You Don't Like To Do

The difference between tasks you like to do and tasks you do not like to do is your attitude.

Have you ever bagged potatoes? 

I worked in a grocery store where bagging potatoes was a daily task. Everyone hated to bag potatoes. The first day on the job, I was trained on how to bag potatoes. The potatoes came from the warehouse in huge 100 pound bags. The bags were heavy enough, but they were also bulky and hard to grab. The potatoes were dumped into the "bagger" which held 4 or 5 hundred pounds of potatoes. From the bagger, we would weigh out 5 and 10 pound bags, staple them closed, then stack them in the stock room for later use.

"Professionalism" Helps You Succeed

Professionalism in the workplace is important for success.

"Professionalism" or "being professional" is difficult to define. Years ago, I worked for a small nonprofit organization. The director's wife, who was also the treasurer, told the receptionist not to bring her infant daughter to the office because it was "unprofessional." While she was telling her not to bring her daughter to the office, the treasurer's poodle was running around the office like she owned the place. To me, having an infant child in the office is no more unprofessional than having a dog running through the office. That being said, "professionalism" does make a difference, so it needs to be understood and that the leaders (owners and managers) have the final say about professionalism.

BR: The 8th Habit

Book Review: The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (1989)

Please add this book to your development library.

 Stephen Covey follows his best selling book "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by naming a 8th Habit. Covey wrote the 8th Habit to address changes in the world that took place in the 15 years after he wrote the 7 Habits. Coincidentally, the 7 Habits was released the same year that the Berlin Wall fell (1989). In 1989, the internet was in its adolescence and people were just beginning to use email.