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.

People have jobs to meet basic needs, but careers give us a sense of significance and purpose.

I was working as a lease coordinator in Dallas. Another person was hired as a lease coordinator who seemed to excel at the job. Soon he was promoted to project manager and it wasn't long after that he was over all the project managers. He was a very talented and knowledgeable individual, but his main motivation was advancing his career. I had little vision beyond the job that I was doing and therefore did not put myself in position to advance in the company. I was approaching work as a job not a career.

We are often reminded that work is a necessary function in life and it is not generally pleasurable. It is called "work" and not "play" for a reason. The Bible tells us that man was put in the Garden of Eden to work it and keep it (Genesis 2.15). Proverbs (12.11) says that work provides sustenance: "Whoever works his land will have plenty of bread, but he who follows worthless pursuits lacks sense." Work is important. Jobs are necessary for providing necessary resources for life. However, careers are jobs that people pursue for reasons other than meeting basic needs. 

Consider Maslow's adapted hierarchy of needs model. Maslow developed a hierarchy of needs model shaped like a pyramid that others added to. From bottom to top, the needs are: physiological, safety, belonging/love, esteem, knowledge, aesthetic, self-actualization, and transcendence. Our jobs and careers are important for meeting all of these needs. This is illustrated by my Job/Career Model below:

The main reason for having jobs and careers are to meet our basic needs or sustenance (JC-1). After our basic physical need are met, then people begin to seek personal significance and importance (JC-2). After basic and esteem needs are met, then hopefully individuals develop transcendence goals (JC-3). Transcendence is defined as existence or experience beyond the normal or physical level. Transcendence goals or jobs focus on things and people that are outside of their own needs and goals. It is difficult to focus on helping others or society when your basic and esteem goals are not being met, but once these needs are met, people usually start focusing on others needs. Once Bill Gates made his millions, he started a foundation to help empower society.

You can turn your job into a career!

I worked at a grocery store while going to college. I got the job so that I could buy gas for my car and have money for my basic needs of life. It was just a job. I worked everyday, side-by-side with John. We were doing the same job and for me it was just a job, but for him it was a career. The difference was that I was going to college in pursuit of my "career, but he was pursuing a career in the grocery business. I was working for a check, he was working to advance his career. A PERSON THAT IS WORKING IN A CAREER IS MORE PRODUCTIVE THAN A PERSON WORKING FOR A CHECK. John worked harder than me because he was working for a promotion, not just for a check.

You can develop your job into a career by having goals that will help you improve, advance, and become indispensable to your company. In the words of Mike Rowe, "Come in early, stay late, volunteer for the hard jobs and you will be running the place in a year."

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