Job or career: which path are you on?
In the world of work, the terms “job” and “career” are often used interchangeably, but they represent fundamentally different concepts. Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon, has provided valuable insights into this distinction, emphasizing the importance of finding one’s calling.
Jeff Bezos once said, “You can have a job, or you can have a career, or you can have a calling. And if you can somehow figure out how to have a calling, you hit the jackpot because that’s the big deal”. This statement emphasizes the varying levels of engagement and fulfillment one can achieve in their professional life.
You have a job.
A job is typically a position of employment that one undertakes primarily to earn money. It is often short-term and task-oriented, focusing on immediate needs rather than long-term goals.Jobs can be part-time or full-time and may not necessarily align with one’s passions or interests. Job is short-term focus and you see it as temporary role to meet financial needs and, very often it’s task-oriented. How do you realize you have a job? Well, when you sit down at the desk your first concern is completing specific tasks or duties. Regarding the limited growth that you can expect if yours is a job, well, you will discover that later, and in general it is the same limited growth that all the projects offer you where you don’t have a passion or a vision or where the objective is more than anything a transaction i.e. based on the exchange of labor for wages.
Instead, you have a career if …
A career, on the other hand, is a long-term professional journey that is often aligned with one’s passions, interests, and goals. It involves continuous learning, skill development, and progression within a particular field. Careers are built over time and can provide a sense of purpose and fulfillment. A career is all about long-term perspectives and aspirations that are framed by activities and choices that you will capitalize on the value over time. You don’t put a price on the time you spend for what it brings you at that moment, even in money, but for the value that the activity carried out in that particular period matters to generate in the future at many different moments.
Career is therefore growth-oriented: there are opportunities for advancement, skill development, and professional growth. Those who choose a career often look for one that is aligned with their passions, also because in building it the boundary between time to work and free time will be labile, in short, you have to do something that you like Careers are often purpose-driven and can offer a sense of purpose and direction, contributing to personal and professional fulfillment.
Bezos also introduces the idea of a “calling,” which goes beyond both jobs and careers because a calling is a deep-seated passion that drives an individual to pursue their work with enthusiasm and dedication. It is the ultimate alignment of one’s skills, interests, and values, leading to a profound sense of fulfillment and purpose. Characteristics of a calling are deep passion for the work, intrinsic motivation that comes from within, rather than external rewards, and high fulfillment. Individuals are often willing to overcome significant challenges to pursue their calling: enduring commitment is
Depending on the case, what you ask for from the people around you changes: in a job, you ask the people around you for professionalism and punctuality while in the other two cases, you would also like empathetic, motivated, and passionate collaborators and what sometimes puts working relationships at risk is that what is for you today a career could be for a colleague of yours just a job or a stage of his career that has a very different value for him. Also your perception of time and its value changes. Although it is common to think that everyone would like a career, this is not true, in my experience many people do not want their passions to be tied to work or any type of commitment that keeps them mentally or physically busy for many hours a day.
Which path are you on?