Got no future plans for your profession?
Well, you might just be doing a job rather than pursuing a career. Now, you are wondering aren’t both the same things?
Actually NO! Both terms are vastly different from each other.
You might be doing a job without focusing on your career, or you might be working to gain momentum in your career.
While a job can give you momentary or short-term satisfaction, a well-built career is your ultimate wealth, which brings you endless opportunities and showers you with a sense of achievement in the long run.
Your career becomes your pride!
To clarify this difference in better terms, let’s go down further in this blog-
Difference between a job and a career-
A job can be just a way to pay for your expenses without giving a thought to your career goals. A job lends money in your hands and as long as you get money that pays your bills and takes care of your responsibilities, you don’t think about your career. And this is completely fine.
Everyone from a daily-paid laborer to cleaners, drivers to delivery agents, is doing a job, but we do not consider these jobs as a career option as they do not have a set course for growth.
But when we talk about career, that’s entirely something else.
When you have invested your time, money and other resources to get a degree or diploma in a certain field and working in the same direction which augments your skills learned, this path is called as your career path.
Career is where you see yourself in the near future (years at least!) and where you think about long-term growth, advancements, and accomplishments.
Sometimes you find yourself doing something you didn’t learn in your grad school, for instance, writing, poetry, storytelling, comedy, singing, etc. Of course, people pursue degrees in these fields as well, but if you didn’t explicitly learn them and still pursuing that path, it’s still your career because you find fulfillment in this role.
In even simpler terms -
- A job gives you money, while a career gives you satisfaction.
- A job is a short-term goal, a career is a long-term investment.
- A job can be taken away, a career cannot.
Can a Job become a career?
Why not?
Doing a job, whatever it is, just for the sake of money is no shame; our responsibilities sometimes compel us to do whatever we can to earn money.
But if you start finding satisfaction in your job and spend more time than necessary to learn more and become better, well congratulations, you have set a foundation stone for your career path.
Every career kick-starts with a job. Whatever job it may be, it gives you some experience, and you now know something you didn’t know earlier.
If you can consider a better future in your current job, then yes, you can definitely turn it into a career. Let’s see how-
How to turn a job into a career?
Here are 3 quick tips that will guide you on the path of transforming your current job into a thriving career path-
- Hone your skills!
Are you an expert at your job? NO? Then become one!
Career is all about learning every day and getting better.
Now that you have made your mind to turn your job into a long-term career, you need to make yourself a deserving candidate for it. Up until now, you were just working to earn some money, so you didn’t have to think about getting better. But now you do.
Devise a plan to define short term goals that would help you learn all aspects of your role. It can be a certification course, a formal training program, or a job experience, anything that would lend you an exponential growth and expertise in your role.
- Seek out a mentor!
Having the right sense of direction as from where to start and how to start is the stepping stone of your career. But as you are now a new fish in the pond, you need some expert advice.
So, the best course for you would be to seek out help from someone experienced who’s at the position where you want to be in the future.
Ask them to provide a genuine mentorship to guide you professionally to develop in your job role, to better understand the opportunities and learn to face challenges, however daunting they may be, and above all, to ensure that you do not lose your focus and dedication on the way.
Being asked to be a mentor is a matter of huge honor, and no one would probably turn down such a great offer. So be assured and go for it.
- Apply for an internship!
An internship gets you a place and an entrance into the industry domain where you want to build your career.
Let’s suppose — You are working as a Digital Marketing Expert in your current job, but you desire to become a Data Analyst and have the required degree and eligibility to pursue this field. Now all you require is a set of skills and experience.
This is when an internship will be the best choice of action for you. After having acquired some skills through certification courses, online resources, and offline training, you can look out for options to get an internship in a company where they have good scope for Data Analysts.
Here’s the thing you need to do — Shuffle through your contact network, make a list of organizations where you can get an easy entrance, apply for an internship, and get ready to become an intern for a while.
Bottom Line
If you have finally decided to extend your job into your career, that’s very brave of you. It’s never too late to make this decision, but it takes a lot of courage to leave the comfort zone of your job and choose your career option.
Well done and good luck to you, and we hope that the tips above will guide you through your decision.
Thanks for reading!!