Plan your career: A career is much more than a routine job

Career Planning is nothing short of giving vision to one’s life. It is following one’s dream as the ‘alchemist’ of Paulo Coelho. At what age does one begin to dream of a career? Some say it begins at the time the child starts to speak. Mostly, it is accepted to be at the age of 10. But an idea of a career could spark at any age or any stage of life. Unfortunately, career dreams have been coached wrongly as job aspirations. 

We read about those people who followed their career dreams. It was not a fantasy of overnight but striving for it after. Abdul Kalam had it as early as eight, when he was helping to deliver the newspaper and so too Walt Disney at the age of nine. Life situations might have delayed their career ambitions but never stopped them from achieving it. No one can just snap their fingers for it to happen. It is a continuous process of dreaming and designing one’s life. Career planning is an orchestrated process. It is thinking about one’s interests with commitment, sharpening one’s skills and preferences with dedication, and learning with maximum adaptability, without giving up. 

What most of us do not realise is that there is a difference between career and job. We use them so interchangeably we forget the difference. A job is defined as “a piece of work, especially, a specific task done as part of the routine of one’s occupation or for an agreed” monetary gain. It is employment, and you are obliged to do what is expected of you by an employer. But a career is “an occupation or profession, especially one requiring special training, followed as one’s lifework.” 

A job is simply a short-term pursuit, but career is a long-term purpose. One can change the job easily, but changing the career would pose many difficulties. It might take you right to the bottom to start all new. One has to set lifelong goals in a career and develop specialized skills to pursue it. Career obviously is value-based and aims at a greater good than merely seeking a job where one feels safe without risk. 

Does it mean jobs are less important? Not exactly. By this, we mean it is better to fix your life on career than a job. A career will ensure that you have a right job in hand. We can definitely turn a job that we like most into a long-term career. 

Have you watched a recent movie, Joy? Joy is an inspirational take on a true story of Joy Mangano, who leaves her secure job of airline-reservations manager to become a millionaire entrepreneur. She was after a career than merely settling down to a job. It is a motivational movie to watch to understand the difference between career and job and to encourage oneself.