Do you have a career?

Career, in Wikipedia terms, is defined as:

Career is a term defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as an individual’s “course or progress through life (or a distinct portion of life)”. It usually is considered to pertain to remunerative work (and sometimes also formal education).

A career is traditionally seen as a course of successive situations that make up a person’s worklife. One can have a sporting career or a musical career without being a professional athlete or musician, but most frequently “career” in the 20th century referenced the series of jobs or positions by which one earned one’s money. It tended to look only at the past.

In simpler terms, a career is a series of jobs that a person takes on throughout his working life. Nowadays, it is rarely that a persons works for one company for his life. You are likely to change jobs. Some do it frequently in hope to raise their pay. Some do it because they are bored after a few years at a job and want to be in a different environment. No matter what your reasons are, changing jobs seem to happen to everyone in the world at least a few times.

However, there is no guarantee that we will be happier in a new job until we actually changes to that new job. If John changes jobs 6 times during his working life, do you think he will end up in a better-than-before situation all 6 times? A lot of people do not seem to realize that they are wasting their time and effort if they only evaluate job offers by comparing salary, paid time off, health insurance coverage, …etc. Others say they like the work environment too. While they are comparable, they do not offer the person much in terms of advancing his career.

• What if your initial salary and signing bonus are great, but the company then cuts corner by giving you meaningless annual raises and pitiful bonuses afterward.

• Even if you have 30 days of paid time off, do you think you will be less busy before and after you take that long vacation? The work is still there for you to do, whether you take vacation or not.

• What if you stay relatively healthy, you then waste your health insurance money. If you have a serious health problem, you will spend most time taking care of your body instead of getting paid fully to do any work.

• What if there is a shakeup in the company or your department, or people come and go? Does the work environment always stay the same?

Instead of focusing on these qualities, I think a person should evaluate a job by trying to fit it into his perceived career choices.

There are many choices we make in life, some good and some bad, but there is always something we can learn from them. There are many jobs we take in life, some good and some bad, but there is always something we can add to our career.

Telling people to love their jobs is utterly irresponsible. I don’t think anyone should love his job because he is supposed to, or because he is getting paid to do his job. This person also provides his services to the company too. It is really a contract between two entities that they agree on. Do you think the company still love you when they lay you off?

Instead of loving your job, I suggest you frequently evaluate your job by trying to fit it to your career. Does the job help build your career? Does the job add any skills to the career you dream about? You cannot love you job unless the job is part of your career that you are willing to spend part of your working life to add values and skills to your career.

Only when you can ascertain your jobs can add to your career can you claim to have a real career.

(With that being said, if you are contemplating a career change, you most likely should change jobs as well, because you will need a job that can add to your new career.)