Career or job?

[SpicyPopcorn]

Inspired by another thread where lots of posters said they had a job rather than career, how would you differentiate between the two?

I've always thought of myself as having a career. I work in fundraising and have worked my way up through various roles to management positions. I've now been in the same role for several years though, so perhaps it's now a job rather than a career?

What do you do, and do you consider it a job or career?

I think of a job as something you do to get by / fill your working time. A career is more something that defines who you are.

I think there is something in between a job and a career. You can have a job and be happy with doing that but many jobs now require continual learning and development, so crosses into career development.

I think of a job as just something you ended up doing that is interchangeable with any other job that pays the same. A career is something you’ve trained for that you intend on continuing to do for a long time and where your skills wouldn’t easily be interchangeable for anything else that earned a similar amount.

I’d say I have a career and DH has a job.

The difference being, I am regularly learning and getting new certificates, have a career plan and chase promotions/new jobs at least every 2-3 years.
DH does nothing of the sort, does his 9 to 5, not interested in upskilling or chasing promotions.
His job can easily turn into a career, he’s just not interested. Having a job suits him fine.

I used to think I had a career. Now days I feel it's just a job. Treated like crap by the organisation and hated by most of the public and media. It can grind you down.

I've been a police officer for a long time and I think it's something you go into with expectation of a career and opportunities, but actually you're just a number and at the end of the day, unless you're ambitious (and from my experience most people who get to senior management are all about self promotion and current buzz words rather than helping the community long term) , then you just do a job. The days are long gone of having description to do the right thing. Now it's about following exact procedures even if it's not necessarily the best thing to do in circumstances.

On paper I probably have a career. I have been able to specialise in what most people would assume to be an Interesting high profile department. But it's definitely just a job now days.

Yes I know I sound bitter. I think most police with over 10 years service are to a degree. We all joined because we wanted to help people. It's the odd times where I know I really have which keep me going.

Bloody autocorrect.. discretion not description!