Career or job

[Stigmorgan]

So I'm feeling curious and wondered what people do/did to earn a living and if they consider it to be a career or just a job, my definition of career is doing something that you absolutely love and enjoy and just a job is what you do because it pays the bills.
I'm 38 and have worked in many different areas since leaving school, my first part time job from leaving school starting college was in a car parts shop, hated that because it was working with my mum's partner who was the store manager, from there whilst a college I had 2 years work experience in the bird collection at Waddesdon manor in Buckinghamshire (I was studying animal welfare at college) due to a difference of opinion with tutors I didn't finish college and joined the Army where I became a bricklayer in the royal engineers, during the recruitment process I had an agency job in a slot machine house (which put me off gambling for life) due to an accident I was discharged from the Army after only 2 years, from there I got a job in a college teaching brickwork (never should have been given the job, I was only 21 and no real brickwork experience, also learned at that point I don't like teenagers.) From there I spent a couple of years taking whatever agency work I could get, pot collecting in pubs, cleaning offices, kitchen work, mail sorting in a factory that inserts leaflets into the magazine and then wraps in cellophane, refuse collector, at this point I was around 25 and moved in with my girlfriend, got a job as a motorcycle courier, that lasted about 6 months, the money was terrible and the hours were even worse, went back to doing more agency work in kitchens and pubs, had one lovely agency placement at a local public park and woodland then a friend who is a civil engineer told me the company he works for was looking for labourers on a new school build, so I scraped the money together to get my CSCS card and a few weeks later was finally earning what I thought was great money, I've always been able to pick things up very quickly just from watching what people are doing so within 2 years I was acting as site manager (still paid as a labourer though) for the first time in my life I had found a job I was very good at and loved doing, I worked for the same firm for about 8 years before I got fed up of being paid as a labourer for doing a site managers job, from here I got a job as a labourer working on London underground in the tunnels, then got a job as site foreman installing/building two bridges over a river that cut through a local farm, this is the one job I am most proud of, myself and 2 others managed to build both bridges in less than 6 months. From there I went back to labouring on local sites for a while until my godsons friend told me about a caretakers job, turned out the school was a 5 minute walk from my best friends new house so I applied and got the job, 2 years later I'm still here and haven't had a single moment of regret, I consider this to be my career, even though there is no ladder to climb I absolutely love it, sure there are times when I the academy get on my nerves but for the most part, the teaching staff are great and regularly tell me they appreciate everything I do and I absolutely love the children, but then I am the biggest child in school.

 

[RogerS]

I always thought that with a career there was a clear upwards route towards greater recognition, seniority, position, responsibility....that sort of thing. Usually within the same field of endeavour...viz Doctor, Junior Doctor, Houseman, Registrar (I might have got those wrong but you get the gist).

A job was a job. You started one. Then maybe went and did something else for a bit.

But, not to detract from the OP, career or job ? It's down to ones own perception. I had jobs !

 

[TFrench]

I've always considered myself extremely lucky. My dad and his brothers got made redundant in the late 80's so started their own business (industrial insulation) For as long as I can remember I always thought I was going to work for dad eventually. Gave up on A levels after a couple of months and started the next day. Still here (almost exactly) 15 years later. I love it (mostly) - I can be at 5 different factories in a week, always doing something different, don't have to deal with the general public... Having a workshop with 3 phase and a forklift also allows me to play with lots of big cool machines I'd never be able to have at home.

 

[sammy.se]

You might say I have what you would call a 'career' route, which in theory gives you upwards movement and promotions etc.

But I'm your age and I can tell you that having a job you enjoy beats a 'career' any day of the week... Loads of people I work with (with so called 'careers') would rather have a job they love.

When you like your job, opportunities arise.

Sent from my SM-G973F using Tapatalk

 

[thetyreman]

being happy and in good health is far more important than any job or career

 

[dzj]

I've been doing woodworking related things for the past 30 years.
According to your nomenclature, it's ~20% career, 80% job.
I own a home and workshop. No mortgage or debts of any kind.
If my health holds out, I'll be a happy camper.

 

[Keith 66]

Career or Vocation is way i look at it, I worked in the boat trade from when i left college in 79, wooden boatbuilding & restoration, GRP repair & new builds, general repair work etc, went self employed early on & wouldnt have changed it for the world. Then did the house husband bit (best job i ever had) then started up the boatbuilding again.
Finally packed it in 5 years ago due to changing times & downturn in the industry.
Have worked as a D&T technician in a school for 6 years which i have thoroughly enjoyed. Now at the point of retiring which means back on the boats, this time i have several special projects to complete for me not for customers, looking forward to it!

 

[Stigmorgan]

Ok so I probably could have chosen better words than job and career, I know the definition of career is "an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person's life and with opportunities for progress." But for me although there is no position above site manager/ caretaker within the school, there are educational/ training opportunities that can result in pay rises, we have a new appraisal system that is being called professional growth and development, this allows us to prove we have been doing our job to a high standard and to identify training opportunities, as long as we meet our goals each year we get a performance related pay increase, it's not much, around 500 a year but it's noticeable when we get paid.

Either way I feel like I've finally found the occupation that my life has trained me to do and even though I live on site in the school grounds going to work doesn't feel like work.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Remember Trainspotting?

Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. Choose a ******* big television, Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc players, and electrical tin openers. Choose good health, low cholesterol and dental insurance. Choose fixed- interest mortgage repayments. Choose a starter home. Choose your friends. Choose leisure wear and matching luggage. Choose a three piece suite on hire purchase in a range of ******* fabrics. Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching mind-numbing sprit- crushing game shows, stuffing ******* junk food into your mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing you last in a miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish, ******-up brats you have spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future. Choose life... But why would I want to do a thing like that?

I chose not to choose life: I chose something else.

{I expect the swearing police will have done some interesting automated vegitable-oriented editing, but you get the gist of it, I hope.}

I didn't choose heroin, but I certainly didn't choose the 9-5 rat race. I left the UK the week Tony Blair came to power, and I haven't looked back. I live in what is a reasonable facsimile of paradise - I actually live in what was the Arcadian Idyl of Renaissance poet dreamers. Life is very, very good. Family is the centre; food, fun, entertainment and making merry are what life is all about (without becoming the ex-pat alcoholic disaster), and money is at the very bottom of the list of what is important. We "work" as a family unit - do what has to be done, but always with a view to getting to the beach, or walking in the mountains or something. Semi self-sufficient, without debt, without wealth, either, in the one-upsmanship British sense of keeping up with the Joneses.

Or as a relative puts it: if you're not working towards having fun, why are you doing it?

 

[selectortone]

I spent 30 years pretending to be a businessman and pretending I gave a f*ck. Then I watched my wife die over five long and painful years and after that I didn't even pretend any more.

 

[Chris Knight]

This is a long video but worth a watch. Patrick Edwards was a nuclear physicist who became one of the world's foremost exponents of "Boule" a decorative inlay technique. He has worked at his craft 12 hours a day 7 days a week for 50 years because he is so passionate about it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwItkNWuGsY

This is his kind of work

 

[Geoff_S]

I never considered that I had a job or a career.

I decided what I would like to achieve in life, happily accepted that it had to be paid for and worked for, and then I just considered what some may call a career as a "means to an end".

 

[Chris152]

being happy and in good health is far more important than any job or career

I tell my kids to either get a job/ career doing something that pays well and allows you to buy compensation/ health care to deal with the potential stress etc, or do what you love, be happy and hopefully you won't need compensation and the rest. Ideally you get both, but that's not so easy to come by.

 

[HappyHacker]

I was told by a HR director I know that "a career is a series of jobs viewed in retrospect".

I am past the end of my career and spent most of it in IT as a programmer, analyst, manager project manager and programme manager. I now regret the amount of time I spent working away form home to progress my "career" and believe that with hindsight I may have been happier and certainly better off if I had stayed in my job in Local government over 40 years ago rather than seeking a better job.

 

[Selwyn]

Keep it going chaps.

I'm picking up a lot of wisdom in all these posts. No right or wrong by the way

 

[Selwyn]

Keep it going chaps.

I'm picking up a lot of wisdom in all these posts. No right or wrong by the way.

I've got to 42 really enjoying my job and life etc generally and then got ravaged financially by a divorce and it really forced me to re-evaluate. I kind of realised I was at the halfway point of my "career" but you have to really double down and remember whats important in life - health, freedom, happiness, yes you need money but you also need to make sure your mental health is in good condition too. You only have one life - after that its a box.

 

[nev]

Working class - job
middle class - career
upper class - hobby horse


I've had multiple jobs

 

[Rich C]

I'm in the same career I've been aiming at since childhood - computer game programmer. I still enjoy it and the pay and conditions are pretty good overall.

 

[AES]

I think the above HR Director's comment about a career being a series of jobs viewed in hindsight is a very wise point.

Personally, during my "career" I worked at a lot of different "jobs", but luckily enough, always within aviation (which for me, apart from needing to take all my clothes off, is what has always "turned me on"). Lucky Boy!

Yes sure, you don't always get on with some people in some jobs; sure, certain bosses can be a right PITA; sure, you may not particularly like the place (geographically), and/or may disagree with the policies of some company/ies; and yes "bad days" always crop up sometimes, even in the best of jobs.

BUT if you can generally speaking enjoy getting up and going to work every morning, and feel that at the end of at least most days that you've made some contribution to the overall aim, then IMHO, it doesn't matter if you call it a "career" or a "job", you've got "job satisfaction". That to me anyway, is the No.1 criterion.

I've never subscribed to the "he's only a road sweeper" (or whatever) idea. More power to the OP's elbow.

 

[HappyHacker]

I've never subscribed to the "he's only a road sweeper" (or whatever) idea. More power to the OP's elbow.

The roads locally have not seen a road sweeper for years. The result is all the crap runs into the gullies We have never seen a gully sucker for years (20 for the four by my house) so the gullies block. So the roads flood when it rains, a problem when it is freezing as at the moment. Also the rivers of water running alongside the road erode the edges of the road creating potholes. I will stop there.

We should never look down on the jobs that are perceived to be on the bottom rung of the ladder because without them we all full of Paxo.

Remember what happened to the Golgafrincham when they got rid of the telephone sanitisers.