Career, What is it?

We will discuss about a career, job, occupation, career development, career education and career guidance.  

Career

Career is a series of jobs that is related that we do in our working lifetime. One’s career can span from one level to another, example an office assistant to Administrative Assistant to Assistant Manager to General Manager to Executive Director.  It can also be defined as an occupation undertaken for a significant period of a person’s life and with opportunities for progress.  

A career can also include all the roles you undertake through out your life – education, training, paid and unpaid employment. In other words it is a sum total of paid and unpaid work, learning and life roles you undertake through out your life.  

Job

A job is a paid position requiring a group of specific attributes and skills that enable a person to perform tasks in an organisation either part-time or full-time for a short or long duration.  

Occupation

An occupation is defined as a group of similar jobs found in different industries or organisations. A career therefore is the sequence and variety of occupations (both paid and unpaid) which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. More largely, “career” includes life roles, leisure activities, learning and work.  

Career Development

Career Development is the process of managing life, learning and work over the lifespan.  

Career Guidance

Career Guidance is an inclusive term that has been used to describe a range of interventions including career education and counselling, that help people to move from a general understanding of life and work to a specific understanding of the realistic life learning and work options that are open to them. Career guidance is often thought to incorporate career information, career education and career counselling.  

Career Education

Career education is the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes through a planned program of learning experiences that will assist students to make informed decisions about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation in working life. Career education encompasses:  

- Learning about the world of work, its changing nature, the general expectations of employers, and the demands of the workplace developing self-awareness in relation to interests, abilities, competencies and values; and  

- Developing awareness and understanding of occupational information and career pathways developing skills in decision-making which can be applied to career choices acquiring the skills necessary to implement the career decisions made. (MCEETYA Career Education Taskforce, 1998).  

In nutshell, we have learnt the definitions of what a career is, job is, occupation is and the various related areas like career development, career guidance and career education.