What Is The Difference Between Job And Profession?

What Is The Difference Between Job And Profession?

Do you have a job or a profession? The question is not unjustified, because there is a difference between job and profession. Even though many people tend to use the two terms interchangeably. But the very fact that profession is closely related to the concept of vocation shows that there is a difference to be found between job and vocation, and this difference is not just small and subtle, but can be quite considerable.

General Definitions

To work out the difference between a job and a profession, it helps to look around at English. Nowadays, there are a lot of Anglicisms in the German language, especially in business. The term job comes from English and does not mean much other than activity or workplace. It describes in a completely value-neutral way the exercise of a gainful activity, which may also be short-term. The clear goal of a job is to earn money. Whether the activity is interesting or not is completely irrelevant. In contrast to a job, Beruf is a German word that translates into English as Profession. In both languages, this implies that there is something more sustainable behind it. Money also plays a role in profession. But with your profession you want to make a sustainable and long-term living. In addition, a profession usually involves preparatory training or studies. The aspect of learning plays an important role.

The Differences Between Job And Profession In Detail

The best way to explain the differences between a job and a profession is to give a few examples. If you wait tables in a pub as a student to finance your studies, then that is a job. However, if you have completed an apprenticeship as a hotel manager and then work in a hotel advising guests at the reception, serving in the restaurant or otherwise managing operations in the hotel, then waitressing is part of your job. A completed apprenticeship describes your profession. If you are a skilled roofer working on the assembly line in a factory, roofing is still your learned profession and working on the assembly line is your job.

Is A Profession Or A Job More Fun?

Here, in reality, there is no clear difference between job and career. Both can be fun, but both can also be boring or worse, very stressful. However, it would be desirable that a profession should be more fun than a job. After all, you learned it and also thought about why you might like the job description before you started your training. And here the term vocation comes into play again. A vocation is understood to be a meaningful, fulfilling activity in which earning money is certainly part of it, but in which personal expression and self-realization are given much more weight. In contrast to a job, vocational training can be an important step in finding one’s own vocation. But it is said that there have also been people who have found their vocation through a job, for example in the social sector.

Work-Life-Balance

At the end of the day, for everyone it’s about being satisfied in your job or profession (this time without distinction) and having time and space in your everyday life for other important things like family or hobbies. If you succeed in this, you will have a good work-life balance. Accordingly, the difference between job and career can perhaps best be described as follows: In a job, the money has to be right, but there has to be time for things outside the job. At work, in addition to the money, the environment has to be right, because it’s a long-term thing. And if you’re unhappy at work, you can’t leave all that behind in your normal life. Those who have found their vocation have done everything right anyway.

Find Your Own Way

Vocational training or studies are important to prepare you professionally for the job. However, if you are looking for a fulfilling profession, you should be clear in advance about your inclinations, interests, skills and, above all, values. If you know what you want and what drives you, then you are sure to find the right profession (and not just job, now the difference is important again) and the corresponding employer.