Written by Ezekiel Enejeta
As a result of the harsh economic situation in Nigeria and the rest part of the world, the difference between a “job” and a “career” has been blurred in the strife for survival. In spite of the prevailing hardship, some still insists on pursuing a career rather than just settle for any kind of job.
A job is a general word used in describing what a man does in exchange for wages or salary. Due to the simplicity and usage of the word “job”, it is difficult to separate the nature, form or its demands in the labor market. Career is more professional and specific. While anyone may choose to portray a career as a job, and vice-versa; the differences lies in the underlining passion, commitment, professionalism and the longer term nature of a career.
It is more fulfilling to describe an individual as a career person identified with a particular profession. There are very few careers as against countless jobs a man can do to survive. The professional nature of a career has made it pretty easy to clearly distinguish them. We have engineers, accountants, lawyers, doctors, web developers, politicians, banking, writers, footballers, wrestlers, athletes, broadcasters, journalism, electrician, estate managers, auditors, etc.
In our society today, the question is usually about which company or organization one works, very few people wants to know the answer to the question “what is your career”? As long as it pays the bills nobody cares.
Whether you chose to call what you do a job or a career, choosing the wrong path can be challenging. The choices we make largely depends on the orientation we have in the early years of our existence. Parental upbringing and the school teacher has a big role to play. We can only act on what we know, and what we do not know does not affect our lives.
It is very easy to tell your child he or she will be a doctor, lawyer or a politician, the child processes that information and his life get structured towards becoming a doctor. Unfortunately it is not that easy, it goes beyond just proclaiming your child as a doctor, attention must be paid to how well the child performs in related subjects.
While parents and teachers can play a huge role in the future career of a child, the decision largely lies on the child. The career path one takes starts from the Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE) because it determines the course to be enrolled in the university or other higher institutions of learning. This stage is very critical in shaping our career or the kind of job we do later in life.
Unfortunately in Nigeria labor market, your discipline has little influence on the job you can do. We leave in a society where a physicist works in the bank, a business administration graduate can be in the police force, a mechanical engineer will always be employed in an insurance company etc. This practice has also made it very difficult to pursue a career path in Nigeria.
There are as many excuses to land a wrong job or career, while very few stay true to what they really want in life, by passionately following their career, majority of others has settled for any kind of job as long as it pays the bills. Isn’t it all that matters? You may ask. But we cannot deny the fact that doing a job we are not passionate about is even more difficult on the long run.
Choosing a wrong job can be damaging when the chips are down. One of its consequences is lack of interest on the long run. And when you lose interest in your job, efficiency and effectiveness suffers. Productivity and accountability declines geometrically and your employers will be dissatisfied. In a nutshell, the following are the dangers and consequences of choosing a wrong job or career:
- Lack of passion: When you first took up the job, the initial orientation is to be able to pay the bills, feed yourself, and survive the harsh economic condition in the country. All these were just a short term consideration with very little long term coloration. Although your immediate needs may be fulfilled but on the long run the passion you once had on the job declines because the job has little to do with your passion, you took up the job simply to survive and now you want more than that, you want that fulfilment and satisfaction but it would have been more easy to achieve if it were a job or a career you love.
- Lack of interest: At a point when the passion for the job diminishes, the next thing that suffers is the interest. Nothing is more boring than doing a routine we have lost interest on. With the job becoming uninteresting, efficiency and effectiveness on the job suffers.
- Your potentials may not be in use: it hurts when you are a footballer or a computer scientist and find yourself doing a job as an office administrator where your routine is carrying files from one office to the other. Deep inside you a memory flashes on how much you wanted to be one thing or the other in the hey days, but now you can’t even do just that. You feel the first zeal and energy in you, at that point it is only regret and anguish seeing a great potential not being put to proper use.
- The job gets tiring and boring: On the long run when your short term goals would have been fulfilled, another need sets in. if your job is not the right one for you it becomes very difficult to fulfil the desire. This is where the job gets tiring and boring.
- Low productivity: The primary need your employer wants to fulfil is productivity. They want you to add value and increase overall productivity. But with lack of passion, interest and value, your productivity decreases. Low productivity will put you in difficult situation with your employers and the work environment will become unsafe. When this happens one needs to go back to the drawing board and retrace the footsteps putting into consideration if the job is still on cause with long term goals.
- May lead to loss of job: Low productivity comes with an unsafe work environment. An unsafe work environment comes with endless queries, memos, suspension from work and may lead to loss of job. An employer may tolerate insubordination, some few lapses but never an unproductive employee.
- It can set one back in life: having lost your job either through resignation or outright dismissal, it brings one back to square one. It could be a setback in life if not properly handled. Assuming all your plans depends on the earnings from the job, losing it may mean postponing some of your plans in life like marriage, building your own house, or acquiring a higher degree. Choosing a wrong job or career can result in time wasting, especially when it has gone bad.
The consequences of landing a wrong job is not limited to the facts stated above, there are other issues and challenges that may arise and it depends on individual differences, goals and objectives. One interesting thing about the human nature is the ability to adapt. This means that the challenges that can emanate from a wrong career path can be managed.
If one can adapt to any situation, mitigating those challenges could be attainable. Dignifying what you do for a living is the first step. The general belief is that there is dignity in labor, take pride in whatever you do and motivate yourself to perform better whenever your interest is depleting. You can choose to try out new methods of performing a routine task to avoid boredom.