There’s that difference between job and career that I hadn’t considered before now, but there’s a reason isn’t there, that there are careers advisors, but not job advisors. Career development courses, not job development. Treating a job like a career will likely cause unnecessary stress, and treating a career like a job is much the same. More thought required I think.
Sorry to hear work is getting you stressed, I had that last year, bringing in massive service change with not enough staff or time to do it so I know what its like. Because I was involved in the project from day one I was heavily invested in it and wanted to make sure it succeeded, of course that meant putting a lot of pressure on myself and put all my good will into achieving the final aim. I got to breaking point and had to take a week off to recharge my batteries and unwind. One valuable lesson I learned was that when it comes to your own mental health and well-being, you have to be selfish in order to take care of yourself. Whilst you may want to do a good job and get the reward of knowing you did your best, you don't need to be a martyr. Luckily, where I work we have a staff welfare officer who can arrange an array of different services that might help, so I got some one-on-one coaching to help me deal with the stress. One good thing that came from last year was that I only used a fraction of my annual leave, so I carried over three weeks to put towards my planned holiday to New Zealand later on this year
Every where I've ever worked, I've been expendable. Just another paycheck to sign and a box to click off to make sure I showed up to work that day. I've started doing independent contract work and it's nice to not have any boss or corporation dictating my life. Do whatever makes you happy.
That’s my general direction of travel right now. Lining up the ducks, as it were, Everywhere I go, independent freelancers tell me that it’s the best thing they ever did.
A career is just a series of jobs, each one building on the experience of the previous one. That's all. A career doesn't require you to put more meaning into it. In fact, you'll often find you care more about certain jobs in your career than others, and it's not a linear relationship. How often do people judge you for anything? All the time and for anything. People are judgy AF and a job title is just a shorthand for how rich you are, which is a proxy for how much you can help them. You don't want to live your life that way. "What do you do for a living" is probably the lamest of conversation starters anyway. "I know we're all outside of work and on our own time right now, but can we talk about work for a while?" I'd rather talk about the weather. Then again, maybe I'm just biased because I really can't talk about my work. All the cool stuff are national secrets and all the mundane stuff are too much like math class for most people to care.
My work is the intersection of "Things I like doing", "Things I am good at" and "Things people will pay me for". It's not my passion. Sometimes the hardest thing to accept for a high school or college age person is the thing they really want to do is not something that really has value to other people. Or, it does have value, but only if you are among the greatest in the world. That's when you have to find something else you like that people do value and train really hard at it. Having a slightly less fun, way better paying job is worth financial security and independence.
Oftentimes being the best in the world isn't enough to make some careers profitable. More often, those making a living from those fields are able to do so because they're pretty good but mostly due to knowing insiders.
I have a job I love--I would even, dare i say it, call it a career. It is absolutely 100% worth it to find a job you like doing. Even before this job, I had other jobs that I really liked for one reason or another. For me, that's a really important thing, to like how I spend my days and earn my paycheck. If you can find a path to doing something you like better, do it. Having said that, I am always careful to remember that no matter how much you love a job, a job will never love you back. I do make sure to be reasonable in how much I let myself get stressed out or how many hours I put in.
Work does not define me. I don't live to work. I work so I can live. My time away from work has always been and will always be more important to me. When I get into my car and drive home, "work" ceases to exist for me until I wake up the next day. When it's time to finally retire, I'm going to gleefully wave goodbye. I won't be one of those who gets bored with retirement and goes back to work. Even if I had my dream job, I would still resent having to get out of bed every day. (and honestly I don't even know what my dream job would be) I value non-work time infinitely more than work time. It's just the way I'm wired. Doing something I like on my own time is an enjoyable hobby. Doing something I like "on the clock" is very often work and when it becomes work, all the fun goes right out of it. It's not a certain job that I don't like, it's having to go to work every day that I don't like but I don't have much choice unless I want to live in a refrigerator box somewhere. Now, having said all that, I'm fortunate to have a job that pays me fairly for what I do. I don't hate what I do but nor do I love it. It can be very boring and frustrating at certain times but on the other hand I do have it made in some ways and I'm not blind to that fact. I've been with my company for a very long time and that has its benefits. Gobs of PTO, due to my longevity, being one BIG perk. My boss not being a micro manager is another enormous perk. I work with supportive and likable people. It's a balancing act with the pros and cons. Every time I get frustrated/bored and I start thinking I should try for something higher up, I see how much work and expectations are placed on these people and I say I'm good where I am.