Do not find a job. Build a career

Political scientists, economists, and psychologists agree scarcity, profit, and alienated labour are obsolete. In the post-modern world, you must relinquish your job, honouring your "vocation" and finding a career instead.

Across North America and Europe, jobs have grown frighteningly scarce. Major corporations have "outsourced" low-skilled, largely automated jobs to India and Asia, where labour and environmental regulations do not constrain them. Of course, major multi-national corporations kept their executive and back office operations in London and New York, properly maintaining appearances but not sustaining much of a workforce. Therefore, for the workers who stayed home while their paychecks travelled abroad, few choices remain: They may compete fiercely for the few remaining jobs in agriculture and manufacturing; or they may retrain for more demanding jobs in the handful of smokestack industries still operating in "the post-modern industrial nations." More promisingly, former wage-slaves may examine their hearts and minds, finding their passions and creating rewarding careers from their discoveries.

Before you buff-up your resume and send it out once more, take a little bit of time for serious reflection and planning. Draw the radical distinction betwee
"a job" and "a career." In a job, you perform routine tasks and turnout products in which you feel very little stake. Even if your employer hired a slick Cambridge literature major to compose an exalted mission statement that claims, "All of our associates are vital stakeholders," day-by-day you feel that your stake isn't much more than a pointed stick. In a career, on the other hand, you apply your unique gifts and highly refined skills to satisfaction of a profound, pervasive, permanent human need.

Old equation. New applications.

"Need" emerges as the key word in your calculations and choices. Successful businesses satisfy fundamental human needs, and economists use the term "market gap" to describe the difference between what the people need and what the market provides. When you discover your own unique capacity for filling a market gap by capitalizing on your special gifts, you have found the alchemy that turns jobs to careers. Your work simultaneously serves a purpose in your community, and it fulfils your personal purpose. You no longer feel compelled to get up and go to work; instead, you feel called to it-a genuine sense of "vocation."

Assembling new MGs, you have a job. Practicing and perfecting the art of preparing all-organic baby food, you may find a career. Applying the same reasoning and strategy, you may find a remunerative, fulfilling career in providing high-quality day-care for the elderly, setting-up a pre-school that genuinely educates small children, or helping sixth-form seniors prepare their materials for admission to university. When you build a career, you no longer have a boss; instead, you have a purpose.
Good psychology makes good economics.

You can and should follow your intuition, the voice of all things eternal and divine inside you. When your intuition dictates, "The world needs better, more earth-friendly gadget-o-matics, and I am just the person to make them," you must honour the mandate. Putting your talents to work in service of humankind, you naturally build your self-esteem. More importantly, though, you build your sense of competence, capacity, and value. Most importantly, as you work your magic in your career, the world naturally and inevitably acknowledges and celebrates your integrity.

So, where do you see a market gap, a compelling human need going unmet, and what can you and only you do to fill it?