

A person’s occupation is more or less depends on his educational qualification (at least in western countries). We can define it as a person’s principal work or business, specifically as a means of earning a living. Occupation basically refers to one’s job or profession. For example, you may start your career as a teaching assistant, then gradually move on to the positions of teacher, assistant principal and principal. Career path basically refers to various positions an employee moves through as he or she grows in an organization. Careers usually bring us a sense of achievement as it is a journey built on your skills, knowledge and experience.Ĭareer path is a word we often associate with a career. So, a career comprises all that a person has done or undergone in his professional life so far and what he intends to do in the future.

Career is a word that connotes images of a lifetime of achievements, events, and everything else that goes in the name of progression in our chosen profession. Side by Side Comparison – Career vs Occupation in Tabular FormĬareer is an occupation undertaken for a significant period of one’s life and with opportunities for progress. We know that the occupation of a person may be farming, but that does not tell us everything about his career, which is the sum total of all his experiences, events and jobs that he may have undertaken in his lifetime.

Though there are many similarities between the two terms, there is also a subtle difference between career and occupation. This is because if one looks up a dictionary, the two words are synonyms.

Some census records also abbreviate occupations due to the lack of space on census forms. This allowed more names to be written on each page. For example, old city directories would often abbreviate occupations of residents. Occupations were often written in abbreviated form in historic documents.
