Job vs. Profession — What's the Difference?
By Tayyaba Rehman & Fiza Rafique — Updated on September 14, 2023
A job is a specific task or set of tasks performed in exchange for money, benefits, or other compensation. A profession is a long-term career, often requiring specialized education and skills, within a specific field.
Difference Between Job and Profession
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
A job refers to a particular position of employment in an organization or company where you work to earn money. A profession, on the other hand, is a vocation that requires specialized educational training and skills. While a job can be part of a profession, not all jobs are professions.
In the context of a job, one may not need specialized education or skills. For instance, working as a cashier, cleaner, or construction worker typically does not require advanced training. Professions like being a doctor, lawyer, or engineer usually require specific education, licenses, and a set level of expertise.
The concept of a job is generally more temporary and task-oriented. People can have multiple jobs throughout their lives and even simultaneously. Professions tend to be long-term and are part of one's identity. For example, one can have a job as a bartender while studying to enter the legal profession.
Job titles are often simple and straightforward, reflecting the task-oriented nature of the work. Professional titles, meanwhile, often reflect the level of education, expertise, and societal value placed on that profession. This is why you'll often see prefixes like "Dr." or suffixes like "Esq." in professional titles.
In terms of commitment and engagement, jobs may be seen as stepping stones or ways to make ends meet. Professions often demand a more substantial commitment, involving ongoing education, a governing body, ethical guidelines, and sometimes even a lifestyle that fits with the career choice.
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Comparison Chart
Educational Requirement
Often none or minimal
Requires specialized education
Duration
Temporary, can be short-term
Long-term career
Titles
Usually straightforward, task-based
May include educational or honorific titles
Scope
Specific tasks or roles
A broad field of expertise
Commitment
Can be low; often just a way to earn money
Requires high commitment; often part of identity
Compare with Definitions
Job
A specific employment position for earning money.
Sarah got a job as a cashier at the local grocery store.
Profession
A long-term career requiring specialized education and skills.
After years of medical school, she entered the medical profession.
Job
A task-based role often requiring minimal education.
His job in construction didn't require a college degree.
Profession
A specialized line of work often held in high societal regard.
The profession of engineering has a reputation for stability and prestige.
Job
A role within an organization or company.
After months of searching, he finally landed a job at a tech firm.
Profession
A field that usually involves ongoing education.
Teaching is a profession committed to lifelong learning.
Job
A short-term means of income.
She took the job as a way to make ends meet for the summer.
Profession
A vocation that often requires licensing or certification.
Law is a profession that requires passing the bar exam.
Job
A paid activity not necessarily part of a long-term career.
This job is just to pay the bills; it’s not what I want to do forever.
Profession
A career that forms part of one’s identity.
He saw the legal profession as not just a job but a calling.
Job
A job, employment, work or occupation, is a person's role in society. More specifically, a job is an activity, often regular and often performed in exchange for payment ("for a living").
Profession
A profession is an occupation founded upon specialized educational training, the purpose of which is to supply disinterested objective counsel and service to others, for a direct and definite compensation, wholly apart from expectation of other business gain. Medieval and early modern tradition recognized only three professions: divinity, medicine, and law, which were called the learned professions.
Job
A regular activity performed in exchange for payment, especially as one's trade, occupation, or profession
Her job is doing drug research.
Profession
An occupation or career
"One of the highest compliments a child can pay a parent is to choose his or her profession" (Joan Nathan).
Job
A position of employment
How many jobs are open at the factory?.
Profession
An occupation, such as law, medicine, or engineering, that requires considerable training and specialized study.
Job
A task that must be done
Let's finish this job before we start another.
Profession
The body of qualified persons in an occupation or field
Members of the teaching profession.
Job
A specified duty or responsibility
Your job is to watch the kids while we're away.
Profession
An act or instance of professing; a declaration.
Job
(Informal) A difficult or strenuous task
It's a real job getting people to help out at these events.
Profession
An avowal of faith or belief.
Job
A specific piece of work to be done for a set fee
An expensive repair job.
Profession
A faith or belief
Believers of various professions.
Job
The object to be worked on
Those overgrown shrubs are a big job.
Profession
Declaration of faith.
Job
Something resulting from or produced by work
I like the job they did on those shrubs.
Profession
(religion) A promise or vow made on entering a religious order.
She died only a few years after her profession.
Job
An operation done to improve one's appearance, or the result of such an operation. Often used in combination
A face job.
Profession
The declaration of belief in the principles of a religion; hence, one's faith or religion.
Job
(Computers) A program application that may consist of several steps but is performed as a single logical unit.
Profession
Any declaration of belief, faith or one's opinion, whether genuine or (as now often implied) pretended.
Despite his continued professions of innocence, the court eventually sentenced him to five years.
Job
(Informal) A state of affairs
Their marriage was a bad job from the start. It's a good job that we left early to avoid the traffic.
Profession
Professional occupation.
Job
(Informal) A criminal act, especially a robbery
A bank job.
Profession
An occupation, trade, craft, or activity in which one has a professed expertise in a particular area; a job, especially one requiring a high level of skill or training.
My father was a barrister by profession.
Job
(Informal) An example of a specified type, especially of something made or constructed. Often used in combination
A new building that is just another glass and steel job.
A cowboy hat that is one of those ten-gallon jobs.
Profession
(collective) The practitioners of such an occupation collectively.
His conduct is against the established practices of the legal profession.
Job
A jab.
Profession
The act of professing or claiming; open declaration; public avowal or acknowledgment; as, professions of friendship; a profession of faith.
A solemn vow, promise, and profession.
Job
See Table at Bible.
Profession
That which one professed; a declaration; an avowal; a claim; as, his professions are insincere.
The Indians quickly perceive the coincidence or the contradiction between professions and conduct.
Job
To work at odd jobs.
Profession
That of which one professed knowledge; the occupation, if not mechanical, agricultural, or the like, to which one devotes one's self; the business which one professes to understand, and to follow for subsistence; calling; vocation; employment; as, the profession of arms; the profession of a clergyman, lawyer, or physician; the profession of lecturer on chemistry.
Hi tried five or six professions in turn.
Job
To work by the piece.
Profession
The collective body of persons engaged in a calling; as, the profession distrust him.
Job
To act as a jobber.
Profession
The act of entering, or becoming a member of, a religious order.
Job
To purchase (merchandise) from manufacturers and sell it to retailers.
Profession
The body of people in a learned occupation;
The news spread rapidly through the medical community
Job
To arrange for (contracted work) to be done in portions by others; subcontract.
Profession
An occupation requiring special education (especially in the liberal arts or sciences)
Job
To transact (official business) dishonestly for private profit.
Profession
An open avowal (true or false) of some belief or opinion;
A profession of disagreement
Job
To jab or make a jab.
Profession
Affirmation of acceptance of some religion or faith;
A profession of Christianity
Job
A task.
I've got a job for you - could you wash the dishes?
Job
An economic role for which a person is paid.
That surgeon has a great job.
He's been out of a job since being made redundant in January.
Job
(in noun compounds) Plastic surgery.
He had had a nose job.
Job
(computing) A task, or series of tasks, carried out in batch mode (especially on a mainframe computer).
Job
A sudden thrust or stab; a jab.
Job
A public transaction done for private profit; something performed ostensibly as a part of official duty, but really for private gain; a corrupt official business.
Job
Any affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately or unfortunately.
Job
(colloquial) A thing (often used in a vague way to refer to something whose name one cannot recall).
Pass me that little job with the screw thread on it.
Job
The police as a profession, act of policing, or an individual police officer.
Job
(intransitive) To do odd jobs or occasional work for hire.
Job
(intransitive) To work as a jobber.
Job
To take the loss.
Job
To buy and sell for profit, as securities; to speculate in.
Job
To subcontract a project or delivery in small portions to a number of contractors.
We wanted to sell a turnkey plant, but they jobbed out the contract to small firms.
Job
(intransitive) To seek private gain under pretence of public service; to turn public matters to private advantage.
Job
To strike or stab with a pointed instrument.
Job
To thrust in, as a pointed instrument.
Job
To hire or let in periods of service.
To job a carriage
Job
A sudden thrust or stab; a jab.
Job
A piece of chance or occasional work; any definite work undertaken in gross for a fixed price; as, he did the job for a thousand dollars.
Job
A public transaction done for private profit; something performed ostensibly as a part of official duty, but really for private gain; a corrupt official business.
Job
Any affair or event which affects one, whether fortunately or unfortunately.
Job
A situation or opportunity of work; as, he lost his job.
Job
A task, or the execution of a task; as, Michelangelo did a great job on the David statue.
Job
A task or coordinated set of tasks for a multitasking computer, submitted for processing as a single unit, usually for execution in background. See job control language.
Job
The hero of the book of that name in the Old Testament; the prototypical patient man.
Job
To strike or stab with a pointed instrument.
Job
To thrust in, as a pointed instrument.
Job
To do or cause to be done by separate portions or lots; to sublet (work); as, to job a contract.
Job
To buy and sell, as a broker; to purchase of importers or manufacturers for the purpose of selling to retailers; as, to job goods.
Job
To hire or let by the job or for a period of service; as, to job a carriage.
Job
To do chance work for hire; to work by the piece; to do petty work.
Authors of all work, to job for the season.
Job
To seek private gain under pretense of public service; to turn public matters to private advantage.
And judges job, and bishops bite the town.
Job
To carry on the business of a jobber in merchandise or stocks.
Job
The principal activity in your life that you do to earn money;
He's not in my line of business
Job
A specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or for a specific fee;
Estimates of the city's loss on that job ranged as high as a million dollars
The job of repairing the engine took several hours
The endless task of classifying the samples
The farmer's morning chores
Job
The performance of a piece of work;
She did an outstanding job as Ophelia
He gave it up as a bad job
Job
The responsibility to do something;
It is their job to print the truth
Job
A workplace; as in the expression
On the job
Job
An object worked on; a result produced by working;
He held the job in his left hand and worked on it with his right
Job
A state of difficulty that needs to be resolved;
She and her husband are having problems
It is always a job to contact him
Urban problems such as traffic congestion and smog
Job
A damaging piece of work;
Dry rot did the job of destroying the barn
The barber did a real job on my hair
Job
A crime (especially a robbery);
The gang pulled off a bank job in St. Louis
Job
A Jewish hero in the Old Testament who maintained his faith in God in spite of afflictions that tested him
Job
Any long-suffering person who withstands affliction without despairing
Job
(computer science) a program application that may consist of several steps but is a single logical unit
Job
A book in the Old Testament containing Job's pleas to God about his afflictions and God's reply
Job
Profit privately from public office and official business
Job
Arranged for contracted work to be done by others
Job
Work occasionally;
As a student I jobbed during the semester breaks
Job
Invest at a risk;
I bought this house not because I want to live in it but to sell it later at a good price, so I am speculating
Common Curiosities
What is a Job?
A job is a specific role or position where you perform tasks to earn money.
Can you have Multiple Jobs?
Yes, it's possible to have multiple jobs simultaneously.
Do all Professions require a Degree?
Most professions require some form of specialized education or training.
Is a Profession always Long-term?
Professions are generally considered long-term career paths.
Can a Job be a Profession?
Yes, a job can be part of a profession but not all jobs qualify as professions.
Do Professions require Certification?
Many professions require licensing or certification to practice.
What is a Profession?
A profession is a long-term career that requires specialized skills and often, education.
Are all Professions High-paying?
Not necessarily, pay varies widely within and across professions.
Is Experience required for a Job?
Some jobs may require experience, but many are entry-level.
Do Jobs offer Benefits?
Jobs may or may not offer benefits like healthcare, while professions often do.
Do Professions have Ethical Guidelines?
Many professions have governing bodies that set ethical or practice standards.
Do you need a Resume for a Job?
Most jobs require some form of application, often a resume.
Are all Jobs Paid?
Most jobs are paid, but volunteer positions may be considered jobs without pay.
Can you switch Professions easily?
Switching professions often requires retraining and may involve a career transition period.
What's more Stable, a Job or a Profession?
Professions often offer more stability due to the level of specialized skill involved.
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Written by
Tayyaba RehmanTayyaba Rehman is a distinguished writer, currently serving as a primary contributor to askdifference.com. As a researcher in semantics and etymology, Tayyaba's passion for the complexity of languages and their distinctions has found a perfect home on the platform. Tayyaba delves into the intricacies of language, distinguishing between commonly confused words and phrases, thereby providing clarity for readers worldwide.
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
