Having Work vs. Having a Job

Austin Gunther sees work as something that helps define him as a man. That’s quite different than “just a job.”

I had 2 jobs in 2011 and also started a side business as a copywriter. During that time, I interviewed at Facebook and Google, was offered a position at Google (not at Facebook), worked with more than 120 startup companies at a small startup accelerator, consulted inside F500 companies, and learned how to run my own copywriting business. How I define “work” has evolved a lot in the past year.

Men have always defined themselves by the work that they do. This is part of who we are. But in this job market, many men are feeling the pinch of being out of a job and experiencing the challenge of making meaning in their lives without their work. So what does work mean for us, and how does the company we work for play into that?

I think it’s important to separate job from work. In my experience, my work is the contribution that I make to my community, and the world. This is expressed in many ways, including my job, my relationships with my family, to the company that I could start as an entrepreneur. While a job counts as work, work isn’t a job. A job is a specific role, often with a monetary value associated with it. Work is an expression of who a man is, while a job is an expression of what someone is willing to pay him to do.

From the vantage point of straddling my 20s, I am examining what it means to have a career, and evaluating the difference between work and a job......