{"id":5067,"date":"2025-05-13T18:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-05-13T18:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=5067"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:46:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:46:15","slug":"the-pitfalls-of-thinking-about-your-jobs-instead-of-your-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/the-pitfalls-of-thinking-about-your-jobs-instead-of-your-career\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pitfalls of Thinking about Your Jobs Instead of Your Career"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Far too often, workers either stay too long in a job that isn\u2019t a good fit, or, at the other extreme, hop from job to job without a coherent plan for achieving their desired career path.<\/p>\r\n

Academy of Management Scholar Abbie Shipp<\/a> of Texas Christian University said that when it comes to people deciding whether their current job is a good fit or which jobs to apply for, they shouldn\u2019t miss the forest for the trees. Put another way, think of each job you apply for in the context of the career that you\u2019d like to have over the long haul.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cCareer-planning is a long-lived topic, but in many ways, people have moved away from thinking about careers and instead it\u2019s just a string of jobs\u2014maybe you have this job for a year and that job for a year, but none of them ties into a larger career path,\u201d Shipp said. \u201cOne of the things that you may regret is accepting a job without thinking about your fit over time, for example.\u201d<\/p>\r\n

Over time, it\u2019s crucial to plan for the career you want and articulate the story you\u2019re telling yourself, the narrative of what that looks like, and whether the job you\u2019re in or applying to fits that narrative, she said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf we aren\u2019t doing long-term career planning and lose the ability to think of ourselves as the protagonist in a continuous story from past to present to future, then people can make job changes that don\u2019t necessarily fit or work any better than where they were before,\u201d Shipp said.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cMany companies in America seem to simply accept this job-hopping trend, recruiting constantly to overcome the short-term tenures that are now so common,\u201d she said. \u201cBut individuals can create a better experience for themselves if they give some thought to their career narrative.<\/p>\r\n

\u201cIf crafted thoughtfully, they may even find a better fit with an organization that values the same things.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n

A sample of Shipp\u2019s AOM research findings:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n