MY POLEMIC: WHAT REALLY IS A JOB?

At its most expansive level of description, a job is best seen as a means of personal /money exchange. This means that you give what you have (or can do) in exchange for what you want (or wish to get, usually in monetary equivalence.) On this general scope of definition, we can easily say that anybody who does something in exchange for money is working or has a job.

The president of this country has a job; his job is to rule the country. As he rules he gets paid for it. An army general has a job; his job is to command and control his army, and he also gets paid for it in some sort of monetary exchange. A business owner has a job; his job is to profit by ensuring that he makes enough earnings from his business. An investor has a job; his job is to ensure that his investments are properly monitored and secured so he can also profit from his investment inputs. Professionals (like teacher, doctor, engineer) etc. all have a job; their job is to use their skills so they can get paid for the services that they render. In simple terms a job is something that you do in exchange for money.

When Bill Gates was the CEO of Microsoft, his job (as CEO) was to ensure that the business was kept on the cutting edge of technology and profit, up to a point where Microsoft became one of the most valuable companies on the planet. Today, Bill Gates has retired from his position as the CEO and he’s still a major investor in the company he co-founded. He now spends most of his time on his foundation – ‘Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’. With respect to Microsoft, we can say that Bill Gates’ present job is now that of an investor and adviser.

At more specific levels of job conceptualization as used by 21st century bestselling financial writers (especially Robert Kiyosaki), the idea of a job has been narrowly defined to mean working inside of a company; usually a situation where one gets paid with money at certain intervals in the name of salary or wages in exchange for their work.

The concept of job and work is something that has been imprinted into our social DNA. From the first man who stepped foot on this planet, the idea of work was something that was clearly set on ground. The Great Creator worked 6 full days (6 thousand years in human time) to put planet earth into a habitable state before he put mankind to thrive and to survive in it. To survive in this world, you must work in one way or another. In this world that we live in, if you do nothing, you get nothing.

In mathematics we were thought about the concept of zero as a quantity that exists. But in real world economics, there is no such thing as zero. Either you have (meaning plus or abundance), or you don’t have (which is minus or great lack) because to survive, you will have to borrow some money at one point or another from family and friends to eat, and to move around until you can find a good place where you can exchange your skills for money. Did somebody say-find a job?
Looking Back

In early times, craftsmen made things and sold them. Skilled men were commissioned by kings, patrons and nobles to render services for them, and they were paid back with money and were given grants to achieve their pet projects, many of which were named after their patrons. Families thrived by specializing in some sort of trade which was passed from one generation to another. The concept of work was transferred between generations.

Back then it was natural to see a particular family specialized in just one type of trade- farmers, bakers, carpenters, masons (builders), merchants, etc. Prostitutes gave their bodies in exchange for money and favour. Armed robbers exchanged threats using knives (and today-guns) and got what they wanted (money or valuables measured in monetary terms) by force. The smallest resistance usually led to fatal consequences for either the robber or for the victim. The greatest employers then were those who had large farms and needed extra hands for labour, as well as those who embarked in building projects that took months and sometimes years to complete.

The discovery of steam engines in Europe (Britain precisely) brought about the emergence of an industrial era called the Industrial Age. It was this era that brought about the idea of factories which were more or less the height of work specialization that narrowed the word ‘job’ to mean people who worked inside these factories. Along this course of personal exchange came the idea of division of labour; this meant that certain persons were assigned to work in different parts of the factories and industries. The longer they worked in their various units, the more specialized they became as they developed the right skills by solving different challenges which they encountered.

This ‘Industrial boom’ paved way for more hands to work inside these factories. What better place to go to find the right hands and skills to work? It was the educational institutions themselves. As at that time, these schools were positioned to rearrange their curricula to teach the younger generation to match up with this growing demand. In other words, technology became one of the greatest and most potent forces in changing the economic and social structure of that era.

To meet this need, the US Government in the late 1800s decided to form an institution called the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, also called MIT. Today, the MIT alumni has founded over 20,000 companies which are still active today, employing over 3 million people and generating annual sales of over $2 trillion (that is over N300 trillion. What is Nigeria’s budget?) [Study by Kauffman Foundation in 2009: source from The Economist.] And to know that this institution was, and is still funded by the US Government makes us to see that a country like Nigeria still has a long way to go. That is, if we know the way.

…to be continued.

Source:
http://dreamjobchannel.com/dreamjob/my-polemic-what-really-is-a-job/