"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

"Someone who never asks that question, thankyouverymuch."

Yeah, we hear you. How are you supposed to know what you want to do in 10 hours, let alone 10 years or 20 or 30? We have a hard enough time deciding between tacos and burritos for lunch.

First things first: there's a difference between a job and a career.

• A job is just the 9-to-5 (or midnight-to-8am, depending on your line of work) gig that you do every day. It's what makes you money in the short term.
• A career is broader—it's something you do for a long time, and in which you have the opportunity to move up the ranks. This one's what makes you money in the long term.

Someone might tell you, oh, flipping burgers is a job and working as a physician's assistant is a career, but that's not how it works. If that job flipping burgers is going to turn into a supervisor position which will turn into a site manager position…you've got yourself a career. And someone who's content being a physician's assistant and never furthering their job duties and progress? They have a job.

Jobs and careers, of course, do have a lot in common. Namely—they let you bring home the bacon. (Literally, if that burger joint you work at isn't kosher.)

Starting the Career Hunt Now

As it turns out, there's a reason everyone bugs you about what you want to be when you grow up. The answer, especially recently, is that the decisions you make now can eventually impact your career and job opportunities.

Don't freak out yet.

At least don't freak out too much.

Here's what we mean: If you want to become a doctor, you might want to start on the science courses now (AP, anyone?), so you can start at a higher level in college, and then get into med school. If you want to be a software engineer, you'll want to take some coding classes so you're not behind the curve trying to learn it for the first time in college.

Sound like a lot of pressure? It is. But it's good pressure because you're working on something that's meaningful to you.

(Quick PSA: Yes, it's totally possible to be a doctor without taking science classes in high school and to be an engineer if you don't start coding till college. It's just a lot harder. Like a lot a lot.)