A vocation (from Latin vocti, meaning "a call, summons"[1]) is an occupation to which a person is specially drawn

or for which she/he is suited, trained, or qualified. Though now often used in non-religious contexts, the
meanings of the term originated in Christianity.
Use of the word "vocation" before the sixteenth century referred firstly to the "call" by God [2] to an
individual, or calling of all humankind to salvation, particularly in theVulgate, and more specifically to the
"vocation" to the priesthood, or to the religious life, which is still the usual sense in Roman Catholicism. Roman
Catholicism recognizes marriage, single life, religious, and ordained life as the four vocations
If you are looking for a simple definition of a vocation, the literal meaning of the word is a "call."
But a vocation is more than an ordinary call. A vocation is a call from God, and anyone who has felt God's call knows that the
process is anything but simple. While most people think of a vocation as what they are called to do in life, it is important to
understand that the first and most important call from God is a call to be - the universal call to holiness.
Clarification
Your vocation is not the same as your career or profession. However, there is an overlap between a vocation and a profession.
A career or a profession is something that you have in order to support yourself and to contribute in some way to the good
of the society. You don't need to believe in God to choose a career or a profession. A person can pick, choose and switch
profession freely depending on his/her preferences, strengths or circumstances. A profession or a career always has a
horizontal dimension.
When we talk about vocation, we introduce a vertical dimension in our life, which is God. It is no longer what do I prefer?'
but rather What does God want me to be?" A vocation is not something that you can switch like a profession or a career.
For example, a person may work in retail sales because he/she has what it takes to sell a product, to establish customer
relations, to follow directions and to work with a team to accomplish daily tasks. That same person's vocation may be to be a
single person, a wife or a husband, to be a religious brother or sister, to be a deacon or priest.
he doctrine of vocation means that God assigns us to a certain life with its particular talents, tasks, responsibilities, and
relationships and then calls us to that assignment (1 Corinthians 7:17). God never calls us to sin. All callings, or vocations,
from God are thus valid places to serve. So strictly speaking there are no unlawful vocations; the question should actually be
whether or not a particular way of making a living is a vocation at all . . .
The purpose of every vocation, in all of the different spheres in which our multiple vocations occur the family, the
workplace, the culture, and the church is to love and serve our neighbors. Loving God and loving our neighbors sums up our
purpose (Matthew 22:36-40). Having been reconciled to God through Christ, we are then sent by God into the world to love
and serve him by loving and serving our neighbors. This happens in vocation. So we can ask of every kind of work we doing,
Am I loving and serving my neighbor, or am I exploiting and tempting him?

Gene Veith, Which Vocations Should Be Off-Limits to Christians?