Slash career

I was browsing at the bookstore and chanced upon an intriguing book called “One Person/Multiple Careers” by Marci Alboher. It grabbed me instantly because it describes exactly what I do.

Whenever people ask me what I do for a living, I often stammer for an answer. It is quite strange really when you’re juggling four or five things at the same time. I’m not exactly a freelancer or free agent, as I once defined myself, though I am that. I’m not exactly an entrepreneur either, though I am that as well.

It’s not moonlighting or working several temp jobs. It’s having literally multiple careers in different fields. Some call it a portfolio career or parallel entrepreneurship. Marci Alboher labels it a slash career, as in lawyer/chef. And it’s not so much related fields such as singer/songwriter or writer/editor as incongruous combinations like rock star/humanitarian (Bono) or surgeon/news correspondent (Dr. Sanjay Gupta).

I know of a number of “slashes” so to speak. In my case, I’ve had simultaneous careers all throughout my working life. I was desktop publisher/trainer/writer, and then I became a banker/editor, after which I turned into a Web producer/editor, morphing into marketing communicator/event organizer. When I left full-time work, I quickly became a financial advisor/freelance writer/managing director/sales rep. So I’m used to juggling multiple jobs.

This is my slash career right now: publisher/editor/banker/consultant/freelancer/project director/seminar producer. It is heartening to know I’m not alone, and that there lots of people who chose this path. In a column called “Blurring by Choice and Passion” for the New York Times, Marci calls it work/life blurring and describes the kind of work/life we have. Marci explains the reasons behind the explosion of careers with slashes in this BusinessWeek interview:

• Now that so much work can be done flexibly, portably, and virtually, it’s easy to do many kinds of work in the same workweek or even workday.
• Economic security no longer exists unless you create it. Having multiple income streams is one of the best ways to create stability.
• People are living and working longer, creating a large canvas on which to paint a career.
• We are all craving fulfillment and meaning in our careers, so it’s becoming more common to combine work for security with work that feeds a passion.

It is a satisfying approach to work/life balance and an invigorating (and yes, exhausting) fulfillment of being able to pursue my different passions and learn varied skills. And per my experience, it’s even more financially rewarding. I would never go back to a one-job, full-time corporate career again.