Mature Argentinian man juggling corn in a public park. Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
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“Nice to meet you. What are you doing?”
This simple question yielded an easy answer that would fit perfectly on a business card. It was a title, a profession, a single, distinct identity. But the days of linear careers are long gone. The traditional path of learning a specialty, climbing the corporate ladder, and retiring at the top is becoming increasingly outdated.
In today’s rapidly evolving world, knowledge becomes obsolete faster than ever before. According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Work Report 2023, two-fifths of the core skills workers currently possess are expected to be disrupted by technological change by 2027. This echoes the 2019 IBM report, “An Enterprise Guide to Closing the Skills Gap,” which found: The half-life of skills was already only 5 years. This means that skills learned five years ago are now worth about half what they once were. In this environment, you are not only encouraged to constantly update your skills and explore new areas. It’s essential. Therefore, the concept of being dependent on a single stable career is disappearing and being replaced by the need for multiple career transitions.
The first signs of this change came with the rise of individual “slashers” who balance multiple professional roles simultaneously, such as marketing managers/photographers and lawyers/fitness instructors. These slashers realized early on that in a rapidly changing world, sticking to one career wasn’t enough. These paved the way for new understandings of work and diversifying professional identities became not only possible but necessary.
However, the evolution of slashers does not stop. Now, this approach to career management has expanded beyond people who consciously juggle multiple roles. Even if you primarily focus on one career and don’t consider yourself a slasher, you need to manage four careers in parallel to succeed in today’s professional environment. These careers exist within the context of your past, present, and future roles, and they all require your attention and strategic management.
4 side jobs
In this dynamic environment, waiting for one career to decline before starting another is a risky strategy. Instead, linear careers are being replaced by a more fluid, multidimensional model in which individuals manage multiple career tracks simultaneously and constantly balance their past, present, and future professional lives.
1. Current Career – Your main focus. This is the job that takes up most of your time and is your main source of income. It is a career that you are actively developing and investing in right now. This career provides stability, but also requires continuous growth and adaptation.
2. Past Career – No More Past – In the old paradigm, your past career was just a stepping stone to your current position, just another line on your resume. However, even today, elements of one’s past career often continue to play an important role in one’s professional life. These may be activities that you no longer fully engage in, but continue to do as a duty, as a secondary source of income or as a safety net while building a new primary career.
Maintaining connections between past and present careers can be a powerful strategy for career transitions. This allows you to make the most of your current position while simultaneously laying the foundation for your next step and reducing the uncertainty associated with changing careers. You can also diversify your career portfolio and manage several professions in parallel, one of which can be your past career and remain active, albeit at a reduced capacity.
3. Whether it’s in 2, 5, or 10 years, your next career move is just around the corner. Understanding this future role is very important. It’s about knowing who you will be, professionally speaking, when you are no longer who you are now. You’re probably already exploring and preparing for your next career while focusing on your current career and maintaining aspects of your past career.
This can be as simple as identifying an area, tool, or interest that piques your curiosity and makes you want to learn more. Or maybe you already know what your next career will be and are just laying the groundwork, learning, organizing, and understanding when and how to make the transition.
The transition to your next career may be quick, or it may take several years. It may include volunteering, joining a professional organization, or turning a hobby into a business opportunity. The key is to understand what else interests you beyond your day-to-day role or profession. Then, take small steps toward growing into your next professional identity.
4. Your leisure career is often overlooked – this career doesn’t pay in the traditional sense. These are your other identities outside of work, such as hobbies, volunteer work, and personal passions. In a world where professional identity is based on skills and experience, the lines between amateur pursuits and professional work are becoming blurred. The difference is not in whether you get paid or not, but in the effort you put in. If you invest time and effort and are committed to continuous improvement, it will become part of your career journey, even if it doesn’t generate income or define you as a professional. This is the department.
This might include writing a blog, producing a podcast, volunteering for a cause, or pursuing a creative endeavor like cooking, woodworking, or sports. These activities may not fit into traditional professional stereotypes, but they can develop skills, experience and potential that may be central to your future career.
Embrace a multidimensional career
Understanding and embracing these four parallel careers allows for a more holistic approach to professional development. It recognizes that our professional identities are complex and multifaceted, shaped not only by our day job but also by our past experiences, future aspirations and personal passions.
This perspective fosters continuous learning and adaptation. It allows us to see possibilities in unexpected places and create synergies between different aspects of our lives. Most importantly, it gives us the flexibility to navigate the uncertain and rapidly changing landscape of modern work.
It is important to recognize and cultivate all four of these career dimensions as we move forward in our professional lives. In doing so, we can create rich, diverse, and resilient professional identities that allow us to thrive in the dynamic world of work.