Normalising the multi-hyphenate career path

Two years back, I bought Design the life you love by Ayse Birsel. As I worked on creating the map or the tree of life that I love, I observed many stems emerging from the career branch. There is so much that I aspired to explore. The career branch continued to the next page and in that moment I felt maybe I am confused. Some said it was FOMO. Some thought it could be curiosity that just need to be channelized in the right way. But it was only I, who figured it out, after some trial and errors that in the life that I love, I have a multi-hyphenate career. All I had to do was link everything to my purpose & work around my motivational drivers and create stems that strengthen each other. Sounding too poetic? Let me simplify. I narrowed down the many things I want to do into a few buckets that interlinked in some way. I was able to identify skills I need to hone. The kind of projects I have to take up. The network I have to build. Most importantly, daily habits I have to build. 

Image Source: Pinterest

The book and the design thinking techniques recommended by Ayse also helped me a lot. I was able to gain more clarity and find more meaning in my work. To he honest, I don't have it all figured out yet. I am still working on the structure and trying to find the balance. But it is really great to see that I am not alone in this. 

When Vogue India's April edition normalised a multi-hyphenate career with various success stories, I was relieved. It also made me think, how the multi-hyphenate career is not restricted to the creators and artistes alone. It has become a reality in corporates too. In fact, it has always been there, however, the trend has increased, only recently. People wear multiple hats, on the job, they manage diverse roles. 

In recent times, the demand for people with multiple skills have seen a sharp rise. Hyper-specialization is now thing of the past. It’s slowly but positively becoming a trend now to have multiple skills and also have the ability to take up diverse projects. If we all look at the bigger picture, the expertise in one domain does fuel excellence in another.

Image Credits: Vogue

If you are also looking to add more hyphens, but are confused how to start, here are some questions that may help:

• Is there a way the different pieces of your career Wishlist overlap? 
• Are there skills you could develop in one area that could be useful in another? 
• Can the efforts spent in one career fuel the other/s?
• Which one out of those careers do you wish to do for financial stability?
• Which one are you willing to explore only for passion?

Currently, reading 'The Multi-Hyphen Method' by Emma Gannon to learn how to live the Multi-Hyphen way. I will share the key insights from the book soon. Stay tuned.

Image Credits: Amazon India