Summary

The website content discusses the author's experience with and advocacy for having multiple careers simultaneously, citing benefits such as diversified income, skill development, and the ability to scale a personal business.

Abstract

The author of the article embraces a multi-career lifestyle, detailing their satisfaction in juggling four different jobs, including teaching, photography, running a spray tan business, and being a parent. The article emphasizes the resilience such a lifestyle offers, especially in the face of economic uncertainties as demonstrated during the 2020 pandemic. It highlights the importance of having a diversified income, the potential for scaling one's own business, and the opportunity to develop a broad range of skills. The author also shares practical recommendations for managing multiple jobs without burning out, such as starting new roles one at a time, creating a detailed schedule, and using a planner for organization.

Opinions

The author values the flexibility and security that comes from not relying on a single source of income.
They believe that having a side business is crucial for financial independence and personal growth.
The author suggests that a diverse set of professional experiences contributes to a richer skill set that can be cross-utilized across different careers.
They recommend a structured approach to managing time and tasks to maintain focus and prevent burnout when engaging in multiple careers.
The author posits that the benefits of a multi-career approach outweigh the challenges, especially for those new to the workforce.

Why Have One Job? Try Out the ‘Multi-Career’ Instead

I have four different jobs and I am developing another

Do you experience career FOMO? There are so many different jobs you’d like to try out and you want to do them all at once? That’s me.

When you ask a child what they want to be when they grow up, they’ll usually name one job. When I was five-years-old, I wanted to work seven different careers- one for every day of the week. I’ve always been restless and scatty, and the thought of having one job never felt right to me.

I now get to live out my childhood dream. Sure it’s not seven careers (I need my downtime), but I work four different jobs and I couldn’t be happier.

My jobs are:

High school teacher (2 days a week)
Photographer (one day a week of photoshoots and editing in my spare time during the week)
Spray tan business owner (evenings)
Mum

Ok, fine. ‘Mum’ isn’t exactly a career, but I really love spending time with my children, improving myself as a mother and writing about parenting, so I am counting it.

I love all my jobs because I find them all meaningful and they are different. I don’t experience career FOMO because I get to do them all at once.

Additionally, now that I have started blogging, I am going to look into scaling this to become another part-time job.

Here are my thoughts:

The benefits

Backup job and diversified income

If we learnt anything from 2020, we all know the value of having a backup job.

In fact, according to the Pew Research Center in May 2020, almost 30% of Americans found they’d either lost their jobs or had a serious decrease in pay due to the pandemic.

I was unable to run my photography and spray tanning businesses for much of 2020. We were in lockdown in Melbourne for approximately 7 months in total and, even when everything reopened, my clients didn’t immediately return because there still weren’t many functions being held.

I am so thankful I have my teaching career. If I didn’t have that job, I would’ve been completely out of work for most of 2020.

Furthermore, any millionaire will talk about the importance of a diversified income in order to achieve financial independence.

Key takeaway: Having a backup job will be your lifeline in case you get hit by the worst.

You can scale up your own business

While being employed by someone usually comes with benefits, you can’t really scale your income too high. There’s a limit.

However, if you have your own business on the side, you can exponentially scale it. The limit is only your imagination.

For example, I currently am scaling up my photography business income by selling digital downloads of my photographs and Lightroom presets directly from my website. I am also working on a short course for mums to take professional-looking photos of their children at home.

I couldn’t do any of that as just a full-time teacher. Different careers have different opportunities.

Key takeaway: Have a side hustle business that you can scale up. Create products or courses you can sell.

Develop a variety of skills

Finally, having multiple jobs allows me to develop a wider variety of skills that I would get at one full-time job.

Sure, teaching, spray tanning and photography all involve good interpersonal relationships, but that is really where the similarities end.

Teaching gives me the skills of time management, developing courses and understanding the human mind. Photography develops my creativity and trains me to be more perceptive. Both my spray tanning and photography business teach me more about finance and claiming for income tax.

Whenever I learn a new skill, I try to implement it in one of my other jobs. For example, my skill in teaching and developing curriculum is currently helping me to develop my photography course.

Key takeaway: Use the skills you develop to help advance your other jobs.

My recommendations

Burn out is a real thing and it can happen easily when you’ve got a lot on your plate. If you are thinking of having simultaneous careers or if you are thinking of having a side hustle alongside your full-time job, here are my recommendations to keep organised and avoid burn out:

Start each job one at a time. Get yourself established in your job before commencing a new one. Having multiple jobs can be very confusing, so you want to be fully comfortable and knowledgable about each one before you add more.
Create a schedule. I’ve created my own block schedule, inspired by Jordan Page on YouTube. I keep it printed and colour coded on the fridge and in my own personal planner so I always know where I need to be. When I am working at a job, my mind is completely focussed on that one job. Then I switch off from that when that time is finished. It keeps my mind clear.
Invest in a planner. You could have a digital planner, but I like having a physical planner where I can write everything down. I plan when I post on social media, mark student work, return emails, edit photos and more. My planner lets me see the whole week at a glance and has space at the bottom of each day to write my to-do lists. Organisation is key.

While it may not be everyone, I personally think that having multiple careers is beneficial for most people, especially those who are starting out in the workplace. The skills you can learn from a variety of jobs far outweigh any of the negatives. Who knows where your jobs could lead you.