Enviro-Psychologist. Students interested in a career may have interest in several majors. Can you combine your interest to have your dream job? If you want your career to take off, make yourself a one-person, cross-functional team.” She wrote, “The job of the future is all about hyphenates — smart people who combine education, interests, and skills to become virtual one-person cross-functional teams. The world is no longer divided into specialists who know everything about something and generalists who know something about everything. Gaining an edge in the future depends on the ability to hone the hyphen — to creatively bundle (and re-bundle) skills and knowledge.”Marshall Goldsmith wrote, “Slashes are people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously. They’ve taken the notion of moonlighting and turned it on its head. Whereas moonlighting was something you did shamefully, slashing has cachet. From lawyer/chefs to mom/screenwriters and celebrity icons like Bono (see BusinessWeek.com, 4/24/07, “My Dinner with Bono”), rock star/humanitarian, slashes are appearing at all strata of society. He went on to share his thoughts behind the movement of slash careers:
- Now that so much work can be done flexibly, portability, 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.
I experience my own slash careers – counselor, instructor, presenter, photographer, and author. Books include College Bound and the Companion Workbook, Your College Planning Survival Guide: Smart Tips From Students, Parents and Professionals Who Made It Through, Paying for College Without Breaking the Bank, The Book of Questions to Jumpstart Your Career Search, and most recently Armed Survivor.
