Multiple careers can be concurrent or sequential. Concurrent means you are opting for multiple careers simultaneously. An individual enjoying concurrent multiple careers can do one job for few months and other job for the rest of the year; or he can do one job in the day time and the other one at night. This type of career diversity is chosen mainly for two reasons. One is to fulfill economic needs and to enjoy a better standard of living and the other is to have the satisfaction of work.
Sequential means changing your career over a period of time. An individual opting for this type of career diversity can work for 10-15 years on a job and then switch to an entirely new one or a related career. As life expectancy increases, as retirement benefits decrease, and as educational opportunities expand, workers may find that they are forced to fulfill the goals of one career and then adopt another one. This can be viewed as giving meaning to oneself later on in life.
Many people are nowadays opting for career diversity. So much of work can be done flexibly, portably and virtually. This has made people do many jobs in the same work week or work day. Everyone wants to be financially stable and be economically secured. However, to be secure and stable financially we must take the necessary steps to get there. Having multiple income streams is the best way to do so. People are living and working longer, so they need to opt for multiple careers to enjoy financial freedom for a longer period.
We are now craving fulfillment and meaning in our careers, so it has become necessary to combine work security with work passion. Sometimes it may so happen that we are satisfied financially with a job but not satisfied passionately. In that case we need to go for jobs in which we will be able to satisfy our passion. Thus multiple careers result in the full satisfaction of an individual.
Opting for multiple careers may be stressful but if we choose jobs intelligently just to satisfy our needs we can relieve the stress. For example, if an individual is working as an IT professional and at the same time he has a passion for art, he can opt for art as a side career just to satisfy himself. Thus, by proper understanding we can make career diversity profitable for us. Many people think that opting for multiple careers has made them better at their original profession. We are now entering into an age where hybrids will rule the work place, as it creates more work opportunities for us.