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What a Multi-Hyphenate Career Actually Looks Like
If you’re considering expanding your career beyond one track, but have no idea where to start, feel free to borrow from mine
When I did the Career Cruising tests in tenth grade, I always got the impression I had to pick one career and stick with it. Of course, I don’t remember much about the results I got — those tests sucked anyway! — and I definitely don’t remember them telling me that I could add a hyphen, or a slash, and Frankenstein the careers up.
As it turns out, I could! My parents always told me I was a generalist, explaining I’d have to work hard to specialize, which was exceptionally true for their generation. But these days, being a generalist has its perks. It’s the role of the multi-hyphenate. The slash career. The polymath. The talent stack. The multi-path career. The gig economy. Whatever you want to call it, it’s here.
How to Describe a Multi-Hyphenate Career
Since I never really wanted to have a conventional “mono-path” career, that’s not what I did. Unfortunately I also tried, earnestly, to explain this to whomever I was talking to. When someone asked me politely, “So, what do you do?” early in my career, I’d try to smooth an earnest explanation over:
