Mentoring, your second career

It’s the title of a published Harvard Business Review article, which after reading, I finally felt normal. Until then, I had some such doubts 😊. Well, friends and the environment created those doubts.

And really, I could never understand why another career and professional interest is just relaxing to me? Why when I come home in the evening or when I’m on vacation, I keep reading books on mentoring, business issues, and so on.

Probably for most, the thought of having to have at least two jobs at once doesn’t look very appealing? Well, unless we have to do so for financial reasons.

However, since my teenage years, I have already acquired the mindset that having multiple jobs at once is useful.

I watched a movie in which action took place in the United States.

There, one of the heroes had two or three jobs at the same time. One of them was the primary job, the other (others) a few hours a week. I don’t even remember what his main career was 😊. But I remember perfectly well that he traveled to the stadium and trained the kid’s football team in the evenings of the weekends.

The point is not what kind of careers he had. The point is that there were several different pages in his life. The story unfolded in such a way that he lost his main job. But here was the EUREKA moment for me. Because those other jobs allowed him to have some stability, some security. He was not one day suddenly left without any work, and he didn’t have to rush to look everywhere for any job. Those little side jobs became the guarantee that allowed him to put everything together calmly. He already had some clear choices about what direction he can go.

I grew up being taught that you should only have one professional career and have some hobbies. Go outside, play tennis, draw, breathe in some fresh air. However, having a second job was never popular in my environment.

At the time to me, it seemed like an extremely simple but also a fantastic discovery. Never trust one job 😊. Several jobs will provide stability and allow you to switch between them to rest from each. Like a hobby, but also a source of income.

I can’t confirm that I think about it on purpose later, however accidentally, my whole life, I have built up my professional career this way.

In preparation for studying at university, I noticed an opportunity to study either my chosen specialty or study in another program. Studying in that other program, I will acquire the same specialty I wanted and another additional one. So two things in the same four years. I realized that the quantity of the material to learn would also be double. But the opportunity to acquire a second specialty at the same time seemed just great. I would not have chosen that other field of study separately, but as a second profession, why not. Maybe it will be helpful at some moment in my life? From a time perspective, I have to say that it was worthwhile 😊.

And then, in the future, I usually had either at least two paid jobs or had only one income-generating job and volunteered a lot. So the volunteer job, while not revenue-generating, was a new experience. At the same time, it allowed me to rest and not think about the primary job anymore.

What are the benefits of multiple jobs noticed in the article of the Harvard Business Review?

-Skill Development

-Make Friends in Different Circles

-Discover Real Innovations

If you are not ready to have multiple jobs, you can try out mentoring. It’s precisely the perfect activity that allows you to learn and grow as a leader and a group member. At the same time, you could check if two (or more) jobs at the same time would work for you!

For the ending, please read one thought from my mentioned article, which talks about the charm and benefits of the two careers.

 “When you follow your curiosities, you will bring passion to your new careers, which will leave you more fulfilled. And by doing more than one job, you may end up doing all of them better”.