Manage multiple careers without burnout: Here's how

Imagine the time when your parents grew up. A common dream then was to get a job at 22 and work for the same employer for 40 years to finally retire with, perhaps, a gold watch. Today, this story seems either like a fairy tale or a nightmare. Since the pandemic, corporate layoffs have been trending nonstop in the news, and now AI is replacing entire job categories. Meanwhile, the gig economy has changed what ‘work’ and ‘retirement’ even mean. Imagining the rest of your life dependent on a single employer, or even a single profession, appears to be a huge career risk.

One career is not enough. Stability now comes from flexibility, and security lies in diversification. The solution? The portfolio career mindset—a way of working that lets you embrace multiple income streams and professional identities.

What is a portfolio career?
A portfolio career is not just a side hustle on steroids. It is a curated set of income-generating roles handcrafted from your interests, values and skills. You can be an accountant on weekdays, an interior designer in the evenings, and a yoga instructor on weekends. It is not about chasing the next fad, but about being intentional. Think about it as designing a diversified investment portfolio with multiple assets. Except that here your assets are time, energy, and skills combined in different ways and roles. Some roles are heavy on income, while others build credibility or fuel your creative energy.

Are you the portfolio type?
Not everyone has the mindset to thrive in this portfolio play that rewards the curious over the cautious. It helps if you are comfortable with ambiguity and are not worried about status. Ask yourself—how much do job titles matter? How often do you explore new skills? What do you value more—freedom or hierarchy? If you have a bias for independence, growth, and adventure, you are likely to enjoy this path more.

Skills and interests
Start with two lists—what am I good at? What excites me? Now find areas that overlap in both. Look for patterns in your work, hobbies, and volunteer roles. Are you drawn to the ideating stage or execution, to connecting people or managing crises? Next, test for value by asking, does anyone pay for this skill? Do people often ask me for help in this area? Now you have a foundation from which you can start building a bouquet of offerings for the world.

Start small and safe
Don’t start by quitting your job. Going without an income to find your calling is risky and unnecessary. Start small with thoughtful experiments. Write articles on your subject, take on one project or client as a freelancer, or conduct a weekend workshop. Think of it like building a manufacturing prototype. You are testing to see what fits, what makes you excited, and then what sells. Meanwhile, your primary job and income are intact. As a next step, challenge yourself to earn your first Rs. 10,000 over the next 12 weekends from the new activity.

Position smartly
There’s a catch. Multiple identities may confuse your audience. Are you a coder or a content writer? A baker or a blogger? Figure out a way to integrate your brand and use a single bio that aligns your roles around a common theme or strength. So, a CFO-cum-coach, could say, ‘I help turn around organisations through financial restructuring and executive mentoring.’ Next, use your theme to create relevant content around your identity and, thus, keep your messaging consistent across LinkedIn, Medium, Instagram, etc. Learn to tell a coherent story when people question you during a job interview or a client pitch. Craft your answer in advance to show purpose, skill transfer, or growth. A powerful narrative helps build your credibility across domains.

Time, energy, burnout
Let’s first bust the myth that a portfolio life leads to burnout. When done correctly, the results energise you. The strategy is to manage yourself like a top-notch team. Use time blocking and tools like Notion to allocate your time across each role. Next, map your energy through the day and across similar tasks batched together. Find what energises or drains you and accordingly schedule your daily, weekly, and quarterly breaks. A burnout is less of a physical and more of a mental event. It doesn’t come from having a full plate, but from doing more of what drains you and less of what excites you.

Financial planning
With multiple income streams, managing money will soon get messy. Simplify your life by structuring it. Have independent bank accounts for each stream where you track income and expenses separately. Hire a chartered accountant to manage your accounts and taxes. Know that incomes will fluctuate across roles and through the year. Be wise and maintain a 6-12 month buffer of living expenses to remain confident through turbulent times. If you are freelancing, then buy and renew your term insurance and health covers.

The game of compounding
A portfolio career is like investing in multiple high-potential stocks. You don’t know which ones will give steady dividends, versus which will become multi-baggers. The best you can do is to let them all compound over long periods. Each role adds to your skills, brand, and network. A workshop client becomes a collaborator, a blog reader becomes an employee, and your teaching makes you a better story-teller. Not only do you diversify risk, you also maximise your luck surface area. Get started today with one tiny step. Your future is not a single road, but a network. You get to build it—one income stream at a time.

5 SIGNS YOU’RE READY FOR A PORTFOLIO CAREER
1. BORED DESPITE PROMOTIONS
You have climbed the corporate ladder, gotten the titles, and hit your annual goals continuously. Yet, something is amiss, and you feel uninspired and restless. Is it a deeper sign that you crave variety or creativity that traditional roles and titles no longer fulfil?

2. SKILLS BEYOND YOUR DAY JOB
You have multiple interests that you have pursued as hobbies. Now you have talents in content writing or photography or coding, or storytelling, skills that your current job does not use. If you find yourself daydreaming about monetising those abilities, then you are already halfway there.

3. ATTRACTED TO MULTIPLE FIELDS
Your curiosity is not limited to one space. You are exploring new domains all the time: reading up on startups one day and diving into wellness trends another day. Your hobbies and conversations span sectors. This polymath curiosity is a feature, not a bug, and is perfect for a portfolio career.

4. FEAR JOB INSECURITY OVER FATIGUE
You would rather work longer and harder to have multiple incomes than depend on one pay cheque. You would rather manage multiple gigs than become comfortably dependent on one job. Your insecurity motivates you to build long-term safety through multiple income streams.

5. ALREADY THE GO-TO PERSON
Friends and colleagues often ask for your advice on their resumes, personal branding, business ideas o,r workplace challenges. That is real-world validation of your skill sets and value across different contexts.

THE WRITER IS THE FOUNDER OF SALARYNEXT.COM, A JOB LOSS ASSURANCE FIRM, AND AUTHOR OF GET HIRED IN 30 DAYS.


(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are that of the writer. The facts and opinions expressed here do not reflect the views of www.economictimes.com)