One Person / Multiple Careers: The Original Guide to the Slash Career

by Marci Alboher

Imagine if your work allowed you to use all your talents and pursue all your interests - not just the ones that pay your rent, but also the ones that float your boat. Sounds impossible right? It isn’t, as many successful men and women can now attest.

ONE PERSON/MULTIPLE CAREERS: A New Model For Work/Life Success by Marci Alboher charts a new path to career satisfaction: becoming a “slash.” Be they lawyer/ministers, recruiter/innkeepers, or CEO/moms, the true winners in today’s workplace are those who cultivate multiple passions, talents and income streams to create satisfying work lives. Celebrities like Bono and P. Diddy - with their boundary crossing reinventions - are emblematic of this new way to think about a career.

ONE PERSON/MULTIPLE CAREERS is the product of hundreds of in-depth interviews with people who have built fulfilling slash lives in the modern world of work. Blending compelling stories and real-world advice, this guide includes:
-Tricks for seamlessly acquiring new skills while managing an existing career
-Tips for better tackling time management
-Innovative ideas for creating business cards, resumes and websites that properly portray a slash-filled life
-Secrets for creating and capitalizing on the synergies that exist between seemingly unrelated careers.

Genres: Nonfiction, Business, Self Help, Personal Development, Psychology, Leadership, Personal Growth

287 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 23, 2007

Reviews

[Jenn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is worth the read but the format of the book is cluttered and ultimately laborious.

The author interviewed real people who currently hold multiple careers. Unfortunately, she opts to jump from person to person and then close each segment or chapter with a two or three line summary. Throughout the book, she jumps back and forth between different people, sometimes returning to highlight a different perspective of a person she already presented, making the book far more complicated than it needs to be.

In taking this approach, the author ultimately spends more time praising the people she interviewed rather than providing actual guidance or tips to the readers who may be trying to break into multiple careers. The book would have been significantly stronger and far more helpful if the author had spent more time (and lines!) developing tips and tools for the reader and less time telling the life stories of the people she interviewed.

The bottom line is: this book is a good read for those who need to hear that having multiple careers is possible; the book is not, however, a practical or useful tool that I had hoped it would be.

[Karl · Rating 3 out of 5]

For someone like me who hasn't thought in terms of living a slash life, it was eye-opening. I discovered I'm a slash at heart. I just need to get over the fear of trying to live it out. So, reading examples of how different people created their slash lives was very good; necessary. The book did seem to get a little redundant after a while. So, while I was energetically reading the book with fascination at the beginning, by the end, my enthusiasm waned. I found the example letters and resumes in the back of the book very helpful, though.

I do recommend this book and, in fact, bought another copy for a friend.

I especially recommend it for younger, college-aged people so that they can see, early on, that there are other ways of creating the life you see for yourself. There's more than one path to career happiness.

[Catherine Gillespie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought One Person/Multiple Careers: The Original Guide to the Slash Career would be full of helpful tips about work-life balance or doing two things at once, but really it’s more of a book about how to do something different once you’re done doing the first thing. It’s more about how to launch a second career, rather than how to do things simultaneously. In that sense, it wasn’t very helpful to me, but might be to someone else in a different situation.

{Read my full review here}

[Marisol Gobar · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am the kind of person who wants to do a little bit of everything. I love working in the computer but I sometimes wonder... If i could only figure a way to do less of it?
This book is a great guide, with extremely inspiring examples of how succesful people has combined their interests to creat a life of slashes.
What I have learned the most is that self-awareness usually leads to smart career choices. There is always necessary a time to make a pause and redisign your life.

[Homeyra · Rating 2 out of 5]

ایده ی کتاب برام جالب بود و چند تا نکته ی به درد بخور یاد گرفتم، ولی نمی تونم بگم از خوندنش لذت بردم.

[Jessica · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed learning about those embracing “slash” lifestyles, the content was simply dated, thus not very relatable. When I reached the part explaining what a blog is, I realized it was unfortunately a little too dated for me. However, the content is good and the ideas that the author puts forth are helpful, especially for those unsure of whether it is possible to commit to more than one career.

[E · Rating 3 out of 5]

An imaginary rating for the year of this book's publishing, 2007: 5 stars.

It's arguably a more relevant topic than ever, especially after the upheavals of COVID, but I'm not sure how relevant the dated material actually is. Would love to see a major update or sequel.

[Laetitia Devic · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a slash and now very comfortable with this label! Thank you Marci for showcasing so many intentional 'slashes' - what a relief, we are not alone!

[Anqi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book! It's not a new publication (published on 2007) but still has lots of ideas that inspired me!

[Paul Schmidt · Rating 3 out of 5]

**Method**: Kindle

### Summary


### Key Takeaways
- Location 124 (Highlight (Yellow)): Over time, I’ve seen the slash model applied in scores of new ways to reflect the new world order. Yet slashing always boils down to one of these five models:
- Money gig/passion project (Financial analyst/sculptor; Entrepreneur/activist)
- Left brain/right brain (Engineer/museum curator)
- Mind/body (Professor/massage therapist)
- Writing/teaching/speaking/consulting (These four slashes go with anything)
- Many hats, one job (Most small business owners fall into this category, but employees playing more than one role show up here as well.)
- Location 314 (Highlight (Yellow)): Sometimes removing yourself from the fast track, or just slowing down a bit, is an ideal way to allow another passion or vocation to flourish.
- Location 499 (Highlight (Yellow)): But this isn’t a book on career change; it’s a book that seeks to change the way you think about your career. The major difference between changing careers and slashing is that slashes don’t abandon their primary vocation. They enhance or reconfigure it, building on it or adding to it in some way.
- Location 1197 (Highlight (Yellow)): Recognize the value of the “virtual, portable, flexible” triumvirate. This strategy leaves lots of room to build a life comprised of multiple slashes.
- Location 1199 (Highlight (Yellow)): Consider the “job plus entrepreneur” model. At the job, you might be able to get training, security, a benefits package, and other perks. In your free-agent life, you’ll enjoy autonomy, freedom, and the chance to follow your passions. Together, the two might be the perfect match.
- Location 1203 (Highlight (Yellow)): Consider commission-based options like real estate and other sales positions. They blend nicely with other work because you can put in more hours when you have the time and your boss generally won’t be interested in face-time.
- Location 1210 (Highlight (Yellow)): Once you’ve attained a level of competence in a given field, you’re in a better position to negotiate a part-time arrangement with an employer or to work for yourself as a consultant. So it’s worth the time to build your expertise.
- Location 1254 (Highlight (Yellow)): Writing, teaching, speaking, and consulting are four slashes that go with any other kind of work. Think of them as the black pants of a slash wardrobe. Many slash careers have one or more of these activities as part of the mix.
- Location 1331 (Highlight (Yellow)): Public speaking is one of the best ways to bring attention to yourself and the work that you do. Yet unless you are perfectly suited to a lifestyle that involves a lot of traveling, speaking as a primary vocation can be exhausting. Trying to work full-time as a speaker can also leave you out of touch with the world you were living in that provided you with fresh content for your speaking gigs. Speaking as a slash solves many of these problems.
- Location 1620 (Highlight (Yellow)): Try this: List the slashes you want to build your life around. See if there is a natural Anchor for column A, or at least something that at this point in time needs to be your Anchor. It could be the job through which you get your health insurance or steady income, or the place that requires you to show up at an office (or, for that matter, one that requires a lot of travel). Now see if any of your other slashes can go into column B; in other words, whether they can be designed to orbit the activity you put into column A. Typical column B slashes would be writing fiction or building Web sites, work that can be done anywhere and at any time of the day.
- Location 1625 (Highlight (Yellow)): If you ended up with too many Anchors, see if you can figure out how to get an activity from column A to column B. You can move any A to the B column by turning it into something you do in a freelance, consulting, virtual, or part-time way—or if you delegate it to someone else. Even caring for your children, the ultimate column A Anchor, can move to column B if your partner stays at home or you have a nanny or other help at home.
- Location 1777 (Highlight (Yellow)): Whereas a resume could never convey the multidimensionality of a slash career, Web sites are often perfect for them. After all, slashes are all about hyperlinking to the next thing.
- Location 2290 (Highlight (Yellow)): Lawyers tell Axiom the number of hours they want to work per week and the length of time they are available to work, and Axiom then tries to match them with a client project that best fits the lawyer’s availability. Some lawyers work the equivalent of a full-time job for a while and then take a number of months off to immerse in another commitment. Others work a regular three-day-a-week schedule for months at a time. There is no standard.
- Location 2852 (Highlight (Yellow)): According to an article in the New York Times, high school teacher Matthew Kaye lost his teaching job when he took a few too many personal days to compete on the professional wrestling circuit (where he had a persona based on his background as a teacher).3 Remember, if you’re moonlighting, it’s always a good idea to keep your daylight employer happy.
- Location 2930 (Highlight (Yellow)): According to Henry, the most important piece in being successful at work outside the home while raising children is to get the proper childcare in place. Proper childcare includes layers of backup, including emergency childcare in the form of: (1) your spouse or partner, if you have one; (2) available friends and family members in your community; (3) arrangements with other working parents or their nannies or babysitters to share childcare when needed; or (4) a relationship with an emergency childcare facility.
- Location 3222 (Highlight (Yellow)): Europeans, who take four-to-six-week annual holidays while also managing to have jobs and families, seem to come naturally to work/life balance. Yet somehow Americans can’t seem to get it right. I used to think it was all about boundaries—about turning off the cell phone, leaving work at the office, and making time for vacations. I now think it’s just the opposite, that it’s not about respecting boundaries at all, but rather about letting your various vocations and identities commingle so that it’s sometimes hard to tell when you’re working and when you’re just living.

[YuTing · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main concept this book wants to introduce is interesting, however, as many have pointed out, the author spent more time praising the people she interviewed than providing practical guidance.
And sometimes I feel that even the guidances provided are too general and theoratic, which didn't provide much inspiration.

Simply put, I wasn't benefited much after learning that there's a gay who works as an engineer to support himself finantially while also being a theatre director to please his sensibility.
It gives no more information than "try to get a practical job to support your hobby".

As for non-fiction, I usually rate a book based on what remains in my head after a few weeks after I read it. For this book, all I learnt is hardly anything else then the thing listed in its content table.

[Glenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

In “One Person/Multiple Careers”, Marci Alboher simply and clearly provides both anecdotal evidence and effective tools to help any person trying to expand the boundaries of their work life.

The book is both solid journalism as well as a real gift for those who find themselves struggling to determine how to shape their careers. It's a book that can help further one's desires for a more fulfilling career, and also, because of the wide variety of people profiled, and the care and passion with which Marci has approached her topic, a pleasure to read.

[Lestari Nurhayati · Rating 5 out of 5]

That's wonderfull book...so inspire...and soooooo "me" :)), I love it...that the answer for my career, this book explained about "slash career" and how to handle many activities.

[Felipe Lemos · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good, but could be better... only describes several stories of people who carries multiple careers.

[Chris Weatherburn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite interesting book that outlines the pros and challenges of having many part time jobs, contians examples of people who have done this well. If your main passion is something that may not generate much income then persuing this passion along with a steady part time job that has fixed employment benefits can be a great combination.

The four key transferable skills across many careers are four skills are writing, teaching, speaking, and consulting.

It depends how well the varied roles you undertake fit together as to whether you want colleagues to know about what else you do. As long as there is no conflict of interest you are fine. Many of the examples focus on lawyers (am under the impression they realise their lawyer job is not very rewarding so do other things that provide more enjoyment). The lawyer who is also and yoga instructor would have completely different CVs for each role. Whereas others who may work as a director, actor and website designer may benefit from a combined CV showing their wide interests.

Quote from book "it’s about some variation of that elusive thing we call balance— between stability and excitement, between left-brain and right-brain, between being solitary and being part of a team, between working with one’s hands and working with the mind"

Some work has to have fixed times commitments requiring you to be there in person, others work has more flexibility. Generally you can take on more remote flexible work but would struggle to take on too many roles with fixed time commitments, particularly if you need to be there in person.

By varying the types of role you can keep being productive for longer. In essence you recharge from one whilst whilst performing another and getting inspiration.

Aim to be talented enough so employers want to keep you, then they will be more likely to agree to a flexible working arrangement.

Touches on challenges of managing a career and parenting. If you and your partner both have jobs and kids and a crisis occurs think who is more flexible on that day rather than who gets paid the most. Suggets parenting provides
skills such as time management that are transferable to other jobs and provides many opportunities to connect with others over a shared experience.

Clearly if you need healthcare insurance getting a job that has certain benefits may be of paramount importance to you, make sure you get this from one of your roles. Suggests Europeans can perform work life balance better than Americans.

Many people think you need to have work and life boundaries, book suggests it’s not about respecting boundaries at all. The aim is to let your various vocations and identities commingle. Therefore it can sometimes hard to tell when you’re working or just living a good life.

[Muzammil · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book #99: - Completed: One Person, Multiple Career – Marci Alboher #myread4change #read2lead #read4life #books #selfhelpbook #career #profession

Side hustle and gig-economy are new trending words and more and more people are looking at work differently than the nine to five office way.

Technology has made it possible to work from home or anywhere giving us time to pursue things we want and may add that work as a slash rather than making a career change altogether.

The major difference between changing careers and slashing is that slashes don’t abandon their primary vocation.

If you have been sitting on the idea of pursuing anything else apart from your existing work, you’ll find enough stories in this book of how many people have done it successfully.

Few Key Points –

• Leaving a career behind isn’t the only way to reinvigorate after reaching a plateau; One may choose to shake up a career by adding a new one, rather than replacing an old one.

• Sometimes removing yourself from the fast track, or just slowing down a bit, is ideal for allowing another passion or vocation to flourish.

• The notion that you can’t plan everything is a hallmark of slash thinking. Thus, having a slash career requires being comfortable with beginnings.

• Even if you work for someone else in some areas of your working life, building a slash career means you are taking charge of the mix of things you do.

• If you can imagine negotiating a part-time arrangement to spend more time with your children, why not imagine doing that to make room for some kind of work?

Few Quote –

1. Writing, teaching, speaking, and consulting are four slashes that go with any other kind of work. Think of them as the black pants of a slash wardrobe.

2. Unlike trying to turn a hobby into a primary career, if you’re just turning something into a side gig, suddenly the pressure to succeed is off.

3. Often, frustration or challenge in one type of work is offset by the complementary nature of an entirely different kind of work.

4. The primary difference between changing careers and slashing is that slashes don’t abandon their primary vocation.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

As someone who actually *is* a "slash," I was pretty excited to read this. Currently straddling between yoga teaching and corporate America, I was hoping this book would better help navigate me through the emotional battle that is less discussed, and how to better easily manage very conflicting parts of my life. However, it fell flat for me. This is not to say that there were some nuggets in here, I just didn't feel it resonating as much with me and it felt more like a textbook. It also was pretty outdated (while I knew that going in, it's worth mentioning before you pick the book up). Lots and lots of mentions to being an "ebay selling superstar," but honestly, I find that slash antiquated and not very common this day in age. I think Alboher was (and still is) really on to something here, but maybe a newer version could be written a little more closely aligned with our current year. The "slash" phenomenon is sooo much more prevalent, especially with the millennial generation really latching onto this concept. Just my two cents. I do think it ended well with the parent/occupation struggle. More expansion on that would have been great, but I understood why she chose not to go too far in depth in that area, leaving it better said my full books written on this particular dynamic.

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

On the recommendation of Brené Brown in 'The gifts of imperfection' I bought this book. I doubt it would have come across my radar otherwise. I'm so glad I came across it as leading a 'slash' life is something I am very interested in but I didn't know it was truly possible or could be successful until this book!

The book is an easy read and is based mainly on examples/case studies rather than heavy theories. It presents the idea that it is possible to create the life you want to live by choosing to construct and mould your own career. You do not have to be only one profession. Instead of putting yourself in one box (self employed, academic, corporate, civil servant etc.) you can instead mix and match and create a slash career that's right for you! I really enjoyed this book and although it is not the greatest technical book ever written it presents an interesting concept, breaks it down and has lots of examples to back it up.

[Patricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m sure this was a great book when it was first released in 2007 but in 2024 I feel it’s a bit outdated.

For me it lacks information, everything seems very repetitive and a bit shallow.

I also feel it’s a bit confusing as the author keeps talking about the same subjects throughout the entire book but without going too deep into any of them. I would have loved to understand a bit of the subjects history, where did they come from, what help (if any) did they have when exploring their slashes, what resources specifically did they have, etc

Still worth reading if you are someone who needs inspiration when it comes to the various possibilites of having more than 1 career at the same time but, for me, it lacked depth. But if you are looking for real tools and step by step guidance on how to balance more than one career at a time, I don’t think this will help much.

[Deidre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I have had a "slash" career for most of my life, I had not heard of this term till recently. Glad to see/hear that this is a growing trend and people realize they don't need to have a simple answer to the "What do you do?" question. A one-dimensional career (or life for that matter) is not very healthy or stimulating. Marci includes an abundant volume of examples/case studies showing how some career paths lead to others and illustrates how some of these transitions have worked for people. She also includes loads of resources to help you develop your own "slash" work/life. In more cases than not, it has happened "organically" as opposed to premeditated or planned. So happy that I ran across this book, as it is inspiring me to do more with my writing and speaking plans!

[Dizzy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was referenced in another I read (a brene brown one, I think?) and so I was really looking forward to it. Unfortunately, this did not have nearly as much timeless advice as I hoped & it definitely shows it’s age (published 2007). Overall has good practical advice for ppl in already-established careers, less so for millennials and younger.

My biggest gripe with the book was the failure to address how race, class, and gender could/will affect the ability to live a “slash life”. Most of the examples addressed are people with an immense amount of privilege (Ivy League education, multiple income households, many based in historically expensive cities like NYC).

Would recommend for Gen X folks and prior ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[Miranda · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a little difficult to read formatting wise, but there was a lot of good information and the end of chapter summaries.

Notes:

“The fact that an opportunity presents itself isn’t enough of a reason to take it on. It has to fit in with the rest of what you want to be doing. At that moment.”

“When I left the law to explore a career in writing, some of the best advice I received came from another lawyer-turned-journalist. ‘Tell everyone you’re a writer,’ she said emphatically. She then clarified, ‘I mean everyone you know, everyone you meet, and everyone who asks you what you do. Pretty soon it’ll be true.’”

“Getting to that place of comfort usually involves overcoming some hurdles. Whether it’s fear of failure, others’ expectations of you, or even your expectations for yourself, most people go through some sort of inner turmoil before developing an unconventional career.”

“People get there in different ways, but when they hit a point of feeling authentically connected to their life, doubt seems to melt away .”

“Time Management Techniques for the Overextended…Of course you can’t be in two places at once. But there are a few things you can do to minimize the chances of feeling you need to be. Stay on top of your schedule. Delegate when possible. Build relationships with colleagues who can cover for you in crunch times.”

[Katie · Rating 2 out of 5]

As somebody with many different interests and who likes to be busy with different projects that use different parts of my brain, I found this book reassuring. I did find myself thinking about my career path differently, and wondering how I can fit slashes into it. However, as others have pointed out, it did get repetitive. I also found that many of her examples were inaccessible for the average folk, with interviews from highly privileged, high SES individuals (the psychiatrist/violin maker with a separate floor of his home dedicated to each vocation rings a bell, as does those who work part-time but have full-time childcare).

[Amanda Galici · Rating 3 out of 5]

DNF - I love the concepts presented in this book. In fact, I NEEDED to read them. I feel much more aware and open minded to the very stable/accessible possibilities outside of a traditional career and not having to do just one thing. That said, the format of this book was hard to get through. Alboher interviewed a multitude of people which was imperative to bolstering her argument, but the focus of the book became those peoples stories rather than the tangible advice. Reading about so many experiences after so many experiences became tiresome so I opted to read the summaries at the end of each chapter to extract the meaningful content.

[Juan Pablo · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun book to read, I love the idea of multiple careers, since I never felt I had a true calling or something specific I wanted to do. And while reading this book I realized that even if I had a true calling, I would also like to try other things. He testimonies featured are very interesting and motivating, but I felt I was not the direct target of this book. It talks about how people with stablished careers and families adopt and adapt to a new career, and I just starting to get work experience. There is even a whole chapter about balancing life and work when you have kids.

[Sam Sette · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely more of a 3.5 - I found myself internally screaming "YES!!" to the ideas presented, but to echo off of other reviews, it certainly got repetitive. It was difficult to resonate with every story shared, but it was interesting nevertheless to gain exposure to so many different career combinations. When I did come across an individual who I could identify with, I felt validated in my career aspirations.

Overall, I definitely recommend this book for anyone intending to lead a full life through the pursuit of different passions!

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is ~15 years old and feels older. It predates the COVID pandemic, the gig economy, and even the 2008 recession, each of which drastically disrupted the economy and concepts around work. As a result, it isn't an especially useful how-to guide. Tech changes, like the very low barrier of entry to setting up an online shop, make even more of the content obsolete. However, I'm currently exploring adding a second career, and this was a nice little pep talk and reminder of the many, many people who are dealing with similar situations.

[Kari · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some interesting concepts and ideas. I enjoyed many of the stories at first, but then they became repetitive and I wanted to move on. I also found most of the advice and implementation felt like common sense instead of a good road map. If you've never thought of having multiple careers/hobbies at all then this would be a good book, but if it's something you've already been contemplating then this may feel like a validation instead of a super helpful resource.

[Gino Galotti · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very interesting and enlightening idea. Personally, I feel my career will transition to some kind of slash hybrid. As a book, I find some of the stories interesting; but I also feel you could get the gist of it just by reading the summary.

No doubt this will be a concept I'll talk with many people in my circle, and I will mention the book; but I'm not sure if I could recommend reading it to completion!

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book would be great as I consider myself to be a multiple career person and some of the things she talked about resonated for sure but I found it to be more of a presentation of various persons who have two jobs. There was not much about how to actually go about doing it just that it is possible. It is a great book for anecdotes and understanding a bit more about how some people have achieved success with multiple careers at the same time.