Customer Reviews

One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success

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It's been awhile since I read a book that I wanted to recommend to career and business clients. This one makes the cut

Other authors have attempted to describe what Alboher calls "slash careers," with considerably less success. What makes this book work is the emphasis on realism. Alboher offers numerous examples. We learn about teachers who become real estate agents and fashion models, lawyers who become artists and writers, and at least one banker who does hip-hop.

Because so many stories can be overwhelming, I do not recommend attempting to read the book in a single sitting. Instead, read a little here and there and begin to take notes.

The second part of Alboher's book attempts to be a "how-to," but continues to use stories as examples. I believe Alboher's guidelines are unusually realistic and thoughtful. She covers points that might escape the new slash careerist, such as legal and ethical conflicts of interest, inviting specialists to supplement her knowledge. For example, she asked a workplace specialist to create 10 guidelines for balancing parenting and career. A flextime specialist explains the need to focus on economic reasons for flextime, not just good intentions. And a coach presents an excellent "ask your friends" exercise that would help almost anyone exploring a new field.

I particularly resonated to the section on boundaries between the two careers. In my own case, I still maintain a career consulting website. But I also offer copywriting and website marketing services, based on what I learned from this site. I find my clients don't have a problem, but marketing consultants often become critical and advise me to drop one or the other. Alboher answers the question, "How much to tell?" correctly: "It depends."

Finally, at the end of the book, Alboher presents some examples of resumes, bios and other promotional material. It's important to view these pages as possibilities, not models. Alboher carefully points out that some people have totally different resumes for their careers, while others offer creative combos. Apart from being slash examples, the resumes could be viewed as models of resume-writing. The "Billy Shakes" bio is not to be missed.

So what's not to like?

Well, I couldn't help noting that most (though not all) of Alboher's examplary slashers were on the young side -- rarely over 40, let alone 50 or 60. My clients tend to be mid-career professionals and they'll gain a lot from this book. But they may have trouble seeing themselves in many of the stories.

Second, nearly everyone in this book seemed to fall into a second career by accident and to achieve great success, apparently without effort. There's little sense of planning or decision-making. In contrast, Herminia Ibarra's Working Identity takes readers through struggles of ordinary career changers who conducted research and attempted to create a process. Alboher quotes briefly from Working Identity and I believe these books nicely complement one another.

Toward the end we do hear about a few conflicts, as when a teacher took too many absences to pursue his wrestling career. But surely some people set out to seek a slash, only to find they lack aptitude or interest as they explore further.

These quibbles do not represent fatal flaws. I plan to recommend this book to a few of my current clients as soon as I finish posting this review.

I found One Person/Multiple Careers to be un-put-down-able. As a mom/Holistic Health Counselor I will use the book's concepts in both my counseling and my parenting. Exploring the slash experiences of so many fulfilled, exceptional and accomplished people is making me rethink how I am raising my three daughters. It had seemed to me for quite awhile, until I read the book in fact, that narrow and deep was the path to great success. It took me several careers, a fancy MBA and a long hiatus to start a family, to finally integrate my passions and my career.

I love the idea that the web is a slashers best friend as I get ready to launch a bigger business while maintaining my existing two slashes. One Person/Multiple Careers clarifies that it can be done, how it can be done and that the most fulfilling, make-a-difference-in-the-world careers are slashes!

As the many fascinating mini-profiles in this book demonstrate, there are a lot of people out there who want a "slash" in their career -- either by making a transition from one career to another (I'm a lawyer/writer myself) or by adding another aspect to an established career (speaking, writing a book, teaching, etc.). ONE PERSON/MULTIPLE CAREERS shows how satisfying this model can be -- and far more useful, how to pursue this model effectively. This is the rare career book that a person wants to read in a single sitting -- it's that interesting.

If you feel you can do more with your life than just your current Nine-to-Five role, Marci Alboher's new book, "One Person/Multiple Careers: A New Model for Work/Life Success" may be for you. Alboher has collected the stories of a myriad of successful slash careers, a collection that will convince you that you, too, can do it.

Once you decide you want to pursue a slash career, though, there are better books than this one to help you with the details. More on that later.

A slash career is one that includes more than one role at a time. Alboher, for example, lists her roles as author/speaker/coach. Her inspiration for the book was Angela Williams, lawyer/Baptist minister, and one of the stories in the book is about Mary Mazzio, lawyer/filmmaker/mother. You get the idea.

Alboher gives us well written stories that show how her subjects found greater health and satisfaction by adding a slash role to their work lives. At the end of the first part, I thought, "Yeah, I get it. I can see how a slash career could be much more rewarding than just a series of single careers."

The second part of the book was a bit disappointing, however. This is where Alboher attempts to give us tips for how to make a slash career work. And this is where I don't think the book measures up.

In spite of the subtitle, Alboher does not present a coherent model for success in a slash career. And many of her tips are simple common sense. I guess I was looking for more practical advice than I got out of this section.

That having been said, the real value of this book is in the stories of people who are succeeding as slashes. I'd recommend you buy two books to help you with your own slash career. First, buy Alboher's book to feed your emotions and convince you it can be done. And then, turn to "The Right Job, Right Now," by Susan Strayer, for a career action model and advice that will guide you down the road to slash success. When you get discouraged, read another story or two in Alboher's book. When you need to know what to do next, pick up Strayer's work.

Kent Blumberg, manufacturing executive/author/coach

This is a fantastic book. As a lawyer, I've thought many times of quitting the practice of law. This book showed me that instead of leave one career for another, I could simply become a slash. The book is chock full of nuts and bolts advice such as carry around multiple business cards and start introducing yourself in keeping with your newly chosen profession (i.e. call yourself as a writer and people will start sending assignments your way). Since reading this book, I have made a career change. I recommend this book without hesitation to anyone looking to try a new career or simply put a new spin on their job.

When people ask "What Do You Do?" it's not often that we hear: "I'm a rapper/money manager; personal trainer/police officer; restaurant owner/yoga instructor; theatre director/computer programmer; lawyer/Baptist minister; psychotherapist/violin maker; or pilates instructor/art consultant/author." These are what author/speaker/coach and former lawyer Marci Alboher calls "slashes": people who pursue multiple careers or vocations simultaneously. In her book, One Person, Multiple Careers, Alboher's extensive research and interviews with those who have developed slash careers reveals valuable themes about how these careers evolved and advice for making them work.

An entrepreneurial streak is common among slashes, as is a willingness to be flexible. Some develop a hobby into a career sideline while others have one career serve as an anchor to another riskier venture where the income potential is unknown. She notes that writing, teaching, speaking and consulting can easily be combined with many careers. One chapter is devoted to "parent slashes" who want to create a work life that fits around how they want to parent. Advice on how to anticipate conflicts among slashes as well as potential time management issues are also addressed. According to Alboher, one of the greatest benefits of the slash approach is the ability to take control of one's work life and identity.

For both individuals and career coaches, One Person, Multiple Careers offers information about finding slash-friendly employers and a valuable appendix with samples of how to present oneself in resumes, narrative biographies, business cards, and web sites. The book is well organized, with key points highlighted in bold, special information identified in "slash tip" sections, and useful summaries at the end of each chapter. As career coaches, we can benefit from Alboher's offering of new language and practical information for helping clients create career satisfaction by expressing multiple skills and passions.

Marci is a great writer and clearly explains how we can no longer be defined by one narrow career. She acknowledges that we are complex, multi-faceted beings and that's what makes us interesting and successful. She has captured the essence of careers in the new millennium and provides a lot of food for thought. This is a great read!

It sounds cliche to say this book has changed my life--and yet it has. It's given me such good perspective on the value of asking questions of one's self in terms of work/life happiness, and it provides such constructive and inspiring steps to help one achieve one's goals.

Not only does Marci write well, but her unique style allows her to make complex matters simple and to suggest solutions that make sense and are easy to apply immediately. I often find it helpful to re-read sections I have read to insure that I haven't missed any of the insightful and practical information that Marci shares so well (often for further consideration in light of points that she raises later in the book or elsewhere). I have enjoyed everything of hers that I have read (admittedly only a small portion of her works). Marci is a prolific and gifted writer, as reference to her blog ([h t t p : / / w w w . h e y m a r c i . c o m /]) makes clear. I have contacted her personally and found her accessible, despite her busy schedule. Fail to read her books and you cheat only yourself.

Many of us choose to be defined by who we are rather than what our occupation is and for those of us who want the freedom to choose our pathways this is a fantastic look into that world.

Ms. Alboher does a fantastic job capturing the ideas of the 'slash' or multiple occupation person. Being what I know now as a 'slash' I can safely say that anyone considering a job move should read this book. You really can be who what you want to be - even if it is more than one occupation!

Thanks Marci for bringing all of this to light!