How to be a good generalist

Multi-occupation refers to people who have multiple occupations and identities at the same time. But energy is also very much, so how should we become a good generalist?

Want to be a cool slash youth and expand your second career?

At the beginning of the year, a concept was popular in the circle of friends? Slash youth, the word was put forward by The New York Times columnist MarciAlboher.

Now more and more young people are not satisfied? Single occupation? This boring lifestyle has begun to choose a diversified life that can have multiple occupations and identities. These people will use diagonal lines to distinguish different occupations in their self-introduction, such as management consultant/lecturer/media person (well, that's me).

This concept is popular because it is so inspiring, which means: we are no longer kidnapped by a company, so we can fire our boss if we are unhappy; We are no longer engaged in a single job, so life is no longer so boring; We are no longer nine to five, so the freedom is greatly improved; We are no longer entangled in hobbies and careers, because we can finally take care of both.

In fact, before this concept came out, there were many slash youths/middle-aged people around me.

One is relatively satisfied with one's status, having several years of experience in one's own industry, and then leaving the company to become a freelancer, while providing consulting services, while devoting the rest of my time to hobbies or starting a business.

The other is confusion. Some of them take some jobs in their spare time because there is no material reward for a job, and some want to find a way out because they think their current jobs are too boring.

So slash youth is a little happy and confused, so what is the correct way to open multiple occupations? How to choose a second or even a third job? Even, is the current job still suitable as the main business in the future?

How to choose your main business and sideline?

In a job, our demands are nothing more than three aspects: pleasure, sense of accomplishment and money. These three needs come from your love for this job, your ability to do this job well, and this job can earn you enough money.

It is difficult for us to find a job that can satisfy all your fantasies about your career, just as it is difficult for you to find a partner that can satisfy all your fantasies about your partner.

Therefore, most people are satisfied with jobs that can satisfy one or two of their demands.

With these three requirements, we can divide occupations into seven types, which will help us choose occupations:

1. Hobby occupation: like, but not good at, can not bring enough material returns.

For example, I like playing guitar, but I learn slower than others and play worse than others. I can't support myself, so I just regard it as a hobby and a distant place that I can never reach, so I can look up when I have time.

Therefore, hobbies are suitable as hobbies.

2. Diligent occupation: I like it and can make money, but I am not good at it.

A friend of mine loves training very much. In fact, he is not good at it, he doesn't know how to arouse the enthusiasm of the audience, and his professional vocabulary is not very good. However, with the rich rewards of his love and training itself, he worked very hard. Before each training, he will design all the lines, processes and jokes, and even he can do them well.

But my observation is that there will not be too many diligent occupations, because when a person is not good at one thing, he will be very tired, and his enthusiasm and interest will easily be consumed by this fatigue.

Therefore, a diligent occupation is suitable for making a living, but it will not be very common.

3. Utilitarian occupation: I don't like it and I'm not good at it, but I get material rewards by it.

I guess, many people work like this. In the long run, this kind of occupation is difficult to last. Without enthusiasm, on the one hand, it is difficult to get a sense of accomplishment because you are not good at it. In the long run, people who are better at it will compete and the material returns will stagnate.

Therefore, utilitarian occupation, it is recommended to change.

4. Rational occupation: I don't like it, but I am good at it and can get good material returns.

For example, I don't have much love for consulting itself. I first entered this industry because it can make up for my lack of communication. However, it seems that I can do well and get good material returns.

In fact, if you are a person driven by a sense of accomplishment, a rational career can easily be transformed into a perfect career, because your expertise in this career will bring you a strong sense of accomplishment and make you gradually fall in love with this job.

Therefore, a rational career is also suitable for making a living.

5. nihilistic occupation: it is difficult to get material rewards if you are good at it and don't love it.

For example, your clothes are neatly folded, but you don't really like folding clothes, and you are unlikely to support yourself by folding clothes.

It is called nothingness because this skill is difficult to be used as a hobby and cannot sustain life, so it can only be abandoned.

6. Fantasy career: I like and am good at it, but the material return is insufficient.

Diane's children's shoes, which helped me draw pictures, like drawing illustrations very much. As you can see, she draws very well. But the money an illustrator can earn is really hard to compare with her as a product manager.

Therefore, fantasy occupations are mostly more suitable as hobbies or sideline, and it is difficult to become the main source of income.

7. Perfect job: I like and am good at it, and I can earn enough money.

Knowing these types clearly, we also know why everyone seems to be dissatisfied with their current jobs, and they will continue to be dissatisfied even if they change careers or jump ship.

Because it is difficult for us to find a perfect job, there is always an unmet need, and that is the root of your pain.

Why do we want multiple occupations? Because it is difficult for one job to meet all the needs, but multiple jobs can complement each other.

From this point of view, when we consider our main business, sideline and hobbies, we will know how to choose: choose those with complementary needs, not those with overlapping needs, otherwise two jobs will only double your pain.

How to find your own interests?

But the question comes, we know how to choose, but how do we know: what do I like and what am I good at? Whether you can make money or not can refer to other people in similar occupations, but everyone likes it and is good at it. How should I find it?

Here are some of my suggestions, which are practical, reliable and effective:

How to seek your own interests: I recommend two ways, one is psychological test, and the other is self-summary.

Psychological tests, such as Holland's career interest test and career anchor, can be used as reference. When discovering interest, it is not recommended to use some personality traits tests, such as MBTI, because personality does not represent interest, and personality is far from your final behavior.

An introverted person generally thinks that he doesn't like dealing with people and is not suitable for sales, but in fact, I have done statistics for a pharmaceutical company. Among their sales stars, introverts are much more than extroverts.

Of course, any psychological test can't be completely relied on, because every individual is different. All tests are based on labels, which simply classify people.

Therefore, when you discover your interests, you also need to combine self-summary. This step is well done and more reliable than psychological test. Below I have listed some questions for you to use when you are interested:

1. Team Role Relevance: Are you happier as a team member or team leader?

2. Thinking mode correlation: Do you like creative work or logical thinking work under the framework?

3. Work environment-related: Do you perform better or worse under pressure?

4. Work-related: Do you prefer to perfect the details or analyze the macro direction?

5. Interpersonal environment: Do you prefer to deal with people or tasks?

6. Overall reflection: In your previous work, if you subdivided the work content, which ones did you like and which ones did you refuse?

How to find your own professional field

Find out what you are good at: I also recommend two methods, one is self-summary and the other is feedback from others.

Self-summary I also give a list of questions:

1. In your past job, what job content made you feel comfortable and what made you feel extremely difficult?

2. What achievements have you been praised and criticized by your leaders/colleagues?

3. In what fields have you accumulated more knowledge and skills?

4. Compared with your peers, what is your ability advantage? 1) thinking: rigorous thinking and careful logic; 2) Interpersonal aspect: communication with people; 3) Operation: Plan and execute.

In addition to self-summary, it is important to seek feedback from others on what you are good at. Because many times, there are always many differences between yourself in your eyes and yourself in the eyes of others.

The specific method of feedback from others is to find a bunch of adjectives about ability from the internet (search? Ability dictionary? One kind of keywords can be), such as: pursuing perfection, innovation, being good at authorization, strong execution, etc. Then let people who know you pick out a certain number of words (for example, it is stipulated that the best adjective 10 is selected from 30 adjectives).

The result of your choice can also be compared with your own choice. In this way, you can find the field you are good at. Just need to pay attention, when choosing evaluators, try to choose those who know you very well, and choose from many angles, such as boss, subordinates, peers, classmates, and so on.

Between you and slash youth, there are only five suggestions left

Finally, to sum up, when choosing a career and expanding a second career or hobby, we need to pay attention to:

1. Figure out why there are multiple occupations. When you are engaged in multiple occupations, your energy will be dispersed, and the transition between occupations is also a cost. So what you need to know is, what needs can your current job meet, and what needs do you want to expand your second career to meet? Don't seek duplication, but seek complementarity.

2. Don't regard enjoyment as interest. Most people who like to travel just enjoy not having to work. The real interest should be that you can take the initiative to work hard, not passively enjoy it.

You can't achieve your career just by interest. Love makes you have the impulse to enter marriage, but to maintain marriage, you need the ability to love besides love. Interest is the same, it just gives you the enthusiasm to enter a career, and if you want to take this as a career, you need to work very hard.

4. The occupation type is not fixed. When the external environment changes, the types of occupations will also change. For example, in the past, writing was difficult to make money, and many people could only regard it as a hobby. But since the media era came, some excellent self-media people have been able to make a living by writing. For another example, Li Hui Fujishima, the queen of Japanese housekeeping, has been determined to be a housewife since she was a child. She loves and is good at tidying up. Now she can actually make money by completing the consultation. So you need to look at these kinds of occupations regularly, which change with the development of society, so as to adjust your strategy and planning.

5. When faced with career choices such as job selection and job hopping, use the theory of career attraction to assist decision-making. If you rashly decide to change careers just because you are unhappy for a while, but you don't know why you are unhappy and what your demands are not met, then there is a great chance of regret.

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