There’s a term for this: a portfolio career.
Many years ago, when I thought about what I wanted to be when I grew up, I couldn’t picture one specific thing. I had too many interests and no idea how to point my professional life at all of them. Not even inside software, which is already pretty fragmented. A lot of people have been stuck in that same spot.
Everyone enjoys their work in a different way. For me, programming, designing, producing a video and writing are about equally fun. What changes is the goal, the “what for”.
An app with a real purpose motivates me a lot. It can’t be another to-do list, though. Sometimes I shut down a project because I lost that motivation and couldn’t think of anything that would make it more useful. When I can, I keep improving it and give myself harder problems to solve along the way.
My LinkedIn says I do one thing. I do more than that. Two months ago I started making videos for my YouTube channel more often (it’s been going great ❤️), so on a lot of days I’m not opening iTerm or VS Code. I’m in Premiere Pro and Audacity.
A portfolio career means that instead of one full-time job in one field, you build your work out of several things at once: different roles, projects, clients or income sources that use more of what you can do. Charles Handy popularized the idea in his 1989 book The Age of Unreason.
When I look at my own mix, I can see the pieces. I’m chronically online, so I tend to notice trends and new formats. I make new media myself instead of only watching it: videos, designs, writing. I understand AI and the technical side well enough to know what’s actually possible to build. And I can execute, which is the part people underrate. I like being the operator who ships the thing and makes sure it’s good.
I don’t think any one of these is special on its own. What I like is how they connect: I see something early, I know if it can be built, I can make it, and I can get it out the door.
I believe everyone who struggled to pick a profession, not because nothing appealed to them but because too much did, eventually lands in a portfolio career. Even if they’ve never heard the name. Or they’re on their way. Emilie Wapnick calls these people “multipotentialites”, and her TED talk about it is great.