The Career Conundrum

Have you ever become interested in an area where you will become all-consumed? You end up investing a lot of time, energy and money in your new pursuit(s). You develop a passion and a good level of competency. Then, boredom hits you. You slowly lose interest in the projects that you were once so devoted to. You try to resist, but it becomes increasingly harder, and in the end, you “give up.” Then another area of interest catches your attention and you dive in with the same vigorous passion until you once again become disinterested. It becomes a cycle of multiple pursuits which eventually end up being abandoned for something new.

This endless cycle could be seen as a harmless habit, but what if this affects your career choice? What if you have difficulties sticking to one type of job? You have so many different subjects that you want to dig your teeth into. The thought of choosing one path that you are meant to devote your life to, one you meant to become a specialist in, has become an overwhelming thought. The notion that we are meant to have "one true calling" in our life is so embedded in our culture that it has crippled the ones who do not have one.

Recently, I have realised this pattern has been very much part of my life. I have had endless hobbies and jobs where I have accomplished a certain skill until I reached boredom. I recently visited a career website, and I scrolled through countless positions of exciting prospects with attractive salaries. As I scanned the job descriptions, the more I became certain that none of the jobs really appealed to me. I could vividly picture myself in the roles and doing whatever the role required of me. Yet, the further I read, I could already sense myself getting bored with my fictional day jobs. One by one, I closed the tabs and returned to the studies that I had temporarily neglected. Having searched the internet for “symptoms” for my continuous indecisiveness in choosing a career path, I descended into the infamous YouTube rabbit hole by watching numerous pointless videos. Until I came across a TED Talk titled “Why Some of Us Don’t Have One True Calling” by Emily Wapnick. Enticed by the title, as I felt it directly spoke to me, I clicked on the video, and just like that, I was introduced to the term "multipotentiality." A mouthful, I know, however, the impact of the TED Talk did have its effect on me, s I came to the realisation: I am one of these Multipotentialities.

“A Multipotentialite is a person who has many different interests and creative pursuits in life. Multipotentialities have no 'one true calling' the way specialists do,” Wapnick declares. “We have many paths and we pursue all of them, either sequentially or simultaneously (or both)," she further states. In other words, these types of people thrive on learning, exploring and mastering new skills. Still, the modern society has a tendency not to recognise the value of this attribute. It is rather seen as a "failure" or "giving up" by not reaching a point or devoting your life to one path.

So, does that mean that people with this trait are considered flaky? Not at all; having a lot of different interests, projects and endless curiosity, in fact, makes you more suited to the modern economy where multiple skill sets are becoming increasingly sought after. By being highly adaptable, the ability to learn new skills fast and think outside the box are prized abilities. These sets of skills are perhaps the closest to any form of specialisation a Multipotentialite has.

The term is not an entirely new conception. An early depiction of the idea can be related to similar terms such as "polymath," "Renaissance person" and "scanners." Notably, during the Renaissance time, it was often considered that individuals who possessed multiple skillsets had value within society. One of the most famous historical examples is none other than Leonardo da Vinci. A renowned genius who was known to be a painter, creator, architect, scientist, musician, writer, and a mathematician to only name a few. Others, such as Benjamin Franklin, Beatrix Potter, and Eleanor Roosevelt all come under the same category.

So, we come to the question we are all so familiar with: "What would you like to do when you grow up?" We are first asked this question we are young, as Wapnick points out in her TED talk. “A question that may be only meant as an innocent question may become the very question that keeps us up at night.” I never liked this question myself, as it alluded to the fact that you could only be one thing. I wanted to be a bit of everything: a musician, actor, mechanic, hotelier, journalist, documentary maker, business owner, and my, so far, favourite, a career advisor—I am aware of the irony. Nevertheless, I have dabbled in a few different career paths, yet I have always grown bored and had the intense need to move on. This has held me back in being able to fully establish myself in a role and climb the famous career ladder. I used to ask myself, "Why am I so endlessly indecisive? Where is my patience?"

Yet, it has nothing to do with patience, I have concluded. It is all about our personality and what makes us keep our interest. “Embrace your many passions. Follow your curiosity down those rabbit holes,” as Wapnick excitingly concludes in her TED talk. So whenever you feel the anxiety of lack of a career path, then look at yourself; are you a Multipotentialite? Do you really need to specialise yourself? Or can you indulge yourself in your passions? I’d say you should—use this as a driving force, and most importantly, ask yourself, "What job(s) would I like to do?"