Why even executives need a side hustle

Nearly 20 years ago, I was finishing my MBA while working a full-time job—as a director of training at a large regional bank—with an infant at home. One evening after class, my marketing professor pulled me aside to ask if I’d ever thought of teaching a course. I wasn’t sure that was even possible with my full-time role. But his question made me realize that two of my coworkers were already adjunct professors, and others consulted on the side, spoke at conferences, or ran small businesses. With a hefty day care bill staring me down, I approached my employer about teaching at the university. I framed it as a win for them, too, because I could live out their stated value of community involvement. My students would be ideal candidates for our retail bank branches, strengthening the talent pipeline. By teaching management courses, I would sharpen my skills in leadership and strategic planning frameworks that would be useful as a leader. They agreed. That was the beginning of what I now call a multidimensional career, one where your skills, purpose, and income streams extend beyond a single corporate role. At the time, I thought I was just being resourceful, but in hindsight, I was building something that has become a critical career strategy in an era of disruption. In 2025 alone, 1.1 million Americans were laid off, 54% more than the year before. The World Economic Forum projects that 22% of all jobs will be structurally disrupted by 2030. The instinct during this kind of disruption is to double down on your current role and make yourself indispensable within the four walls of your organization, which we are seeing with the rise of job hugging. However, the leaders who will navigate the next decade of disruption must build enough dimension into their careers so they have transferrable skills and options when unexpected organizational changes occur. To be clear, a multidimensional career is not the same as fractional work, where a leader leaves full-time employmen