As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

– – – – – – –

Dear Lloyd, I’m looking for ways to diversify my strengths and skills beyond my 9-5 job. What can / should I be doing to remain competitive, especially if I’m hoping to shift career paths? 

– OffTheClock

– – – – – – –

Dear OffTheClock,

There are many ways you can remain competitive and diversify your strengths and skills–many are even free or low cost from reading up on a topic, to enrolling in a course, to having a conversation with someone who has expertise in your area of interest. Lloyd also is a big fan of applied experiences–where you can really jump into something–leading to the ever popular side project. 

People take on side projects for many reasons, but Lloyd shall focus on the career area of the world, since that seems to be where your question resides. Below are three steps and a framework to help you think about your career side project.

Step 1: think about your career goals

It’s always good to start with a bit of introspection–what do you want to achieve with your career side project? Perhaps there is a goal you want to reach, a skill or expertise to build, or a new field to explore. If you’re not sure, browsing a few “dream” job descriptions (without falling down the internet rabbit-hole) can be helpful. Businesses often perform a gap analysis to identify the distance they need to travel to reach their goals, and you can, too, by considering where you are at and what you need to reach the ideal job.

One topic we do like to differentiate between is a hobby (from our perspective, an activity you enjoy or are interested in, but not necessarily relevant to career) and a career side project (from our perspective, a specific skill / experience you’re looking to gain to make you more marketable in a certain job or industry). Lloyd is not a dictionary, but shares this working definition to recognize there are many wonderful hobbies in the world that result in oodles of joy, but to help keep focus on the purpose of a career side project, particularly. 

Step 2: find a career side project that advances your goals

Once your goal is in focus, it’s time to do a little career side project searching: 

• Decide on the people, organization, or structure where you want to invest your time. There are many ways to reach a goal. If you are going to work with others, try to find people who you’re excited to work with and will help build the strengths / skills you desire. Or, look for organizations that you believe in the mission or the work. Ideally this is a “yes, and” and you find both, but if not, Lloyd tends to side with great people who can support your growth, development, and network. Organizations with less resources (i.e., startups, nonprofits) may be more willing to work with you, but contract / volunteer work can exist in a lot of places. Be creative (moving forward on your own is an option as well). 
• Ensure you (and your career side project colleagues) are clear on expectations, bandwidth, scheduling, etc. It is important to be clear early and often about the slice of their world you want to be part of–and how you plan to commit to it. You’re likely career side project-ing on top of a day job, so be realistic to set yourself up for success.
• Align with others–and mostly, yourself–on compensation. Take a broad lens to what compensation means to you–it could be financial, but it also could very well be skills, opportunities, and / or a network. If you’re a novice at something and people are taking a risk to teach you and have you learn, don’t expect to be paid like an expert. This doesn’t mean pay is not an option, just be realistic. If you’re an expert and have a lot of value to provide, ask for what you’re worth. 

The Career Side Project Framework below can help you assess career side projects coming your way.

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Dear Lloyd: Should I start a career side project?

May 25 Written By Dan Gusz

As a career co-pilot, Lloyd has created a new advice series titled “Dear Lloyd” to answer your burning career questions, anonymously. Inspired by the greats of advice column writing, we anonymize or generalize questions, so ask away! 

– – – – – – –

Dear Lloyd, I’m looking for ways to diversify my strengths and skills beyond my 9-5 job. What can / should I be doing to remain competitive, especially if I’m hoping to shift career paths? 

– OffTheClock

– – – – – – –

Dear OffTheClock,

There are many ways you can remain competitive and diversify your strengths and skills–many are even free or low cost from reading up on a topic, to enrolling in a course, to having a conversation with someone who has expertise in your area of interest. Lloyd also is a big fan of applied experiences–where you can really jump into something–leading to the ever popular side project. 

People take on side projects for many reasons, but Lloyd shall focus on the career area of the world, since that seems to be where your question resides. Below are three steps and a framework to help you think about your career side project.

Step 1: think about your career goals

It’s always good to start with a bit of introspection–what do you want to achieve with your career side project? Perhaps there is a goal you want to reach, a skill or expertise to build, or a new field to explore. If you’re not sure, browsing a few “dream” job descriptions (without falling down the internet rabbit-hole) can be helpful. Businesses often perform a gap analysis to identify the distance they need to travel to reach their goals, and you can, too, by considering where you are at and what you need to reach the ideal job.

One topic we do like to differentiate between is a hobby (from our perspective, an activity you enjoy or are interested in, but not necessarily relevant to career) and a career side project (from our perspective, a specific skill / experience you’re looking to gain to make you more marketable in a certain job or industry). Lloyd is not a dictionary, but shares this working definition to recognize there are many wonderful hobbies in the world that result in oodles of joy, but to help keep focus on the purpose of a career side project, particularly. 

Step 2: find a career side project that advances your goals

Once your goal is in focus, it’s time to do a little career side project searching: 

• Decide on the people, organization, or structure where you want to invest your time. There are many ways to reach a goal. If you are going to work with others, try to find people who you’re excited to work with and will help build the strengths / skills you desire. Or, look for organizations that you believe in the mission or the work. Ideally this is a “yes, and” and you find both, but if not, Lloyd tends to side with great people who can support your growth, development, and network. Organizations with less resources (i.e., startups, nonprofits) may be more willing to work with you, but contract / volunteer work can exist in a lot of places. Be creative (moving forward on your own is an option as well). 
• Ensure you (and your career side project colleagues) are clear on expectations, bandwidth, scheduling, etc. It is important to be clear early and often about the slice of their world you want to be part of–and how you plan to commit to it. You’re likely career side project-ing on top of a day job, so be realistic to set yourself up for success.
• Align with others–and mostly, yourself–on compensation. Take a broad lens to what compensation means to you–it could be financial, but it also could very well be skills, opportunities, and / or a network. If you’re a novice at something and people are taking a risk to teach you and have you learn, don’t expect to be paid like an expert. This doesn’t mean pay is not an option, just be realistic. If you’re an expert and have a lot of value to provide, ask for what you’re worth. 

The Career Side Project Framework below can help you assess career side projects coming your way.

Step 3: launch side project and measure progress

Now with a career side project in place, it’s beneficial to continually measure your progress. Ideally on the framework, you continue to build your mastery / knowledge (move down) and increase your relevance to your future career path (move right). Some people are so successful / rewarded by a career side project, it actually becomes their full time career (bottom-right corner). 

One important note: as you move in either direction with a career side project, you may find–you hate it! That is ok, too–it’s a learning experience, and after all, that is what career side projects are about (and aren’t you glad you didn’t do this job full time?). See if you can readjust your scope, or wrap up your career side project and test out your next area.

In summary, Lloyd thinks career side projects can be immensely rewarding and insightful. Please get in touch with our team to learn more!

-Lloyd