Ron Davis spends up to 40 hours most weeks performing as a jazz pianist at clubs and private functions, composing and arranging songs, lining up gigs and practising his chops.
But the 49-year-old Torontonian's workweek doesn't end once he closes the lid on the baby grand piano.
When he's not tickling the ivories, Mr. Davis spends 10 to 15 hours working as a senior appeals and litigation clerk, preparing legal documents for a handful of Toronto law firms, and another five to 10 hours developing workshops for business executives.
If he were to list his occupation on a business card, his title might read: jazz pianist/jurist/seminar leader.
Mr. Davis is among more than 857,000 Canadians who worked at multiple jobs in 2006, up from 713,000 in 2000, says Statistics Canada labour market analyst Vincent Ferrao.
But, unlike moonlighters who take on additional jobs mainly to boost their earnings, people like Mr. Davis aren't in it for the money so much as to set their own course and satisfy more of their interests and passions than a single career would ever allow.
They're known as slash careerists.
Why that name? Read Mr. Davis's titles aloud and you'll get where the name comes from.
Slash careers "start with the assumption that people have multiple needs and interests," says career expert and Globe and Mail columnist Barbara Moses.
"For some people, multiple-work options are a life choice, borne out of a desire for new challenges or self-fulfillment in a number of areas."
Sometimes, it goes beyond how they make money.
"Their interests can range from income generation to being stretched to being active in the community to using their creative side, and so they design a life that incorporates all of these things," explains Dr. Moses, who refers to the wearing of many such hats as a portfolio career.
Her description of her own career: author/speaker/designer/ publisher of career tools/mentor/gardener.
"It's a wonderful option for people in midlife who are bored, and moving into new areas of interest," adds the author of Dish: Midlife Women Tell the Truth about Work, Relationships, and the Rest of Life.
Mr. Davis took the slash career route in 2002 when, after 18 years as a part- and full-time lawyer, he tired of the daily pressures of civil litigation and began to write court briefs and legal analyses for law firms on a part-time basis.
At that point, he was also performing occasionally in clubs as a jazz pianist, a love he abandoned in 1979 when he entered law school.
Early this year, he added a third career when he began delivering workshops to senior business leaders, using music to demonstrate how they can best tap their own potential and that of their employees.
"I chose a multiple career life ... because I have a multifaceted personality, and I am open to letting all of those facets emerge," Mr. Davis says.
"I have a gift for music, a gift for legal writing and analysis, and a gift for academic work. It seemed the most natural act in the world to pursue the various paths onto which these gifts led me."
Slash and portfolio careerists, workplace experts says, are often entrepreneurial, with a strong desire for job diversity, an ability to deal with risks and a workday that's not complete if they fail to get their creative juices flowing.
"Novelty seekers get easily bored, have a short attention span and need a lot of different things in their lives to be stimulated. This allows them to satisfy all of their complexities as a human being," Dr. Moses says.
People who wear several career hats are also part of a generation that recognizes working for one company for life - as their parents often did - is not the road to career success, experts say.
"There has been a shift from being loyal to a company to being loyal to yourself," says Stephen Friedman, whose own portfolio career includes being an executive career coach, part-time professor at York University, newspaper columnist and volunteer at his Toronto synagogue.
Ryerson University marketing professor Art Pierce, an expert in career management and human resources development, says that many students are realizing that developing several careers early in life may protect them from becoming victims of downsizing later on.
Many work at up to three jobs while in school, which not only helps to pay for their education but broadens their skills, he says. "Multi-career people know they have skills others want. At the end of the day, these people will be better equipped with a wider range of skills and that will give them security."
Some workers take up slash careers when they find themselves being stifled or their needs not being met.
Mr. Friedman points to one client who worked for a market research company and asked her boss to broaden her scope to include sales and consulting. When her request was refused, she left the company and started her own market-research firm.
As a market researcher/trade magazine writer/community college lecturer, she has the duties her previous boss wouldn't give her, and then some.
"She's doing all of the things she couldn't do in her previous job, she can set her own income, decide how much she wants to work and take care of her personal and family life," Mr. Friedman says.
Adrian Jones is an Ottawa-based woodworker/researcher/web designer/computer handyman.
His typical workweek consists of 25 hours as a researcher at the University of Ottawa faculty of education and another 25 hours designing websites, building and designing wooden furniture and repairing computers.
Mr. Jones's decision to become a slasher followed his 2001 resignation from a job as vice-president of technical sales for a U.S. company because he wanted to strengthen his family life and avoid the health effects of jetting around the globe.
"I also had a desire to simplify my life," adds Mr. Jones, whose wife, Lise Rochefort, is a mental health consultant/poet/event planner.
"Working at several careers may not sound simple but it ends up giving me a lot more control. When I get a request for my services, if I have the time and inclination and desire, I can say yes or I can say no."
Mr. Jones says slashing has allowed him to take responsibility for his personal growth. "I want to become a lifelong learner. Working at several jobs keeps you interesting, interested and open to new opportunities."
Slash and portfolio careers may appeal to some but they're not for everyone; just 5 per cent of the work force comprises people who have more than one job, a proportion that has remained constant since 2000, Statistics Canada says.
Carrying many careers, "people often find themselves scrambling," Dr. Moses says. "You have to be a very aggressive and meticulous time manager, and you have to be able to compartmentalize.
"Some people thrive on having a wide range of activities on the go. Their natural rhythm is that they feel most alive if they've got a wide range of projects and are constantly juggling them. Other people find that overwhelming and confusing," she adds.
People who take on multiple careers should be prepared to put in long hours, Prof. Pierce adds, and may have to get used to the idea of working on their own.
And they may not produce the kind of income a single career did, a financial factor to consider.
Still, most slash careerists would never go back to a single occupation.
"These people get meaning and passion out of their work. At the end of the day they can say...I did what I want to do and that got me excited,' " Mr. Friedman says.
"These people are redefining success: it is not about money in the bank but what they do and what they accomplish."
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Wearing many hats
Want to wear several career hats? Consider these tips:
Drill down: Think about your various interests and roles, what you want to accomplish and what you feel the need to satisfy.
Understand your motivations: Figure out why you want to wear several hats. Is it boredom, a desire for more creativity, an income boost or to help work/life balance? You can then design a career combination that matches your needs and priorities.
Create carefully: If you don't consciously design your portfolio, you risk ending up merely doing bits of this and that.
Think broadly: Don't consider just your professional life but all aspects of yourself. Broadening definitions may provide clues to career moves you hadn't thought of.
Use one career to subsidize another: Let your main breadwinning occupation help cover arenas of interest that might not pay as well, or at all.
Be realistic about what you need to earn: Be sure you have the financial wherewithal and life circumstances to support income from divergent sources or earning less.
Don't bite off more than you can chew: Make sure you balance and schedule to keep things manageable, without conflict and not causing you to be overwhelmed.
Make sure you're capable of being a juggler: Some people perform better with many things on the go while that causes difficulties for others.
Separate the pieces: When marketing yourself, stick to one career at a time or risk others seeing you as doing too many things, and none very well.
Cross over: Use contacts from one career to help land work in another.
Package your skills: Create several careers out of one set of expertise. For instance, someone strong on communication could turn that into several careers, from writing to teaching.
Get your family onside: Long hours and less income may come with multicareer territory. Make sure your family is supportive.