Concurrency
Holding one commitment at a time gives each one your full attention. Holding several at once gives you variety, a second income or a second identity, and it divides your week between them. The difference shapes an ordinary Tuesday more than almost anything else in a career.
A commitment is a role you have taken on in a specific environment. The easiest way to think of a commitment is as a job. The difference is that a job is paid, and a commitment also covers the unpaid things that take real time and thought, such as caring for a parent, raising children, a degree, a serious volunteer post or recovering from an illness.
You decide what counts. If a recurring activity is part of your career in your eyes, it is. An activity can also become part of your career after the fact. For example, many people with wide interests find that something they started for pleasure later opens a door, and a hobby you took up for fun turns out to have been part of the career all along.
One commitment is one role taken on, and a few rules settle the cases where that is unclear:
A job is one commitment, however many tasks it contains. A founder who sells, hires and does the accounts holds one role, running the business.
A second role in the same organisation, such as training new hires or being the union rep, is a second commitment if it had its own selection.
Serving many different clients is still one role, as for a strategy consultant or a day labourer on a new site every week.
A seasonal or on-call role, such as a reservist's, is held all year.
A new employer or a new role means a new commitment.
| End | Letter | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Serial | S | You hold one commitment at a time, and each one follows the last |
| Parallel | P | You hold more than one commitment at the same time |
What counts is what you hold, not what you happen to be doing this week. That is why a commitment that is out of season is still held. For example, a ski instructor who teaches from November to April and sails from May to September holds two commitments all year, so that career is Parallel. So is a reservist with a day job, or a volunteer firefighter who runs a shop. But fruit picking one summer and hotel work the next winter, each a one-off job with no agreement to come back, is Serial.
Overlap during a move is also different. Someone who starts a new job while winding down the old one for a year, and then works only in the new one, has a Serial career. The overlap is a way of moving from one commitment to the next, not a second commitment held.
And Parallel does not have to mean equal weight. For example, a senior economist at a central bank also works as a carpenter several days a week, because he enjoys it. And an emergency doctor takes on hospital management duties, for the variety and the contact with more colleagues rather than to become a manager. Each has one clear main focus, and each holds two commitments at once.
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Serial
Gains
Full attention on one thing. Each commitment gets all the time and thought there is.
Less to keep track of. One set of deadlines, one set of colleagues, one inbox.
Commits fully to each move. One thing is left before the next starts, so each new start gets the whole effort.
One clear answer. What it does is known, to itself and to others.
Costs
Nowhere to turn when it stalls. When the one commitment stalls, it takes all the attention with it.
Unused to juggling. When several things land at once, there is less practice at handling it.
Every move a leap. One commitment is left before it is known whether the next will work.
Everything riding on one role. If it goes badly, much of its sense of what it is can go with it.
Parallel
Gains
Somewhere to turn. When one commitment stalls, energy can go into another.
Used to a full plate. Work arriving from several sides at once is nothing new.
New directions without a leap. Something new can start beside what is already held, and be tested before anything is let go.
More than one identity. If one role goes badly, less of what it is goes with it.
Costs
Attention split. Each commitment gets a share, and can suffer when another needs more.
Spread thin. Several sets of deadlines to keep track of, and switching between them can cost time.
New starts share the attention. A new commitment begins beside the others, so it seldom gets the whole effort at first.
Several answers to what it does. People may not know which one is meant, and sometimes that is not obvious either.
