My Other Job Is a Passion

Last week, a DealBook article highlighted several former Goldman Sachs insiders who left the investment bank everyone loves to hate as of late to follow their artistic passions. These young ex-bankers and traders either decided to jump ship to begin careers they were already dabbling in on the side, or were forced out of the firm after given an "it's us or them" ultimatum from Lloyd "No Sleep Til" Blankfein and the rest of the Goldman gang. What this story underlined (along with how little Goldman likes its ranks to do anything other than contribute to its bottom line, and a regulation I'd never heard of that requires certain financial institution employees to report all of their outside/freelance earnings to their firm) was that employees of even the most prestigious institutions in the country are not following their passions (or top career choices) on a full-time basis, but instead are doing so on the side, as a second job.

While it might not be a grand revelation that corporate employees often pursue arts-related or other second careers that typically do not/can not "pay the bills," it is surprising just how many do so.

Early last week, before the DealBook piece was published, Vault began conducting a survey that asked respondents if they had a second job and, if so, if they had said job to make ends meet, or to pursue a second career path.

And what we found is that nearly two out of five people (40 percent) do have second jobs, and that one out of four (nearly 25 percent) have the job not because they have to, but because they want to, in order to pursue a second career path.

Which means that a significant number of employees are looking outside their main jobs/careers for satisfaction and/or money.

The Vault study also found that, in addition to the 40 percent who work second jobs, another 30 percent would like to do so but don't have the time. Which means that at least 70 percent of employees are not getting the career satisfaction out of the jobs they're working in now (and/or not earning enough money to pay the bills).

It also means that seven of 10 people who work for you (and whom you can see through your glass window) or who sit in your pod, or in your row of cubes, are not getting the satisfaction they desire by doing what you can see them doing.

Unless, of course, they're surreptitiously working (online or off) on that second career path right now.

(DealBook: At Goldman, Pressure on Staff to Keep a Low Profile)

(Vault: Do You Have More Than One Job?)