Multipotentialite: How to Redirect Your Career?
The concept of multipotentiality is still relatively unknown to the general public, but it is becoming increasingly relevant in a job market where overspecialization has long been the norm. However, we are witnessing a slow but certain shift in mindsets today. Companies, especially in the tech industry, are beginning to recognize the value of hybrid profiles, capable of combining multiple skills to better fit complex cross-functional roles. This growing recognition opens up opportunities for multipotential individuals who were once marginalized. However, these individuals, endowed with numerous interests and varied skills, sometimes find it challenging to define a coherent career path. How can they align this diversity with market expectations and job offerings? How can they navigate a professional world that values targeted expertise and extreme specialization?
The Complexity of Multipotentiality
An individual who excels in multiple fields can significantly complicate a career redirection. This profile often brings about considerable pressure to choose just one professional path—a choice that can feel limiting or even frustrating for these individuals. This pressure to choose a single path can often lead to deep dissatisfaction and feelings of anxiety or impostor syndrome. According to certain studies, multipotentials are particularly prone to these tensions, as they see their diverse skills not as a strength, but as an incompatibility with the workforce and system, or sometimes as an inability to conform to social expectations.
Many multipotentials find themselves in careers that may feel discouraging or unstimulating when they only reflect a portion of their skills, simply because they have tried to conform to a norm. This complexity also lies in managing multiple interests that can sometimes seem contradictory. In trying to explore everything, the multipotential may struggle to make a choice and fully commit to one field, which can lead to career decisions that don’t genuinely reflect who they are.
The Challenges of Multipotentiality in a Specialized World
The current job market often values niche expertise. In recruitment processes, companies seek candidates with specific skills, proven expertise in a particular field, and a “readable” profile that is simple and whose motivation is easy to understand. This trend toward overspecialization can marginalize multipotentials, whose professional paths may sometimes appear fragmented or scattered to recruiters, especially if they have changed fields a few times.
However, what these recruiters may perceive as a lack of direction is actually a unique ability to connect various fields of expertise, innovate by bridging disciplines, and quickly adapt to new market demands. For example, in rapidly evolving sectors like technology, project management, or creative industries, this versatility is not a weakness but a strength. The challenge often lies in the ability to communicate this added value in a recruitment context, presenting it as a strength and a driver of growth for the company. Personal branding becomes a key strategy, where it’s essential to create a coherent professional identity on platforms like LinkedIn, telling a story that ties all experiences into a cohesive and valuable whole.
Job Search and Valuing the Multipotential Profile
Job hunting is a complex task for multipotentials, particularly when it comes to crafting a CV and cover letter. How do you summarize a rich and varied career in a few lines without giving the impression of being scattered? How do you draw recruiters’ attention to this wealth without it being perceived as a lack of focus?
The key lies in the art of professional storytelling. Rather than simply listing diverse experiences, it is crucial to construct a coherent narrative that shows how each experience has contributed to developing transferable and cross-disciplinary skills and how these skills combine to offer unique value to the company. For example, a multipotential with skills in communication, design, and project management can present themselves not as a generalist, but as an experienced profile in visual communication capable of leading projects from start to finish with a deep understanding of each step in the process.
In the cover letter, it is also important to highlight adaptability, innovation, and the ability to connect ideas from different fields. Recruiters need to see that what might seem like scatter is actually a unique ability to bring innovative solutions by combining multiple perspectives. The storytelling should be clear and convincing, telling a coherent story to prevent the recruiter from crafting a different narrative that could hinder the candidate’s evaluation.
Redirecting Your Career Through Coaching: Aligning Interests and Ambitions
Coaching offers a structured approach to help multipotentials redirect their careers by focusing on integrating all of an individual’s skills and interests into a coherent professional project. The ideal goal is to create a career path that does not deny any passion or skill—unless they are truly unrelated—but instead unites them around a central project aligned with clear and well-defined professional ambitions.
The coaching process begins with an exploration phase, where the coach and the client together identify key skills and deep aspirations. This phase is crucial for clarifying not only interests but also values, desires, and professional needs. Coaching then helps to develop a career plan that strategically leverages these diverse talents, whether it involves finding a position that values this versatility or creating a business that allows multiple passions to be combined.
Take the example of Sophie (name changed), a multipotential client I worked with. With a background in biology, a passion for photography, and project management skills, Sophie felt lost. She chose to build a career plan that integrated these passions, and she was fortunate to secure a position as a communications director for an environmental NGO, where she uses her scientific expertise, visual creativity, and organizational talents every day.
Finally, coaching supports the multipotential individual in defining and achieving their goals and implementing this plan, providing support and structure throughout the transition. This includes developing a personalized job search strategy, preparing for interviews where diversity is highlighted as an asset, and building a professional network that values these multiple skills.
The whole challenge is to finally feel in sync with one’s aspirations and daily activities, so that work becomes a profound source of fulfillment and enrichment.
