How do you balance your day job with your art? From Kafka the insurance clerk to Lewis Carroll, the mathematics teacher, this question has tormented generations of artists. Here is my take from having both a reasonable corporate career (with P&G, BCG, Kraft and, now, a start-up, CMO) and a passionate writing life. My short answer after some years of internal struggle: having a solid day job is possible and in fact quite compatible with your artistic development. You just have to do things differently from others:
Use your corporate job as a tool for growth
Fifteen years ago, I was in Mesra near Ranchi, Jharkhand, a small college town, with few prospects. Since then, I’ve lived in the Philippines, Singapore, Europe, and the US, and travelled to many other places – all thanks to international assignments with my corporate jobs. Each move has brought with it the full gamut of emotions, from extraordinary cultural exchanges to loneliness to discomfort, all of which have made me grow in ways I’d never have if I was a twenty-five-year-old sitting in my hometown in India writing a book.
I think people squander away the potential of corporate life when they focus on promotions and raises and getting the “right” assignments. Instead, one should jump on every opportunity to go outside one’s comfort zone, international assignments or not. Your reservoir fills up with such deep experiences that your art can’t help but gush out.
Skip office dinners and networking events.
Twelve years after B-school, I’ve observed that the only folks who’ve risen to the top of their fields are the ones who are exceptional at what they do. If you are great at your work and don’t engage in minutiae like asking for credit or gossiping about office politics, your bosses will propel your career forward on their own. I think time spent in office social events and random networking events is better re-directed in planning one’s art.
Push yourself harder than anyone else when you are working…
Pushing oneself doesn’t mean working more hours. It means going beyond one’s defined job scope and being curious about developments in the industry, keeping track of macro-cultural trends that impact your work, and paying attention to functions other than your own within the company. I think you stand out when you don’t put your head down and focus only on your job like most people do, but constantly synthesise and present information beyond your assigned job.
...and ask for a sabbatical afterwards
When you’ve collected enough worldly experience (and some money) to create art, request your company for an unpaid sabbatical. If you’ve worked hard and smart, I’m 99% sure they will grant you one. I’ve taken sabbaticals of lengths varying from three months to one year in every corporation I’ve been in after working with great devotion for a few years.
Is a sabbatical necessary? After writing The Seeker full time, I’m convinced that working undistracted on your art during the actual act of creation galvanises your output. And will your company worry your gap year will set a precedence for others to ask for one? If you work in a big company, I don’t think so. In my experience, the request for a sabbatical is unique. People don’t even use their vacation time, leave alone ask for more time off. It takes rare courage to take time off and truly confront your dreams of writing a book, opening a restaurant, backpacking across Europe etc.
Get used to making independent choices
Despite best intentions, I realise that pulling off both an artistic and a corporate career will always be a constant balancing act. You are living two lives when people struggle to live even one well. I think at some point you just need to understand that you’ll need to make choices that are independent of the herd.
You’ll constantly ask for exceptions to the rule in wanting sabbaticals, skipping office events, wanting international assignments – and that’s fine. In Sartre’s words, “Those with the temerity to shun convention and make free choices in the search for self are authentic, those who conform to the roles dictated by society and recoil at their unfettered freedom are practicing bad faith.”
Karan Bajaj’s new novel, The Seeker, has been published by Penguin Random House India.
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Use your corporate job as a tool for growth
Fifteen years ago, I was in Mesra near Ranchi, Jharkhand, a small college town, with few prospects. Since then, I’ve lived in the Philippines, Singapore, Europe, and the US, and travelled to many other places – all thanks to international assignments with my corporate jobs. Each move has brought with it the full gamut of emotions, from extraordinary cultural exchanges to loneliness to discomfort, all of which have made me grow in ways I’d never have if I was a twenty-five-year-old sitting in my hometown in India writing a book.
I think people squander away the potential of corporate life when they focus on promotions and raises and getting the “right” assignments. Instead, one should jump on every opportunity to go outside one’s comfort zone, international assignments or not. Your reservoir fills up with such deep experiences that your art can’t help but gush out.
Skip office dinners and networking events.
Twelve years after B-school, I’ve observed that the only folks who’ve risen to the top of their fields are the ones who are exceptional at what they do. If you are great at your work and don’t engage in minutiae like asking for credit or gossiping about office politics, your bosses will propel your career forward on their own. I think time spent in office social events and random networking events is better re-directed in planning one’s art.
Push yourself harder than anyone else when you are working…
Pushing oneself doesn’t mean working more hours. It means going beyond one’s defined job scope and being curious about developments in the industry, keeping track of macro-cultural trends that impact your work, and paying attention to functions other than your own within the company. I think you stand out when you don’t put your head down and focus only on your job like most people do, but constantly synthesise and present information beyond your assigned job.
...and ask for a sabbatical afterwards
When you’ve collected enough worldly experience (and some money) to create art, request your company for an unpaid sabbatical. If you’ve worked hard and smart, I’m 99% sure they will grant you one. I’ve taken sabbaticals of lengths varying from three months to one year in every corporation I’ve been in after working with great devotion for a few years.
Is a sabbatical necessary? After writing The Seeker full time, I’m convinced that working undistracted on your art during the actual act of creation galvanises your output. And will your company worry your gap year will set a precedence for others to ask for one? If you work in a big company, I don’t think so. In my experience, the request for a sabbatical is unique. People don’t even use their vacation time, leave alone ask for more time off. It takes rare courage to take time off and truly confront your dreams of writing a book, opening a restaurant, backpacking across Europe etc.
Get used to making independent choices
Despite best intentions, I realise that pulling off both an artistic and a corporate career will always be a constant balancing act. You are living two lives when people struggle to live even one well. I think at some point you just need to understand that you’ll need to make choices that are independent of the herd.
You’ll constantly ask for exceptions to the rule in wanting sabbaticals, skipping office events, wanting international assignments – and that’s fine. In Sartre’s words, “Those with the temerity to shun convention and make free choices in the search for self are authentic, those who conform to the roles dictated by society and recoil at their unfettered freedom are practicing bad faith.”
Karan Bajaj’s new novel, The Seeker, has been published by Penguin Random House India.
