The Power of Hybrid Professional Identities

Dan Smolen unpacks the Power of Hybrid Professional Identities with Sarabeth Berk, Ph.D. Dr. Berk is a self-described Chief Creative Disruptor. She believes that hybrid professional identities help people in the workplace to project their unique value to hiring managers. When asked: “what do you do for a living?,” most people respond with their current job title. Or they launch into a non-succinct elevator pitch.  However, Dr. Berk believes that that denies people opportunities to express their unique skill, experience, and relevance in a rapidly changing workplace. What is more, it robs hiring managers access to the super-human skills of top talent, to build revenue scale and market advantage. In this episode, Dr. Berk: Summarizes her background and the value proposition of hybrid professional identities. Starts at 4:40 Describes how people can get started in crafting a hybrid professional identity. Starts at 8:59 Discusses one’s owning their identity and the career journey. Starts at 16:48 Considers the role of side-hustles in crafting hybrid professional identities. Starts at 23:33 Aligns with the future of work aspects of hybrid professional identities. Starts at 27:30 Emphasizing the power of hybrid professional identities, Dr. Berk draws back to the challenges that people in the workplace experience: “How do you answer the ‘what do you do?’ question? How are you more than your job title? Eventually, the research question became: ‘who are you and the intersection of your multiple professional identities?’“ About our guest: Sarabeth Berk earned a Bachelor of Arts in Visual Studies from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; a Masters of Arts in Art and Design Education from the Rhode Island School of Design, and; a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Denver. She lives and works in Denver, Colorado. EPISODE DATE: October 1, 2021 Social media: – LinkedIn – Twitter – Website – YouTube: Are You a Hybrid Professional? (TEDx) – Book Page