By Rajwa Quasim
Ask a Gen Z worker what they do for a living, and they may have more than one answer. They may hold a corporate job while also working as a content creator, running a business or pursuing a venture outside their traditional 9-to-5 role. Data from the past five years shows that Gen Z’s approach to careers has become increasingly fluid, helping pave the way for a more nonlinear working environment.
A nonlinear career is a professional path shaped by shifts, parallel pursuits and detours, rather than a single, stable job trajectory. These varied experiences can build a broader skill set than a conventional linear career path might provide. The shift toward nonlinear careers now appears to be gaining momentum.
Nearly 9 million Americans reported holding multiple jobs in 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than one-third of the U.S. workforce also participates in freelance or independent work.
The right path can be the wrong path
Conventional career development is often presented as a clear roadmap to success: a step-by-step progression in which each stage is defined and advancement is expected to move steadily forward.
In this traditional model, a successful career path may follow a familiar sequence: earning a degree, securing stable employment, receiving promotions, building a family and eventually retiring.
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However, a stable career does not necessarily align with an individual’s long-term professional goals or abilities. Persistent dissatisfaction, ongoing exhaustion, underused strengths and limited opportunities for growth may indicate a mismatch between a person and their chosen career path.
Career changes are often viewed as setbacks, but they may instead represent a shift in professional direction. Such transitions can involve changing industries, roles or priorities rather than simply moving backward in a career trajectory.
Concerns about uncertainty and the risks associated with nonlinear career paths remain significant factors for many workers.
Every experience counts
Kajal Tekwani, founder of Visibl, studied technology as an undergraduate before moving to Germany to pursue a master’s degree in finance. While many of her peers applied to banks and consulting firms, she freelanced in marketing. She later returned to India and founded Visibl, a personal branding agency for B2B technology founders.
“The zig-zag isn’t confusion. It’s exploration with intent. And honestly the most interesting founders I work with today are the ones whose careers make zero sense on paper,” Tekwani wrote on LinkedIn.
Tekwani’s experience illustrates how a nonlinear career path can combine seemingly unrelated experiences into a broader professional skill set. She has said that her background in technology helps her understand the products her founder clients build, while her finance training has shaped her approach to growth and return on investment. Her years of freelancing, which began without established credibility, later became a portfolio that helped open professional opportunities.
She calls this pattern “an exploration with intent, not confusion”. Although, none of these would have mean much, together they form exactly what her work demands. Something that became possible that no linear path could have produced.
From one job to many: The rise of the portfolio career-
The shift towards portfolio careers, where there is multiple income sources instead of one 9 to 5 shows light on how economic uncertainties, market disruptions, technological disruption and geopolitical uncertainty makes the work culture vulnerable. Thus making it somewhat necessary to have a side hustle.
The cost of living hanging as a knife above, that could break apart a person any time. For instance, In most global cities, rent exceeds 50% of total salary: New York (81%), London (75%) and Dubai (59%). this had made traditional milestones irrelevant or even out of reach (Forbes)
Only 41% of workers still want to follow a traditional linear career path, while 72% of employers believe the conventional career ladder is outdated. Meanwhile, 40% of workers report taking on a second role, and 38% say they want different types of jobs across their careers. (Randstad 2026 Workmonitor Report )
READ: The White Rabbit Effect: How AI is changing our relationship with time (June 25, 2026)
AI is accelerating the shift towards non-linear careers as entry level roles are disappearing resulting in layoffs, but AI also empowers the shift by enabling up-skilling, personal branding becoming simpler and freelancing easier to manage.The rising of portfolio career as shown us that non-linear path indeed can be strategic, intentional and not always chaotic.
Is non linear career a new concept?
The practice of non-linear career is becoming a new normal in today’s time, it is certainly not a new concept. The terminology-‘non linear’ is a recent framing, the practice has been followed by humans generations ago.
For instance, Leonardo da Vinci (15th century), though trained as a painter’s apprentice, he worked simultaneously as a sculptor, architect, military engineer, anatomist and inventor. He moved between courts (Florence, Milan, Rome, France) depending on which patron needed which skill at the time.
Today’s focus on non-linear path is a return to a flexible model, driven by pandemic, remote work, changing generational mindsets and a need to prevent burnout, meanwhile allowing to develop skills, continues learning and adapt to changes.
As per Fortune magazine editor Pattie Sellers, “Careers are a jungle gym, not a ladder”. The phrase popularised by former Meta (Facebook) COO Sheryl Sandberg in her 2013 best-selling book, ‘Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead’.