PUNCHING IN: By day, Courtney Castellane manages the Tottenville, SI branch of the New York Public Library; by night, she teaches kickboxing classes nearby. (
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COOKED TO PERFECTION: After being laid off from his job, Adrian Ashby took up cooking – and the hobby heated up into a full-time gig. (Michael Sofronski)
BALANCING ACT: Mike Holt juggles acting auditions alongside his full-time real estate job. (Zandy Mangold)
Thanks to the recession, workers juggling multiple jobs are on the rise — according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the number of Americans holding two or more jobs increased by about 2 percent over the last year. But not everybody is in it for the money. Read on to meet three New Yorkers who are forging their own paths to dual success — whether the destination is in the boxing ring, behind the stove or on the stage:
THE BOXING BOOKWORM
Name: Courtney Castellane
Day job: library manager
Side job: kickboxing instructor
The penalty for an overdue book at the library used to be so inconsequential: Heaven forbid you get charged an extra nickel in late fees! But that sentiment might change when you find out the librarian can beat you up.
Courtney Castellane, a library manager at the New York Public Library’s branch in Tottenville, Staten Island, says she’ll pull her punches for now — at least while she’s at work. But once the 27-year-old clocks out, she suits up and heads over to nearby Demarco’s Boxing Club to teach kickboxing and exhibit her real authority.
Castellane may get paid to teach kickboxing, but she says the mental release is the true benefit. “I wouldn’t be whole without both,” says Castellane of her daily job and moonlighting gig. “The two of them together make my mind and body complete.”
The Staten Island resident took up boxing in February 2011, when her mother brought home a flyer for local boxing gym classes. The pair attended twice-weekly sessions — and her love for the sport grew.
But the extra cash doesn’t factor into Castellane’s choice to enter the boxing ring: Her library gig is enough to support her financially. And in any case, she’s been enamored with the written word since she was 14 years old, which was when she began working as a page at the same branch where she works today. She’s climbed the ranks of the New York Public Library since then.
As with any multi-jobholder, there’s always an effort to combine the two in some way. For Castellane, that means personally training some of her colleagues at the New York Public Library — and even successfully recruiting one fellow librarian to the point that she’s taught some courses herself.
“The hair in a bun, the cardigan sweater, that’s not what a librarian is anymore,” she says. “And with people joining these classes, it’s one way to show people.”
THE ASPIRING CHEF
Name: Adrian Ashby
Day job: administrative assistant
Side job: competitive chef
There weren’t too many people who avoided the repercussions of the economic meltdown in 2008. Most were only buoyed by the eventual word of new employment after being laid off. Adrian Ashby’s saving grace, however, was a turkey.
In the fall of 2008, with the recession in full force, the now 34-year-old Forest Hills resident lost his job as an administrative assistant. Unemployed and aching from the stress, he planned to go to his mother’s home for Thanksgiving when he learned her oven was on the fritz. He took to his own kitchen and surprised his mother with a fully cooked bird to make the holiday complete.
“That was the most fun I had all year,” he says.
After that, Ashby began baking in his free time to take the edge off his grueling job search. But after he secured a job at North Shore-LIJ Health System four years ago, the cooking didn’t stop. In fact, it grew more frequent. Soon, Ashby was entering city cook-offs, his confidence growing with each person — including his grateful co-workers — who came to him raving about his delectable creations.
Now, that hobby has become a dream aspiration and is quickly approaching a full-time endeavor. He competes every weekend in a new competition — be it baking or a chili cook-off — with Saturdays dedicated to preparing his delicacies, Sundays to trash-talking other chefs.
Ashby also has been auditioning for reality cooking shows since 2010 — he appeared on an episode of the Food Network’s “Chopped” in February — and aspires to acquire his own food truck, create his own product line of baked goods or open his own gastropub.
“There’s opportunity in everything, you just have to recognize it and jump in,” he says. “Everyone has their own thing. Once you identify it, you can do it, even if it means having a second job.”
THE AGENT OF CHANGE
Name: Mike Holt
Day job: real-estate agent
Side job: actor
Juggling two jobs is always a strenuous exercise in time management, but few arrangements are more challenging than the starving-actor scenario. Mike Holt — real-estate agent by day, actor by any-other-available-time — is by no means starving, but he’s pretty busy.
Despite working between 40 and 60 hours a week for Bond New York Properties, he manages to jam in as much time as possible taking auditions for short films, acting in theater productions and performing with his traveling improvisation team, Shadows.
The Harlem resident rises daily at 7:30 a.m. to scour the Internet for audition postings, hits his Midtown office to scan new real-estate listings, shows apartments across the city from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and crams in auditions in between appointments.
“If you’re passionate enough, you’ll find the time and you’ll make the time for it,” says Holt, 30, who’s been working in real estate for about four years. “I feel like the two professions, it’s difficult, but I’m able to use different sides of my brain for each.”
When the Orlando, Fla., native arrived in New York five years ago, he originally planned to work behind the camera in the audio-visual arts. But after getting a first-hand look at the acting he could be doing, he was hooked.
Holt says it’s easier to manage his job and his dream because his co-workers are encouraging: They’re common staples in his audiences.
“Having support at work is key,” he says. “It makes it all that much more enjoyable.”
Managing one job is stressful enough — but handling two can be near-impossible. Here’s how to get through it:
* Seek balance: If possible, allow your two jobs to complement each other. If one job consists of a highly stressful work environment, the second should offer the opposite atmosphere.
* Keep your finances in order: Your alternative job might end up costing you money — equipment, clothing, memberships, etc. Monitor your money closely, especially if your second “job” isn’t yet paying you.
* Stay healthy: Running around from job to job and having your mind in several different places can wreak havoc on your body and your mind. Make some time to eat properly and get sufficient rest.
* Carpe diem: Two jobs means twice the networking. Take the opportunities as they come — you never know, it could lead to a third job!— M.C.