Meet Ipsitaa Khullar. She’s a multi-careerist based in Mumbai, India. I met her over LinkedIn, and was fascinated with her career journey. I also enjoyed her music video with its intricate choreography and powerful vocals. This is how she navigates her careers.
Ipsitaa’s Careers
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Behavioral Scientist
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Singer-Songwriter & Performer (Lyricist, Composer, Dancer)
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Actress
On her motivations for having many careers
I have never been good at putting myself into one box, nor especially convinced that I should. I am motivated by the fact that different forms of work feed different parts of me: behavioral science gives me intellectual rigor and a sense of impact, music and poetry help me metabolize feeling, acting lets me inhabit stories, and dance restores my soul.
Together, they make for a life that feels more whole than any single lane ever could. There is also, admittedly, a small rebellious streak in me: being told I cannot do it all has only ever sounded like an invitation.
On how long she’s had these careers
I made my debut in the Indian music industry in 2020, while I was completing my MSc in Behavioural Science at the London School of Economics, which felt either ambitious or mildly unhinged, depending on the day.
I have now spent five years in music, five in behavioral science, and the past year stepping into acting.
In some ways, it all feels like an extension of the life I began building at Yale in 2015, where I was double majoring in Economics and Psychology while spending as much time in rehearsals and performances as I did in classrooms.
My life has continued to unfold in several lanes at once, and I have come to understand that as its natural shape.
Advice to aspiring multi-careerists
Be very clear about what you want, because indecision wastes more life than the occasional wrong turn.
If you want several careers, you have to respect each one enough to learn its craft properly; talent is lovely, but competence is harder to argue with. The more you know, the harder it is for the world to bluff, flatter, or shortchange you.
Just as important as upskilling is building a routine that includes rest, recovery, and enough silence to hear yourself think.
Lastly, do not pursue multiplicity to impress people; do it because it makes you more alive, and keep going if that aliveness becomes useful to others.
On overcoming obstacles
One of the more disorienting setbacks was realizing that the qualities for which I had been rewarded in academic and consulting spaces – being intellectually serious yet deeply creative – were not always welcomed in the creative industry.
I was told, with great confidence and very little imagination, that my education was somehow “useless” if I was “only going to end up singing and acting,” or that I was already “too old for music” at twenty four.
I chose to walk away from opportunities that were exploitative or creatively limiting. There were moments when being a young woman with a clear point of view led to my being underestimated, dismissed, and rejected.
I overcame that by protecting my authorship, accepting the loss of misaligned opportunities, and choosing a life with more uncertainty but far greater freedom.
On how multiple careers are beneficial
Having several careers has had the fortunate effect of making each one less superficial. Behavioral Science gives me a way of thinking about motivation, fear, identity, and social norms that deepens both my music and my acting.
When I approach a character, I am rarely content with what she says or does; I want to know what happened to her in childhood, what deprivation or longing organized her inner life, and what old wound is still making choices for her in the present.
The same questions shape my songwriting, where I often think about memory and the stories people absorb before they realize they are being shaped by them.
My recent work for the World Bank on edutainment and behavior change has only sharpened that instinct: it taught me that entertainment can carry ideas much farther than instruction ever will, because people don’t like being told what to do, but they rarely forget what they have deeply felt to be true.
On personal time
By being intentional about returning to the people and places that restore me. I am lucky to have close relationships with both my parents, who understand the intensity and ups and downs of my life; some of my most healing moments are long conversations with them while walking through the green, lush garden my mother has built with such love.
On a recent visit home, my father recited a Faiz poem about the luckiest people being those who either love their work or treat love itself as their life’s work, and it reminded me how fortunate I am to have, in some strange way, both.
I also try to protect time with my closest friends, with whom I have laughed through some of the hardest moments of my life. When all else fails, I run away to London for a few days, a city whose energy, art, architecture, parks, and streets have long had a way of setting me right again.
On what he wishes he had learned earlier
That it demands ruthless honesty about time, energy, and trade offs.
Dual careerism is less about doing everything at once than about learning what each season of your life is asking you to prioritize.
On what to read
I would recommend reading Maybe You Should Talk to Someone by Lori Gottlieb, which is both psychologically incisive and oddly consoling.
The line she ends with, “Actually, I’ve got plenty of time,” has stayed with me for years.
I would also recommend reading autobiographies of or watching documentaries on the people you admire in your fields, because they tend to cure us of the fantasy that meaningful lives unfold neatly.
On the stigma of having many careers
Yes, there is still a suspicion that breadth must come at the expense of depth, as though people with several callings must inevitably be less serious than those with only one.
I’ve overcome that partly by losing interest in performing legitimacy for other people.
At some point, I stopped trying to defend my choices and focused instead on becoming a worthy vessel for the work I felt called to do.
On what to share with others
It depends a great deal on the culture of the firm. Some workplaces have been genuinely encouraging; others have treated any sign of a second life as a form of divided loyalty.
I’ve learned to stay warm, professional, and fairly private. “Loose lips sink big ships.” Not every room deserves the full map of your ambitions.
On how to sublimate ego at the day job
I’m a full time creative now, with part time intellectual work, so the question looks a little different for me these days.
But every career, however shiny from the outside, still involves repetition, discipline, and unglamorous work.
My go-to form of ego sublimation remains lifting weights, running, and occasionally dancing to my favorite songs (while lifting and running at the gym 😅)
Where to people with portfolio careers find one one another?
One of the hidden difficulties of this kind of life is that it can be both expansive and oddly lonely at once. I suspect many of us would benefit from a small community of people building in several directions, whether for advice, solidarity, or the occasional reality check.
Day in the Life
Mornings: Coffee; morning pages (shoutout to Julia Cameron’s book – The Artist’s Way); vocal warmup and training; gym sessions; prep for music videos or shows
Afternoons: Studio sessions (jamming on, writing and recording songs); acting workshops / auditions or meetings
Evenings: Behavioral science projects; dinner with family or friends; a hot shower, a candle, a good book, and prayer to bring the day to a close.
On where to find Ipsitaa
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Kabir Sehgal is a musician, author, and military veteran. Learn how to build your own portfolio career. Get 7 ideas every week when you join Seven Point Sunday.
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