The traditional nine-to-five workday has become a fact of life and cross-cultural phenomenon to many people, but University professor and career counselor Paula Caligiuri wants to show people how to get a life, not just a job.

With her new book "Get a Life, Not a Job," released in 2010, Caligiuri said she wants everyone to uncover how to make money doing what they love.

"The title of my book underscores my belief that you should design your career around your natural talents, abilities and passions, your values and preferences for how you like to work," said Caligiuri, professor of human resource management at the School of Management and Labor Relations.

Caligiuri advocates "career acts" — self-directed approaches to careers in which passions and talents are configured into multiple income streams.

"Just as the riskiest financial investment strategy is to have all of your money in one place, the riskiest career management strategy is to have all of your income from one employer," she said via e-mail correspondence.

Caligiuri said the traditional 40-hour workweek takes control from the employee and hands it over to the employer.

She also said much has changed in how talent is managed in organizations over the past decade, and companies are under tremendous global pressure to compete.

"The greatest shield you can give yourself is to anticipate how your organization is changing strategically, and then build your skills in a unique way to move into a more critical role," Caligiuri said.

Employers are attracted to candidates who bring a greater diversity of demonstrated talents to their roles and through multiple career acts, you have more ways to demonstrate skills and build a network, she said.

After dozens of interviews for "Get a Life, Not a Job," Caligiuri found career acts that ranged from self-started franchises to weekend jazz trios, but she said they were all rooted in what people enjoyed doing, their talents and how they liked to work.

One person she met, Robert Einreinhofer, is a successful attorney with his own practice in Oak Ridge, N.J., who turned his passion for playing drums into a career act.

Einreinhofer got a recording contract while entering his third year at Seton Hall University Law School. After taking two yearlong leaves of absence, he toured for 45-week periods throughout the United States and Canada while still pursuing a law degree.

He continues to play the drums for multiple groups while maintaining his law practice.

"When you're passionate about both it doesn't seem stressful or that this is my day-job or my night-job," he said. "It's just my life."

Einreinhofer advises that people maintain an open mind about career acts and their passions.

Einreinhofer said he did not think his practice would focus on real estate upon graduating from law school, but it turned out to be a good fit for his other endeavors because most real estate transactions occur in the afternoon.

"I could have easily given up [playing drums] after high school, college or when I started my law career, but it's a part of who I am, and I think it's important to pursue the things you enjoy," he said.

Caligiuri said the first step in realizing a career act is self-awareness, a process more challenging than it seems.

"For some people it helps to reconnect with their career dreams," she said. "[Ask] ‘What would you want to be if you could be anything?' Then ask yourself ‘Why?'"

Others have an easier time articulating what they dislike in work compared to what they enjoy, she said.

School of Engineering sophomore Matthew Delos Santos said if the opportunity presented itself, he would consider pursuing an alternative career path. But post-graduation debt is the biggest challenge.

"Paying off debt makes [that alternative path] seem like an impossibility, or at least if those anchors or weights were taken away then yes, I would pursue a different route," he said.

Caligiuri said she realizes lack of time and debt are the two greatest obstacles that prevent people from starting a new career path.

"Debt forces us to make career decisions out of fear. We start to chase the promotion or bonus in jobs we don't like to begin with," she said.

Young adults are in debt an average of $21,000 when they graduate college, forcing them to accept whatever job they can find, she said.

"As soon as [college graduates] start working, they take on more debt, and five years later, they end up with a nice car, a nice place to live — but fully beholden to an organization and a career they don't like," Caligiuri said.

Outside of the movies, dream careers do not happen overnight, she said.

"It is not surprising that many people lose their ability to dream about careers somewhere between the late teens or early twenties, the time when the dominant message is that one should get serious about one's future," she said.

Although she acknowledges entrepreneurship is not easy, having a profitable hobby can be one of the most enjoyable ways to generate income, especially if you can turn it into a small business.

"The world is full of people who have done just that," she said. "[They] took a hobby originally enjoyed solely for personal pleasure and turned it into an income-generating career act."