Do you dread that question: 'And what do you
do?'
And how do you answer? ‘I’m a plumber’, ‘I’m an
accountant’, ‘I’m a teacher’ – simple explanations.
But what if you don’t want to be defined by just one
label?
It’s increasingly common for people to say things
like:
‘I have three jobs. I’m a lawyer for
several small companies, a professional cook and
a food writer.’
‘I work in a restaurant four nights a
week, run a small shop three days a week and
bake products for my husband’s shop one day a
week.’
‘I am a lighting designer, professional
photographer and Reiki practitioner’.
These are real examples of people who have
portfolio careers. The term essentially refers to a
person doing two or more different jobs for
different employers.
What they have in common is that they’ve all had
difficulty in finding a single job or even a career
that used all of their skills and allowed them to
tap into all of their passions. They’ve all found,
as indeed have the other people we’ve interviewed
for our book, that there is an alternative to the
20th-century dream of finding ‘the one job that is
right for you’. For many people that dream has
become a nightmare as every job is now temporary.
Valuing variety
People who opt for this work style like it
because it gives them variety. Also, they don’t have
all their career ‘eggs’ in one basket. If one job
gets boring, they can focus more on the other ones
or indeed even ditch the boring one. If they lose
one job, they have other revenue streams to rely on.
We’ve discovered that maybe a million plus people
have been and are developing portfolio careers
without being aware that this style of working is
becoming more popular or indeed has a name. It is a
growing career pattern. In our book, Trish takes the
prize for the most jobs – 8.
For many, the attraction is that you largely have
your independence even if you’re working for a
number of different organisations. Plus you have
relative freedom from corporate agendas and
politics. You can use your unique combination of
strengths.
You can follow multiple passions. It’s often
easier to say ‘no’ to a request or demand. You
constantly develop and learn new skills.
There can also be more leisure time. You might
even want to add an existing hobby or passion to
your portfolio. Michelle is a city events organiser
who discovered Pilates after having bad back
problems and decided to train to teach it. She says
she enjoys the blend of two very different jobs,
allowing her to express who she really is. She also
earns more than she would by doing her city job full
time.
But…….
It’s not a career pattern for everyone. You will
have to spend a lot of time networking and
marketing. Initially, there are often real financial
risks until you’ve acquired your portfolio. There
can be a loss of employment benefits, such as
pensions, health care, paid holidays, childcare,
etc. You may be unwilling ever to turn down work
offers or accept less desirable work because of
financial uncertainty. Sometimes there can be a lack
of a regular routine along with feelings of
isolation.
Having said that not a single person that we
interviewed would consider returning to a more
traditional career pattern. They particularly loved
the fact that they could blend work and non – work
aspects of their lives according to their current
life priorities.
So - where to start?
It helps if you are an excellent time manager and
organiser, able to work well under pressure,
comfortable with little separation between your work
and the rest of your life, a risk taker, self
directed, high energy, assertive, comfortable being
your own boss, not hung up on financial security, a
networker and marketer, someone who can work to
deadlines and who learns from their mistakes. You
need to be a self-starter and preferably not a
perfectionist. Breathless? Welcome to the world of
portfolio careers.
The book and our website promote portfolio
careers as a very real option today with many pluses
for organisations, as well as for individuals. We’ve
written this because we’re excited about helping
people to realise ‘there is another way’ to earn
money, derive meaning and hey, even to sprinkle a
little magic into our working lives. You can and
should be the architect of your own future.
And how do we answer the dreaded question, ‘And
what do you do?’
Simple. We say, ‘I have a portfolio career’, then
step back and wait for the questions that follow...
If you have a portfolio career, want to know more
about it or simply do not want to have a ‘proper
job’, look at
www.portfoliocareers.net.
|
