What is a Portfolio Career?
/As someone who has had to navigate multiple career switches as I moved in the second half of my life I've found great success in reinventing new ways to work that benefited me both financially and emotionally by utilizing a Portfolio approach, which I teach and highly recommend ! To learn about the benefits this approach can have on your life please enjoy reading this article by Jennifer Parris, Flexjobs Career Writer
What Is a Portfolio Career?
A portfolio career is a new way to define someone who has several related or unrelated jobs. For example, you may work several different freelance jobs related to web design, or you might have a full-time job and several smaller part-time projects on the side. Also known affectionately as “slashers,” people with portfolio careers may boast various job titles: e.g., writer/photographer or graphic designer/stylist. They might work a crafty combo of part-time or freelance jobs (or one full-time job while pursuing other passions or interests).
While this work setup might appear slightly chaotic to some (after all, balancing one job can be tricky enough, much less multiple positions), career experts are claiming that portfolio careers can be one way to work-life balance. Plus, if one career (or job) should fail to be profitable—or you simply become bored with it—you have many other positions (and more importantly, sources of income) to choose from.
The Rise in Portfolio Jobs
So why is there a surge of slasher workers? Well, at one time when the market was iffy at best, people had to take on a variety of jobs to support themselves. Now, many are finding that they simply don’t want to do a nine to five anymore. Careers built upon a single focus are becoming more obsolete, since longevity (and retirement) with one company is not really a part of today’s workplace anymore.
Benefits of Portfolio Careers
There are many benefits to having a portfolio career. If you lose one job, you’ll have others to back you up financially while you job search. Also, a portfolio career is the ultimate in work-life balance, since you are picking and choosing projects that make both you (and your budget) happy. And if you decide to return to a particular career, the skills you’ve attained from various positions can probably be applied to the position you’re applying for, making you a much more coveted job candidate. Although many hiring managers may have previously frowned upon a job seeker with so many job titles under their belt, savvy bosses today recognize that the more job experience a candidate has, the more he’ll bring to the position in the form of knowledge and transferable skills.
A portfolio career is quickly becoming one of the ways to work! Whether you’re exploring a career change, freelancing for several clients, or have a full-time job (and a passion project on the side), a portfolio career can give you a diverse wealth of experience, skills, and best of all—work-life balance.
How to Have a Portfolio Career
While some job experts might recommend that you keep your resume as singularly focused as possible, there is a new surge in having a portfolio career that seems to contradict that advice. Portfolio careers are when workers hold a wide variety of jobs and job types (e.g., full-time work, freelance gigs, part-time jobs, etc.). The jobs may or may not relate to each other in some way; for example, a writer might pen articles for an online magazine, blog for another company, and write press releases for a corporate business, too. Or a worker might have a full-time job that pays the bills but doesn’t soothe his soul, so he pursues his passion with freelance work at nights and on weekends. Truth is, most people have had a portfolio career at some point or another. It might have been right when you graduated college and had absolutely no idea what you wanted to do with your life. Or it could have been when you were going through a career change, or even a midlife crisis!
Pulling Together Your Portfolio Career
Whatever the reason, you now have a bunch of jobs that might not relate to each other. Instead of leaving them on the editing room floor, incorporate them into your resume! Although in the past it was frowned upon to show multiple interests reflected on a resume and cover letter for fear of appearing as a scattered and unfocused job seeker, today’s job market is actually embracing the portfolio careerists. Companies are quickly realizing that people have a life beyond their 9-5 and want to capitalize on the transferable skills and expertise that their workers have attained working in their different jobs!
Great Skills for a Portfolio Careerist
Like you might imagine, having a portfolio career means that you’ll need to be hyper organized. Multitasking and time management skills are also super important to have, as you’ll be balancing multiple jobs—and their demands—all at the same time. And above all, you have to have really solid business skills, as you’ll be invoicing various employers, tracking multiple payments, keeping track of your hours, and saving all your receipts for your taxes, too!
If you’re considering having a portfolio career, here’s how to get started:
Determine your interests.
More often than not, a portfolio career is comprised of a lot of jobs that have reflected your interests over time. Figure out what you’d like to do if money were no object, but that you’d like to potentially make a career out of. Limit your list to no more than three items. After all, you don’t want to have a portfolio career that lists you as a writer/accountant/web designer/floral designer/math teacher/electrician! That way, you can take the time to pursue your passions in a variety of jobs, giving each one the time, focus, and dedication it requires in order to discover if this is a field you really want to pursue professionally.
Plan it out.
It’s always a good idea to have a game plan when it comes to your career. Take the time to figure out what type of work you’d like to do, and how it will work with your current job situation. You don’t want to over-commit yourself to multiple employers and then drop the ball, missing deadlines and being unprofessional. So take stock of the type of work that you have, what passions you’d like to pursue, and how much time you can truly devote to it all before beginning your job search.
Pursue one solid source of income.
Sure, you’re an accountant/marketing maven/amateur chef, but chances are, you’re better at one career than any other. Ensure that you’ll never miss a beat (and a paycheck) by consistently having steady work in at least one or two of your top areas. Your finances will thank you.
Save up.
And speaking of money, you should stash away some cash before launching your portfolio career. Ideally, six months or more of money to fund your living costs can help you as you make your portfolio career work for you. And if you don’t currently have those funds available to you, you should continue working in your day job (and sock away money at the same time) to help you weather any financial storms that might come your way when you start your portfolio career.
A portfolio career is a fun way to explore multiple passions (and get paid for it!) without making your resume look like a hodgepodge of jobs. So if you’re working full-time (but hate your job), become a portfolio careerist and start working in jobs that you really love. Or if you’re a job seeker, realize that you don’t have to find only one job; you can support yourself through a mix of various types of work that work for your budget, your work-life balance, and your interests!
https://www.flexjobs.com/blog/post/how-to-have-a-portfolio-career/
Jennifer Parris, Flexjobs Career Writer