In this Career Edge
Introducing our Career Edge e-zine
Career Services' popular magazine, Career Edge, finds a home online More...
Living a portfolio career
How a case of OOS became an opportunity to explore a new way of working
Surviving the economic crisis
A look at job hunting and career management in the present economic climate More...
Creativity – the missing ingredient?
Some ways to use creativity in career practice More...
International careers conference takes shape
Details about keynote speakers and how to register your interest More...
March 2009
Living a portfolio career
Angela McCarthy turned a case of OOS into an opportunity to explore a new way of working.
When I first heard the term "portfolio career", I was delighted. Here – finally – was a way to describe the odd bundling of freelance, permanent part time, study, mentoring and one-off jobs that keeps me more than fully employed.
Portfolio work means working for different employers in two or more part-time roles that collectively make up a full-time position. I became a portfolio worker by default but it suits me well. A bad case of occupational overuse syndrome (OOS) meant I had to find a temporary alternative career to journalism. I became fascinated by career practitioner work and enrolled in a career practitioner qualification. My arm came right and so I proceeded to develop a portfolio career in career counselling and freelance writing that also includes anything else that sounds interesting, possible or worth trying.
My portfolio is currently quite homogeneous, but could combine many roles and fulfill any number of passions. I hope to include biographer in my future lineup; I used to help run a restaurant. It fulfils my need for autonomy, change, variety, control, sociability, writing, interviewing, service to community… The list goes on.
The highs and lows of portfolio work
At its best a portfolio career is fun, varied, challenging and stimulating. I am continually creating my own job portfolio, working to my strengths. I write about things I enjoy, and my writing and career counselling continually feed into each other. The research I do for websites adds more. I’ve developed new strengths, such as good time management – a do-or-die requirement for portfolio work.
At its worst a portfolio career can mean uncertainty and overcommitment. At times I feel like a Jill of all trades and mistress of none. Some days I am extremely wearied by the mental gymnastics of moving between two quite different skill sets – directive journalist interviewing to open-ended, microcounselling techniques – and back. Remembering which hat I’m wearing is, indeed, wearying at times.
Meeting the expectations of many bosses and conflicting deadlines can be stressful. I can’t go to someone else to request deadlines be moved or projects reassigned. But this also gives me the freedom to get up at 5.30am to meet a writing deadline before heading off to my school career counselling job. If I then sleep in the next morning, so be it.
Finding work and keeping skills up to date are the biggest challenges
The biggest issues are sourcing work and keeping professional skills up to date for two different professions. I’m sometimes asked how I cope without one steady pay packet dropping into my bank balance. Yes, January can be a tight month financially, but a month or two of 10-hour days in the middle of the year usually guarantees that I can financially enjoy summer. KiwiSaver has solved the problem of a retirement fund.
Portfolio work is not for everyone. If you highly value financial security, certainty and routine, then it's not the way to go. You will struggle as a portfolio worker if you value belonging to an organisation, because it is hard to keep relationships alive when you’re coming and going in a workplace.
A portfolio career is about career self-management. It isn’t as secure as full-time employment, but then how secure is full-time employment anyway? If I lose one of my jobs, I still have the others to fall back on. It’s a win-win (particularly in this economic climate).
Angela McCarthy is a freelance journalist and career practitioner. She juggles her writing work with career counselling roles at Mt Roskill Grammar School and AUT. Her three adult children, three grandchildren, three cats – and one husband - provide plenty of entertainment and occasional inspiration.
