How to Create a Portfolio Career - A growing career trend

More workers, who are able to work from a computer, are creating portfolio careers.

I was a portfolio Careerist before it was fashionable. For me, streaming income from different jobs or entrepreneurial ventures started as a survival tactic. I wasn’t trying to be trendy as I worked several jobs to put myself through university. I was attempting to pay bills and tuition. Five years later, when I graduated with my B.Ed. into a recession, my ability to juggle jobs became my strength. I pulled together substitute teaching jobs, a banking job and a job in a daycare to make ends meet and build experience. When I finally landed an interview, the school board was impressed with my ability to juggle multiple commitments. They believed my juggle act was a skill set much needed in a teaching position. As it turned out, they were right.  

Fast forward to today and I’m still a portfolio careerist streaming income from different directions. This style of work is nothing new. Creative types have been working this way for centuries.  Artists, musicians and writers have led the way, but streaming income was never the work style our parents promoted. They didn’t want us to end up poor like a “starving artist” so they told us to go out and get a “real” job.

But today, “real” jobs may be harder to find as some employers have shifted to hiring more independent workers. In addition, stagnant wages have changed the way we see the career ladder climb and has made streaming income from more than one source necessary. As well, it’s no longer as appealing as it once was to work in a 9 to 5 box that allows for little flexibility. Finally, the growth in remote work and technology innovations during the pandemic has made it easier for workers to juggle more than one income stream.

The trend towards portfolio careers is nothing new. In 2008, the Boston Globe wrote an article on the growing number of Portfolio Careerists in the U.S.  They interviewed Stephanie Creary, who at the time was a 31 year old speech pathologist, professional dancer, yoga instructor and Harvard Business School Researcher. She said she was a portfolio careerist because it was her strategy for dealing with multiple interests and she was glad someone finally put a name to something she had been doing for years.

One of the most intriguing aspect of the portfolio career movement is it’s no longer just attractive to creative types or people weathering recessions. Back in May of 2017, Harvard Business Review article, Michael Greenspan gives tips for executives who are thinking about making the leap from their full-time jobs to a portfolio style career. Greenspan admits “going plural” as he calls it is a challenge. Making the jump from full-time work to a portfolio career concept is not an easy feat, and requires mentorship as he explains in his article. And mentorship is beginning to happen.

A few years ago, I interviewed Brad Hussey from Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada who left his full-time job with Sajak and Farki digital marketing company in Calgary to go freelance as a web designer and coder. As Brad told me, “…freelancing was up and down with inconsistent income.” He had to figure out how to create consistent streams so he went completely online and started teaching. He now has Code College, and is streaming the majority of his income online.  He teaches a globally based student body how to code and start their own freelance business so they too can quit their “real” jobs. He moved his portfolio career into a solopreneur business model.

Brad isn’t the only ones that have decided to steer away from a 9 to 5 lifestyle. This trend has become attractive to people from varying occupations, industries and socioeconomic backgrounds. Al and Denise pulled up stakes, quit their teaching jobs, sold their home outside of Calgary and moved to Mexico to work. They built a house in the province of Saskatchewan in Canada where they work in the summer and move to Mexico to work in the winter. They gave up a pension, stable work, and they haven’t regretted their choice. It wasn’t easy but in their experience, it was worth it. They have what they believe is the best of both worlds because they keep their toes in sand year round and never have to shovel snow.

Speaking of snow. From my experience meeting and interviewing portfolio careerists like me who have chosen not to climb the career ladder long term, no two are alike. However, our commonalities exist in our ability to adapt, create opportunity, meet needs and be open to customizing our work life. Consequently, we are often well positioned to adapt to the current shifts we are experiencing in the changing climate of work, and whether out of necessity or choice, we can pivot.

With an ever changing and evolving world of work, it appears the portfolio careers trend may continue to grow.

If you want to learn more about portfolio career strategy, Check out our Branch Out workshop series on our website.

Historical Reads

Statistics Canada Labour Force Survey https://www.statcan.gc.ca/eng/survey/household/3701

Chin, Jessica (2017, December). Less Than Half of Canada's Prime-Age Workers Kept aFull-time Job for All of 2015. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2017/12/01less-than-half-of-canadas-prime-age-workers-kept-a-full-time-job-for-all-of2015_a_23294345/

Vomiero, Jessica (2017, April 19). Inside Canada's Flexible Work Economy. Who's the real winner here? Retrieved from https://globalnews.ca/news/3385957/canada-flexible-gigeconomy-jobs/

Randstad's Workforce 2025 Report http://content.randstad.ca/hubfs/workforce2025/Workforce-2025-Randstad-Part1.pdf

Shulman, Michael (2017, January). Nearly Half of Canada's Workforce will be Self Employed by 2020. Retrieved from https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/nearly-half-ofcanadas-workforce-will-be-self-employed-by-2020-study-145943790.html

Jackson, Maggie (2008, January 27). Portfolio Careerists Revel in Change. Retrieved from http://archive.boston.com/jobs/news/articles/2008/01/27/portfolio_careerists_revel_inchange/

Greenspan, Michael (2017, May 4). How to Launch a Successful Portfolio Career. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/05/how-to-launch-a-successful-portfolio-career

This is Why Contracting is a Great Idea

I’ve been an independent worker (contractor, consultant and freelancer) for several years, and I can tell you with certainty, contract work can be highly rewarding. Over the years, I’ve been given the opportunity to help more organizations and add value to their business by coming in on contract. It has been a great strategy during transition periods, and it has created better flexibility and balance in my work life.

Contract work grows in tough economic times when employers are uncertain about the economy. Labour market reports from the U.S., Japan and Canada, all show spikes in part-time and contract work after major recessions. Given these trends, we can most likely expect to see short-term employee contracts plus a growth in the demand for independent workers as we move into the future.

Whether we are graduating from post-secondary, are mid-career or are highly experienced individuals, during tough economic times, employers are tentative about making permanent promises. Job seekers must then adjust their expectations so we can connect with the expectations of employers and the opportunities they have.

Here are some of reasons why taking a contract is a great idea.

Get Our Foot in the Door

When I first graduated from university with a teaching degree, there was very little full-time permanent positions available for the hundreds of graduates. In order to get our foot in the door, we had to take a short-term contract. Typically, the contracts were anywhere from 4 months to one year. The benefit of contract work is that the company gets to test drive us and we get to test drive them. It’s kind of like dating and finding out whether or not you are a good fit for one another. If it’s a good match and the company needs more help down the road, contractors who are independent workers can be called back in on a regular basis so it’s possible to create a continued stream of income.

Build Experience and References

If we are a new graduate or we are entering a new occupation, new industry or even a new field within an industry, taking a short contract is an excellent way to share our talents, build some experience and get a reference to add to our resume. Job seekers are often very focused on the long game of getting a permanent, full-time position and I always have to remind them that the people in those positions are may have taken a short contract and landed that permanent role because they got experience with the organization, had a reference from inside the building or from within the industry.

Learn Different Processes and Systems

Contracting to different companies also gives us the opportunity to see how things are done differently from one company to the next. This can be highly advantageous in terms of really understanding the industry, how it functions, and how each company has a place within the economy of the industry. It starts to give us a bigger, broader picture which is extremely helpful in terms of giving us perspective on the challenges and the gaps in service. This makes for great opportunity in the future to help out by becoming a consultant, or to solve problems or fill in gaps by starting our own business.

Opportunity to Collaborate with Different People

This past year, I had three contracts and I LOVED all of them because the people were so great to work with. I really like working with others and if I can get a contract that allows me the opportunity to collaborate, it’s even better. What I especially liked about these contracts was that they were all very different and the way in which we worked together was very different in each contract. This builds collaboration skills in us that we may not otherwise use in one job with one organization. In addition, having the opportunity to work with people from other disciplines helps us grow and build rich knowledge transfer opportunities that we may not get in one job.

Opportunity to Build our Network

We have to KNOW someone to get a job. It doesn’t matter if we apply online or we have a warm lead for a job. In order to get work, we have to know someone, talk to someone and build a relationship either through meeting in a formal interview or in a networking situation. When we take a short-term contract, we have the opportunity to meet people. Contract work helps us build our network because we have the opportunity to use our talents, experience and skills to help a company, work with others and build relationships. We have the opportunity to get inside the building and add value to a business.

Provides a Broader Perspective of the Industry

Contracting to different companies also gives us the opportunity to see how things are done differently from one company to the next. Depending on our industry, we may be able to hold multiple contracts simultaneously. In other cases, it may not be possible to have multiple contracts with competing companies in the same industry. However, depending on our goals for taking a contract, it gives us the opportunity to understand how things are done. This can be highly advantageous in terms of really understanding the industry, how it functions, and how each company has a place within the economy of the industry. It starts to give us a bigger picture and a broader perspective on the challenges and the gaps in service. This makes for great opportunity in the future to become a consultant rather than an independent contractor, and it can also lead to some independent contractors taking the leap into becoming entrepreneurs and hiring people to help fill in gaps or solve problems in their industry.

Contract work can be more flexible

Flexibility has been highly important to me and my family over the last 10 years. I have found that contract work has created the work/life balance that many people dream about but have a hard time creating with a permanent, full-time position. In my design contracts, I have been able to work from home or a co-working space. With my facilitation contracts, I’ve been able to organize my facilitation days around challenging family schedules. As a result, we have rarely needed childcare which has not only saved us thousands of dollars over the years, but it has allowed me to do what I love - be present for my family. I’ve also been able to set my hours with some of my onsite workplace training contracts. This flexibility has been AMAZING, has created balance for us and has given me the opportunity to grow my career by continuing to help organizations but keep the balance that I’ve wanted.

These are 7 reasons why I have included contract work into my career strategy.

If you want to learn more about career management in a changing world of work, hop into Career Corner Toolkit on my home page. It’s FREE. Every month, we cover topics that will add long-term career management tips and strategy that help you build an agile and resilient career.

No Job Title? Seriously.

Through my career services work, I have had the wonderful opportunity to meet hundreds of people from around the world who have come to Canada to live and work. I have learned, from these international job seekers, that job titles can have significant meaning in cultures, creating an important marker of status, value and prosperity. In North America, our job title is also important, giving us a sense of identity and worth.

As a career practitioner and portfolio careerist, although I see the benefit and structure job titles create in the work world, they also can have a negative impact on our sense of self-worth, skewing our decision making in the work search process. Several years ago, I was facilitating an interview skills workshop when I met a man from Africa who had a degree, but when he came to Canada as a refugee, he couldn't find work in his field. At his time of arrival, he had very little English, no Canadian experience and no Canadian education. These factors created barriers, making it difficult for him to access his field. For years, he studied English and eventually found work as a security guard, also doing odd jobs on the side. When he found himself in my interview skills workshop, he was out of work for the first time. As participants practiced accomplishment stories, he quietly confessed that he felt like a failure, and he could not identify one accomplishment since his arrival.

This lovely man adapted to a new culture, learned a new language, found a job when he had little English, raised his children, paid his bills, contributed to his new country and had saved to put his children through university and he felt like a failure because of his job title. When we pointed out all of his accomplishments and his personality traits of tenacity and adaptability, his countenance changed. The participants in his group affirmed his value through his work and the challenges he had overcome. They brainstormed his accomplishments in a new way and he left that workshop with a new sense of pride and purpose, having never looked at his accomplishments through this lens.

Job titles can undermine our sense of value and they can also skew our decisions. Recently, I have met job seekers in our current recession in Alberta who have turned down jobs, preferring to pay bills on credit rather than accept a job that is "beneath them" (their words not mine) in title and pay. I have also met job seekers who have asked me if they should travel for long lengths of time on their severance package, not because they can afford it, but because they are concerned about filling a gap in work history. They wonder if travel is better to put on their resume than a job that doesn't carry weight in their industry.

I understand the underlying concerns job seekers have around working outside of that job title box, the monetary value and the career ladder they are trying to climb. I also understand that folks are worried about the "what ifs". What if I get a better offer in six months? What do I do when the economy turns around and I want to go back to what I did before? These are all legitimate questions. However, I am left to wonder how long people can wait for that perfect fit. I'm left to wonder how long folks can go without work and still make their bills. I'm also left wondering when did a good day's work and just the simple act of supporting ourselves regardless of title stop being enough?

Zappos and Gusto are two companies, featured in the below links, that wondered the same thing. They got rid of job titles in their organizations because they believed it would strengthen their company culture and put the focus back where it needs to be - on a good day's work. They claimed titles created barriers, unnecessary power distance and prevented the flow of creativity and growth. I give these organizations props for test driving this "No Job Title" idea. It's a brave thing to do.

However, as career practitioner, I'm in the business of work search and career management so I clearly understand that job titles are still used for necessary markers of negotiation, promotion and access into higher paying positions within an organization. However, as a portfolio careerist (someone who streams income from multiple sources) I don't pay as much attention to job titles because I'm not necessarily looking to climb a ladder. I'm building a portfolio tree where the focus is on creating income streams, building relationships and looking for opportunities to add benefit and value. The portfolio style of work does blur the boundaries that bind us to job titles, and challenges us to view work in a new way.

This doesn't mean we have to end all job titles in the workforce. That isn't realistic. However, if you read the articles below on organizations that have eliminated titles, it is an interesting concept to just get rid of them altogether to see if that frees us up to work differently. Personally, I would just like to see us relax a little around job titles in our culture. It would be really nice for a job seeker to feel comfortable taking a lower paid job that has less status because for them it is a wiser thing to do for their long term financial freedom. I would prefer that job seekers not be scared of what that "outside of their industry" job would look like on their resume, or be concerned about what their friends would think.

In our current economy, many career development specialists and recruiters suggest that job seekers become open, flexible and be willing to do something new because these are valuable skill sets that employers prefer to see in potential candidates. I know we aren't going to completely eliminate job titles, at least not yet. It appears the world of work is not yet ready for Zappos CEO's Holacracy concept. I guess the "No Job Title" idea was too confusing. Nonetheless, could we please just relax a little and meet the needs of an organization that needs our help? 

I would like to end with two quick stories. I met a woman a few months ago who was a laid off accountant from the oil and gas industry and she was helping out her friend who owns a restaurant. She was serving, working in the kitchen, and doing whatever needed to get done. She said she didn't necessarily have a job title, but she added, "I quite like the variety and I can't believe I'm saying this, but I don't know if I'm going back to what I did before." She was exploring new options.

I recently learned that an old family friend had lost their job. He worked for oil and gas too. Surprisingly, through connections, he landed a new job building sets for a film. After building one set, he now has more projects in the film industry lined up. Who knows, he may be headed in a new career direction. 

What I learned from these stories? If we just relax a little around our job title and meet the needs around us, we not only can find work, we just never know where something new may lead us.

Click on these links for articles on eliminating job titles:

Companies without job titles: Gusto

Impact of job title removal: Zappos