The Beauty of a Portfolio Career
Careers shouldn’t be linear or singular; they should be rich, deep and focused.
The concept of portfolio careers has been steadily gaining popularity since 2012 when Cal Newport released, ‘So Good They Can’t Ignore You’. In his book, Newport discusses the idea of having career capital, which he defines as:
“Skills you have that are both rare and valuable and that can be used as leverage in defining your career.”
However, the concept of a portfolio career has become diluted of late. It’s become an excuse for people to hop around different industry sectors, trying to find their ‘passion’ or something that excites them for a while. While there is nothing wrong with switching jobs, industries, or career paths, be sure you are doing it at the peak of your role, and for a good reason, not for a change of scenery. There is a new term developing for people who move around a lot; scanners.
Scanners should keep the concept of career capital in mind. If you move from one industry to another, be sure to take in-depth knowledge and transferable skills along with you. Otherwise, you are not building a career, you are creating a list of past jobs, and it will be hard to show growth or development of skills on your CV.
The economy has been shocked this year, with many jobs and sectors disappearing overnight. For those with a portfolio career, shocks like this are easier to withstand, because their career capital can be applied to other industries, and they can pivot. Others, with linear career paths and no secondary skill to fall back on, have found they may have to start again from the bottom of the ladder, as their career path no longer exists.
How to Build a Portfolio career
Perhaps the most important aspect of building a career is asking not what it can give me, but what can I offer?
Taking the time first to understand what skills you have built up, looking at how to hone them to excellence, and then understanding how they can be offered to a company. These skills may not have been curated through work, they may have come from a hobby or life experience, and they may be very niche, but they are still valuable.
Understanding what is valuable to the job market is another key factor. If you are a content creator, you might create beautiful images or text, but you also need to ensure they create engagement with the audience (as this is what is truly valuable to a company).
Working on developing your skills is important, and this can either be done at work or outside of work, with small, focused projects that help you further develop your skills. Trial and error is important for learning and growing, and it may lead you into different areas, but be clear on your goals and your reasons behind them.
The key is to push yourself to be better, even if this means truly understanding the fundamentals of your craft. A writer on Medium could perhaps study classic literature, journalism or the development of online content. They should also challenge themselves to write more notable pieces or more shareable content depending on what they feel they need to work on. You should be aiming to develop excellence within your skills so that you stand out, and ultimately become ‘so good they can’t ignore you.’
The Beauty of a Portfolio Career
The beauty of the portfolio career is that your career path holds an element of mystery. It may not be immediately clear, perhaps because the roles available to you in the future might not exist yet. Portfolio careers create opportunities for you to work in intersecting industries, at the forefront of new and interesting projects. And the roles usually give you opportunities to bring your knowledge together, to create something bigger.
Linear careers may have existed in past generations or with big corporations, but in reality, change is the only constant. Someone starting work in a bank today may never develop the skills needed to compete with the financial technology of tomorrow. However, if they could develop a set of computer coding skills or an understanding of app development, then they will have more opportunities in the future.
I will leave you with one of my favourite examples of a portfolio career — Mireille Giuliano.
Bestselling author of ‘French Women Don’t Get Fat’, Mireille began her career as a French-English translator. The writing and translating skills she built up (career capital) helped her get a PR job for the Champagne News and Information Bureau in New York. After a few years, a French Champagne brand, Veuve Clicquot decided to move into the American market, and at 38 she was headhunted to join them because she knew the American champagne market inside out (career capital). Later she became CEO of the company, and with her 20+ years of experience in the business of ‘wining and dining’ with clients (career capital), she found a new career; writing books on how to enjoy food truly and how the French approach life.
Ultimately becoming excellent at what you do is more important than what job title you have or industry you work in — because when you’re excellent, others take note, seek you out, and bring new opportunities to your door.
