Comments on: Portfolio Careers – What do employers think? Is it a career breaker?

By: Kelly Magowan

Kelly Magowan — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 10:46:01 +0000

I admire your ambition and that you have such a clear career strategy. It sounds as though you may eventually have a portfolio career and I wish you well.

By: Ish

Ish — Sat, 07 Aug 2010 02:59:40 +0000

I would like to call myself as a portfolio career person too, however, the way I define portfolio is slightly different from what as said above. I am a very young and low paid bank employee and aiming to settle my life in CEO or major management position in 10 years time. However, my current action plan towards my long term career goal is, working FT on one job to move forward to the next level,say, leadership level but the same time studying and gaining practical experience in my Accounting career. So I will mix and match my growing experience from the current employment as well as from the Accounting experience which would help me to settle in a good financial career in the management position in the next 12-24 months and I take it from there to follow my next action plan. So I am a portfolio worker too, right?

By: James Judge

James Judge — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 05:01:26 +0000

This is an interesting and timely note. I think that Portfolio careers work (excuse the pun) very well for some people, particularly those who may be transitioning from one occupational stream to another, planning to leave or return to the full time workforce or those who may be trialling a possible business venture. Unfortunately a portfolio career can also be thrust upon some who are seeking full time work but have to engage in a series of part-time or contract roles to make ends meet. This is certainly the case at the moment with a pool of hidden underemployed that don’t show up in the “official” statistics.

By: Dr Barrie Hopson

Dr Barrie Hopson — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 09:31:45 +0000

I am somewhat biased as I have just written a book on portfolio careers, “And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career”, A&C Black. What my co-author, Katie Ledger and I have found from interviewing a large selection of portfolio workers is that hardly any would even consider returning to what I call a single track career. They actually report feeling more secure in a recession as they are not reliant on only one job. Attitudes towards this growing phenomenon amongst employers are proving fascinating. The main employers federation in the Uk in a recent report say that our concepts of work and employment are going to have to change with organisations relying more on a small core workforce supplemented by an army of temporary or project workers. Portfolio workers typically are self motivated, self starters and reliable. They have to be as they will not survive unless they are excellent time managers and organisers. They will be increasingly attractive as employees. We are just beginning a programme of interviewing a wide range of employers to check out their attitudes to this growing group of workers. We reckon that there are already over a million of us. Yes – we are portfolio workers too!