Call me a narcissist, but it’s great going to a portfolio careers meetup and being greeted by someone who says ‘I’ve been wanting to meet you because I’ve been reading your blog.’ So it was when I met Nikki Wilson recently - a portfolio careerist in waiting. I’ve invited her to give us a guest post about the challenges of contemplating taking the portfolio career plunge. Here’s what she has to say:
I’ve thought about it extensively, read “And What Do You Do?”, done the “Is it for me?” questionnaire, met and spoken to some great people who are different stages of their portfolio career paths and decided that it really does sound like something I’d like to pursue. So, what’s holding me back?
People often say, in order to begin to tackle a problem, first you need to identify it. So, perhaps there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging the challenges I think I face as I contemplate a portfolio career. I’m also hoping if others who read this are facing similar challenges we might help each other find the solutions we’re looking for.
Lack of confidence / Fear – I can’t deny it, this is probably the biggest barrier. In order to “sell myself” in a way that I feel I need to, to really push forward, I need to feel that what I have is something that others need and want to pay me for! I’m also somewhat influenced by what others may think. While a portfolio career is not a new concept, it’s not one that I’ve known many others to follow and is certainly not what I or those around me have been “schooled” in. At the end of the day I’m also worried that I’ll throw myself into trying to establish a portfolio career, and be disappointed when it doesn’t work out.
Changing my mindset – However fully I may wish to embrace the portfolio career concept, I’ve now been working as an “employee” for 12 years, with much of this time spent in finance roles with their rules and restrictions. For all the disadvantages there is a clear structure and while I don’t particularly like it, I am used to it. I need to change my own way of thinking if I’m to move toward the very different ways of working that a portfolio career requires. This is exciting, but it’s a challenge nonetheless.
I’m not a “free agent” – this is linked closely to the above. At the moment I have a full time job for a reasonably high profile organisation. There are a number of ways in which I feel this is inhibiting me:
1. In order to build a portfolio career, particularly to be able to pick up the most interesting pieces of work, I feel that I need to establish my own reputation and identity. This feels uncomfortable while I’m still an employee – I don’t want to jeopardise my current role.
2. My day job and commute restrict the amount of time and energy I have available to work on my new career path, particularly as I’m self-aware enough to know that I could risk trying to take on too much and exhausting myself.
3. All of my work is “owned” by employers past and present so I’m not sure how to demonstrate my skills and experience with examples of my work.
Past experience – Inevitably, I need to build on what I’ve already done to give myself the best chance of finding work. One of the main drivers behind wanting to pursue a portfolio career is that I don’t feel my current and past roles have given me the opportunity to work to my full range of skills or explore the areas that interest me most. Moving into these different areas is something I’ve tried to address through voluntary work but this has proved frustrating so far. In order to build my portfolio career, however, I need to find ways to gain experience and prove my skills in different areas and finding ways to do this is definitely going to test me.
Lack of focus – I’ve often described myself as someone who wants to have “my finger in every pie”. I have a really broad range of interests and love to keep learning and trying new things. While this could serve me very well in a portfolio career, it can be difficult when thinking of how to start out.
A support network – while I’m lucky that I have my family’s emotional support, having what might be called a “traditional” view of a career path, there are many ways in which they can’t help and advise me in my pursuit of a portfolio career. There are a number of different types of support that I need and don’t know how to access. Some of these are practical (see below) and some are around addressing the confidence issues above. I’ve been really pleased to already have joined a number of networking groups that are helping with this and it’s something I aim to build on further as it’s such an early stage for me.
Practical issues – principal among these is not knowing where to look to find the first “pieces of the puzzle”. The majority of work in my field is full time and permanent and I’m not confident that I have enough contacts at present to be approached for work. Secondly, while I use the internet regularly, I still find it difficult to keep up with developments in new media and technology and to know best how to channel the sources of information I use. Clearly, this is something I could find out but often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available and baffled by the terminology.
So, you might say, why don’t I just give up? It’s early days for me at the moment and I’m certainly not about to be put off at this stage. I’ve looked at the merits of a portfolio career and feel that if I can overcome these challenges, it could be the path to finding a level of career and life satisfaction that I’ve been unable to achieve so far. I’m also sure that finding ways to address some of the issues I’ve identified could in themselves give me a sense of achievement that will be an integral part of establishing this new path.
I’ve thought about it extensively, read “And What Do You Do?”, done the “Is it for me?” questionnaire, met and spoken to some great people who are different stages of their portfolio career paths and decided that it really does sound like something I’d like to pursue. So, what’s holding me back?
People often say, in order to begin to tackle a problem, first you need to identify it. So, perhaps there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging the challenges I think I face as I contemplate a portfolio career. I’m also hoping if others who read this are facing similar challenges we might help each other find the solutions we’re looking for.
Lack of confidence / Fear – I can’t deny it, this is probably the biggest barrier. In order to “sell myself” in a way that I feel I need to, to really push forward, I need to feel that what I have is something that others need and want to pay me for! I’m also somewhat influenced by what others may think. While a portfolio career is not a new concept, it’s not one that I’ve known many others to follow and is certainly not what I or those around me have been “schooled” in. At the end of the day I’m also worried that I’ll throw myself into trying to establish a portfolio career, and be disappointed when it doesn’t work out.
Changing my mindset – However fully I may wish to embrace the portfolio career concept, I’ve now been working as an “employee” for 12 years, with much of this time spent in finance roles with their rules and restrictions. For all the disadvantages there is a clear structure and while I don’t particularly like it, I am used to it. I need to change my own way of thinking if I’m to move toward the very different ways of working that a portfolio career requires. This is exciting, but it’s a challenge nonetheless.
I’m not a “free agent” – this is linked closely to the above. At the moment I have a full time job for a reasonably high profile organisation. There are a number of ways in which I feel this is inhibiting me:
1. In order to build a portfolio career, particularly to be able to pick up the most interesting pieces of work, I feel that I need to establish my own reputation and identity. This feels uncomfortable while I’m still an employee – I don’t want to jeopardise my current role.
2. My day job and commute restrict the amount of time and energy I have available to work on my new career path, particularly as I’m self-aware enough to know that I could risk trying to take on too much and exhausting myself.
3. All of my work is “owned” by employers past and present so I’m not sure how to demonstrate my skills and experience with examples of my work.
Past experience – Inevitably, I need to build on what I’ve already done to give myself the best chance of finding work. One of the main drivers behind wanting to pursue a portfolio career is that I don’t feel my current and past roles have given me the opportunity to work to my full range of skills or explore the areas that interest me most. Moving into these different areas is something I’ve tried to address through voluntary work but this has proved frustrating so far. In order to build my portfolio career, however, I need to find ways to gain experience and prove my skills in different areas and finding ways to do this is definitely going to test me.
Lack of focus – I’ve often described myself as someone who wants to have “my finger in every pie”. I have a really broad range of interests and love to keep learning and trying new things. While this could serve me very well in a portfolio career, it can be difficult when thinking of how to start out.
A support network – while I’m lucky that I have my family’s emotional support, having what might be called a “traditional” view of a career path, there are many ways in which they can’t help and advise me in my pursuit of a portfolio career. There are a number of different types of support that I need and don’t know how to access. Some of these are practical (see below) and some are around addressing the confidence issues above. I’ve been really pleased to already have joined a number of networking groups that are helping with this and it’s something I aim to build on further as it’s such an early stage for me.
Practical issues – principal among these is not knowing where to look to find the first “pieces of the puzzle”. The majority of work in my field is full time and permanent and I’m not confident that I have enough contacts at present to be approached for work. Secondly, while I use the internet regularly, I still find it difficult to keep up with developments in new media and technology and to know best how to channel the sources of information I use. Clearly, this is something I could find out but often feel overwhelmed by the amount of information available and baffled by the terminology.
So, you might say, why don’t I just give up? It’s early days for me at the moment and I’m certainly not about to be put off at this stage. I’ve looked at the merits of a portfolio career and feel that if I can overcome these challenges, it could be the path to finding a level of career and life satisfaction that I’ve been unable to achieve so far. I’m also sure that finding ways to address some of the issues I’ve identified could in themselves give me a sense of achievement that will be an integral part of establishing this new path.
I completely empathise with Nikki's perspective. I went through a rollercoaster of emotions trying to decide to make a portfolio career happen. My top tip in relation to your concerns about lacking focus is to think about the things you love and then think about how they could figure in your portfolio career. Work is easy when you love it. It's not an easy choice but once you've made it - you'll never look back - go for it Nikki!
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