Does “sticking to my guns” mean “shooting myself in the foot”?

Very pleased to be hosting a new post from Nikki Wilson following up her last guest post... 

I’ve previously written about my experiences as an aspiring and fledgling portfolio careerist.  Having confirmed in my own mind that it was a path I felt would suit me at the end of last year, two opportunities came up in January that allowed me to take my first steps along it.  One was the Vodafone World of Difference Programme that finished in early July, and I was then lucky enough to secure some temping work at a local alternative to custody programme.  While an administrative role, I have still valued it as a chance to learn how a different type of project operates and to work with a new beneficiary group.  It also suited well as I could work there simultaneously with a role as an Interim FD in a Brixton charity, travel to which made me reluctant to take on any further London commitments until it ended in August.  So, a case of “so far so good” – everything seemed to have fallen in to place quite nicely.

However, it’s now September and I’m left with only the temping work for 19.5 hours a week, which will end fairly shortly when a permanent appointment is made.  It’s certainly not for want of trying.  Almost every spare hour since July has been taken up searching and applying for jobs and it’s proving very tough.  A significant part of the challenge is that I’m obstinately continuing with my vision of a Portfolio Career, though the part-time, short-term roles, with a good degree of interest or development potential that I want to find in order to achieve this are not easy to track down or secure.  In this respect I’m actually lucky that my main focus is in the not for profit sector where this type of role is undoubtedly more common than in the private sector.  Much of my searching so far has been personal and direct, using a variety of websites, but I have also now been contacting agencies, including a full day in London last week meeting recruiters.  While they are more receptive to the idea than I had expected, I can’t quite shake the feeling that my reluctance to take on full time roles for anything more than a very short period, or to narrow my search to one type of work, is seen as more than a little perverse in the current job climate.  The impression that I am causing my search to be far more stressful than it needs to be is clear, and that I may be “shooting myself in the foot” in terms of my own career development and certainly earning potential, by being so set in my views of what I want.

As I continue to trawl websites and cheekily ask all and sundry for work, I mostly remain hopeful that whatever I take on will not be sufficiently restrictive as to prevent me from at least continuing to build up a further network of contacts and experience that may lead to opportunities in the future, or tie me down so that another exciting change and challenge is not far around the corner.  I could opt for an easier life and start considering permanent, full-time roles, and I won’t rule this out if an interesting enough option arises but what is certain is that being faced with this choice has made me surer than ever that, having made the first tentative steps towards a Portfolio Career, I’m not ready to give up on the idea just yet!

That’s not to say that my head doesn’t drop from time to time, which is exactly when I’ve discovered the value of talking to people that make me feel positive about it.   I’ve been immensely lucky to find I am building a great network of people who are really supportive – some of whom, including Helen, are relatively new portfolio careerist friends who I’m heartened to find, I have met through online forums – they really do work!   Pursuing a portfolio career may well be viewed by some as a counter-intuitive choice but it’s ever more clear to me that for some people,  it’s one worth making,  whilst remaining open to the possibility that there is always an option to change direction again in future.