Hi. How are you? It’s been a while since I’ve written anything on here and I’m a little annoyed at myself for that. But there is a good reason – my career has sort of taken off in the last few months and that’s what I want to talk about in today’s post in a roundabout sort of way!
You may have seen on either my LinkedIn or Twitter that I’ve begun to have more of what is known as a portfolio career. This is because, alongside my freelance work, I’ve become an administrator for a Disability charity in Bristol. I’m now both employed and self-employed, balancing the two work streams. How do I do it you ask? With a schedule and a hell of a lot of caffeinated hot drinks!
I’m also still doing voluntary things and continuing to network on the side so my work life has become pretty jampacked. Whilst I’m aware of the pressures of productivity and burnout, I’m trying really hard to keep on top of things whilst also staying sane and having time to do things that I want to do outside of work.
So, what is a Portfolio Career? What is a portfolio? What are the differences between real life and digital ones? How can you really manage all your jobs and passions when you want to have multiple strands? And why even jump into it in the first place?
Portfolio
This word has many different meanings depending on whether you’re discussing the object (as in a type of briefcase bag) or a collection of objects, paper or documents and what job or industry it is related to. It’s something that is linked heavily to the creative sector as it shows what you’re capable of as an artist. The term is partly based on the Latin word ‘folium’ that means ‘leaf’ or ‘sheet’. Like any form of media, it is helpful in making a first impression for yourself but also can be impressive in itself.
Online Portfolios
With the influx of digitalisation over the years, many creative portfolios are now online in the form of websites, blogs, social media profiles, podcasts, videos and other digital media. More and more job seekers are creating personally branded online media to validate and distinguish themselves, their skills, accomplishments and experience. I myself have one which is the website you are currently looking at but also all of my social media channels (ones I use personally and ones I utilise for a mix of personal and professional). More on this later!
Portfolio Career
Described as a working style in which you combine multiple strands of income and work through a mixture of employment, self-employment/freelancing and other work whether that be paid or voluntary. It’s where you can have lots of different jobs or lines of work but them being in similar fields or you using a specific set of skills in all of them. There are three types of portfolio career which you can do – similar, contrasting and synergetic (mine is similar).
I first became introduced to the term in another format as I was beginning my career journey just under three years ago through the phrase “squiggly career”. This was then joined by another synonym, “multi-hyphen”. The terms were framed by three female entrepreneurs – the former by Helen Tupper and Sarah Ellis of Amazing If and the latter by Emma Gannon. There are also other various wordings with similar meanings such as ‘side hustle’, ‘slashie’ and ‘solopreneurs’.
This has all only risen in height thanks to the pandemic as the whole world of work has been shifted on its head. I’ve written previous posts on flexible work and remote work which do relate to and sit underneath this umbrella term of a portfolio career (you can read those posts here and here). None of these things are new concepts, they’ve just been exacerbated by COVID – the want for balance of work and life is turning into a need due to how various sectors have been impacted by Coronavirus. Resilience is a key part of both the pandemic and having a portfolio career.
How we work and where we work is changing and this is a good thing for people with Disabilities such as myself. As I noted in my blog post on flexibility, I, and most Disabled people, do not fit into the working world unless there is some adaptability in terms of where, when and how work is done. This links to a concept called Disability Management, how employers and employees manage Disability in the workplace but also goes back to reasonable adjustments and inclusion.
It also gives me and others who have portfolio careers the opportunity to have multiplicity in a more realistic light. Whilst I’ve considered going freelance full time over the few years I have been in the professional world of work, having a mix of employed and self-employed is a lot more practical for me right now given that I’m still quite fresh. It’s also great for people who are constant learners or have a love of self-educating.
Having a Website and/or Blog
Getting ones thoughts and opinions out into the big wide world is a great way to either start or enhance a portfolio career as you can do it as one of your roles or use it as a way to show off all your multitude of professional passions and positions. Giving my unique perspective on things has helped me to be seen better by other professionals but has also taught me a lot. This goes back to online portfolios but also relates to personal branding and media kits (you can read my blog on media kits here).
Whilst the blogging has gone on the back-burner for a bit for me personally due to how busy I’ve become with having a portfolio career, I don’t intend to stop publishing on this website and using it as a homepage for my personal brand ‘ofbeth’. I’m currently thinking of creating another page on my website that shows what I’ve done and can do partly in response to feedback I have had on it but also partly due to knowing that it is something I am lacking on my portfolio site. This will hopefully be up and running soon but don’t get your hopes up that it’ll be too quickly done!
Using Social Media
The other way that I put my views across, but also how I network with others, is by using social media – particularly LinkedIn and Twitter. It’s something I use both personally in my free time (being involved in fandom over the years has helped) and now something I do for work. I have written a blog post on it in the past (which you can read here) but I’m hoping to write more on the topic at some point.
Keeping Balanced and How Not to Burnout
This isn’t simple, even when you do try your hardest. Calendars, timesheets (my blog post on that can be read here), weekly lists, apps; it’s still too easy to become a workaholic, even more so now everything is online. You have to do constant juggling of priorities, both those that are professional and that which are personal. Whilst it’s giving financial stability, no one ever has time to do everything they need and want to do whatever type of career one has.
This will also link nicely to the next blog post which you’ll see on here which will be a review on the latest Digital Gaggle event (you can read my reviews of the previous two I’ve been to here and here). The last session of the day was on burnout and I took so much away from the speaker Juliet and the community of attendees – I’m now going to be spending my time looking for a new alarm clock...
Final Thoughts
To conclude, I’d like to end by giving some resources that I’ve found whilst doing research for this blog post and that I think would be good for those looking to start a portfolio career. The Portfolio Collective is one of them and the other is Portfolio People. I also would highly recommend the podcast and/or books by the Amazing If ladies and the podcast or book on being multi-hyphen by Emma Gannon. There are also books and podcasts out there on the portfolio career if you want to learn more.
I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this post about portfolio careers. If you want to talk to me about anything that I’ve discussed here or would like a chin-wag, go to my contact page to find out how to get in touch. Speak a little sooner than the last time, eh?!
Beth x