Composite/Portfolio Career

Career Goals

Jessie was very clear with her future career goals; in the podcast, she talked about moving from a “standard typical job to multiple.”
 

She describes her approach as “not putting all her eggs in one basket.” She meant that her goal was to create multiple income streams to satisfy her family’s income needs. She categorized them into three baskets:

1. Stable/Regular/Routine – e.g., her role in consulting and auditing
2. High Risk – e.g., her Air BnB
3. Creative – e.g., her online store

Moving from a standard typical job was not a decision Jessie made lightly; she knew she did not want to move up the corporate ladder and had a range of knowledge she could offer others.
 

Jessie gave herself a timeline and decided to pursue a portfolio career.
 

So, you might be interested in building a composite or portfolio career.

Rimmer (2020) offers ideas to help you build a portfolio career. The first step is easy! They suggest that you connect with other people to find out what they are doing and how they got started. Remember informational interviews? These are perfect tool to begin the conversation.

Another place to start is to look for associations, networking groups, or online communities that specialize in the industry or specialization you are interested in. There are loads of people who could offer advice or support simply based on similar interests!

The Portfolio Collective (n.d.) suggests that there are several kinds of portfolio careers including:

The side hustler: having a part time job or “gig” outside of one’s full-time job

The freelancer: a person who is self-employed with several consulting projects

The multi-hyphenate: several different unrelated jobs at once

The focused expert: focused on one speciality, typically at the top of their field

Let’s look back at Mia to imagine some options for her portfolio career. She’s got a lot on the go! Remember that she’s a 4th year student, working at a local café in Cambridge, and she also has little online business. She has several different options that she could pursue. Let’s take a look:

Final Thoughts

As we can see from the two scenarios that Mia encountered, taking one or two steps can move you in the right directions. It is all about trial and error. In one scenario, Mia was not as successful; this is where resilience and connecting to your goals can help you try again. Be willing to explore options, reach out and take risks; ultimately, these are the key ingredients in building a composite/portfolio career.

Should you be interested in learning more about portfolio careers, check out this great resource: Building a Portfolio Career: Diversify Your Income and Do More of What You Love by Jenny Foss, found on LinkedIn Learning.

Artificial Intelligence Disclosure

• Microsoft Copilot was used as a brainstorming tool for the fictional characters used in this chapter.
• Adobe Firefly was used to generate reference images for the illustrations in the H5P activity in this chapter.