Huma Siraj
Do you think of yourself as a multipotentiality with a range of abilities and interests? A standard job path can feel restrictive to many people. It just doesn’t make sense to dedicate yourself to a particular path and spend years moving up the traditional corporate ladder. Rather of working a single, secure job, more professionals are choosing to pursue several hobbies, even if it means managing many side gigs.
Another name for this kind of unconventional professional path is a portfolio career. The good news is that there is nothing wrong with choosing an alternative path, even though you may feel out of step with the prevailing culture. Former CEOs, committed individual contributors, and entrepreneurs have launched profitable, successful portfolio ventures. The benefits of breaking from the standard are covered in more detail below. These advantages include more flexibility and a variety of revenue sources.
Greater Adaptability
The nine-to-five slog is a familiar experience for most individuals. You concentrate on the tasks your employer needs done within your set working hours. You frequently don’t get to specify your duties, even when the broad scope of your position may include topics you’re interested in. Your position is shaped by your employer, who typically restricts it to the use of specific skill sets.
Having your employer dictate your actions also has the drawback that they may alter without your consent. Leadership may choose to increase, decrease, change, or even remove your responsibilities. You might take part in the discussion, but you don’t have the last say.
A portfolio career puts you in control. You have more control over when and how you work because you may select which tasks to devote your time and skills to. Additionally, it allows you to try new things.
Brianna Doe, the founder and content creator of the influencer marketing firm Verbatim, has clearly recognized this benefit. Doe shares her story of starting her marketing agency and how she has been able to help others build their own businesses outside of the typical 9–5 work in a blog post.
I chose to get in touch with Doe as a fellow career and startup mentor to find out more about the main benefits she has experienced since starting her portfolio career. I was able to experiment, research, and really figure out what I wanted to make when I decided to pursue a portfolio profession,” she continues. My work now reflects who I am rather than following a strict formula or being constrained by other people’s ideas of what success or desire looks like. Her remark effectively illustrates how developing a portfolio career allows you to customize your employment to suit your interests and identity.
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Additionally, entrepreneurs can use it as a useful case study to learn from when they begin their own portfolio careers. According to the details she provided about her next book, The Unapologetic Professional, she also intends to include more portfolio career advice that professionals could find useful.
Various Sources of Income
A single W-2 employment provides benefits and a consistent income. Because it is predictable—you receive a direct deposit of roughly the same amount every two weeks—the appearance of security can be reassuring. They also cover some of your retirement plan contributions and your insurance premiums.
However, what would happen if you were fired without warning? The sense of security is immediately gone. You lose out on 401(k) contributions, a handy way to obtain health insurance, and your paycheck. When you consider it, traditional work reduces your financial stability by relying on a business to supply your only source of income in return for your labor.
A portfolio-based career departs from this perspective. Having several sources of income makes you more financially stable. You have other things to worry about if a client or industry disappears. Because you have money coming in from other ventures, there is less chance of you losing your paycheck. Additionally, you can replace what disappears with new work.
In an interview, content creator Linda Le, who developed a portfolio career, talks about how she chose to expand her network and influence outside of her job. I was moved by Le’s story after reading her interview responses and contacted her to find out more. “I used to think stability came only from one job and one paycheck,” she said, revealing her main driving force for pursuing a portfolio career. However, that one paycheck left me exhausted, nervous, and always fearing that I might lose it.
Her statement so emphasizes that having a portfolio career has several benefits, including the ability to more readily adapt in times of uncertainty, which provides you with peace of mind and financial independence. Furthermore, as you establish your own stability, you become less reliant and can concentrate on your top interests.
Develop a Variety of Skills
Expanding one’s skill set is one of the reasons individuals switch employment. In an effort to develop and progress their professions, they yearn for experience in a different field or sector. Ironically, traditional employment typically has restrictions, even while it can offer great options.
You may find that you can only get so far in a single organization. You may find that the position and organization are entirely different from what you had hoped for. You can eventually feel unfulfilled because you can’t usually alter a company’s structure, culture, or leadership’s definition of a function. As you develop personally, you may also wish to explore other options that are not offered by your present employer.
Such limitations do not apply to a portfolio career. If you want to be both an IT tech and a social media manager, that’s totally OK. For example, you may work as an independent contractor and handle the social media calendars for different businesses on the side. You spend other parts of your day troubleshooting computer issues for businesses.
These two occupations appear to have nothing in common at first glance. Working in a variety of professions, however, will reveal unnoticed links between them. You’ll acquire versatile, transferable skills that you can use in a variety of fields. In the process, you will increase your marketability to prospective customers and have complete control over the experience and skill sets you acquire.
Developing a Career Portfolio
Younger generations in particular are becoming increasingly disillusioned with traditional professional pathways. According to a survey of more than 1,000 Gen Zers, half of them choose starting their own business over working for a regular workplace. They believe that the freedom and chance to follow their passions are more beneficial than what a W-2 job can provide.
