I went to the book launch of “And What Do You Do?: 10 Steps to Creating a Portfolio Career” by Barrie Hopson and Katie Ledger a couple of weeks ago. The book is a guide to anyone who wants to explore having two or more ‘jobs’.
Having now read the book (it’s great by the way – very practical and full of examples and stories) there were a few of things that struck me.
Firstly how technology has enabled more people than ever to have portfolio careers. Katie and Barrie are bang up to date in their exploration of this, from the practical delivery of work to marketing yourself using social media.
Secondly, that while anyone of any age can be attracted to a portfolio career, there is some evidence that younger workers (Generation Y) are more comfortable with the idea of finding ‘clients’ to sell their skills to, rather than looking for just one job. I guess this is a result of seeing work more as something to do, rather than a place to go – a hang up that Generation X and the baby boomers find harder to shake off. This combined with the changing world of work and more enlightened companies benefitting from the flexibility this provides suggests this may become far more the norm.
