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22 tips to create your successful portfolio career

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Creating a successful portfolio career takes thought, reflection, self-awareness and planning.

Here are 22 tips:

  1. Be clear about your career horizon/vision
  2. Learn from those who have one
  3. Get an experienced career coach or mentor
  4. Research market needs
  5. Have self-awareness about your motivations, values, needs, wants and financial security thresholds
  6. Make time to think, plan and reflect
  7. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to the wrong thing
  8. Invest in your skills and knowledge
  9. Make time to market yourself
  10. Define your personal brand
  11. Keep an eye on changing trends
  12. Build a high quality and diverse network
  13. Know what makes you unique
  14. Create and maintain a financial ‘cushion’
  15. Stay ahead of your competitors
  16. Avoid losing time e.g. politicking and gossiping
  17. Have a good support system
  18. Use technology to be expedient
  19. Be open to unexpected and unplanned opportunities
  20. Don’t be afraid to pivot/change your focus
  21. Have a compelling verbal business card
  22. Create case study examples of flagship cases and projects

What tips would you add?

More

Check out our Inspiration page for useful articles and reports: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/inspiration/

Our blogs share insights and tips on various topics and clients examples: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/blog/

PS Our web site has a search box to save you time and find what you are looking for. (top left under the e mail address on all web pages)

Why choose us? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/talent-liberation/

Who are our clients? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/clients/

What is a portfolio career? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/what-is-a-portfolio-career/

Who is a portfolio career for? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/who-has-portfolio-careers/

Why choose a portfolio career? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/why-portfolio-career/

When is it time for a portfolio career? https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/when/

Client testimonials https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/testimonials/

How to create a career breakthrough

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This exercise below is perfect for end of year reflection and thinking about 2023. 10 self-reflective questions. Block out some time in your diary between now and the beginning of the year. It is one of the action planning exercises in Chapter 4 ‘How to change career direction’ in my book “Career Management for Lawyers. Practical Strategies To Plan your Next Chapter” for the Law Society:

https://bookshop.lawsociety.org.uk/p/career-management-for-lawyers-practi-paperback/

  1. What specific career breakthrough am I seeking and by when?
  2. What is the significance of this career breakthrough for me personally?
  3. What actions have I taken in the past 5 years to influence this career breakthrough to happen?
  4. What are my learnings for the future about how I plan for my future career breakthroughs?
  5. What qualities do I have to help me to achieve a career breakthrough?
  6. What actions can I take in the future to positively influence my desired career breakthrough?
  7. Who do I know in my network who can help me to achieve my career breakthrough?
  8. Who do I know who has successfully achieved a career breakthrough in the last 6 months whose advice I can seek?
  9. In what way and with whom will I celebrate my career breakthrough?
  10. How could a mentor, coach and/or sponsor help me to accelerate my career breakthrough?

How can we help you achieve an uplifting career breakthrough?

Get in touch to discuss what career change you are seeking. If you don’t know yet, don’t worry. This is partly how we help our clients – creating clarity from insights, internal (you) and external (the market.)

https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Shall we dance? And fight injustice?

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Good news!

I wanted to share the achievements and celebrate the dedication of my client Olivia Streater who is based in Switzerland.

Olivia, who is Anglo-Turkish, was born in London, is multilingual, started her career at Amnesty International and qualified as a solicitor at Clifford Chance, a top global law firm.

She trained as a dancer, and being curious, embarked on a personal development journey.

How to combine these very different interests in a job or career?

I met Olivia on the Law Society Returners course in 2012, whicj I have supported for over a decade.

Olivia decided that she wanted to become a dance and movement therapist, helping people who had experienced trauma and combine this with her human rights work.

Recently, she has completed her Master of the Arts (MA) in Dance Movement Therapy, obtaining the German equivalent to a First and received a prize for achieving the top grade of her cohort and was nominated for an innovation award for her mixed methods thesis studying DMT interventions for trauma.

Talent doesn’t always fit in one neat box.

What talents do you have that need liberating?

A portfolio career is ideal for people with eclectic talents and interests like Olivia Streater.

More about Olivia- view her LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/oliviastreaterlavizzari/

E mail us to receive your free copy of our report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/contact-us/

Redundancy – problem or new opportunity?

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How are you feeling about the ‘R’ word?

If you are over 40, then you will remember the late 1980’s/early 1990’s when redundancy and negative equity were commonplace.

I was made redundant in the late 80’s. It was very stressful at the time, but a problem became an opportunity as it was the beginning of my career going in a direction that was more true to me.

I used my redundancy money to pay off my debts and give my discoloured teeth ‘a face lift’ with some porcelain veneer crowns, so redundancy ironically helped put the smile back on my face!!!

The positive aspects of redundancy

All the clients I have ever worked with who have been made redundant have gone on to something better. Did you know that only 20% of people actually enjoy their work?

Often we fall into a job almost by accident, choose a career because our parents did it or thought it a ‘proper’ profession e.g. law or accountancy, or perhaps a teacher influenced our choices. 

Companies can take a short-term view of saving costs, cutting headcount without considering the longer-term implications of losing people or having a talent shortage post recession. 

If redundancy is a possibility for you, it’s worth having a chat with your employer about your skills being redeployed in the business differently, reducing your hours, or having a sabbatical.

Redundancy = new beginning

Redundancy can be a push to make a positive change, even if it feels out of your hands and more like an unwelcome shove that makes you angry and steals your confidence. A redundancy lump sum is often used to start a business or fund a training course to increase marketability.

Examine skill shortages = opportunity to retrain/up-skill

A skills shortage is an opportunity for people being made redundant to skill-up in the areas where there is a shortage. Sheep shearing or being a trained ballet dancer may not be your thing, but jobs such as an engineer, maths teacher or specialist nurses could be. Markets such as care homes, tech, big data and cyber security are growing for example.

Part of my role as a career strategist and coach is keeping up to date with changing trends – in demand skills and new emerging careers.

Get comfortable and competent marketing yourself

The British are very modest and people get so close to ourselves that we find it hard to see what makes us unique and marketable and how we can use these transferable skills in a different way. I can help.

The older we are and the more financial responsibilities and dependants we have, the harder and more risky the change feels.

A career crossroads is a positive opportunity to take a step back and look at who you are, what you want and how to get it.

We help our clients to achieve an uplifting breakthrough at major career crossroads such as redundancy, and have been doing career strategy coaching for over two decades.

How can we help you or someone you know at risk of redundancy?

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

What’s your career insurance?

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It is vital in uncertain times to have career ‘insurance’ – a plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ for your career. 

Do you?

Not having an insurance policy for your career is like driving a car in winter with only one headlight, a 10 year old map, a nearly empty tank of petrol with no spare petrol can in the boot and with one wing mirror hanging off.

You wouldn’t, would you?

Why then, do most people do the equivalent with their career?

You only have to look at what has happened during the coronavirus period to see the danger of how fast a sector can change.

So – what’s your career plan ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’? 

Reasons for neglecting this vital area include:

·        Fear: Of feeling regret and disappointment

·        Time poor: Let other’s needs take precedence

·        Overwhelm: Don’t know where to start

·        Empty toolbox: Don’t have the tools and frameworks

·        Short termism: Focus on the here and now

·        Life stage: Feel no point with other life priorities

·        Habit: Fell into a career and leave it to chance

·        Resigned: Don’t feel deserve anything better/different

·        Unaware: Never done any personal development

·        Blinkered: In the dark about the fast changing world of work 

Do you relate to any of these? What additional factors would you add?

Inspiring quote

“The best way to create the future is to invent it.” Alan Kay.

Self-reflective question:

What 1 action can I take straight away that would most help my future career security & prospects?”  

7 tips for your career reassurance

1.  Support: enlist an experienced career coach

2.  Headspace: book a career retreat/away day

3.  Think: replace mindless time frittering e.g. FaceBook

4.  Focus: write your ideal role/career description & plan ‘A’, ‘B’ & ‘C’

5.  Habit: make ‘dead’ time fruitful e.g. a commute to create options

6.  Prioritise: ring fence a monthly time slot & budget

7.  Informed: look inwards (self-awareness) & outwards (trends)

What tips would you add?

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Exercising your entrepreneurial muscle

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More competition for jobs and consultancy work makes being entrepreneurial as well as resilient essential.

The word entrepreneurial can make people put pressure on themselves, as it is associated with entrepreneurs, and many people don’t identify themselves in this way.

Alternative words for entrepreneurial

Other words that you can use instead of ‘entrepreneurial’ that may feel more ‘you’ are:

  • Enterprising
  • Imaginative
  • Ingenious
  • Inventive
  • Pioneering
  • Resourceful
  • Creative

Coronavirus has forced entrepreneurial behaviour

The coronavirus has seen a massive amount of fast change and reinvention with on-line learning and teaching, for example.

Our local pub is planning to re-open in July re-organised to accommodate social distancing with an App to pre-book tables and pre order and pay for food and drinks. Food and drinks will be placed in a holding bay, for people sitting at tables to collect themselves, protecting the staff and minimising touch and risk of infection, instead of staff serving at the tables. This system will also enable more planning, and perhaps less waste, with prior knowledge of what ingredients are needed and in what quantity.

Invention and innovation

Entrepreneurial behaviour underlies the inclination to undertake invention and innovation, including the creation of something new, as well as the distribution and adoption of the new throughout society. Think Zoom and Team which are now the norm, when a few months ago, not everyone had heard of or used them.

Portfolio careers require entrepreneurial behaviour

Entrepreneurial behaviours are essential with a portfolio career, a career made up of different work strands, where you create different opportunities for yourself. As an analogy, just as with cookery, the more ingredients that you have – skills, experience, knowledge and contacts, the more ‘recipes’ you can create for yourself.

What are entrepreneurial behaviours?

Confident/’can do’ attitude

Proactivity

Learning

A mistake/failure is an opportunity to learn/relearn

Try different things

Curiosity

Assertiveness

Being inventive/enterprising

Resilient

A preference for change

Desire to change the status quo 

How would you rate yourself currently on these entrepreneurial behaviours out of 100%?

Developing entrepreneurial habits helps to develop entrepreneurial behaviours.

10 habits of entrepreneurs

What are the habits of entrepreneurs?

1.  Plan a day in advance

2.  Get proper nutrition

3.  Position themselves to serve others

4.  Set clear S.M.A.R.T. goals

5.  Take calculated risks

6.  Know their strengths and weaknesses

7.  Hire ‘A’ team players

8.  Are constantly learning

9.  Always look for opportunities

10.               Evaluate their actions and priorities every day

6 tips to develop your entrepreneurial ‘muscle’

  1. Block out time in your diary each week for personal and professional development
  2. Diarise a half day or whole day away day every 2 months to think, reflect, plan and create
  3. Read Charles Handy’s book The New Alchemists
  4. Learn to coach yourself – ask yourself open incisive questions e.g. for a trainer: ‘What trends are growing in the tech sector that I could adopt for the training industry?’
  5. Diarise ‘important not urgent’ tasks to make sure that they happen. According to Stephen Covey, author of the international best seller The 7 habits of highly effective people these tasks are:
  • Preparation
  • Prevention
  • Planning
  • Relationship building
  • Empowerment
  • Self awareness, learning, exploration & development
  • Learning new skills
  • Creative thinking
  • Networking
  • Prioritisation
  • Training & development
  • Exercise 

6. Push out your comfort zone each week – do something that you have never done before

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

Transferable skills – where next?

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A common theme amongst all of the career coaching clients I work with is a) they have a blind spot seeing their own skills and talents and b) how they can use them in other ways, i.e. possible new jobs or different careers to what they have done before.

I act as a pair of ‘wing mirrors’ to help them see their skills and be clear about where else they can use them.

In these times of redundancies and shrinking sectors caused by the impact of the coronavirus, this is a very important area to explore as part of your future-proof career.

What is a skill?

A skill is defined as: “cleverness at doing a thing, either from practice or a natural gift.”

Why do people find it hard to see their own skills?

Most people don’t think of themselves in terms of skills, and find it immodest to talk about their own ‘natural gifts’.

Common phrases that people express are: “I just do my job” or “it’s just what I do.”

It is not surprising therefore that people need support in seeing new career options for themselves. 

People are discouraged from saying that they are clever and our specific and unique talents are rarely acknowledged or recognised by others. Other people may have thought about you are good at, but not shared this information with you, so it is worth asking to elicit this useful information.

In employer engagement research, frustration about lack of feedback is a common complaint from employees about their line managers, so giving feedback to your direct reports is a good thing to do to boost morale at this time if you are a manager.

Articulating the benefits you bring

Awareness of your specific skills and the ability to articulate them, sharing tangible examples of the benefits they bring is crucial in career success, especially when you are competing against a lot of good candidates.

Spell it out

For people seeking a new or different career, being explicit in helping others to see how your skills are useful in a related context is a must to convince your potential employer that you are up to the task, and not a risk. Self-awareness, confidence and the ability to market yourself, plus overcoming natural fears about change enable a change in career direction to be within reach.

Self-reflective question

What’s my best skill and in what other contexts is it useful?

Inspiring quote

“Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities. Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers, you cannot be successful or happy.”

Norman Vincent Peale

5 tips to help you identify your transferable skills

1) Get someone to ask you how you do your job and to write down what you say and then share their perspective of your skills with you.

2) Think about something you do well naturally and write down the specifics using the third person. Practice saying “I am really good at, for example when ….” This makes it feel more comfortable and not ‘boastful.’

3) Analyse the ‘process’ you use to do your work step by step. Most people have a process incorporating certain skills but don’t see this, as they are too close to themselves. This can be turned into a model or infographic to use on your CV, on social media or on a personal web site.

4) Ask people you work with or live with for feedback about your specific skills and do the same for them.

5) If you want to fast track your awareness, get a career coach who is trained to see your skills and help you to see opportunities where they are useful that you may be unaware even existed.

To receive a free report Personal Skills Audit, please get in touch: https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

How’s your career capital?

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Career capital is the value of competencies, knowledge and individual personality attributes and other career assets that you have to produce economic value.

In competitive markets, career capital is even more important than usual.

In times of redundancies with supply of workers outstripping demand, the market will be more competitive. If the quality of two candidates is the same, what will differentiate them to be chosen?

What is career capital?

Your career assets combined = your career capital; the sum total of your time, talent and potential. You need to consider it in terms of its present and future value when considering your long-term career prospects. If the internet is an ocean full of ‘fish’ i.e opportunities, you need the right ‘bait’ to catch the ‘fish’ you want, whether it is a job or a self employed project. Career capital helps you to do this. 

What ‘fish’ do you want to catch e.g. employer or clients?

What will your ‘bait’ be?

Why is career capital important? 

The market for workers is changing. In future, employers will have reduced permanent headcount and resource up on an as needed basis with individuals and employers rated transparently on-line.

Are you ready for this new world of work?

Differentiation and visibility on-line is critical.

Career assets 

Your career capital is made up of multi-faceted career assets which accrue over time.    

Accolades

  • Patents
  • Awards
  • League table rankings e.g. Chambers
  • Who’s who listing

Academic 

  • Higher qualifications e.g. MBA, PHD, MSc/MA
  • Links with academia or prestigious universities e.g. guest lecturer

Endorsements

  • Client testimonials/employer references
  • Peer testimonials/endorsements

Published works

  • Articles
  • Chapters
  • Books
  • White papers

Talent

  • Multiple mastery areas
  • In-demand skills e.g. creativity, big data management
  • Languages
  • Good emotional intelligence e.g. empathy

Networks

  • Professional association involvement
  • Membership of respected clubs
  • Size & diversity of network
  • Quality of network e.g. senior decision makers, high net worths

Events

  • Hosting an event
  • Speaking at an event
  • Conference speaking
  • Conference chairing

Charitable

  • Pro bono
  • Trustee post

Career credibility 

  • Prestige/trophy employers & clients e.g. FTSE 100
  • Senior leadership positions e.g. C-Suite

Miscellaneous

  • Personal brand

What would you add? How would you rate your career capital?

10 tips for healthy career capital 

  1. Create a career strategy and ensure your career capital is aligned with it
  2. Define your ‘fish’ – i.e. target employers or clients
  3. Make time to think about what ‘bait’ is the best to catch your ‘fish’
  4. Audit your career capital quarterly and define career asset S.M.A.R.T. goals
  5. Ensure you have insights about what is important to and valued by your target audience
  6. Define your personal brand
  7. Measure stats for your career capital so you can monitor progress
  8. Monitor your reputation – e.g. set up Google alerts & track your name/brand on Twitter
  9. Use/monitor LinkedIn stats to evaluate the quality and profile of your network
  10. When, where and how will I make time to accrue my career capital?

Thought leadership is one of our specialisms. How can we help you develop yours?

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

What do our clients say? https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 4 of 4

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Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-1-of-4/

Read part 2 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-2-of-4/

Read part 3 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-3-of-4/

  1. Design and print high quality business cards – they speak volumes about you
  2. Networking selectively for your own specialism

3.  Have a superb support system e.g. bookkeeper, proactive accountant, IT, virtual PA

4.  Develop and hone efficient expedient systems, e.g. physical paper and computer file folders from the outset

5.  Back date purchases before you set up your business 

6.  Be adaptable and open to new avenues and opportunities – learn as you go along, learn then teach to embed new learning

7.  Create your own personal image – be authentic

8.  Have a plan but be agile – see what clients/projects you attract

9. Set continual professional and personal development S.M.A.R.T. goals

10. Diarise time for the opposite of what you naturally are drawn to do. E.g. if you are naturally positive and think about what you HAVE done, make time to think about what you HAVEN’T done

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/

10 tips for happy self-employment – part 3 of 4

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Self employment is on the rise. This is a 4 part article series sharing 40 tips for happy self-employment.

Read part 1 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-1-of-4/

Read part 2 https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/10-tips-for-happy-self-employment-part-2-of-4/

1.  Follow up is key – don’t waste effort going for the ‘new shiny thing’

2.  Be clear on your attitude to risk

3.  Adopt smart tech to work expediently and plan IT reviews and updates

4.  Create a financial ‘cushion’ for quiet times 

5.  Design your business and working environment around your personality type e.g. extrovert or introvert

6.  Make the most of the quiet months (August/December/January) to think and plan, don’t worry that it is quiet – it is a gift! 

7.  Utilise the support of a Virtual PA – play to your strengths

8.  Be honest with yourself – what do you really want, rather than what you think you should do?

9.  Know the key words for your specialism – use Google Keyword planner

10.               Define your personal brand and personal brand assets, e.g. avatar – this is increasingly important in the digital age

Get in touch https://www.inspiringportfoliocareers.com/portfolio/connect/