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Simon Strong’s portfolio career 6 of 6

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Illustration of a juggler

This is the fifth in a series of 6 blog posts by Simon Strong about his portfolio career. Reading how people have created their own portfolio career can be useful to inspire you to create one yourself.

In case you missed them, here are parts 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5

Here is part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-1/

Here is part 2:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-2/

Here is part 3:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-3/

Here is Part 4:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-4/

Here is part 5
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/10/19/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-5-of-6/

The rest of this blog is in Simon’s own words.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?
I’d really like to take advice on that one! I’ve come to realise that marketing and branding consultants suck at marketing themselves.

The café is much easier because I have a product and a place.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?
Human Zoo works nicely across different facets of my work. But I’ve found that it’s personal reputation that seems to be what unlocks the opportunities for me. Human Zoo is more for me than for clients. I suppose it fulfils the convention of being a company name. Maybe when some of the innovation projects take off it’ll serve a more important role.

What advice would you give to someone considering a portfolio career?
Good Lord! I’m not sure anyone should take advice from me! I’m happy to help people to create products, services, insights, culture, possible futures and even businesses. But I wouldn’t dare suggest anyone listen to advice I’d have to offer. Except that I suspect that whatever it is that you are thinking – it’s probably at least partially right.

I’m also a big fan of the minimum viable product idea – what is the least you can do to get your idea working. We’ve all done it – spent a fortune on a website, business cards, and marketing collateral in order to be ‘professional’. It’s a lot of wasted money for nothing. It could all have been done for free (a simple off-the-peg website, simple text only business cards etc.). For the most part all that stuff is just an expensive distraction (in terms of finance, energy and time) from doing the actual work.

When I opened the café I had an espresso machine. I could make coffee and tea. The espresso machine ran on bottled water, and I washed up in a bucket. The entire set up was temporary. It cost as little as I could get away with. But people loved it – rustic charm I called it! And they adored watching and being a part of this little business – watching it, and me, grow. My biggest insight from this is that my customers aren’t paying for the coffee I’ve just served – they are paying for me to be there tomorrow – they are investing in tomorrow’s cup of coffee!

Anything else you want to add?
It seems to me that the most secure occupation is the one you create for yourself. It’s unlikely you’ll find yourself such a terrible employee that you’ll fire yourself – I hope you’d be forgiving enough to give yourself another chance…!

This was the last in a 6 part guest blog series by Simon Strong.

View Simon Strong’s LinkedIn profile:
http://https//uk.linkedin.com/in/simonstrong

View the Human Zoo web site:
http://www.humanzoo.biz/

What could your portfolio career be made up of? Find out what your transferable skills are by downloading our free report:
http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

What are your career KPIs and do they matter?

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Reach for the stars

Preparing for a recent career event has made me think about career key performance indicators or KPIs; an often cited phrase for measuring performance. Lawyers, for example, are measured in 6 minute units of fee earning time, a key KPI, with published league tables – can you imagine how pressured that must be?!

Definition of KPIs

“A key performance indicator (KPI) is a metric used by business to evaluate factors that are crucial to the success of the business.”

How do you measure career performance specifically? If you are employed, your employer may use very different measures to what is important to you and if this is the case, it may be a good time for a job or career rethink.

If you are self-employed, is it the rate per day, how many days you work a year, enjoyable work, prestigious projects, number of referrals, client testimonials, repeat business, value per transaction/project or number of new clients?

Here is our definition of career KPIs for individuals:

“Career key performance indicators (KPIs) are metrics used by an individual to evaluate and measure factors that are crucial to their own perceived career success and progress.”

Types of KPI

• Financial; salary, rate/day, rewards, bonus etc.
• Progress; speed of promotion, increases in responsibility
• Work life balance; flexible working hours, sabbaticals taken, no of days holiday/year
• Fulfilment; feeling satisfied and enjoying your working hours and career
• Reputation/career capital; being seen as an expert, testimonials, sought after and needing to do less marketing over time
• Fit; a role that plays to your strengths and in which you feel ‘in flow’
• Purpose; giving back, making a difference to the world, involvement in CSR, working for an employer with clients in the charity sector or social enterprise
• Academic; membership level e.g. fellow in professional organisation, grade for further qualification attained

What are your top 3 career KPIs?

KPIs may change with life stage e.g. needing to fund children through school or university can make salary or a pay rise very important even if you are not that motivated by money, whilst flexible working is essential if you have young children for example.

7 tips to think about your career KPIs

1. Define your own unique career KPIs – don’t feel obliged to use standard measures – what is important to YOU?
2. Track your progress; measure and monitor at least every 3 months
3. Know your industry averages so you can bench mark/negotiate armed with facts and examples
4. Build self-awareness; know what motivates you and your personal values; what is important to you
5. Get a career coach to protect time to focus on your career and help you to see your full potential, something people often can’t do as they are too close themselves
6. Give yourself an annual performance review, or ideally a career review and planning meeting 4 times a year
7. Grade your KPIs; primary and secondary or ‘must do’ and ‘nice to have’

When will you make time to think about your career KPIs for the next 12 months?

A coaching session is a great way to ring fence time in your diary to focus on your career KPIs and career capital for the next 12 months. Book yours now, e mail us:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/careercoaching/what-next/

What’s your career capital?

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Money raining down

Career capital is the value of competencies, knowledge and individual personality attributes and other career assets that you have to produce economic value.
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 bait to catch the fish you want. Career capital helps you to do this. What ‘fish’ do you want to catch e.g. employer or clients?

Why is career capital important?

In future, in less than 5 years, 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 the new world of work; differentiation and visibility on-line?

What does the future look like?

People per hour is a taste of the future. The Sense Network is one example of on-line resourcing. Employer evaluation sites like Glassdoor are a growing trend.

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 elite 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?

7 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. Audit your career capital quarterly and define career asset S.M.A.R.T. goals
4. Ensure you have insights about what is important to and valued by your target audience e.g. who are their heroes/heroines?
5. Measure stats for your career capital so you can monitor progress
6. Monitor your reputation – set up Google alerts & track your name/brand on Twitter
7. Use/monitor LinkedIn stats to evaluate the quality and profile of your network

Download your copy of our free report now to find out your transferable skills:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

What is your career risk?

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Lighthouse beaming light

In an uncertain and fast changing world, career risk is a very important factor to consider. One person’s attitude to risk is very different to another’s which is why self-awareness is essential with career strategy and planning.

“Life is inherently risky. There is only one big risk you should avoid at all costs, and that is the risk of doing nothing.” Denis Waitley.

Being clear about the risks you face in your career and having a plan A, B and C will help you cover all eventualities. I have been much more risk aware since marrying a lawyer as this is their job!


15 career risks

How likely are these to happen to you in the next 6-24 months?

1. Your boss leaves the company affecting your career progression
2. Your department or division is shut down
3. Your skills become obsolete
4. Your role can be replaced by technology
5. Funding or budget cuts occur
6. Your layer of management is removed
7. Your role is outsourced to save money
8. Your company goes into liquidation
9. Your employer is merged with another or acquired
10. The market for your product/service disappears with fast changing markets & disruption
11. Illness inhibits your ability to work
12. Your role is made redundant
13. Your work can be done cheaper by younger or foreign workers
14. Your performance is deemed to be unacceptable with the spotlight on productivity and you are ‘performance managed out’
15. There is a new CEO who creates many changes- ‘new broom’

What are your top 3 career risks and what is the likelihood of them happening?

What other career risks would you add to this list?

7 tips to mitigate risk

1. Create a career strategy and plan
2. Get a career coach
3. Invest in keeping your skills up to date
4. Keep an eye on fast changing trends & disruptive competitors
5. Do some career scenario planning; create plans A, B and C
6. Start developing a portfolio career – a future proof career option
7. Create a financial cushion to give yourself some breathing space

There is a trend away from employers taking responsibility for your career to the individual taking responsibility. This is a new concept for many as we do not get taught or trained in how to do career strategy and planning at school or university.

How can we help you?

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Simon Strong’s portfolio career 5 of 6

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Simon Strong side profile

This is the fifth in a series of 6 blog posts by Simon Strong about his portfolio career. Reading how people have created their own portfolio career can be useful to inspire you to create one yourself.

In case you missed them, here are parts 1, 2, 3 & 4:

Here is part 1:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/11/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-1/

Here is part 2:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/04/16/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-2/

Here is part 3:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-3/

Here is part 4:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/22/simon-strongs-portfolio-career-4/

The rest of this blog is in Simon’s own words.

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?
I’m always busy, stimulated, and being challenged. I find every project provides new insight and perspective on the other projects I have on the go.

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?
I’ve no idea what I’m doing. I have so many balls in the air that whenever I stop to think I get terrified that I’m forgetting something important. I sometimes want to stop the bus so I can get off and take a moment to do nothing. But then, when I’ve got a moment to myself I have another idea which excites me and off I go again! I’ve got so many things that I want to do. I suppose my main challenge is myself.

I’ve begun to realise how important it is to surround yourself with great people. I couldn’t do this stuff on my own.

Commitment is the most under rated quality in people you want to work with. There are lots of flakes out there who will be happy to jump on the bandwagon once they know that something will be a success. But the really valuable people are the ones who are willing to put effort into something because it’s interesting before they know if it’ll work.

However, you’re the only one who can make it happen. Don’t expect anyone else to go out of their way to help you. It doesn’t matter how good your ideas are (contrary to popular myth, good ideas are really, really, really easy to come by, and you don’t have to be super smart to have them) – it’s your responsibility to make it work. If it fails – it’s your fault, and yours alone.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?
My wife. I always know when I’ve had a stinker of an idea – she ignores it. She gently nudges me towards the most fertile territories. She dissuades me from my worst excess, and is my number one cheerleader.

And my business partner Adam. We work really well together. We have very complimentary skill sets. We bounce off each other incredibly productively. He shoulders so much of the stuff that I’m not good at and lets me get on with what I am good at. I hope he thinks that I do the stuff he doesn’t like so he can get on with the stuff he’s good at…!

Part 6 of Simon’s 6 part guest blog series coming soon.

View Simon Strong’s LinkedIn profile:
http://https//uk.linkedin.com/in/simonstrong

View the Human Zoo web site:
http://www.humanzoo.biz/

What could your portfolio career be made up of? We help our clients create, market and manage their portfolio career.

Find out what your transferable skills are by downloading our free report:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Guest blog – Funke Abimbola #2

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Funke Abimbola

This is part 2 of a 2 part guest blog by Funke Abimbola, Managing Counsel, Roche Products Ltd. UK & Ireland.

Funke is a practising solicitor and currently Managing Counsel at Roche UK, leading the legal team supporting Roche’s pharmaceutical operations in the UK, Ireland, Malta and Gibraltar. She is also Data Protection Officer for the UK. Her career began in private practice before moving in-house. Funke undertakes a lot of work to support diversity & inclusion in society as a whole and within the legal profession in particular. An award winning lawyer and diversity champion, she was most recently a finalist for ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ at the inaugural 2015 Excellence in Diversity Awards and won the ‘Career Woman of the Year’ award at the 2015 Women4Africa awards.

In case you missed it, here is part 1:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/funke-abimbola-guest-blog-1/

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?

Time management, definitely! There are only so many hours in the day and I have to say “no” to lots of things which is a real pity. However, prioritising carefully means that I can focus on those activities that will really add the most value and impact.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?

My home life and commitments to my son have really helped me with the time management aspect and prioritising. I have several “rules” about how many events I can undertake in the evenings, for example, given the impact this would have on home life. I neither live nor work in London yet the bulk of my voluntary work takes place in London. This could have a negative impact on home life if not properly managed.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?

I make use of social media channels e.g. Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook and put up regular updates about what I am up to including pictures taken at speaking engagements etc. LinkedIn and Twitter have been particularly useful – for example, all my conference invites have come via LinkedIn. I regularly update my LinkedIn profile with as much information as possible given the reach I have through that channel alone.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?

I suppose this would be my LinkedIn tagline which reads:

Lawyer/Leader/Speaker/Diversity Champion/Mentor/Proud mother

I also always have a professional picture on both my LinkedIn and Twitter profiles and am consistent with both. My Twitter handle/identity is all related to my diversity and schools work where LinkedIn is much broader and also covers the legal work that I do. Both have served as really useful tools in re-enforcing my personal brand.

What advice would you give to someone considering a portfolio career?

Time management will almost certainly be your biggest challenge so do not feel guilty if you have to say “no” more than you can say “yes”. Learn to be smart with your time and to really focus on those activities likely to have the most impact. Regularly review how you are spending your time – time really is your most valuable resource.

What benefits do portfolio careers bring specifically to women and mothers, rather than to men?

Where the various elements of the portfolio career generate separate income streams, this can be really useful for working mothers who need to maintain a more agile, flexible way of working or indeed any other worker who is looking for this flexibility.

This was the second part of a two part guest blog by Funke Abimbola for Energise.

Follow Funke Abimbola on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/diversitychamp1

Are you a woman lawyer interested in a portfolio career? Download your free LLClub report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

Funke moved from private practice to an in-house role. Did you know that The Law Society (all divisions) are having a Changing career direction event on 20 October (evening)? Save the date. See link for details:

https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabId=37&id=1092&orgId=1&guid=f18e5ce0-e39c-4e5d-9f6a-4915fa3c27fc

The Food Judge guest blog part 3

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Nicky Richmond (low res)

This is part 3 of a 3 part guest blog by Nicky Richmond.

Nicky combines being a joint managing partner for Brecher with being a restaurant critic, and is a property and property finance lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. She is The Food Judge and writes a regular column for The Lawyer magazine. As a Foodie myself as you can see from our food themed LLClub web site, I am inspired!

In case you missed them, here are the links to part 1 & 2.

Part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/an-edible-portfolio-career-1/

Part 2
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/06/04/the-food-judge-nicky-richmond-2/

The rest of this blog are in Nicky’s own words.

Who or what helps you to manage your portfolio career?

No-one helps me to manage my portfolio career, but having a supportive group of partners in my firm who appreciate the good publicity that can come with raising the profile of any individual partner whether by way of restaurant reviews, opinion pieces or being involved with charities.
Not having to go through endless layers of bureaucracy to get my pieces approved is also a help and being an owner of the business means that I have more leeway than lawyers in larger firms where they may not feel entirely comfortable with a lawyer actually having an opinion.

How do you approach marketing your portfolio career?

In terms of law, through the conventional channels, attending industry events and writing in the legal and professional press. For the restaurant side, Twitter has been a great source of networking and contacts.

What if any, is the personal brand used for your portfolio career?

The Food Judge is my brand for the food blog. In general, my approach is straightforward advice with a sense of humour, whether it be legal/restaurant/charity work

What skills/experience/qualities would you say lawyers possess which makes them well suited to having a portfolio career?

Lawyers can work to a deadline, they are task driven, self-motivated, and having an outside life, in my view, makes them better lawyers

What advice would you give to give to someone considering a portfolio career?

Choose to spend your time on something you love and which makes you feel good about yourself

Your top 5 tips about portfolio careers from having one yourself?

1. Don’t be scared of trying something new
2. Put your head above the parapet – it doesn’t matter if it fails
3. Don’t expect instant success
4. Ask for help
5. Believe in yourself

Also – don’t wait until you have been in the law 25 years, like me, try something new. I look back and regret all that time I spent in the office at weekends or until silly hours of the night. There are times when that is unavoidable but if I’m honest with myself, I am allowed the job to take over and if I had had other interests/commitments earlier on, I may not have committed so much time to it and I would have had a more balanced and no doubt more enjoyable life.

Very few law firms will tell you that you are working too hard – you need to decide what is too much and how much you are prepared to give to the day job, they certainly won’t decide for you.

Allow yourself to do something for yourself that you enjoy.

More about Nicky Richmond

Nicky Richmond, Joint Managing Partner, Brecher:
http://www.brecher.co.uk/people/nicky-richmond/

The Food Judge – never knowingly underfed.
http://thefoodjudge.com/

Blog – Not Entirely Legal
http://strictlylegal.me/author/nickyrichmond/

More about portfolio careers:

Could a portfolio career give you the variety you seek? Download our free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’ and find out:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

The Food Judge – Nicky Richmond #2

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Nicky Richmond (low res)

This is part 2 of a 3 part guest blog by Nicky Richmond. Nicky combines being a joint managing partner for Brecher with being a restaurant critic, and is a property and property finance lawyer with over 25 years’ experience. She is The Food Judge and writes a regular column for The Lawyer magazine. As a Foodie myself as you can see from our food themed LLClub web site, I am inspired!

Here is part 1:
https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/2015/05/16/an-edible-portfolio-career-1/

The rest of this blog are in Nicky’s own words.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

My day job is a lawyer but what I really love to do is to review restaurants.

To what extent did your portfolio career happen by chance/luck and to what extent was it planned?

My portfolio career was not planned at all and I fell into it and only realised how much it gave me once I have been doing it for quite some time. Doing the reviews didn’t feel like work and it was easy to combine it with my work life as whilst I will never willingly attend a sporting event, I will happily take a client to a food event and I have to do client entertaining as part of my business.

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?

Finally managing to incorporate my obsession with food into my day-to-day life other than just by way of eating it. Meeting a whole new group of people and getting to understand another industry, which has been fascinating. Feeling that I’m using all parts of my skill set and that there is still a lot to learn. Getting stale is so dull.

What are the challenges of having a portfolio career?

Realising that you can’t do everything that you want to do because there are not enough hours in the day. You have to really plan and be disciplined about the time you spend on each thing that you do and you have to be equally committed to the non-core aspects of your portfolio career.
The temptation with law is to let it take over – I certainly did for the first 25 years and I ended up being tired, and a little bit jaded. Doing the charity work is good for the soul however much of a cliché that might appear, and the upside is that you get to meet a whole new group of people from different walks of life. The sort of people who volunteer are the sort of people that I really like to spend time with.

Part 3 of this 3 part guest blog coming soon.

More about Nicky Richmond

Nicky Richmond, Joint Managing Partner, Brecher:
http://www.brecher.co.uk/people/nicky-richmond/

The Food Judge – never knowingly underfed.
http://thefoodjudge.com/

Blog – Not Entirely Legal
http://strictlylegal.me/author/nickyrichmond/

More about portfolio careers:

Could a portfolio career give you the variety you seek? Download our free report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’ and find out:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

Interested in finding out more about whether a portfolio career is to your taste? Come along to The Law Society Portfolio careers event on Friday 12 June. See link for more details:
https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabId=37&id=1077&orgId=1&guid=eb63cc9e-13ed-45c4-8b66-4b52db7a0c94

The agony of feeling trapped in the wrong career

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Fed up woman with pile of paper at desk

So there you are. Feeling trapped. Feeling stuck. The agonising pain of needing a career change.

So, what do you do? Do you take action? Do you do research?

What do you do?

Is it any of these?

•You chew your pencil (there must be a few pencils still left out there in a world of tablets!)
•You bite your nails.
•You have a moan to your partner or a friend.
•You go shopping. Alot.
•You go to an expensive restaurant.
•You go to an pricey hairdresser and have a haircut and your colours done.
•You visit a Spa for a day to pamper yourself and make yourself feel better.
•Your body gets ill, waves you a ‘red flag’ and goes on strike to take you away from the office and give you some time to create the future. You sleep.
•You drink too much.
•You search for free career change resources on the web.
•You do drugs.
•You get depressed.
•You comfort eat. Multi packs are your new ‘best friend’.
•You moan to your partner or friend. Again.
•You plan a weekend away or holiday to distract yourself from how bad you feel.

And then you come back from a break and return to work and your life. Things are exactly the same. Only they aren’t. You have money on your credit card to pay off.

If you convinced yourself that you couldn’t afford to change career before, you definitely can’t now. Your mortgage is too big. Your credit card bill too large. Your tiredness and lack of energy too much to make a change.

So what do you do?

You start planning your next holiday to escape from your life and your job. A temporary refuge from the agony of being stuck in the wrong career. And feeling it is too late to do anything about it. It isn’t.

Can you relate to this? Does it remind you of someone you know; a partner, friend, family member or colleague?

If you are ready to create a virtuous circle and invest in yourself rather than keep recreating a vicious circle, get in touch. If you are not, please don’t.

What next?

Please share this post with someone who you feel needs to read it.

Read our client testimonials:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/energise-client-testimonials/

Download your copy of our free report:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/changingcareersreport/

Read inspiring client examples:

https://liberateyourtalent.wordpress.com/client-examples/

Energise Career coaching:

http://careerstrategies.co.uk/careercoaching/services-1/services/

Funke Abimbola guest blog #1

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Funke Abimbola
This is part 1 of a 2 part guest blog by Funke Abimbola, Managing Counsel, Roche Products Ltd. UK & Ireland.

Funke is a practising solicitor and currently Managing Counsel at Roche UK, leading the legal team supporting Roche’s pharmaceutical operations in the UK, Ireland, Malta and Gibraltar. She is also Data Protection Officer for the UK. Her career began in private practice before moving in-house. Funke undertakes a lot of work to support diversity & inclusion in society as a whole and within the legal profession in particular. An award winning lawyer and diversity champion, she was most recently a finalist for ‘Diversity Champion of the Year’ at the inaugural 2015 Excellence in Diversity Awards and won the ‘Career Woman of the Year’ award at the 2015 Women4Africa awards.

What are the components of your portfolio career e.g. study, paid freelance work, part time job, volunteering etc.)?

I have a full time job as a lawyer leading the UK & Ireland legal team for a large pharmaceutical company. In addition, I hold a number of voluntary roles within diversity and education. I am also a regular speaker at various conferences and to students both at school and at University.

How did your portfolio career come about?

My portfolio career came about out of a genuine desire to make a positive difference within the legal community and my local community. I was particularly frustrated by the ongoing diversity issues in the legal profession and once I realised that I was in a position to make a positive impact in this area, I decided to devote more and more of my spare time to diversity initiatives.

How has your portfolio career changed over time?

Because of the limitations on my spare time (I am a working mother), I have had to re-prioritise this year. For example, this meant resigning as a school governor simply because I did not have enough time to do that together with other schools-related work and my diversity work and speaking engagements.

When people ask you ‘what do you do?’ – what do you reply?

I tell them that I wear many hats! I often reply by saying I am a lawyer, leader, diversity champion, mentor and very proud mother.

To what extent did your portfolio career happen by chance/luck and to what extent was it planned?

It certainly was not planned but came about by chance as various opportunities to make impactful changes came up. I was approached about specific diversity initiatives, for example, and things have snowballed from there. Also, the school governor role came about due to a genuine need to get involved in the school’s development at the time.

What do you most love about having a portfolio career?

The ability to meet people that I would not have met otherwise; also the chance to broaden my experiences and change my perspective. I have been able to apply some of the new skills learnt from my voluntary work into my work as a lawyer/leader and this has made the experience all the more rewarding.

This was the first part of a two part guest blog by Funke Abimbola for Energise LLClub.

Follow Funke Abimbola on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/diversitychamp1

Are you a woman lawyer interested in a portfolio career? Download your free LLClub report ‘Discover Portfolio Careers’:
http://www.llclub.org/discover-portfolio-careers/

To book your place at the Law Society Women Lawyers Division Portfolio Careers event on 12 June, click on this link:
https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabid=37&id=1077&orgId=1&guid=45fb5b5b-61ae-421d-84e4-3ccb65a5c20b

Funke moved from private practice to an in-house role. Did you know that The Law Society (all divisions) are having a Changing career direction event on 20 October (evening)? Save the date. See link for details:
https://events.lawsociety.org.uk/ClientApps/Silverbear.Web.EDMS/public/default.aspx?tabId=37&id=1092&orgId=1&guid=f18e5ce0-e39c-4e5d-9f6a-4915fa3c27fc