What’s a Portfolio Career? (and realizing I have a one)

If the term portfolio career is new to you (it was to me!), it means my career is made up of two or more roles at any given time - rather than 1 full time role. Unbeknownst to me, I have had a portfolio career for the past 3 years, since I started coaching alongside my consulting work.

For me, right now, that portfolio is made up of Career and Life Design Coaching, my new role as a Sr. Epidemiologist and Policy Advisor within the Migration Health branch of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (that’s a mouthful!), and volunteering in the community. Here’s my story of starting a new role and being mindful, intentional, and setting boundaries to keep the portfolio of work that I find meaningful and fulfilling.

Interestingly, I wasn’t looking for work in October when I first came across the role with IRCC after moving back to Canada. I didn’t want a full-time job, but I didn’t know if part time work was even an option within a government organization. It would be so easy to accept a full-time role – what is considered “normal” - but coaching gives me so much energy and I have worked so hard to create and cultivate my coaching practice, it was important for me to continue to dedicate time to that work.

So, from day one, I was honest and transparent with my hiring manager about my other work streams. I negotiated for a part-time contract, and now I dedicate half of my time to my coaching practice and volunteer work, and the other half of my time to my IRCC work. Lucky for me, my boss was (and is!) wonderfully supportive of my coaching practice and portfolio career (it didn’t hurt that Epidemiologists post-pandemic are like Unicorns – magical, and hard to find so she felt like she was winning too!). Now, five moths in, I can say I am really liking my current portfolio and it has given me things I have been missing through my coaching + consulting portfolio of work: I have a great team that I see in person (and virtually) several times a week, I work on longer term projects, and projects that are directly related to the country I am living in.

All of this said – a portfolio career isn’t always easy. It takes work and dedication to make sure you are being accountable to each of your roles and being deliberate with your time. And that takes work. Being accountable to myself for coaching business development is SO much harder than it is to be accountable for days of IRCC work. If the kids are sick, or life admin comes up, its much easier to take that time away from my non-client coaching time – case in point: it has taken me 5 months to post about this job and write a portfolio career blog post - but no one is perfect and I’m working on it! I have a support system that help me be true to what I want in my career: I have a coach holds space for me and is a great accountability partner; and I have a boss that is supportive of my wanting to remain part-time. This portfolio I have created is the best combinations of all worlds for me – team work, problem solving, working for a mission; combined with holding space, and providing one-on-one support to others, helping them to realize their full potential.

I’m owning this portfolio career one day at a time, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks for reading,

Amy

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Check out these articles I liked on portfolio careers:

Why I Love Having A 'Portfolio Career' (And You Could, Too) – Forbes - Victoria Scanlan Stefanakos

"But if you’ve “gone portfolio” and get it, you don’t ask whether it’s worth the inevitable headaches; you focus on how to work smarter to avoid them. You can’t imagine life without the upsides, which economist and management writer Charles Handy, who popularized the idea, described in his book The Empty Raincoat..."

An Alternative Approach to Building a Meaningful Career – TEDxThammasatU – Max Pakapol

I love Max’s description of a Portfolio Career Canvas (at 7m41s into the video) looking at the pay and passion aspects of each role in a portfolio career.

Why the Career of the Future Needs a Portfolio Approach – TIME/charter - S. Mitra Kalita

"One of the most important (and least discussed) aspects of portfolio careers is finances. Two truths became clear in my conversations: that it is okay for one aspect of your portfolio to be a full-time job with benefits, and that some aspects of your portfolio might make no money at all.