Portfolio Careers, what's that all about?

• just a name for people who have multiple sources of income..

Hello everyone

Some thoughts about side-hustles, passion projects, portfolio careers and pivoting to a different role or industry.

Since the pandemic, there has been a huge increase in portfolio careers, including a rise in?side hustles and multi-income individuals. While it was popular to keep these additional roles separate from the “day job” or even a secret, it’s been noticeable in recent times how valuable this extra experience can be and how loads of people share information about what their passion projects are on CVs and of course on LinkedIn. If you’ve not heard the phrase ‘portfolio career’ before, it’s really just a fancy way of describing someone with more than one job.

We’ve started asking people more about their side hustles or second jobs because it’s so interesting to learn about what people are passionate about and how these can add skills and experience to a CV that might otherwise be missing. Should I add my side hustle to my CV? Here’s some advice about that from a recruiter’s point of view. If your hobby/second job/talent or creative side hustle adds value to a potential employer or client in your freelance world, include it on your CV, and keep it to skills and experience facts and figures. For example, if you make handbags or soap that you sell at car boot sales or local events, you have good planning, marketing, event organising, product and customer management skills. Probably lots of other skills, too, such as face-to-face customer engagement. Career change is on the rise One of the interesting facts from the?ONS?is that 4 million people in the UK have changed careers since the pandemic…that’s a staggering figure. And a survey from KPMG (included in the link above) reveals that 40% of UK workers are considering a career change at the moment.

So, as recruiters in marketing, PR, communications, digital, events, and social media, we, too, have discovered through interviewing thousands of candidates that many people will consider a career change. Even more have more than one job anyway, one being their “day job” and the other related to an interest or hobby.

More of our candidates, as written about recently, are looking for flexibility and different working hours to accommodate their second income, passion projects or hobbies. This leads me on to some thoughts about those who have changed career entirely, or who are wishing to do so. For those that already have, fair play to you and I’d love to hear some stories about how that worked out for you and how you got to your new role/ changed career. It’s all about transferable skills For those who wish to change careers entirely, you, of course, need to consider your transferable skills and experience related to what you want to do next. It’s unlikely that a recruitment agency will be able to help you make the switch as we charge our clients fees for finding people experienced in their sector and clients don’t want to pay us for transferable skills.

However, there are loads of great coaches/career advisors out there who are better placed to help you make that switch and work out how to do so with you. (Helen Jane Campbell is one of them, and I’m introducing our other recommended coaches over the next few weeks).

Of course, when applying for roles, if you are changing direction, you need to make sure all your information is up to date, including your CV, LinkedIn, and cover letters specific to the job.

If you’ve retrained to do something different, such as transitioning from a career in PR to being a coach, your previous experience will help you develop your new business and your purpose. We can help with suggestions for freelancers and small business owners on finding new clients and positioning yourself to attract the right people to your profile and how to promote your services.

We’ve recently updated the website with a post about the best ways to keep in touch with us through our various businesses, and all our different services…..here’s the link

Thanks for reading The Good, The Gadd, and The Ugly. As always, I am here to chat. Just send me an email, and we can set up a time. Feel free to share the newsletter with anyone who may benefit from it.

Take care,

Liz

Liz Gadd | 07377 400413 | [email protected] | www.linktr.ee/lizgadd

www.moxieandmettle.co.uk - www.rusticandrural.uk - recruitment agencies

I am an example of someone who has had a portfolio career for the last 30 years! Although I’ve been a recruiter all that time, I’ve also launched, run, and sold several other businesses (including a couple of recruitment agencies).

So, for a while, Celia (my sister) and I ran a magazine! Called Equine, Canine and Country Life, it was such fun and a completely different use of my skills, but I loved it. We sold it to a publisher once it was established!

I’ve also been a partner at?UW for 15 years, where I have built a great team and helped many people save money on their household bills. (Let me know if you’d like a quote. We have superb fixed-term energy deals at the moment!). My UW business makes great use of my recruiting skills, and of course, it’s also very rewarding to help people save money and make extra money, especially in the last few years.

As a recruiter, my work is super varied. One day, I’ll be working on a senior director role, and the next, a graduate entry-level role. One of the great things about recruitment is that you never know who is going to call you next. As we serve both clients and candidates, it’s all interlinked. Some of our focus is on supporting candidates, and some is on helping clients fill their roles. There is so much variety.

I’ve worked in business development, one way or another, for all this time too and find it super easy and enjoyable to put together a new business plan and execute it, either through the team or directly. I can offer many hints, tips, and advice about reaching clients and promoting your services.

So, I’d say I’m a great example of a multi-income individual!

As always, I am happy to feature people in my newsletter who have interesting stories to tell and I can promote your services too….just send me a note to [email protected] (there’s no charge to feature you in my newsletter).

Celia and I are both always happy to chat with people interested in a second income or a part-time role to fit around other commitments or a full-time job. Celia is a Senior Group Leader in the business and has also been with UW as a partner for 15 years, great business, great people, great products.

[email protected] - 07779 716826

[email protected] - 07377 400413

And here we are, pleased to meet you!