Ever heard of portfolio careers? What about slash careers? To put in the simplest terms, this is what my portfolio or slash career looks like: conference producer/magazine editor/custom publisher/financial advisor/homeschooling dad.
The idea is not exactly new, but it is a relatively novel concept. In the Philippines, we might call this “raket” but that’s not really accurate. In the United States, the popular term is a “portfolio career.”
Why portfolio? Just like an investment portfolio with its different assets and financial instruments, a portfolio career is having multiple jobs with multiple companies in multiple industries.
The term was first coined by management guru Charles Handy in the early 90s, originally to refer to post-retirement Americans who have found more satisfying work doing different things that are aligned to their interests and passions. He popularized this idea of a lifestyle in which the individual holds a number of “jobs, clients and types of work” all at the same time.
These days, the concept encompasses anyone, regardless of age, who pursues a work style that is diverse, flexible, and autonomous through multiple jobs in often part-time arrangements.
A number of American authors have observed this growing trend. Daniel Pink’s Free Agent Nation dwells on the phenomenon of free agents working independently on various projects for different companies. Tom Peters has been preaching for years about the Brand Called You and projects (as opposed to jobs) as the future of work and careers. Marci Alboher’s One Identity/Multiple Careers tackled the concept of portfolio career more thoroughly and coined the terms “slash career” and “slashers.” Journalist Tina Brown has referred to this as the “gig economy” with part-timers working on “a bunch of free-floating projects, consultancies, and part-time bits and pieces they try and stitch together.”
Pundits and futurists predict the rise (or to be more precise, the return) of craftsmen and guilds, wherein we live in a world where most people work as independent professionals, getting contract work from lean organizations or banding together temporarily on projects in the same way a movie production works.
For us, the terms “raket” and “rakista”” take on a more street culture meaning that are more easily understood than “slashers” or “gigs.” However you want to call it, we all agree on one thing: it works. It may not be for everyone but for those who fit the profile, it definitely works.
Photo by Oscar Nilsson on Unsplash
