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Portfolio

March 12, 2003

In his book The Age of Unreason, Charles Handy, a professor at the London School of Economics notes how dramatic changes are transforming business, education, and the nature of work.

We can see it in astounding new developments in technology, in the shift in demand from manual to cerebral skills, and in the virtual disappearance of lifelong, full-time jobs.

Written in the mid-eighties, Handy predicted the emergence of what he termed "portfolio man", by which he meant an individual with an array of skills which are differently "packaged" depending on the needs of different employers or "clients"

This is a useful concept to adopt when you are actively engaged in the "hunt". It involves a constant re-evaluation of the skills you possess in the light of the would-be employer's needs.

There is an interesting discussion of this notion in A Hitchhiker's Guide to Job Security, by Tupper Cawsey, Gene Deszca and Maurice Mazerolle.

In it, they argue that "the concept of the portfolio career is significant because it provides a new way of viewing our relationship to work. Many of us have the perspective of "job" equals "career". However, if there are no "jobs" it is easy for us to be frozen into inaction.

"Rethinking the structuring of work into projects provides much more flexibility to the individual and to the organization, with the possibility of mutual gain.

"For example, the individual can earn his/her way into ever increasing skilled contracts, while at the same time organizations can have work done, perhaps even a long term relationship, without the long term commitment."

- Carrie Baggs

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