Portfolio career: The two-year roadmap

From job security to market security

In this video Michael Moran, author of GOing Portfolio, opens with advice from his father: find a steady employer, stay secure. It made sense for a different era but does not reflect the labour market most professionals now inhabit.

Organisations prioritise profitability. Recession, outsourcing, inflation and technological disruption have reshaped the employment relationship. Stability is no longer guaranteed simply because tenure is long.

The modern professional cannot rely solely on employer loyalty. The more resilient model is market relevance. That is where the portfolio career enters.

What a portfolio career actually means

Moran defines a portfolio career as three things:

• Remunerated work
• Contribution or giving back
• Time for yourself 

It is not synonymous with freelancing but a deliberate blend of income streams, purpose and autonomy.

While portfolio careers were once associated with professionals later in life, shifts in the gig economy and the rise of specialist skills mean they are increasingly relevant across age groups. The common denominator is not age but employability.

The two-year preparation rule

Most professionals who say they want a portfolio career are not market ready.

“If you’re in corporate life today and you want to go to a portfolio career, I think it’s a good two years’ work before you launch," advises Moran.

Two years to:

• Upgrade and future-proof your skills
• Test demand in the market
• Strengthen your professional network
• Build visibility and positioning

Moran frames it clearly: you are an asset. The question is whether you are appreciating in value.

The remunerated part of a portfolio career depends on whether the market is willing to buy what you offer. That requires forward-looking self-investment.

Skills rise and fall in demand. Those who anticipate market shifts create optionality. Those who rely on expertise developed decades ago risk declining relevance.
Moran is clear: employability is a relevance issue.

Your network is your sales infrastructure

A portfolio career is rarely built through cold applications. As Moran says: “The way to get business and create remunerated work as a portfolio worker is through your network.” 

Moran suggests a practical exercise: download your LinkedIn connections and segment them by:
•    How well you know them
•    Whether you have invested in the relationship
•    What you have done for them
•    Whether they have influence 

He argues you need at least 50–60 strong contacts because:
•    A third will not help
•    A third would like to help but cannot
•    A third will actively advocate
That final group becomes your informal marketing team.

The foundation? Long-term reciprocity. Moran has built a business with more than 100 corporate clients entirely through recommendation. Successful portfolio professionals are active contributors long before they need support.

The final step is visibility. Tell your network what you are building – even if your transition is two to three years away and it feels uncomfortable. These are the people who will provide paid work, introductions and opportunities. 

Key takeaways from this video

• Building a portfolio career requires a structured two-year preparation period
• Employability depends on future-relevant skills, not tenure
• Strong networks function as informal sales infrastructure
• Reciprocity and visibility drive opportunity
• Portfolio careers are about strategic design, not risk-taking

Watch the full video above to hear Michael Moran explain how to build a portfolio career step by step. And listen to the full podcast interview What if one job isn't enough anymore?

Full Video Transcript

Michael Moran 

I want to start with the advice my father gave me. He said to me, Michael, go and find yourself a good steady employer where there's job security. And obviously that's many years ago and at the time I suppose it was good advice for him given when he'd grown up, but it was terrible advice for me in the 1970s.

Why do people cling to it? Because I think a lot of people do want job security. They want an organisation that's going to guarantee revenue. And maybe there was a time when employers were paternalistic and they thought their employees were really important, they looked after them. But I hate to tell you, since the 1970s that's not the way employers see it.

Whether as a result of recession, outsourcing, inflation, at the end of the day, organisations, certainly in the commercial space, have to ensure that they're profitable. And I say people have become like any other unit - dispensable.

I'm defining a portfolio career as some remunerated work, putting something back, and then lastly, time for me.

Whilst I think portfolio careers are still associated with people say 50 plus, the gig economy, and in particular zero hours and outsourcing, is creating a whole group of people who are no longer working for one employer. In fact you could say, you know, particularly with the advent of tech skills I can decide for whom I work, when I work, and so I don't think it is the sole purview of people 50 plus today.

You have to plan it. And most people, when I meet them, who think I would really like to explore a portfolio career, I don't think they're market ready. So planning well ahead, if you're in corporate life today, and you want to go to a portfolio career, I think it's a good two years' work to do before you launch your portfolio career. That's the first thing.

The second challenge is, in the sense of the remunerated part of your portfolio, you need to have skills that the marketplace wants to buy. And that requires a piece of self-investment. And also quite tricky, you've got to start thinking ahead as to what skills are going to be required. I can say to you today, if you've got AI skills, you're in a strong place. Well, would I said the same thing three or four years ago? If you had and you start to do that investment today, creating a portfolio could be very easy for you. 

So there's that piece of thinking ahead and I always say this. I don't believe it's an age thing in terms of if you've got employable skills, you can get a job or get work anytime. But as we get older, we do tend to invest less in ourselves. And therefore, if you go into the marketplace with a skill that's out of date or 25 years ago, you're not going to be employable. That's my first thing. 

The second thing, and you won't be surprised to hear me say this, have you invested in your network? The way to get business and create remunerated work as a portfolio worker is through your network. And I repeat, most people coming to the marketplace haven't made that investment. And then I suppose the next step you have to do is you need to tell people. Sounds very obvious, but you know, there's a whole series of self-promotion and branding.

I always say to people, you know, because the obvious case is, well, I've not spoken to this person for 15 years or whatever. And then I always say, well, but if they, if they called you up and said, can we have a coffee because I'd like some advice, would you put the phone down on them? Of course I wouldn't. But you know, there is a natural reticence to ask because they're going to know what I'm going to ask. Well, yeah, so long as you like them, and they like you, why wouldn't you want to re-establish contact?

I tell people how to download from LinkedIn your connections and segment them according to three criteria. How will I know this person? Have I invested in this person? What do they do for them? And do they have power of influence? AKA, if they make a call on my behalf, the recipient will take it.

And I always say to people that should be about 10% of your connections. Actually, I think you need at least 50 or 60 people. Why? Because a third won't help you. You think they're going to help you. A third would like to but can't. But if a third of them do - you'll have 20 people who will be your marketing team. And it is interesting that sort of dynamic and you're spot on. Sometimes you think, well, that person will help, they don't. And yet somebody who maybe you didn't think was that significant or you hadn't done much for will go the extra mile for you. The only thing I can tell you is, and this is one of Michael's philosophies, if you help people, by and large, that will make the world a better place. I never know when the people will come back and help me. But I do know I've built a business with now over 100 corporate clients, all on the basis of recommendation.

You have to have that longer term view of it and not one now. And that I think for lot of people it's hard work, it's difficult etc. But successful portfolio careerers are great networkers. And when I say great networkers, they spend a lot of time giving back to other people.

Make sure that at this moment in time, as an asset, you're appreciating and you're appreciating in skills and knowledge the marketplace is going to want to buy in the next two to three years. 

Invest in your network. Think about, have I got 50 or 60 people who owe me a favour? And if not, can I create that environment that I'm doing things for them? 

And then thirdly, tell your network of your plans. Again I appreciate this. Talking to people about what I'm going to do in two to three years’ time, particularly if you think it's going to undermine your place in the job, is a bit scary for people. But the more people you've got on message, because these are the people who are going to provide you with remunerated employment, or indeed even introductions to the voluntary sector.