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by Paul Stevens Founder / Director, The Centre for Worklife Counselling

There is new reality about working. We now have the opportunity to see our employment as a series of successive contracts where our relationship with each employer or engaging organisation is a transactional arrangement. This negotiated agreement is for only as long as there is a need for specific work to be done. We can, therefore, be portfolio careerists where we have a portfolio of skills and a portfolio of clients, i.e. employers or organisations.

Instead of entering a hierarchical arrangement of job positions, we can be engaged to accomplish specific tasks. We no longer have to fill a position but match our skills with contract requirements. We used to search for a �job box� we could fit into. Now we search for a niche � a custom-fit solution to an employer�s need.

In portfolio working we derive our work satisfaction from accomplishing tasks and the intrinsic motivation that results. We can string together a series of work engagements using our different attributes, different sets of skills, knowledge and interests. We can re-arrange our employability offerings many times, in packages of differing content according to our inclination, personal circumstances and the labour market situation. We can frequently re-cluster and repackage our skills to meet new opportunities.

In portfolio working we can be engaged as a contractor, job share, freelance, temporary hire, free agent or casual. We can grow personally without dependence on one organisation and exercise our new freedom to undertake assignments compatible with our values. We give our allegiance to our professional skills and standards. We are focused on our lifestyle, with a symbiotic relationship of consumerism and an ethic to contribute to work with meaning.

Sometimes we may work as a �satellite� worker from or near our home, on-line through our computers and modems, on client�s sites or in a different country from where we are deriving our income.

Portfolio working requires that we acquire and develop: � skills of self-marketing, � our use of the web to alert others to our availability, � detective and networking skills to identify opportunities, � discipline to update our r�sum� � both print and electronic versions � each month as it becomes as important to a portfolio worker as a passport is to a traveller.

In fact, portfolio working is not new. It is how people earned their incomes before the 19th century.

To learn more about portfolio working, visit: http://www.worklife.com.au http://www.careermastery.com

� 2002 by Worklife Pty Ltd, Sydney

Paul Stevens, Founder / Director of The Centre for Worklife Counselling, may be contacted by email at: worklife@ozemail.com.au