In 2023, I discovered the concept of a Career Portfolio or a Portfolio Career. This finding resonated profoundly and led me to explore and learn how to tell my Career Story and design my Portfolio.
The concept is straightforward: a linear trajectory is one path, and I followed it working for Gap, Selfridges, Burberry, and Nike in retail marketing, visual merchandising, and consumer experience design. A Career Portfolio encompasses all your experiences and is packaged to tell a unique story using transferable experiences and skills. Career Portfolios can happen unintentionally or by design. You can design your professional life with multiple revenue streams and roles, creating a portfolio approach to your work.
I had initially set my sights on a specific role early in my career. Twenty years later, that aspiration materialised when I landed my dream job as the Senior Director of Global Product Presentation at Nike. Steering a team of over 200 individuals and leading globally through pivotal business junctures, I had to craft strategies, navigate challenges, inspire a team and produce creative solutions at retail.
Transitioning from the corporate world to entrepreneurship, I founded my first company, The Space Atelier. The services I provided were aligned with my professional experience, but then the pandemic hit, a time to learn and upskill as my services were not in demand.
A love of Interior Design and a curiosity to learn Autocad and SketchUp guided me to study Interior Design. Next was Digital Marketing and Copywriting. Emerging from lockdown, with the new skills I'd learned, I encountered the challenge of positioning myself in a landscape that predominantly favoured linear Career Paths.
LinkedIn was a constant in my professional life. I noticed an upsurge in engagement when I mastered how to position myself, express my creativity and make my profile more visually appealing. My new colleague group consisted of self-employed women, each with their unique life stories and professional experiences. I discerned a recurring pattern: women who had pursued non-traditional career trajectories tended to downplay their accomplishments compared to their male counterparts. Research corroborates this phenomenon, highlighting disparities in self-promotion tendencies between genders during job applications.
I was motivated and inspired to share what I had learned and how I'd positioned myself; I wanted to share my practice with other women. I created a process and method, Her Career Story and Her Career Space, to uncover and remind us of who we are and what we're capable of achieving. All our personal and professional life experiences, skills, and knowledge are positioned to contribute to our professional story. I created a way to talk about Career Portfolios and how I'd found a way to reflect inwardly to tap into what drives us, our goals, values and purpose. This method was empowering and inspired me as I developed the concept further.
In November 2023, I joined an Accelerator Program designed specifically for women by women; it's called Momentum Fast Track. In my second week of the program, with my business concept in front of me, The Space Atelier, I had planned to add the career services I was developing to my existing business; that's why I joined the program; the course director challenged me to focus on one idea. Intuitively, it felt right to pick my newly found love of career services and empowering women to tell their professional stories. We talked about the Sustainable Development Goals, and there it was: my mission, purpose, and why, SDG number five, Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls. I wanted to cry happy tears; this was it; this is everything I've been working towards my whole life, consciously and unconsciously.
In December 2023, I officially launched Her Career Space. (I will share the inspiration for the name in another post.) I provide bespoke career services to empower women to articulate their Career Stories and realise their professional aspirations. Through workshops and classes, I host at Equals and personalised sessions, I effectively equip women with the tools to construct and present their Career Portfolios.
My Career Portfolio is a testament to over two decades of experience, leadership, mentorship, and cross-industry expertise from my tenure with prominent brands. Beyond professional endeavours, my journey includes artistic ventures, volunteerism, a love of healthy loving and yoga teacher training. My journey encompasses diverse interests and illustrates the depth of my narrative.
Reflecting on my journey, I've encountered my fair share of obstacles, including gender-based discrimination and ageism in the workplace. However, these challenges fueled rather than deterred my resolve to carve my path.
As I continue to evolve and grow my business, I'm committed to sharing my story and empowering others to do the same.
If my story piqued your interest, you can schedule a twenty-minute discovery call; we can review how and where you want to tell your story and what you want to achieve by sharing your Career Story.
Comentários