What Is a “Portfolio Career”?
A portfolio career is the idea of having several part-time roles or multiple income streams rather than one traditional full-time job—and not because you must, economically, but because you must, cellularly. Because you find yourself pulled forward by multiple passions or ideas or types of work. It’s one of the more honest descriptions I've come across for a way of working that a lot of us are already doing (even if we didn't have a name for it).
I first heard the term on Anna Mackenzie’s Substack, and something about it landed differently than the other words people reach for. I'd talked to creator, entrepreneur, and CEO Hitha Palepu on The Diana Pod about being a multi-hyphenate, and while that concept resonated, I could never fully shake the feeling that there's something slightly derisive about the word. It’s as if we're making fun of celebrities who moonlight as swimsuit designers and children's book authors; introducing yourself as a multi-hyphenate, at least for me, almost demands air quotations and a look of, “I know.”
Meanwhile, “portfolio career” felt quieter and more serious. Less likely to incite laughter.
The women I find most inspiring—some of the most intelligent, curious people I know—haven't moved laterally or climbed predictably from rung to rung. They've hopped, pivoted, built.
A Real Housewife I interviewed years ago described her hodgepodge professional background as a mosaic: beautiful pieces that fit together to reveal a complete picture. That reframe stuck with me, especially on the days when none of it seems to make sense. I've liked those stories, in part because they're more interesting than a straight line—and in part because it's what I've done.
Seeing others take a similar path offers a quiet reassurance: This isn't crazy or wrong; it's just a different way.
There's a version of this conversation that always goes sideways. I asked Hitha about it in that interview and have also felt my inner monologue picking at it for myself. Sure, great…but aren't you just a jack-of-all-trades? The implication being that more tools means duller ones, that breadth comes at the cost of depth, and that the person who stayed on one path and sharpened a single skill to a fine point has something on you.
Now, sitting here, decades into my patchworked career, I don't think that's actually true. What I've seen, in myself and in the women I admire most, is that the tools sharpen each other. Business knowledge informs the brand instinct. Soft skills make you a better operator. The consulting work or gray-hour projects keep you sharp in ways that a single role rarely does.
A portfolio isn't a pile of half-finished things or ideas done just okay, never great.
It's a set of capabilities that compound.
What a portfolio career offers isn't a better way to work—it's permission for a different one. Seeing someone else cobble together a workload that actually works for them is exciting precisely because it's proof that the non-linear version is viable, not a consolation prize.
P.S. Listen to my chat with Hitha on Spotify or via the embed below:
