Betty Thayer
CEO of exec-appointments.com, a jobsite for executive postions only, discusses recent findings from research into portfolio careers with executives who earn more tha £50k per annum.

 Would you embrace a lifestyle where you have several senior-level part-time positions in a variety of areas?  In the 1980s Charles Handy, management guru, predicted that people would want to move to a ‘portfolio’ way of working, incorporating paid and unpaid work into a more demanding, but more fulfilling career.

Our research suggests that high-earners want more out of their career, with a staggering 97% ranking at least one aspect of life as more important than financial reward.  The high-ranking factors include career satisfaction, family life and job enjoyment.  In fact, money came first for only 3% of these high-earning individuals.

It is a sentiment backed up by Handy, who said: "I think the search for meaning applies to individuals and to institutions.  We're all looking for why we do the work we do.  It was easy in the past -- we were doing it because we needed the money to live.  Now it's clear that money - for many people and institutions - is more symbolic than real.  We generate more wealth than we really need to live on. And money becomes a rather crude measure of success.  We're looking for something more."

Professor Cary Cooper, BUPA Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health in the Manchester School of Management, concurs with the idea of a change to the working landscape.   He added: "Increasingly people are looking for more quality in their working life.  They are seeking a match between their own personality and the personality of their job.   They are looking for a system that enables them to enjoy their work, be challenged by their role, and have enough flexibility to enjoy greater control of their lives.  It is what has commonly become known as the work/life balance and more than ever people are seeking ways of achieving and maintaining it."

Our research clearly demonstrates a desire among high income earners to consider an alternative way of working.  Further evidence of this attitude about the importance of financial reward is the fact that 81% of high-earners say they would be willing to sacrifice some of their current salary before money became the number 1 priority for them.  One solution is to move towards a portfolio approach, but how or where do you start?

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Our research suggests that more and more people are taking on, or would welcome a portfolio career.  70% of our survey are inclined to portfolio working and many of them started by opening up their networks and letting it be known they would consider alternatives.

That confusion exists about how to develop a portfolio career is not surprising. As the workplace becomes more global in nature, traditional ‘word of mouth’ networking becomes less and less effective.  The internet is becoming the place where people connect.  Sites like exec-appointments.com provide a risk-free, confidential and uncomplicated way to start to explore new opportunities.  So when the ideal situations present themselves, you can make a change - without hesitation.