The quality of a professional portfolio career in the post-industrial era

Abstract

ABSTRACT Post-industrial society has witnessed trends according to which the labour market has become more flexible, services have expanded and immaterial work and horizontal work organisation has emerged, shaping professions in respect to the employment and work they can offer. An outcome of these trends is a portfolio career, an employment pattern based on holding down multiple jobs, which increases the variation in the quality of career trajectories. Portfolio careers, however, are shaped at the intersection of industry and profession. This article studies the quality of a professional portfolio career by investigating the employment pattern and the task profile. Two case studies, one involving business consulting professionals and the other professionals in the creative industry, are investigated. The study is based on the analysis of interview data. For both professional groups, the quality of employment was impaired by the insecurity inherent in a portfolio career, but the quality of the professional profile of tasks was relatively adequate. For the consulting professionals studied, the quality of the task profile is due to the coherent but multidisciplinary continuum of tasks, which in turn is due to the market-based service industry. For the professionals in the creative industry, the profile consisted of professional tasks and tasks external to the profession, which is due to underemployment in the industry.