Get out of the job rut and embrace a portfolio life'

Lately more and more people have been turning to me for career advice particularly those who are around 40-70.

Lately more and more people have been turning to me for career advice particularly those who are around 40-70. While I’d like to believe that this is because of my fast-growing reputation for dispensing good advice, a lot has to simply do with the fact that more people a re s t r u g gling to navigate a rapidly changing landscape and simply don’t know what to do next. ‘Work’ is being disrupted like never before. Not so long ago, the market for talent was red hot; now even once mighty tech firms like Meta (the Facebook parent), Netflix and even Microsoft are laying off employees, not to mention startups that are facing a ‘funding-winter’.

Quiet-quitting has given way to quiet-firings as many companies are quietly turning the screws on performance. Facing more volatility, companies have been using more flexible arrangements such as sub-contractors, consultants, gig-workers which means there are fewer stable jobs and no stable careers. As for white-collars workers, many of us have re-examined our priorities post-Covid and seek better work-life balance, a greater sense of purpose and have little tolerance for toxic workplaces. Yet so many of us are stuck in roles that we no longer enjoy but are trapped in because we don’t know what else to do. The challenges are worse if you are on the wrong side of 50 and lack savings or the ‘hot skills’ that are in great demand.