One of my clients is the most multipassionate person I have ever come across 🙂
She has a solid cybersecurity role, she is amazing at what she does and she enjoys that too. On the side, she has many interests and loves to try new things that most of the time don’t fit neatly inside a job description. She signed up for coaching with a question that I suspect many of you have asked yourselves at some point:
“Is there a way to do more than one thing… and actually get paid for it?”
The answer is yes. And there’s even a name for it.
What is a Portfolio Career?
The term “Portfolio Career” was first coined by philosopher Charles Handy in 1989, and it’s simple: instead of one job, one salary, one identity, you build a collection of income streams (a portfolio) that together make up your working life.
Think of it as multiple strings to your bow.
You might have your main employed role in cybersecurity AND a consulting practice on the side. Or you deliver training AND run an online course AND teach pottery at the weekends. The combinations are as unique as the people building them.
This isn’t a new concept, but it’s one that is becoming increasingly relevant (and increasingly possible) for cybersecurity professionals.
Wide Achievers vs. High Achievers
Here’s something I’ve noticed in my work with cyber professionals: many of you are, by nature, multipassionate people.
You were drawn to this field because it’s constantly evolving, because no two days are the same, because it sits at the intersection of technology, psychology, strategy, and human behaviour. You didn’t choose cybersecurity because you wanted a quiet, predictable, single-track career.
This is where a useful distinction comes in: the difference between a high achiever and a wide achiever.
A high achiever wants to go deep. To master one thing, climb one ladder, become the very best in one clearly defined field. There is nothing wrong with that and it’s a completely valid and often hugely successful way to build a career.
A wide achiever wants to go broad. They’re energised by variety, by connecting ideas across different domains, by never quite switching off the curiosity. They don’t want to choose between their interests, they want to find a way to honour all of them.
If you’re reading this and nodding, you’re probably a wide achiever. And wide achievers tend to thrive in portfolio careers.
Maybe you want to share your expertise more widely. Maybe you have skills and interests that go well beyond what your current employer needs from you. Maybe you’ve been thinking about building something of your own, but can’t quite picture what stepping away from a steady salary would look like.
A portfolio career lets you explore all of that, without blowing everything up.
What Could This Look Like in Practice?
There are many shapes a portfolio career can take. Here are a few examples:
Consulting or freelance work is often the most natural first step. If you have been working in the industry for a few years and have knowledge in areas like penetration testing, GRC, cloud security, incident response (and so much more!) there is genuine demand for that expertise on a project basis. Many professionals start by taking on one or two clients alongside their main role, building experience and confidence before deciding how far to take it.
Online courses and content creation are a powerful way to turn what you know into shareable knowledge. If you’ve ever caught yourself explaining the same concept to a colleague for the fifth time and thinking “I should really just record this” you probably should. Platforms exist that make this more accessible than it has ever been. You could even explore becoming a cybersecurity tutor on the side for companies like SANS who employ real practitioners to create and deliver their courses.
And then there’s the third stream. This is the one that has nothing to do with cybersecurity at all. This is the one my client lit up talking about. The hobby that is becoming more than a hobby. The creative skill, the physical practice, the community project that gives you something your career simply can’t. A portfolio career doesn’t have to be made up of three versions of work. It can include the things that make you fully yourself. You can be a baker, an artist, a yoga teacher, a musician… the sky is the limit!
How Do You Actually Build One?
The good news is that you don’t have to do this all at once and you definitely don’t have to quit your job to start.
Most people begin by moonlighting: testing their side income stream in evenings and weekends, with no risk to their current role. One client. One course. One workshop. Just enough to find out if the idea holds up in the real world.
From there, many people move into what you might call re-jigging: reducing hours in their main role, or renegotiating their working pattern, to create genuine space for the other streams. This is exactly where my client is heading: a gradual, intentional shift rather than a dramatic leap.
The key is to start smaller than you think you need to. Test the idea before you build the infrastructure around it. Find out what people will actually pay for, what energises you, and what the reality of juggling multiple things feels like because it is a juggle, and being honest with yourself about that matters.
A Few Things Worth Knowing Before You Start
A portfolio career can give you freedom, variety, financial resilience, and the satisfaction of expressing more of who you are through your work. These are real and significant benefits.
But it also requires organisation, self-discipline, and a tolerance for uncertainty especially in the early stages. There will be months that feel exhilarating and months that feel like you’re running to stand still.
It also means taking ownership of things that an employer used to handle: pensions, taxes, business admin. None of it is impossible, but it’s worth going in with clear eyes.
And one more thing: people may not immediately understand what you’re doing. “So, what do you do?” becomes a more interesting question to answer when the honest answer is “several things.” Some people will find that confusing. That’s okay. The people whose opinion matters will find it impressive.
Is This Right for You?
Is building a portfolio career easy? No.
Is it for everyone? Also no.
Ask yourself this: are you a high achiever or a wide achiever?
Neither is better. But knowing the answer changes everything about how you should design your career.
If the idea of going deeper and deeper into one specialist path feels energising, a traditional career structure will serve you well.
If the idea of doing just one thing for the rest of your career feels less like focus and more like a slow suffocation, or if there are parts of yourself that your current role simply doesn’t have room for, then a portfolio career might be exactly what you’ve been looking for.
Does this resonate with you? If you’re a cybersecurity professional wondering how to build something that feels more like you I‘d love to talk. Book a free 30-minute consultation here and let’s explore what your portfolio career could look like.