Background
John worked at senior level for Schroders, leaving on good terms after 16 years and has since made a successful transition to a portfolio career.
He is a non-executive director at Strata, and due to become chairman. He also does consulting work and has two advisory roles (each two days per month) for small fintech businesses; and the other an investment platform. John also maintains an interest in his late father’s gas engineering business.
When he decided it was time to make a change, John was offered career coaching from 10Eighty during his gardening leave and was introduced to Michael Moran.
The process
John was open minded in terms of exploring possibilities and knew that his CV needed updating. He says he had a really helpful conversation with Michael about networking. John said he didn’t really like the idea of approaching people who were friends for help or favours. Michael suggested that his next move would come from his network rather than head hunters and online applications; this proved to be correct.
John started thinking about his network in a much more strategic way. He says you have to get over yourself and actually do some targeted networking. He spent time catching up with people he knew quite well but hadn’t had much chance to meet with for a few years. He started networking with no particular agenda, but it made him think about what he wanted and whether he wanted to return to corporate life.
The corporate environment has evolved since the pandemic and ways of working have changed; John didn’t want to go back to traditional work. He feels he is quite entrepreneurial, what he enjoyed about his role at Schroders was that he was given the opportunity to use his skills as an intrapreneur.
He found that he changed his mind about what want to do after his father passed. He had to step in as their small business needed his time and attention. This was a tipping point as he was not sure what his next step would be at Schroders; it was a good time to do something different.
As part of the coaching process John examined his options, was it a case of “one big idea” or exploring lots of ideas? He says that what he liked was having lots of variety, co-ordinating projects, managing and juggling lots of things but that does tend to take over one’s entire life. He travelled a lot for work and family life had suffered, he hoped for much better work life balance.
He says you have to think very hard about what you enjoy and what you are good and what the benefit to others will be. In a big company there is a lot of context around your value to others, when you have a portfolio you have to think more about how others get value out of what you do, how you add value, and offer a service that somebody else wants.
The outcome
Michael explained to John that he needed to invest in his network and that is what really worked. John says that opportunities did come from his network, not necessarily from where he expected. As part of his networking conversations, he made new connections and that led to some interesting offers.
John found that as he widened his network, he came to understand what was going on out there with others, their challenges and opportunities, and he began to really enjoy the two-way connection. Companies which are small and growing need expertise and there are a whole range of opportunities out there, organisations who want advice and expertise. Consultancy work and non-executive roles dovetail nicely.
John’s advice
He would have started networking sooner if he had realised the impact it would have.
He realised he needed an element of purpose, a reason to be involved in what he was doing.
He thought about the types of things he enjoyed doing and looked for a partner in each space and after a lot of conversations it came together.
The nice thing about portfolio is that every element offers something different, John says it is nice to feel that there is some continuity, legacy, partly to give something back, his family business is strong on apprenticeships and investing in young people so he really enjoys working with this company and finds it very fulfilling. A lot of people with portfolio careers do something like this to anchor their portfolio.
The portfolio career
John enjoys much better work life balance. A portfolio career can be a bit feast and famine, but it is much more in your control, and he prioritised family and self, took time for himself, and improved his health.
