2011 will see a new generation of multi-skilled professionals. Denis Barnard reveals seven ways to ensure your portfolio career is more success than mess.

The economic turn down has sparked an upturn in portfolio careers. On the one hand running two or more parallel jobs can allow you to be more flexible and gain more skills, but how do you stop one career propping up the others?

Not all careers lend themselves to portfolio working. But, if you can make it work, then the attractions are plenty. The most popular attraction is based on the old adage ‘a change is as good as a rest’. The variety of roles and interactions in a portfolio can be more stimulating than working at the same office with the same set of co-workers and the same politics.

This way of working is not for everybody. Some people are comfortable working for one employer, others prefer to work for themselves, but not that many can balance more than one role on an ongoing basis. But if you’re keen to make your...