Step 9 to a Portable Career: Highlight the Opportunities for your Portable Career

Now that you have laid the foundation to your Portable Career Master Plan by creating a Mind Map that clearly shows all that you need to know about yourself, your purpose and passion, talents, skills and qualifications, long term career and life vision and short term goals, it is time to do a ruthless evaluation of your opportunities through a SWOT Analysis.

I want to set you up for success in creating your Portable Career, so therefore you want to make sure that you use your talents to their fullest extent. Furthermore, you want to understand your weakness so that you can manage them in such a way so that don’t create an obstacle in the Portable Career that you decide to establish for yourself.

Through this analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats you get a powerful understanding of the opportunities available to you (that prior to this you may not have been aware of). Furthermore, as you have an understanding of your weaknesses, you are able to eliminate the threats that would undermine your success ahead.

By using the SWOT framework below you will be able to define your personal sweet spot which will separate you from others and will create insight in the possibly necessary further skills and talent development needed to allow you to advance in the creation of your portable career.

Ask yourself the following soul-searching questions* and answer them in a similar framework for each of the Portable Career ideas that you have:

STRENGTHS	WEAKNESSES
How does this option use my best skills? What do I do better than anyone else? (strengths & talents) What do other people see as my strengths? Which of my achievements am I most proud of? What do I like doing? Tip: consider this from your own perspective and from the point of view of the people around you, and in relation to the people around you.	What skills do I need to update in order to stay current? What will the people around me see as my weaknesses? Do I have personality traits that hold me back in my field? How sustainable is this option? Tip: consider from a personal/internal perspective and external perspectives. Be realistic – and face any unpleasant truths as soon as possible
OPPORTUNITIES	THREATS
What are the local/global trends for this option? Can I relocate/travel more easily now (for instance, than when the kids were younger)? What kind of work would I prefer: how much of a commitment do I want? Can I work on a contract/interim/consulting basis? How does success with this option fit with the changing needs/roles in the rest of my life? Tip: look at your strengths and ask yourself whether these open up any opportunities, and look at your weaknesses and ask yourself whether you could open up opportunities by eliminating those weaknesses.	What are the obstacles I can foresee to developing a (new or different) career for myself at this point in time? Could any of your weaknesses lead to threats What is happening in the economy? What are the laws and regulations that have impact on me right now? Tip: Analyzing your Threats can point out what needs to be done to prevent them from becoming real threats to your portable career and puts problems into perspective.

*From “A Career in Your Suitcase” – by Jo Parfitt & Colleen Reichrath-Smith

By filling in your own personal SWOT matrix, you create a framework that highlights your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities and threats that you face for every Portable Career Idea that you have. Once you have these insights, you will be able to make a well balanced choice of the Portable Career that is right for you and which lets you focus on your strengths, minimize your weaknesses, and take the greatest possible advantage of opportunities available to you.

I would love to hear about your Portable Career Choice when you’re ready to make it. Just leave a comment!