Many employment experts have commented that today's professional can expect to work in six different fields and for three or more employers over the course of a career This trend of switching fields and employers is giving rise to the rapidly spreading phenomenon of "portfolio careers."

WHAT ARE PORTFOLIO CAREERS?
They are careers in which raises and promotions arise from a professional's skills and record of accomplishments rather than from degrees held and seniority with the employer. Contract employees, consultants, part-time employees, and most professionals working full time are finding themselves in this situation. Portfolio careers are more difficult to manage than the old one-company-for-liife careers that many chemical, electrical, and mechanical professionals once enjoyed.  Today, professionals are more often hired for projects, regardless of IRS W-2 vs 1099 or Incorporated status, than for a specific job title.  Additionally, employees, on average, stay with one firm from 2 to 5 years or less, depending on the industry as product life cycles shorten to below 18 months.
To make the most of the new career scene, you need to know what challenges portfolio careers present and how you can meet them.

JOB-HUNTING FACTORS
Not long ago, individuals spent their entire careers working with one company and thus did not have to worry about building credentials to help them succeed in the job market. Such is not the case for today's chemical professionals, particularly for contract and temporary employees, who compete in the job market constantly. Consultants must update credentials often to gain new clients. This is also true for professionals who hold permanent full-time jobs, because corporate down-sizing and restructuring have unexpectedly sent thousands of these workers into the job market
Corporate restructuring is often a continuing process. Even though you may keep your job in this year's restructuring, you may be displaced in a later corporate reorganization. For example, Dial Corporation (Phoenix, AZ) employs many chemists and laboratory technicians developing bath soaps and other personal care products. The company has been restructuring for ten years, and every year brings a new divestiture or acquisition, says Joan Ingalls, vice president of human resources.
In Texas in the 1980s, chemical professionals who acted as if they had guaranteed lifetime jobs in the chemical, oil, and oil field services industries regretted that attitude. Although their professional accomplishments were often considerable, many of these chemists did not document them in any way other than internal reports. They did not present papers at professional conferences, write articles for technical journals or trade magazines, or aggressively pursue patenting opportunities for their inventions. Their abilities and accomplishments shined only in internal corporate re ports and seminars. So, when they found themselves in the job market, they had a tough time competing with chemical professionals who could readily point to publications, patents, and presentations that documented their accomplishments.  The content of their work is the basis of their evaluation, therefor one most present all applicable information to the perspective employer.
Portfolio career professionals should join professional societies and become active members. These connections wilt enable them to create, maintain, and expand their professional networks. Helping to organize professional society activities will let them demonstrate their managerial and interpersonal skills to others. It also can provide additional opportunities to present and publish papers that report their technical accomplishments.

ON THE JOB
Portfolio professionals learn by experience that a fast start on the new job makes a lasting impression and can have a long-tem effect on career prospects. To that end, they identity an important project on which they can make rapid progress. Good time management skills help them focus on this project and move forward quickly. They report their progress to their supervisor and peers periodically
Portfolio professionals also recognize the importance of learning their supervisor's work style and the corporate culture, and conforming to it as appropriate. Two common work-style issues are how one prefers to receive information (e.g., in an oral or a written report, or frequent short reports or longer indepth ones made only after an important project milestone has been reached) and when one works best (e.g., early-birds arrive at the office early and get the most important work done in the morning-, night owls prefer ring to deal with important issues late in the day, when they feel more alert). Some common corporate culture issues include dress code, flexibility of working hours, opportunities to work at home, and how much people share personal information during work hours.
Companies in the same industry used to have similar cultures, but this is often no longer the case, as executives experiment with various means of in creasing creativity and productivity while reducing costs. For example, most pharmaceutical companies have research management structures that include staff titles such as director, deputy director, and vice director Novartis Corp. (Basel, Switzerland), however, is organized by the principle of "directed autonomy," which means that employees have responsibility for matters that once needed management approval. Authority is now linked with job responsibilities. Research staff members make more decisions independently or as part of selfdirected work teams. As a result, many management jobs that used to consist largely of reviewing information provided by others and making decisions based on that information have been eminated.
Portfolio career professionals recognize the importance of getting things done in a new work environment and the need to quickly learn who can help them accomplish that task. They know that, they should find out about several corporate practices from the very beginning, learning how to order supplies and chemicals, for example, should be high on many laboratory professionals' "to-do" lists when starting a new job. In addition, they need to know how to find the answers to questions such as

• Do secretaries merely print and distribute your letters and reports, or do they check these documents for proper spelling and grammar?
• Is there a graphics department, documentation editors , or are you responsible for preparing publication quality documents with graphs and charts yourself?
• Are employees expected to speak up at meetings, or should they raise questions with the appropriate individuals beforehand?
• Which information scientist will help you locate information, even after working hours?

ORGANIZATIONS' VALUE
Membership and participation in professional societies and trade organiza tions are valuable to portfolio career professionals in many ways. Participat ing in the programming offered by such organizations will aid profession als in demonstrating their abIlities and accomplishments to prospective em ployers. Short courses and conference programming enable individuals to up date their education and credentials. Active participation in these organiza tions will provide valuable networking opportunities to professionals, espe cially if they suddenly find themselves m the job market.
Professional organizations are already providing valuable services to chemical professionals by aiding them in their portfolio careers. The ACS Office of Career Services offers employment clearinghouses, resume' consultations, and workshops on various employment subjects at national and regional ACS meetings. Additional services are available through the ACS Web site (www.ChemCenter.org). The American Institute of Chemkal Engineers New York, NY) also holds employment cleannghouses at many of its meetings.  Other Professional Societies and Organizations offer similar services.  Even without employment clearinghouses, employers often schedule employment interviews during meetings of some professional organizations.

CERTIFICATION
Professional certification offers a means for portfolio career profession als to both develop their abilities and demonstrate their accomplishments to potential employers. The American In stitute of Chemists (AIC; Alexandria, VA) has maintained the National Certification Commission in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering since 1977. Chemical professionals can obtain credit toward certification not only for continuing education activities, patents, technical presentations, and meeting presentations but also for reports wriften for their employer or clients, holding office in professional societies, and receiving awards. Certification is good for a three year period and can be renewed by providing documentation of additional professional accomplishments. The AIC recentiy instituted a certification examination for chemical technicians.

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER AND PRESENTABLE
The American Chemical Society(ACS), Institue of Electronic and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) and other professional organizations recommend that professionals seeking employment should keep current a "Portfolio Resume."

WHAT IS A PORTFOLIO RESUME?
Resumes have evolved since the days of simple 1 or 2 page resumes used just a few decades ago, in an effort to clearly reflect the Portfolio Career and also the changing needs of the employer.  A typical Portfolio Resume has 1/4 to 1/2 page per year of experience and professional or collegiate and post-graduate education.  Employers need to know that you have exactly the specialized experience needed for the position and possibly some unknown beneficial experience.  The only way to provide the employer with this information is to publish it in your resume.  Todays technically driven firms no longer require that you detail your experience in terms of dollars saved or managed, but rather your skills with the tools, techniques, and theory needed to accomplish the goal.  Since employers do not typically provide training, it is critical that the employee demonstrate current knowledge in the areas needed.  A competent 
Portfolio Resumes include the following sections:

• Introduction - A prose description of the candidates background, specialties, and desires for future employment.  This typically takes the place of a Cover Letter
• Fields of Experience Summary - A bulleted or otherwise listed and categorized collection of the fields of background and expertise of the candidate.  This may include a list of industries worked in, types of equipment used.  This is not a specific list of equipment or firm, just the common description used.
• Project History - A chronological list of projects contributed or completed by the candidate.  These are not job titles but rather products or projects that the candidate has worked directly on.  Many such projects may be with one employer.  This should be a detailed, demi-prose paragraph description of the techniques and technologies used and a description of the end goal of the project.
• Skills & Experience Listing - A bulleted or otherwise listed and categorized collection of the tools, techniques and theories that one is familiar with.  This may include programming languages and compilers, modeling software used, numerical methods implemented and/or management techniques used.
• Resources Available - A bulleted or otherwise listed and categorized collection of the resources one personally owns such as computers, development tools, Internet connections from home, equipment from the industry etc.  This is necessary as many workers are now asked to work from home and telecommute instead of expend resources from the firm.

As Employment gives way to the Project paradigm, Portfolio Careers offer both new opportunities and new challenges for chemical professionals. Are you up for these challenges?  You might be if you have a Portfolio Resume.