Building a 'Career Portfolio,' Not Just a CV: The Power of Side Projects ✨

For two decades, I’ve watched careers in the travel industry flourish, and the key differentiator isn't always the title on a business card. The truly impactful professionals—the ones who become sought-after leaders and advisors—do more than just their day job.

They build a Career Portfolio.

A traditional CV is a list of job descriptions. A Career Portfolio, however, is a dynamic collection of evidence showcasing your expertise, values, and strategic impact beyond the confines of your corporate role. It's where your advisory work, personal projects, and volunteer roles shine.

If you want to move beyond being a high-performing employee to becoming a recognised industry expert, here’s how to harness the power of side projects.

1. Show, Don't Tell: Why Evidence Trumps Experience

In a job interview or when seeking a new partnership, everyone claims to be a strategic leader or a collaboration expert. But how do you prove it?

• The CV Says: "Led cross-functional teams and provided strategic advice."

• The Portfolio Shows: "Served on the advisory board for "a specific industry body", where I helped shape the "future trend" agenda, resulting in "quantifiable impact."

Advisory work, like the time I've spent on industry boards and discussion panels, provides verifiable proof of your subject-matter authority. It confirms that your peers and leaders trust your insight enough to seek it out. This is the ultimate form of professional validation.

2. Filling the Skill Gap with Personal Projects

Your day job is defined by your company's immediate needs, which means you may not get to flex all your strategic muscles. Side projects offer a zero-risk environment to learn, experiment, and prove new capabilities.

• The Tech Fluency Gap: If you're a Commercial Manager who needs to level up your Tech Fluency, you might build a simple data model using publicly available travel statistics to project market trends. That personal project demonstrates data analysis skill far better than a certification ever could.

• The Product Prototype: Want to show you understand the full Product development lifecycle? Create a detailed concept and business case for a niche travel product (e.g., a sustainable travel itinerary app) complete with a mock revenue model and operational plan. This demonstrates initiative and a holistic view of the travel ecosystem.

3. Volunteer Roles: Applying Your Expertise with Purpose

Your bio emphasises the reward in sharing your journey and building partnerships with purpose. Volunteer roles and mentorship are the clearest way to showcase these values while applying your high-level skills to make a difference.

• Mentorship as Leadership: One-on-one guidance to peers or supporting community initiatives demonstrates your commitment to developing the future talent of the sector. It shows you have the capacity for complex communication and nuanced guidance—essential qualities for resilience and strategic leadership.

• Industry Service: Serving as an award judge or contributing to a non-profit in the travel space allows you to leverage your extensive network and knowledge for the greater good. It proves you understand the macro challenges facing the industry and are willing to invest your time in solving them.

The Portfolio Mindset

The shift is simple: stop seeing your career as a linear list of employment dates and start seeing it as a curated exhibition of your professional impact. Your next big opportunity—be it a promotion, a consultancy client, or a board seat—will come from someone seeing the genuine, proven depth of your expertise, not just the title on your old CV. Start building the evidence today