Perfect portfolio job

I read the opening of the article on portfolio careers ("Find freedom as jack of all trades", Working Knowledge, April ) with some amusement.

The article began with the question "If you are fed up with the day-in, day-out nature of your work, why not think about diversifying?" and went on to define a portfolio career as being one that is made up of different kinds of jobs pursued successively or simultaneously.

As someone who, in the course of my day-to-day duties for my single job, works variously as a manager, teacher, researcher, scientist, writer, adviser, marketeer, recruiter (the list goes on, I'm sure you get the idea), I find it difficult to imagine a wider portfolio career than a permanent academic position.

This is surely one of the major attractions of working in academe - it offers variety and freedom and certainly provides "endless opportunities to say you are busy doing something else".

Tim O'Hare
Plymouth University