Sital Ruparelia

“The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labour and his leisure, his mind and his body, his information and his recreation, his love and his religion.

He hardly knows which is which.

He simply pursues his vision of excellence in whatever he does, leaving others to decide whether he is working or playing.

To him he is always doing both.”

- James A Michener

Are you looking to:

- Shift careers?

- Start a business?

- Take a career break and do some travelling?

- Re-train?

- Take up some volunteering?

If so, come along to the One Life Live event at Earls Court next month. Featuring various free seminars and workshops, it’s the biggest  event in the UK for individuals looking to make major changes in their life.

Like last year, I’ll be at the event  alongside some of the UK’s leading career experts to offer free career advice to visitors at the Career Clinics stand.

I’ll be running a Career Clinic:

Thursday 18th: 1.00-5.00pm

Friday 19th: 2.00-6.00pm

Saturday 20th: 2.00-6.00pm

So if you decide to come along, please come and say hello!

For all the details on how you can book your free tickets click here

This year, the One Life Live event takes part alongside the Vitality Show – the UKs largest health, fitness, beauty well being show.

So come along and give both your health and your career a boost!

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

-  Confucius

If you’re looking to achieve something big in 2010 or to make a change this year, don’t do too much planning and thinking.

When it comes to career management, planning is over rated. So is thinking. Over-planning and over-thinking usually overwhealms you and creates a disease called ‘Perfection Paralysis.’ Your desire to have things perfectly planned out paralyses you into taking no action and so effectively ensures you make no changes whatsoever.

A better strategy is to be clear about where you are heading and then simply taking the first step as below:

Click here to read the rest…

My first ever real job was a 12-month placement with the airline British Airways in the early 1990s (..although I’m sure my dad would convince you that working in his shop at weekends and holidays was a ‘real job’!).

I worked as a buyer within BA’s procurement team working on maintenance contracts for avionics and mechanical equipment (i.e. flight management computers, pneumatic systems, air conditioning systems etc). My desk overlooked a 747 hangar, which for a 21 year old, was pretty cool.

In addition to being new to the world of work, I was also new to the world of airlines and airline equipment.

I would frequently meet with Avionics suppliers from the likes of Honeywell, GEC Electronics and Smiths Industries without much technical knowledge and so would, at times, have to ‘wing it’ (pardon the pun).

But in order to make the right commercial decisions for the airline, I would rely heavily on the BA engineering team (my internal clients) to advise me on technical matters so that I wouldn’t look a complete fool in front of the suppliers.

One such engineer was Charlie who took me under his wing (OK, that one was intended). He would frequently talk to me about the nuances of the industry and how that impacted on my role.

One of the key aspects of making any kind of buying decision regarding aircraft equipment was the weight of the aircraft and the impact on fuel consumption, which is critical – particularly at take off and landing

Why?

As Charlie explained to me:

Click here to read the rest…

“Wealth is not found in what you own, but in how you spend your time. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can let alone”

- Henry David Thoreau

Do you get stressed with the amount of ‘stuff’ on your ‘to do’ list? Are you overwhelmed by the complexity of modern life – either at the office or at home? Do you often wish for a far simpler lifestyle?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you’ll enjoy the following interview with Leo Babauta. Leo is a thought leader and author on productivity and simplicity. He’s the author of the hugely popular blog Zen Habits which is one of top 100 most popular blogs in the world with more than 80,000 subscribers. He’s also the author of a new book that comes out next week – “The Power of Less.”

I recently interviewed Leo to discuss the new book and also get he’s thoughts on how we can all become much more effective in managing our careers and lifestyles in 2009 – particularly in view of the current economic climate.

Sital: Leo, many of our readers won’t be familiar with you and the Zen Habits blog. Can you briefly tell us about yourself and how you ended up writing the blog and becoming an author? Click here to read the rest…

Having recently re-looked at Richard Branson’s book “Screw It, Let’s Do It – Lessons In Life,” I have adapted the 9 ‘life lessons’ in the book into the 9 career lessons below:

1. Just Do It
If you have a goal or ambition that you really want to pursue – then just do it. You can tell it’s something that is intrinsically driving you when you keep thinking about it and talking about it.

So set goals for yourself – no matter how big or small. Develop a simple plan (DON’T over-plan), take action consistently and have the faith and belief in your ability to achieve it along with a healthy amount of realism.

Don’t expect results overnight so be persistent.

2. Have Fun
Stay positive and have an upbeat outlook on life.

Do work you enjoy and work with people you enjoy being around. Sounds a little idealistic I know, but positive and fun people are good to work with and good to have on new projects. Fun people get noticed and remembered.

If you get to the stage where you have spent far too many days not enjoying yourself – then it’s time to: a) change your mindset and how you view things or: b) change your job.

Click here to read the rest…

1. “Mark – my boss. I’ve forgotten what he looks like – I never see him. We exchange emails, do conference calls – but it’s all about business. I know we’re busy, but rarely do I get any quality time, feedback or discussion about me or my career. Even when I try raising the subject, it’s always ‘Everything is fine, I have another meeting to get to. We’ll speak soon.’ Cheers Mark.”

2. “Charlotte in HR. What does she do all day? OK, well I do get some help when it comes to hiring & firing my team. And I suppose she is a nice enough person. But do I get any support from her regarding my career? Do I actually trust her sufficiently to even have an open discussion about me? Not a chance.”

3. “My team. They have constant gripes and complaints about their jobs, careers, salary packages etc. Many of these things I have little control over. But I do my bit to give them direction, keep them engaged and motivated. But who is doing that for me? Where is my support? I rarely have the support or tools to do the job, but am expected to just get on with it. Great!”

4. “Charles, the head hunter with his overly posh ‘Lloyd Grossman style’ accent (surely no one speaks like that when they are at home, do they?). He talks about being an advisor and consultant to help me make the right decisions, but I’m never really sure how impartial these guys are. After all, his main focus is earning fees, right? And in the current job market, there is only one person Charles is looking out for – and that’s Charles.”

5. “Sheila – my wife. She’s constantly complaining about me working long hours, not seeing the kids enough and not spending quality time with her. But at the same time she’s happy to just spend, spend, spend like there’s no tomorrow. Doesn’t she realise that there won’t be much of a bonus pot come the end of 2008? She simply doesn’t get it…”

Click here to read the rest…

I get fed up with people talking about “Work-Life balance.”

To me, the term Work-Life Balance infers that ‘work’ is the opposite to ‘Life.’ Which in the literal sense could mean death (!) or something equally negative.

Which really is nonsense.

Our ultimate aim should be to do work that is interesting, fulfilling and meaningful whilst still enabling you to achieve goals and priorities in other parts of your life.

i.e. Work that compliments other parts of your life – instead of competing against them. As soon as you talk about a balance between actvities – the assumption is that they are competing actvities.

Click here to read the rest…

I have today started reading a great new book titled “Why Work Sucks and How To Fix It” by Jody Thomson and Cali Ressler.

It is based around a new working environment implemented by the authors at the Fortune 100 retailer Best Buy.

A culture which helped increase productivity by 35% and reduced voluntary staff turnover by 90%.

What is this new culture? – “ROWE” – Results-Only Work Environment. 

What is a ROWE? Well to quote the authors:

Click here to read the rest…

I frequently meet woman who leave senior roles in the banking sector to start a family and take a career break. They have worked hard to get themselves into a strong financial position and now want to spend the next few years away from the rat race and focus on bringing up a young family and enjoy some well deserved ‘me time.’

The first few months after the birth are great, they love the time with the child (or children) and find it very satisfying. Whilst they miss the people they worked with along with the ‘adult interaction,’ they most definitely don’t miss the commuting, politics and other stresses of corporate life.

Life is good.

But then a year down the line – maybe even 2 years, they start to feel a sense of ‘something missing.’

Click here to read the rest…