A good place to start with a fascinating 24 hours in the capital. Made a flying trip to Wellington for a brief appearance on TVNZ Good Morning show, to talk about Your 21st Century career. How do you put a book in sound bytes? I always find it difficult but Brendan Pongia, the interviewing host made it all very ease with his interest and his understanding of the book- he had taken it home the night before, found it useful, and really liked it. Here’s the result- any tips on TV presentation are welcome, I am still working on that skill set. View Video
The night before I met for the first time two very interesting kiwis, Michael Peters and Tina Besley, both academics at the University of Illinois, a couple with very distinguished academic careers and previous connections to Auckland University. Both are prolific writers and authors of many books, some written together, eg. Subjectivity and Truth: Foucault, Education and the Culture of Self (Peter Lang, 2007). Tina’s latest work is a large edited collection, Assessing Quality in Higher Education: a comparative study, 2008. We found other connections of an interest in youth counselling, Waiheke Island, and the wine industry. Like us they have a vineyard with accommodation, as well as their multiple day jobs. They were talking about their company, Waipara River Estates with Heather Idoine Riley, my friend and manager of the Holiday Inn in Wellington, so I joined the tasting – a beautiful 2009 Reisling.
What does all this have to do with careers? More evidence I thought of the fascinating development of careers in the older age group – that they are so mobile, global and take multiple forms. When I finally get to a book about that I will be asking them for case study material.