Stepping up to success with someJewishgeography
WHAT COULD be better than sitting down with a cup of coffee and a friend to sort out your working life?
Well, try reading Step Up – Confidence, Success and Your Stellar Career in 10 Minutes a Day. It’s like a comfy chat with friends, but I suspect the authors are better qualified to give advice than most of my mates.
Alice Olins is a fashion journalist and Phanella Mayall Fine is an executive coach and development consultant with a Masters in Organisational Behaviour. Their book combines hand-holding reassurance with practical tips and short CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) workouts, to help you to identify and maximise your skills and experience.
I am sold. But the prospect of meeting the authors, both in their mid 30s with four jobs and five children between them, is a little daunting. I’m prepared for two superwomen with all the answers.
But once we meet, I relax. Olins and Fine put me at my ease. I settle on the sofa and we begin our Jewish geography.
“It’s complicated,” Olins says. “My Mum is Australian, she isn’t Jewish, but I have always felt very connected to my Judaism through my paternal line. I was converted at the age of seven and was brought up in North West London in a traditional household. We have big, family Friday night dinners and get together on the festivals. My friendship groups were always Jewish and we would hang out in Hampstead as teenagers. At university I was very involved with Jewish student life. My husband is not Jewish but he is keen for us to join a shul.”
Fine’s background is a little different. “My mother is Jewish but my father isn’t. My parents met in New York but they divorced when I was seven and I moved to the UK with my mum and we lived in Chelsea. We spent most of our time with my Jewish grandparents, we were secular but I felt very secure in my Judaism which helped when I went to Marlborough boarding school — I think we were only two Jews in the whole place. I met my husband
Our careers are like the Swiss Alps with lots of ups and downs