Sideways to the Top by Norah Breekveldt

Author:Norah Breekveldt [Breekveldt, Norah]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business - Leadership
ISBN: 9781922129192
Publisher: Melbourne Books
Published: 2013-07-26T00:00:00+00:00

Farah’s desire to work in her area of interest and to be successful continued to be her driving force. Within a couple of years she was posted to the Canberra bureau. She was a junior, ‘the lowest of the 10 people out there, so it wasn’t exactly a prestigious posting, but it was a great opportunity’. This posting gave her the chance to rub shoulders with the likes of Michelle Grattan (then Political Editor of The Age) and Mark Baker (National Editor). Before getting the Canberra job, Farah laughingly remembers orchestrating ‘a really pathetic little ruse’ to enhance her prospects of being picked for a posting. She saw Michelle Grattan leaving the building in Melbourne so decided to time her own departure and join the editor in the lift. ‘I don’t think I made any impact on her whatsoever … I probably erred on the side of being overenthusiastic [with these types of approaches], but it didn’t hurt me in the long run.’ Mark Baker became a good mentor to her in Canberra, in what was otherwise a formidable atmosphere to be working in as a junior journalist. One problem was the heady exposure to large political figures. Farah reflects that it is probably not a good idea for journalists to be excited about their job as ‘you shouldn’t be impressed by the people you cover’.

As exciting as Canberra was, in some respects it was a place where journalists had to ‘live and breathe work’, and Farah realised that she was not prepared to live that way. ‘Friends and family have always been very important to me. I’ve never dropped the ball in that area … I’m not one of those people who spend every moment of the day thinking about work. Downtime is vital to remain grounded.’ So she moved back to Melbourne and covered state politics for a year or so. However, after the intensity of Canberra, she was not as engaged in the state issues as she could have been.

This period led her to what was probably the first real learning Farah took from her work.

‘I came to the conclusion that sometimes you don’t have to have a goal. You can do your current task well, and that can be … quite satisfying, if you do a good job, and you write well or whatever it is you do … I became more mature in my attitude to work.’

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