I often ask myself how many styles of MBAs are on offer? The leading formats are full-time, part-time, executive, global & international and finally online versions all priced for different market segments.

Then there are general MBA programs or you can choose from specialised programs in management, finance, marketing, human resources, operations, entrepreneurship, accounting, supply chain management, information systems, accounting and media/communications. No longer does a candidate have to undertake a full-time two-year course losing two years of income and other opportunity costs – there are now plenty of options.

The ambitious career orientated individuals considering an MBA may also seek alternative options to full-time business school but might not be just related to part-time and executive MBA courses. Top business schools are running short intense customised programs specialising in leadership, strategy, value creation, strategic innovation, communication and technology.

The online courses from Stanford Online, HarvardX, Cousera, edX and a host of business schools provide excellent online content in short courses. For me, the obvious choice would be to engage in entrepreneurship; there are of course entrepreneurship specialisations and the real purpose of an MBA was to prepare professionals for a broad business education.

Developing an idea into a start-up business is very rewarding and can start as an idea generated in an entrepreneurship class or even during a case study presentation. Gaining a specialised master’s degree in a business related field such as logistics, operations, accounting, finance, human resources or strategy gives the candidate the opportunity further excel in their chosen field. They tend not to carry the premium that a fully fledged MBA costs.

Project management is a growing field but I have always felt an individual needs to have a technical background and only then learning management as their specialisation. Leadership is also a growing area but I never thought much of specialising in the area. Potential candidates have the opportunity to enroll in an undergraduate bachelor program such as a Bachelor of Commerce or Bachelor of Business but I still view the Master of Business Administration as the ultimate business qualification that carries more weight.

Another of these great little Ubud coffee house is Binar Warung, not far from our cottages, this is just a small establishment well off the main streets.

The staff were nice, once they had seen us head in a couple of times they were even more welcoming. After breakfast, this was first stop heading out to wander around Ubud so we could burn a little time in the morning. On the way home in the evening, Binar Warung was the final stop for the night. A quick espresso is an excellent way to complete the day. Unlike the much longer stopover in the morning where I work work on a few posts, the evening espresso was exactly that, an espresso and home.

What a disaster my two-year work visa for the Democratic Republic of Congo turned out to be, in what should have been a simple process, this turned out to be a monumental stuff-up.

On my first day of work I handed my passport to the company representative to be sent to Kinshasa, this apparently happened as per their procedures. I followed their procedures exactly, I made sure there was no delays or hold-ups on my part. However, the next step is where it all went wrong, instead of forwarding my application along with my passport to immigration officials they sent it back to site. Of course, I was not informed of these changes at all, I was none the wiser and thought everything was progressing exactly as it should.

Naturally, I followed up via emails and telephone calls to be told everything is ok – clearly they lied to me. The process is supposed to take six to eight weeks so I pushed a little harder after six weeks. As the deadline approached I followed up more closely, I was still unaware serious problems had arisen. With only a week to go, I was becoming a little more vocal, I demanded answers as I had not had my passport returned and I wasn’t flying without that all important document. As I found out, I couldn’t even board the company jet for domestic flights without my passport.

As it transpired, no passport and still no visa. So my passport was pulled early and I received a three month working visa. Still, I couldn’t fly because the day of the flight there was still no passport but I was able to able to step on the company jet with a special identification letter to fly internally. I had to spend days of my leave sitting around in a guest house in Lumumbashi, fly the long route and lo se three days of my leave. I was exhausted as I got all the centre seats in the centre aisle as I was booked on last minute flights. The first days back on leave were a total washout as I was tired and sick. I never want to do this again.

So watch collecting is becoming an expensive hobby, fortunately for me it remains within the bounds of my finances. I think for now though, it is time to not buy anything new unless an opportunity too good to pass up comes along. As a watch enthusiast, I am still able to research and try on timepieces when I am out researching individual pieces. I don’t do this much in Perth since competition and ranges are limited, also I prefer to research away from home where people don’t know me and I can walk out of the shop anytime.

Naturally, not too many people get to collect  A. Lange & Söhne, Patek Philippe, Vacheron Constantin or Audemars Piguet and I am one of those people. Still, I can admire robust engineering and magnificent styling without owning one. I have found watch enthusiasts also tend to be car enthusiasts, motorsport and race timekeeping tend to merge together. This accounts for so many automotive series from the Speedmaster, Carrera, Monza, Silverstone and Daytona series.

Since I’m more into yachting, brands such as Rolex and Omega tend to support these activities although the Seamaster range is more aligned to diving these days. Is the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak a dive watch or a marine timepiece? So too with the Patek Philippe Nautilus. Dive watches, where to start? The Blancpain Fifty Fathoms, the Rolex Submariner and Omega Seamaster are leading brands but every manufacturer from Ulysse Nardin, Breitling, Tudor, Officine Panerai, TAG Heuer, Bremont, Mühle-Glashütte, Tissot, Oris and Jaeger-LeCoultre have dive watches.

Aviation is well supported with IWC, Breitling, Bremont, Bell and Ross and Omega. Rolex came out with a GMT for dual timezones for international travelers and business people, apparently after a specific request from Pam-Am. Cartier is credited with creating the first aviator timepiece with the Santos in 1904. Then there is out and out style, A. Lange & Söhne, Vacheron Constantin, Patek Philippe, Breguet, Glashütte Original, Zenith, Cartier, Girard-Perregaux,  and Chopard are leading examples of how style meets functionality. Even the Rolex Cellini cracks a mention here; then there is Piaget, Mountblanc, Rado, Baume and Mercier, Jaeger-LeCoultre  and IWC.

You are not really supposed to be seen in a dinner suit in a chronograph, dive or aviator watch; that’s where the low profile and elegant timepiece is desired. Your timepiece is supposed to sit under your shirt cuff. I love researching timepieces, trying them on and writing about features, styling, functionality, value and finally wrist feel. I collect manufacturer catalogs from retail outlets, download specifications and read as many reviews as I can handle. Yeah, it’s fun and yeah, it’s expensive but who cares as you only live once.

Whilst understood, there isn’t too many businesses I have been involved with that doesn’t place timeframes on employees. There is an argument that tight schedules increases productivity but naturally increases stress at work, this is only feasible for short term projects as it tends to burn people out over the longer term.

So where does that leave us? I work in the engineering maintenance department on a copper and cobalt mine and our project based maintenance work requires tight timeframes and budgets. You need to find creative solutions to solve problems within budgetary frameworks and tight schedules. Now I understand that I am viewing this from my own perspective and I would like to work in a job where I had neither financial or time constraints – but I don’t. I would like to know who does and how they are able to produce a service or product in a business without any of these factors – now that would be a good job.

I love flying on the Airbus A380, I know airlines are looking to downsize to the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, but as a passenger, I find the A380 far superior for long haul travel. I understand Airbus is having trouble selling new aircraft and the A380 production may cease – that’s a shame.

I had a long-haul flight from Perth to Dubai on a 777-200 and I can’t say it was a great experience. The aircraft was operated by Emirates, a pretty decent airline but I still felt uncomfortable and cramped. Even with a aisle seat, I was able to stretch my legs but was bumped into by staff moving up and down the aisles.

The entertainment system didn’t work, the movie kept losing sound, the screen froze or I had issues loading programs. Maybe that just added to my annoyance, I gave the entertainment system away and used my own tablet to pass the time instead. I understand this is just an annoyance and not indicative of the aircraft design.

From Dubai to Frankfurt, the A-380 was a totally different experience, it was easy to get up and move around. I was four rows back from the front of the aircraft, people were standing in clear spaces chatting, walking around and generally looking relaxed. I felt the atmosphere was vastly improved, people genuinely looked better and appeared happier. My choice is definitely the A-380 even though the 787 has been promoted to ultra long-haul travel from point-to-point instead of the current hub-and-spoke model.

Was I semi-retired in my 40s? I would argue the time spent working in the recreational dive industry in my late 20s and early 30s was semi-retired. Although I received a salary, I felt like I was getting paid to have fun and it felt like I was saving money by not paying for diving experiences.

I was becoming a little concerned, I was now mid 30s and had to make a decision, do I continue in the low wage diving industry or do I return to a career? I chose to start a new career in training and education; this was really an extension of being a diving instructor with better pay, conditions, leave entitlements, job security and the all important retirement benefits.

During my dive instructor working period, I made some superannuation payments along with employer contributions on my behalf, but this was grossly under what I should have been putting away. I wasn’t salary sacrificing as I paid the bills but funds were tight, overseas holidays evaporated but most weeks were like a holiday as I led tours within Western Australia anyway.

But, during my mid 30s I was accepted into state government employment. I now had a pretty decent salary, eight weeks paid leave, one day per week working from home and I was accruing long service leave entitlements. Sure I was back in full-time employment but it was Monday to Friday with one day per week working from home.

Even better, I joined the Government Employees Superannuation Board (GESB) where my employer contributions were deposited into my account without the mandatory 15% contributions tax deducted. I was now accruing a decent retirement benefit with all the fantastic conditions attached to state government employment.

The eight weeks paid leave was the selling point, that’s two months off per year where I traveled overseas, dived the South East Asian region from Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines and Indonesia. There were also trips to Europe and the United States, no point getting all these holidays and sitting around home trying to save money.

Sure, I didn’t get paid to take people scuba diving anymore but my now more than generous salary easily covered that. I was still working as a part-time instructor at a number of dive centres as a part-time employee as well part ownership of a dive business for a while. I also renewed all my diving equipment, undertook renovations on my property, updated my car, made extra contributions to my retirement account, got myself a university education and then there was the travel both in the state, interstate and international.

These days I don’t work part-time in diving anymore although I keep my membership current for possible future references. My summer Saturdays are spent at the Royal Perth Yacht Club as a crew member racing a S97 cruiser. Whilst my dingy days are over, the Saturday afternoon race is a highlight of the week.

The club also has mid-week races with Saturday being very competitive, Thursday evening is the twilight race that really isn’t a race, this is a cruise with no spinnaker for down-wind legs, mostly inexperienced crews enjoying time on the Swan River. We generally refer to this race (of sorts) as a booze cruise with further drinks and BBQ up the club afterwards.

I am an idiot, I should have known better. Why would I request a coffee on an aircraft when we are experiencing turbulence?

Not only that, it was a full cup and it was going everywhere, it started by spilling out of the cup and onto the tray table. I’m scrambling for a napkin or some other absorbent material to clean it up before it spills over the edge. I’m too slow and unfortunately the closest absorbent material is my trousers, now I have two wet legs – great.

It is not so much the burning, sure the coffee is black but it isn’t that hot, I’m just annoyed with the large stain on my leg. This is the first leg of the flight with a stopover in Dubai, I have a the next flight after that and want to look reasonable and presentable as I will be catching trains and other local transport on my arrival in Frankfurt – damn.

Is the performance review dreaded, or is it really an opportunity to state your case? If you have a poor manager, an overbearing manager, a micro manager or just plain old incompetent manager – here is your chance.

I look forward to a performance review but in all reality I don’t get many opportunities in the workplace I am employed as they just don\’t perform performance reviews. Now they should as it is the state government that pays my salary and it is mandated in the public service code of conduct that a performance review is to be performed at least annually – it isn’t.

In the nine years I have been employed in the job, I have received just one performance review and although it was supposed to last an hour, I turned it into a two-hour meeting much to my manager’s discomfort. The role of the performance is to naturally review your performance but it shouldn’t descend into a chance for your manager to just direct criticism at you – this is generally what happens though.

The purpose of the performance review is to see how your job can be performed more efficiently, what your manager can do so you can increase your productivity, what problems they can sort out, what training you need and what systems can be improved. With the exceptions of the best managers, this generally doesn’t happen, if this was indeed the case, the performance review wouldn’t be dreaded.

Back in 2015 I wrote a post about why talent leaves and non-performers remain, the inspiration for this post was about a woman whom I wished to remain anonymous. I admired her self-belief, her inner confidence and her courage to take a huge risk with her career to back herself in to a senior role, she did really well and I wanted to write about her personal achievements.

I always knew she was talented, hard working and resourceful; she had leadership potential and all she needed was the right people to notice. I reposted this on my Facebook page as she had moved on again to a higher position and I wanted to remind her that I recognised her talent back then. I have also changed roles, so naturally my former colleagues saw this as a slight on themselves and I was back on the most hated list. I care little of their small-minded narrow views; had they even taken the time to read the post they would have worked out the publishing date was four years ago.

Attention to obvious detail, limited research skills and a small degree of comprehension would have informed this bunch of egotists this post wasn’t written about them. Instead they would rather sit around the office gossiping about something they know nothing about. What really made me laugh was I checked the analytics and there was a single redirection of this post from my Facebook page from that geographical location. I could count the page views from Australia so I knew they hadn’t even read the post themselves.

It is true, I do lack respect for my former colleagues, I find little redeeming qualities in them. Maybe they need to go back to watching YouTube videos all day and stop gossiping about topics where they are clearly out of their depth. I might not have written the post about them but clearly they believe they fit the stereotypical government employee – for once, they may actually be right.