Vol.3 August 2010
“Contracting can see you working at all sorts of companies and
provide you with experiences that you otherwise would not get”
says Rania La Riccia our August “In the Spotlight” featured
Executive Assistant.
Rania is the proud Executive Assistant to Richard Bowden,
Managing Director of Bupa Australia, a role that she originally
commenced as a “maternity leave” opportunity. A role that has
evolved to be challenging, demanding and “her dream job” says
Rania. Rania describes her relationship with Richard Bowden as
“engaging, productive and trusting with a great deal of
understanding and respect for one another”. Rania highlights the
fact that she loves that “Richard Bowden values her opinion and
empowers her with knowledge, responsibility and trust”. Many
of these skills having been gained from working for a wide range
of personalities, working styles and organisations throughout
Rania’s contracting career.
Rania’s career has taken a number of twists and turns due to the
nature of contracting, but Rania says she wouldn’t have it any
other way and says this is why I am where I am today loving my
job supporting Richard Bowden at Bupa. This is how Rania’s
career has unfolded ....
When Rania completed her VCE, she was unsure of exactly what
she wanted to do ... so she secured a role in retail working for
Brash’s where she spent a year and where she met her husband
(Lucky). At the end of the year, Rania decided to go the UK and
have a “working holiday” where she was given her first corporate
office opportunity working as a Data Entry operator.
Upon returning to Australia Rania registered with a number of
agencies applying for offices roles and with six months office
experience under her belt, Rania secured herself a role with the
NAB as an Admin/HR assistant where she was gratefully guided
and mentored by a Senior EA within the business. Rania loved
the dynamics, environment and people working within the
banking sector.
Without really looking for another role, Rania was approached by
an agency regarding a Maternity Leave role with Macquarie, an
organisation that Rania held in high regard due to their
reputation and quality of their brand. After five gruelling
interviews and extensive testing, Rania was offered the 12 month
maternity leave contract and thrived in the “high performance
culture”, prestige and demands of working for an organisation
like Macquarie.
At the conclusion of the contract, Rania was once again “on the
market” and looking for her next career opportunity.
She then secured another maternity leave contract as EA to a
General Manager of Melbourne Water.
This was a role that she learnt a lot and it was a supportive
learning environment where she gained new skills within a new
environment.
Rania then took on another contract role with Plum Financial who
were part of the MLC Group, as PA to the General Manager. Half
way through the contract, NAB took over MLC and as a result of
some major restructuring and changes, Rania’s boss was made
redundant, so , Rania decided to move on.
After Rania’s time with Plum, Rania decided it was time to secure
a permanent full-time role and move away from contracting, and
joined Tabcorp as the EA to the Chief Information Officer where
she spent over two years. Rania remembers her time with
Tabcorp fondly highlighting the fact that the people were fabulous
and she made so many fantastic friends there. After much change
and restructuring, Rania was made redundant and found herself
securing a six month contract role, as EA to the CIO of IAG. At the
conclusion of this contract, Rania then secured a contract role
working as EA to the Head of Human Resources with ANZ Bank.
Whilst at ANZ, Rania held a number of contracts working for
various Senior Executives with ANZ.
At the completion of her final contract with ANZ, Rania took on a
six month maternity leave contract as EA to the Chairman &
Managing Director of Vanguard Investments, a contract that Rania
also loved.
One of the things that Rania is incredibly mindful of and very
respectful of is that when you take on a maternity leave role or a
contract role ... you are actually performing in someone else’s
role. Rania believes that she has been a successful maternity
leave and contract cover EA because she is flexible, adaptable and
most importantly has always respected the way that things have
been done and why they have been done that way. Rania also
added that she has always been aware that the permanent person
would “mostly” decide to return to their role at the conclusion of
the contract.
Rania is now herself preparing to head off on maternity leave in
October with her first child due in November and Rania is looking
for someone to manage her role and provide exceptional support
to Richard Bowden until she returns in the New Year.
Life has gone full circle says Rania, it’s ironic how things work out,
given my history of contract roles, I know exactly what I’m looking
for as my replacement whilst I’m on maternity leave ... and adds ...
I will most definitely be back! ...