Peter Cai holds a senior position at one of Australia’s largest airlines and I was fortunate to be able to hear him talk about his career at the Urban Land Institute’s Young Leader’s Summit earlier this month.
“I started off just like any other diligent, good-natured Asian kid: I did advanced maths, chemistry, physics at high school. My only act of rebellion was I did modern European history on the side.”
When he completed high school in England he tried to get into medical school but was refused.
“The medical school designed an admission test that’s supposed to weed out socially-awkward Asians. So, I didn’t get into medical school, nor dental school. So, I went for kind of the third respectable option: to become an engineer.”
Before starting his tertiary studies, however, he decided to visit Germany with a student exchange program, which turned out to be a life-changing experience.
“I come back, I realise I don’t really want to be an electronic engineer, so I opt for a very bright future in German studies, specialising in the Counterreformation movement in Medieval southern Bavaria.”
At Oxford University, he completed his history studies then enrolled in a postgraduate law degree hoping to get a qualification that might lead to a good job. While his classmates were applying for positions with investment banks, Cai came up against a brick wall and so he took the next-best option and enrolled in a PhD. “I thought, ‘If I’m ok with study, [I’ll] probably just go down that path.’”
While he was attending a conference, someone invited him to Canberra for a research fellowship, and he became the research assistant to an economist there.
“And my background, as you know, is in history, so it was quite a challenge [to] try to even understand what he was talking about,” Cai told the room.
“It was like learning a new language once again in my life. If there’s anything I can draw out of my life up to that point, is this capacity to learn new things is actually quite important. You can be a specialist in Medieval German history but if you have to edit a paper on [the] Asian Development Bank you have to transform yourself into a role quite quickly, too.”
That job led to a position in the Treasury – the Australian government department responsible for economic policy, fiscal policy, market regulation, and the federal budget.
“I was the only historian they recruited that year. I found another Arts graduate in my cohort and she studied French literature, so she ended up in [the] international tax division, so power to her.”
While there, he visited Beijing and met the China correspondent for Fairfax Media – the oldest media company in Australia – whose name was John Garnaut.
“I don’t know why, [but] I said something to him over [a] hotpot meal during a very cold winter. He asked me what I want to do, probably I just tried to flatter him; I said, ‘Actually, I want to be a journalist.’ So he actually remembered what I said. So, about a year-and-a-half later he said, ‘Fairfax [has] got a new position, would you like to give it a go?’”
The company gave him a plane ticket to Melbourne for the interview and he got the job, which suited him because he thought with his history experience at least he knew how to write.
“I was terribly mistaken. When I joined the paper, within a couple of weeks it was quite clear to me I couldn’t write.”
Daily meetings with the subeditor enabled him to get his first story published after two weeks but he was also fortunate to have veteran Fairfax journalist Ross Gittins take him under his wing.
“He really mentored me and sat me down and really changed my copy and told me how to be a good journalist.”
His life took another turn when respected finance journalist Alan Kohler asked him to join a new start-up, The Constant Investor, a subscription website for financial news.
“I did [take] that job and it’s become I think one of the most amazing job experiences in my life. You run a website, you write the editorial – remember, it was only my second year, third year as a journalist – [to] start writing editorial like a columnist usually would take about 15 years. He probably saw something in me, I still don’t know what he saw in me. But I just took the chance.”
Then things changed again when he took a position as a researcher at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank he had applied to for a position when he was still back at university. “So I actually get paid to do something I always wanted to do.”
One day the CEO of Virgin Australia phoned him.
“When he called me, I was really surprised because a long time ago I did write a story about Virgin, and that was like 300 words. You don’t usually get a call from the CEO about a 300-word article. And he invited me to have coffee and he just offered me a job.”
Cai told the room that he thinks that having curiosity and an ability to constantly learn was important.
“Nowadays, we just change jobs so often, at least I think. So I think to maintain that curiosity and ability to adapt, to learn I just think is really important.”
But he thinks that maintaining relationships in his new role is what takes up most of his time.
“I just think so far managing relationships is so important because a lot of [the] time what makes or breaks [an] agreement on a very important initiative is not really whether you get a 7.6 percent discount or a 7.7 percent discount, what really bridges the last centimetre is really whether someone will trust you, whether they believe you are a good partner, so [having] an honest face is important.”
“I started off just like any other diligent, good-natured Asian kid: I did advanced maths, chemistry, physics at high school. My only act of rebellion was I did modern European history on the side.”
When he completed high school in England he tried to get into medical school but was refused.
“The medical school designed an admission test that’s supposed to weed out socially-awkward Asians. So, I didn’t get into medical school, nor dental school. So, I went for kind of the third respectable option: to become an engineer.”
Before starting his tertiary studies, however, he decided to visit Germany with a student exchange program, which turned out to be a life-changing experience.
“I come back, I realise I don’t really want to be an electronic engineer, so I opt for a very bright future in German studies, specialising in the Counterreformation movement in Medieval southern Bavaria.”
At Oxford University, he completed his history studies then enrolled in a postgraduate law degree hoping to get a qualification that might lead to a good job. While his classmates were applying for positions with investment banks, Cai came up against a brick wall and so he took the next-best option and enrolled in a PhD. “I thought, ‘If I’m ok with study, [I’ll] probably just go down that path.’”
While he was attending a conference, someone invited him to Canberra for a research fellowship, and he became the research assistant to an economist there.
“And my background, as you know, is in history, so it was quite a challenge [to] try to even understand what he was talking about,” Cai told the room.
“It was like learning a new language once again in my life. If there’s anything I can draw out of my life up to that point, is this capacity to learn new things is actually quite important. You can be a specialist in Medieval German history but if you have to edit a paper on [the] Asian Development Bank you have to transform yourself into a role quite quickly, too.”
That job led to a position in the Treasury – the Australian government department responsible for economic policy, fiscal policy, market regulation, and the federal budget.
“I was the only historian they recruited that year. I found another Arts graduate in my cohort and she studied French literature, so she ended up in [the] international tax division, so power to her.”
While there, he visited Beijing and met the China correspondent for Fairfax Media – the oldest media company in Australia – whose name was John Garnaut.
“I don’t know why, [but] I said something to him over [a] hotpot meal during a very cold winter. He asked me what I want to do, probably I just tried to flatter him; I said, ‘Actually, I want to be a journalist.’ So he actually remembered what I said. So, about a year-and-a-half later he said, ‘Fairfax [has] got a new position, would you like to give it a go?’”
The company gave him a plane ticket to Melbourne for the interview and he got the job, which suited him because he thought with his history experience at least he knew how to write.
“I was terribly mistaken. When I joined the paper, within a couple of weeks it was quite clear to me I couldn’t write.”
Daily meetings with the subeditor enabled him to get his first story published after two weeks but he was also fortunate to have veteran Fairfax journalist Ross Gittins take him under his wing.
“He really mentored me and sat me down and really changed my copy and told me how to be a good journalist.”
His life took another turn when respected finance journalist Alan Kohler asked him to join a new start-up, The Constant Investor, a subscription website for financial news.
“I did [take] that job and it’s become I think one of the most amazing job experiences in my life. You run a website, you write the editorial – remember, it was only my second year, third year as a journalist – [to] start writing editorial like a columnist usually would take about 15 years. He probably saw something in me, I still don’t know what he saw in me. But I just took the chance.”
Then things changed again when he took a position as a researcher at the Lowy Institute, an Australian think tank he had applied to for a position when he was still back at university. “So I actually get paid to do something I always wanted to do.”
One day the CEO of Virgin Australia phoned him.
“When he called me, I was really surprised because a long time ago I did write a story about Virgin, and that was like 300 words. You don’t usually get a call from the CEO about a 300-word article. And he invited me to have coffee and he just offered me a job.”
Cai told the room that he thinks that having curiosity and an ability to constantly learn was important.
“Nowadays, we just change jobs so often, at least I think. So I think to maintain that curiosity and ability to adapt, to learn I just think is really important.”
But he thinks that maintaining relationships in his new role is what takes up most of his time.
“I just think so far managing relationships is so important because a lot of [the] time what makes or breaks [an] agreement on a very important initiative is not really whether you get a 7.6 percent discount or a 7.7 percent discount, what really bridges the last centimetre is really whether someone will trust you, whether they believe you are a good partner, so [having] an honest face is important.”
Photo by Andrew Bell of Established ID.
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