Author: preetikaur
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In honour of the portfolio career
Have you heard of a portfolio career? It’s a relatively new term in the English language, coined by Charles Handy in 1989 in his book The Age of Unreason. He envisioned this radical change to the job market where your identity and career is no longer defined by one employer. Rather, it’s a combination of…
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Effective Altruism – the way forward for meaningful careers?
I spent three days at the Effective Altruism EAGx Conference 2026 in Oxford, which made me reflect on what it means to build a meaningful career. My career has always been influenced by Effective Altruism (see more here: https://www.effectivealtruism.org/articles/introduction-to-effective-altruism) principles. If you haven’t come across it before, Effective Altruism is a movement and philosophy that…
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Making decisions: finding peace with the hard decision (Part 2 of 2)
This is part two of my decision-making series. It started when I was choosing to change careers. It was not an easy decision, but I do not have any regrets and I wanted to share some ways I found peace in these decisions. For part one, of knowing when to make the decision in the…
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Making decisions: knowing when you’re ready to choose the new chapter (Part 1 of 2)
I wrote this idea a long time ago when I was making decisions about being a medic, but the scattered notes of this post stayed in my drafts folder. As I’m going through several major life transitions again, I felt it would be fitting to revisit this and share it. I write in the context…
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We never went back home
79 years ago in the middle of August, when India and Pakistan gained independence, we left home and never returned. We had to get on a train or walk in one direction. Maybe the door was locked behind us, maybe not. What can we carry on our backs with small children too? We’ll return one…
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When the same symptoms lead to different diagnoses
Understanding ethnic inequalities in mental health Originally published in The Doc Suit Debrief. Imagine that there are two patients who arrive in A&E, both saying the same thing. They are feeling on edge and concerned with an impending sense of doom. One is diagnosed with acute anxiety, comforted with a cup of tea, and sent…
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The Cost of Inaction
Why Investing In Refugee Mental Health Makes Economic and Moral Sense Originally published in The Doc Suit Debrief. Imagine one day losing your home, leaving behind everything you know, and having no sense of safety. Then, you are expected to rebuild your life with the traumas you are carrying in an unknown, often hostile, environment.…
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Book Review: Political Order and Political Decay by Francis Fukuyama
Quote of the book “The right to participate politically grants recognition to the moral personhood of the citizen, and exercise of that right gives that person some degree of agency over the common life of the community.” 5 key points Institutions need to create a more accessible platform for political participation and this is something…
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Book Review: The Language of Kindness: A Nurse’s Story by Christie Watson
Quote of the book “Nursing people means doing for them what they would normally do, when they have no will to do it, until they have will to do it”. 5 key points Suffering and the feeling of pain can be reduced by kindness, and ultimately, nursing is a measure of humanity. One day we…
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Book Review: The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream by Barack Obama
Quote of the book “We have a stake in one another, and that what binds us together is greater than what drives us apart” 5 key points The book was written just before Obama’s campaign for US presidency in 2008 He touches upon several subjects, but in particular he talks about the need for investment…
