Category: Career counseling

Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #7: what education can and cannot do for you

Codrin PO2 Comments

I have a good friend. Let`s call her Anna.

Anna got a few years ago her Bachelor degree in Public Administration. An interesting field of study, with even more interesting things to do after…if you don’t want to get a job in public administration. But let`s get back to the subject.

She had a few small jobs, nothing really related to what she studied. After a while of doing this, she decided that it`s time to emigrate and find something better, that “American dream” (but in Europe). Anna has been in that country for almost two years now.

She started studying the language and got pretty good at it, reaching an advanced level on the country`s own scale of evaluation. That`s what she did in her first year there. In her second year, Anna started studying at one of the country’s best universities. Right now, she`s taking her first exams there. HERE IS THE CATCH! READ MORE.

Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #4: Lisa

Codrin PO

It`s 2015 and we`ve got a fresh start ahead.

For a first-in-the-year post, let`s take Lisa, Greg`s long lost love. I`m sure you all remember Greg.

Lisa majored in political science, with an emphasis on international relations. She hoped to get a job within the Parliament, a Ministry or something similar. She`s been unemployed since June 2013, when she graduated. In the past year and a half, she had some meaningless jobs, learned another language and thought about the future. She recently started a Masters` in political sciences abroad, with an emphasis on European affairs.

Lisa`s attitude, from my point of view, is one of denial. She thinks that, after her Master, she`ll get a job within a European institution and start of a fabulous career in politics. And here`s the punchline!

Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #3: the University

Codrin PO

The year has almost come to an end. 2015 is just a couple of days away and everybody is preparing their New Year`s resolutions (myself included).

I find it only fitting to write a post about how those college years should help you get the job of your dream after you graduate.

Everybody told me, after I graduated, that I should have done an internship, volunteered anywhere, with any organization just to get a head start. People also told me that I should have worked in college, if not for my financial independence, at least for a better looking resume. The advice is in the rest of the article

Blog · Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #1: The first steps into your career

Codrin PO

I`ve met four types of people in my life so far:

– the ones that, after graduating, have no idea what they want to do and get the first measly job they find in order to make money, whether they like it or not;

– the ones that, after graduating, are so confused about what to do next that they do more studies to avoid facing reality;

– the ones that, after graduating, know exactly what they want to do and do everything they can to achieve it;

– the ones that, after graduating, know exactly what they want to do, but are too afraid to do it.

I fit into the second group.

Here are some things that I`ve learned from my personal experience and that of people close to me. Read a personal example and more

Career counseling · Misconceptions · Old blog

Misconception #3: the long time unemployed

Codrin PO

Many recruiters that I know hold the preconception that, if you have been unemployed for a long time, you lost it. You don`t have the skills to do the job, you don`t have the knowledge up-to-date. Between them, there are different frames for the time frame in which they consider a person as being unemployed for a long time. I heard about periods of 6 months or 1 year. It varies from recruiter to recruiter.

But they do not think that it is possible that those unemployed people might have better knowledge and improved skills.

Resume-cartoon1

When you have all the day free, after the whining period at the beginning, you start doing things to be better seen on the job market. You are following daily the new technologies in your field, you learn new specialized software that might give you an edge or to learn languages. It did and I`m still doing all of these and more.

So, to recruiters, do not discriminate people based on the time in which they are unemployed for a long time. You never know if the perfect candidate isn`t one of them.