Category: Misconceptions

Blog · Misconceptions · Not too personal · Old blog

Misconception #4: The imaginary friend

Codrin PO

I was talking to a friend on Facebook a while ago about his dream job and what he would want to do. He told me that he hasn’t got the courage to do it because, he said, people will make fun of him, regardless if he will fail or not. He has a twisted view of the world, it seems.

A lot of people have the same problem. Since we were kids, parents and other children say to you that you are not the best, that there will always be someone smarter, faster or with a better education. In my opinion, this is not the way to educate your children or to support your friends.

For me, this was not the case. My mother and my grandparents always supported me to such extent that I thought I am perfect (not that today that isn’t the case anymore). But the most important was my imaginary friend. Although I was a shy kid (and I am still a little shy).quote-Lee-Ryan-i-still-have-imaginary-friends-who-i-211749

I had an imaginary friend who listened to every dream that I couldn’t share with anyone. I used to tell stories to my friends when I was little, but my imaginary friend was the one who loved them all. Continue reading “Misconception #4: The imaginary friend” →

Misconceptions · Old blog

Misconception #2: The rich people from abroad

Codrin PO1 Comment

I am from Romania, one of those Eastern European countries that people either don’t know they exist or they confuse it with another one (the capital is Bucharest, not Budapest). Millions of Romanians left in the past years to work abroad. Doctors, teachers, construction workers. You name it, they’re abroad working. This happened because the average salary in Romania is of about 390 Euros/month, money with which you need to pay rent (or a credit for a house/apartment), utilities and buy food.

In 2012, I left abroad to work. I got a 2-year contract as a postdoc researcher in a Belgian university. I earned a little over 2,000 Euros/month. For Wallonia (the French part of Belgium), the salary was decent. We could rent a nice apartment with almost everything we needed. READ 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.

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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.

Misconceptions · Not too personal · Old blog

#GettingPersonal The epilepsy in me

Codrin PO

I wrote a couple of months ago a post regarding what people with chronic illnesses hate most (see HERE). To the pity looks I mentioned there, I have to add the annoyance of medication.

When you tried X number of treatments, having to take pills several times a day is really annoying, especially if you take several types of drug. On a scale from 1 to 10 of annoyance levels, medication would probably be around 7 or 8.

The horror of medication begins with going through several types of drugs, indeed. I went through 4 or 5 of them up till now. For all, I developed a resistance after reaching the maximum dose allowed for adults. Fenobarbital was the first.

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My neurologist recently told me that we need to change treatment (he added a new drug) and see how that will go. He’ll see me again in six months if no effects appear. He mentioned side effects like double vision, suicidal tendencies and a few others. If this doesn’t work either, we’ll have to check surgical options.

But one thing I know: No one will ever touch my brain!! It`s my best asset and it will stay the way it is.

Blog · Misconceptions · Old blog

Update to Misconception #1: the things which people with chronic illnesses hate

Codrin PO2 Comments

I wrote two days ago the article on what people with chronic illnesses hate the most (besides the illness itself). See the article HERE.

The main purpose of the article was not to tell people that I have epilepsy or to take something off my soul. The idea was to explain to people what they do (around someone with chronic illnesses) and why they shouldn’t do anymore.

It`s funny: after people found out about my epilepsy, the first thing they did was to behave as they shouldn’t have done it. They sent me sympathy emails, Skype and Facebook messages in which they explained that they support me and that they are right behind me. As I said, it`s funny :). The real thing to read about