Category: Old blog

Academia · Blog · Old blog

How I would teach agricultural economics

Codrin PO

I recently  received an offer to teach agricultural economics at a Chinese university. After getting a little background info about the university and life in those cities, I decided to refuse it. But the interest in teaching agricultural economics is still there, pushing me from the back. So I`ve started thinking how I would teach agricultural economics to students, at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

The prerequisites I would ask for a course in Ag Econ would definitely be an Economics course and a communications one. The Economics prerequisite might split into two courses, depending on the university and what curricula they have: Macroeconomics and Microeconomics. I would like the communications one to be split between policy communications and corporate or digital communications. Here are the teaching methods.

Blog · Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #6: the IAU/UNESCO list

Codrin PO

My friend Greg recently applied for a position in an United Nations specialized agency (I won’t give the name). As you remember, Greg has lots of diplomas in his field of expertise, from Bachelor to PhD. He also has several years of experience in the same field. These things would definitely get him a similar job (as the one he applied for) in any international organization, corporation, iNGO or research institute.

But there is a catch (again). After he applied, Greg saw a small paragraph in the job posting under “Additional information”. It said: “Please note that this UN agency will only consider academic credentials or degrees obtained from an educational institution recognized in the IAU/UNESCO list”. IAU stands for International Association of Universities. UNESCO, well, you know what it stands for (the culture and education part of the UN). Read more on what the UN asks from you.

Career counseling · Old blog

Career counseling #5: the illusion

Codrin PO

I read this morning an article on the web about a private college professor with a Master`s degree from an Ivy League university. The professor, let`s say he`s Greg`s brother Hugh, finished his studies magna cum laude and was considered by his colleagues “most likely to succeed“.

Hugh got married to his college sweetheart, had a beautiful baby boy and was as happy as anyone can be.

And then things started going downhill. His wife died in a car accident, leaving him with a baby that was, soon after, diagnosed with a chronic illness. Because of the time spent in the hospital with his baby, he lost his tenure track professor job and was obliged to get a teaching job at a skills and trade college, with only a few courses to teach per year. The job was bringing him around 24,000 euros/year. The house which he bought together with his wife was taken back by the bank and he was left only with 3,000 euros in debt and 200 euros in his bank account. Continue reading “Career counseling #5: the illusion” →

Career counseling · Not too personal · Old blog

How I will job hunt from now on!

Codrin PO1 Comment

I’ve been unemployed for almost 5 months now. In the meantime, I applied to a few jobs and went to a few interviews. At one company, the recruiter invited me to the interview because she hadn’t seen a resume like mine before (a whole bunch of studies and experience linked to the field in every kind of organization). She just wanted to chat with me unfortunately. I passed a couple of interviews at that specific company, but didn’t get the job because my profile didn`t fit the job description.shutterstock_48556021

Right now, I am no longer applying for jobs where I don’t fit the profile perfectly. I did that in the first couple of months because I was desperate (I’ve never been unemployed and always like to work on new things). But, as I said, I only got a few interviews and a lot of “We are sorry to tell you that…” messages.

Thus, my new job hunting strategy involves only two things: Continue reading “How I will job hunt from now on!” →

Blog · Old blog

Global Citizen: Food Security

Codrin PO

Supporting the Global Poverty Project: Let`s build a world without hunger. There is enough food in the world for everyone. Locally-sourced solutions will ensure that everyone has enough to eat and families can build their communities without worrying about securing one of our basic human rights. Continue reading “Global Citizen: Food Security” →