Category: Old blog

Not too personal · Old blog

#GettingPersonal Greg`s back

Codrin PO

Greg is a person who doesn’t have too many friends. He is actually not a very sociable person. He would prefer to stay at home and watch movies (or whatever) then go out and party.

The very few friends he has are persons that understand this. But, from time to time, they don`t.

Greg`s friends have recently annoyed him because they didn’t behave very friendly. This wouldn’t be a problem for an ordinary person, but, for Greg, it`s a catastrophe. A normal person would discuss with his friends. Greg prefers to withdraw in his mind and think of possibilities, options and outcomes. His mind is spinning so out-of-control that he soon forgets what it was all about.

This is Greg.

Not too personal · Old blog

#GettingPersonal The job description

Codrin PO

I’ve thought a bit before choosing the category for this article. It was between #CareerCounseling and #GettingPersonal. I chose the latter.

My grandparents, and many other people who started working in the 60`s, 70`s, have told me how easy it was to get a job. There were lots of jobs and very few people to occupy them. It was enough to go into a factory/store (or anywhere else), ask for a job and get it.

In the past few years, I applied to quite a few jobs and I`ve read lots of job descriptions.

What surprises me all the time is that employers ask for stuff that are completely unreal.  READ SOME SURPRISING JOB DESCRIPTIONS!

Not too personal · Old blog

#GettingPersonal: past or future decisions

Codrin PO

There comes a time in a person`s life when he realizes that they totally screwed up a decision in the past. And that decision haunts him now. There are two ways in which a normal person reacts.

1. “The past is the past” – this is the most common. People say that a decision in the past cannot be changed so we now live in the present and look only towards the future.

2. “I don’t care” – this is the new style way. I took the decision, I don’t care anymore about it or if it was good or bad. DEFINITELY READ MORE!

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

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