Reffel applied for 100 jobs and only got "no" for an answer

Yesterday, just after I had published my last post on CV's, I came across the newspaper about Reffel Delemi who is educated ingenieer and master in "project-communication." She searched 100 jobs without acceptance and worked in kindergarden and as a receptionist. She says she may think some of it is due to being blond and not taken seriously enough, while the rest of the reason her foreign name.

Adding a picture to her CV may decrease sceptism due to her foreign name- giving employers a face to the CV, but as my career councler said, "you might not be hired because employers simply get a false impression of who you are based on a picture."

The foreign name doesn't really surprise me, I do get the impression that some employers may be more sceptical to a foreign name. When applying for jobs myself, a friend suggested I change my name. It is easy to tell Reffel to colour her hair dark and change her name, but its sad that it may be the reason she is getting "no." But with that said, I refuse to believe it is the complete reason that she is not getting a job. Perhaps the best thing when applying for a job is to hand the CV in person?

Although, I do not doubt those two factors play a role in her not getting a job, I am convinced if she gets an interview then her looks or her name cannot be the entire reason she is not getting any jobs. But ofcouse I may be wrong!

Regardless, I just looked in the paper and it looks like she is getting tons of job offers now. Good way to start the new year.

The picture I have is from Vg.no

What is the perfect CV like?

I am just about to run out of the house for a meeting, but quickly writing a little blog post cause its a little while since my last post now.
Yesterday I spent a lot of the day rewriting my CV. I think I have 5 different looking Cv’s now. I have no idea what is more effective or which one to use. Some people tell me personalize it; ”put picture, interest, hobbies, other skills in there. Spice it up!”They tell me that the employer wants to know who you are as a person. They also tell me that I in particular should make it personalized since I have a foreign name in Norway.

And then the others say, ”take out the picture, don’t add your gender, your birthdate, your interests or hobbies.” The arguement here was that your employer does not care about your gender, your hobbies or whatver because they are looking solely for your skills. Keeping it corporate and professional.

Then there is the length! I was told to shorten my 4 page CV to one page, which I did so painfully yesterday. I have seen many lengths, but in Norway I have come across few CV’s that are only one page. So what does your CV look like? What do you think is the most successful CV? Keep it short or long? Personalize or do not? Looking forward to hearing what you guys think. I have run out now :--)

Blogging

i just finished reading The new Rules about Marketing and PR by David Scott.The more I learn about PR, marketing and social networking, the more I realize how important it has become to understand what Scott calls ”the new rules.” I created this blog after my bachelour degree, because I wanted to start a blog not only for journalistic reasons but also wanted to find my voice in a blog. Therefore there is very few people who know about my blog. But this is essentially a blog for YOU! So,I want to open it up to more people as I don’t believe I have successfully been to make my own voice or a specific topic that may be interesting for you guys to read about. I am interested in so many things... How do I pick one topic? How do I manage my blog so that you would want to read it if you do not know me? Therefore, I invite you guys to tell me what you want to hear more about. You can tell me what is successful and what is not successful on my blog. I appreciate all comments.
Thank you

Oh What a Useful Society!

I have been reading a book named, "Kunsten å Være Unyttig" which translates into "The Art of being Useless" by Per Henrik Gullfoss. This book has really been inspirational to me because I am one of those people who need to use every moment of my life to do something I believe is useful. The book describes our society as a place where self-worth is based on how useful we are. How often have you met someone when the first question they ask you is “what you do?” And you find your self answering what you are studying or your job title. We say this because people consider it to be useful and being useful gives meaning to our lives. And what would life be like without meaning? We never answer, “I laugh, I love, and I seek wisdom and beauty.” Many of us choose an education or job because it is useful and not because we are really interested or enjoying it. “But what if we realized that the point of life was not to be useful, but to live life (Gullfoss)?”
The author tells us to revaluate what we consider “useful.” It explains that what truly gives life meaning are the things that we consider to be useless. In particular, the book describes four assets that are useless but vital to be happy. One is to love (and no not only love for selfish reasons, because you are lonely or whatever, but truly love and not expect anything back), to seek joy (by this Gullfoss means that we should do things we want to do and more importantly to not make excuses, because ultimately you always have time for the things you really want to do), to seek wisdom (this does not mean how smart you are but to not be afraid to “bite the apple,” to make mistakes, but to learn from those mistakes). And last but not least, to seek beauty (this does not mean the superficial materialistic beauty but the inner beauty). Once you have been able to put this into practice then you will find joy in the things you do. For example you no longer come up with excuses of why you cannot go to the gym, because you take time to do the things you want, or you vacuum the house not because you have too, but because you want too.
I cannot explain the ideas of this book in such a small blog, but I only wanted to share with you the main ideas. The book only costs 65 kroner’s on the internet. It is only 84 pages and written in big text so it is an easy read. I recommend this book to anyone who feels guilty for sitting around doing nothing one day or for not using all their time doing useful things. You cannot spend your time in any better way than to read this book!

Tenk hvilken befrielse det ville være, hvis mennesket innså at livets mål ikke var å gjøre noe nyttig, men å leve livet.
- Per Henrik Gullfoss

Vegetarian in Spain

You look and you will find

I have been a pescetarian for two years and for a while now I have been considering switching out my seafood for a full vegetarian diet. Recently I moved to Spain- known as the meat loving country- and could not have chosen a worse time to be vegetarian. When visiting Barcelona back in August I found very few vegetarian dishes in resturant- menus. As a result, I ended up eating fish everyday. Although I eat fish, the plan was never to have it everyday.

On my third day in Madrid, I went on a little hunt for a food store named Planeta Vegeno (Planet Vegan). Planeta Vegano is located in the largest immigrant area in Madrid named Lavapies. On the contrary to other places in Madrid where people seem so rushed, the people of Lavapies were relaxing on benches small talking. The streets were on steep hills creating a strange mysterious feel to the place. Planeta Vegano is located in one of the steep hills along with indian and jewish returants. It was a little small shop filled with everything from vegan mayonase, lentils, vegan cheese, soya burgers, soya hotdogs, and even fake frozen shrimp, which put a big smile on my face.

Although I was happy to have found Planeta Vegano, it is too far out of my reach to go shopping there all the time. But luckily, that same day when walking around in my neighbourhood, I came upon a health store which had a small supply of tofu and soya milk.

Yesterday, I met up with one of my classmates for tea. After telling him about my vegetarian diet he told me about an amazing place just a short walk from the metro stop Cuatro Caminos. We went there and I was in joy. This place had everything. Even good whole wheat bread which is another hard thing to find in Madrid. The store promoted meditation and yoga selling statues and meditation chairs. In the back there is a cafe serving amazing juice and many vegetarian lunch options. And just down stairs there was even a resturant serving all sorts of vegetarian food! My classmate recommended the risotto. When I thought it couldn’t get better than this, my classmate tells me that on your birthday you get to eat for free when you show them your id! Oh boy guess where I am spending my birthday?

I learned that eventhough it is going to hard to be vegetarian in Madrid, it is not impossible. You look and you will find!

Disgusted

When I was in second grade my teacher said something about how humans contribute to the good of the world, when she was interrupted by one of my classmates who bravely said, "I think humans do more bad things for the planet than good things." My teacher went quiet and she didnt know what to say. That moment always stuck with me.

Last night I watched the documentary "Shark water" (2006) by Rob Stewart. It is thoughtfully made, captivating, and visually beautiful documentary. Sharks have remained unchanged for 400 million years, and they are vital part of life on earth and to our ecosystem. 80% of life is in the ocean and killing a major preditator in the ocean will change our ecosystem for ever.

We love to put things into categories of evil and good. Having constructed God in our own image, we are playing god deciding who gets to live and who gets to die. "A dog is cute and cow is food."

Steward shows how stereotypes and the media portrayal of shark as evil are wrong. In reality shark are shy and intelligent creatures. Furthermore, the documentary shows how shark have gone from preditator to prey. They are now on the danger of becoming extinct.

I could not sleep after I watched this documentary. There was a scene in particular that nearly brought tears to my eyes. A delicacy in China is the finfish soup. Shark fin apparently does not taste of anything, but it gives the soup a nice texture. So fishermen catch sharks cut off their fins while the shark is still alive and then throw them handicapped into the water again to die. It is horrific and to be dramatic it makes me almost loose all hope in humanity. I am disgusted with human behaviour. I wish we could look at the world in harmony, as nothing is evil and nothing is good. Just that things are the way they are and that everything is necessary for balance on earth.

Sometimes I feel that people think they are so limited in this world, that people think we do not have any power to change anything. But every single decision you make in life has an affect on something. If you buy a finfish soup you are supporting that industry. You have conscious choice. But too many of us are passive.
I know now why that moment in elementary school stuck with me because I knew my classmate was right, eventhough I didnt understand what it meant at the time.