Ok, so we've all changed schools or went to university or some place where nobody knew us and we had this feeling: Let's start over again, you can be whatever you want to be! You don't have to be that person anymore. At least you can try if you want to.
Applying is a bit like this. New place, they don't know you. You can be a wonderful whatever. You just have to convince them. Lying is bad, yet apparently very common, not only in CVs. Maybe we should better call it adaption.
Trying to get an interview is like getting to hang out with the cool kids, students, colleagues: What can you be that they might like and find cool? Pretend! And what about being yourself and so on? I am, as a matter of fact, a big defender of being yourself. But that might not work. Try to at least get invited: you will soon find out that they have the same problems you do and might not even have anything interesting to say or, jobwise, anything interesting to offer but you found out for yourself.
For that you might want to try not being yourself for a bit. So you repeat any buzz word potential employer put in their job ad. You are flexible, organized, dedicated, meticulous, hands on, team player, an overall talent, self reliant, you have, of course, super good software skills for any software, leadership skills or type like the wind.
Have a good answer ready for the question: What would you really like to do? Because this is where the cool kids might find out that you are not reckless or into their music or sports. And they might not speak to you again.
What I found out in the last couple of months: if you want to do/be something/someone completely different: This is the hardest part. Bite your teeth and be patient. At one point you might strike someones fancy but you will have to be open to new ideas and have even more patience.
And: Love your CV, don't lie about it, but pimp it!
Freitag, 11. April 2014
Donnerstag, 3. April 2014
Career advise
I received a piece of career advise last week. I was told to go and sleep my way up especially if I did not have any connections. Or maybe to just buy my boss coffee. That could work, too. Well, all the years of precious university schooling for nothing!
Donnerstag, 27. März 2014
Click to learn
Last week I finally started my schooling measures that were approved by the unemployment agency including one week basic MS Excel 2010, one week basic MS Power Point 2010, one week basic Economics and four weeks of Project Management and MS Project.
Obviously, this is not school anymore. There is no teacher. You use a self-learning program and click through it. Once you are through, you test your knowledge in a preliminary test and if you think it is good or have repeated whatever lesson you found out is not quite there yet, you take a final test. Since this is not a test issued or certified by Microsoft, it is probably worth close to nothing but you get a certificate. People L O V E certificates. Did I tell that you can repeat the final test as often as you like to? That's how much it is worth.
So I finished Excel by Wednsday and took the Power Point test this Monday and since I had time I clicked through basic Outlook as well. I am going to come out of this schooling institute loaded with certificates and with a cramp in my right index finger.
To use my time wisely, I also started typing exercises with a freeware just to keep busy. Maybe I will master blind typing while I am here! And I still have time for my blog which is good because next time I am going to tell you about reinvention and I am now a writer slash editor as well. Cool, hu?
Obviously, this is not school anymore. There is no teacher. You use a self-learning program and click through it. Once you are through, you test your knowledge in a preliminary test and if you think it is good or have repeated whatever lesson you found out is not quite there yet, you take a final test. Since this is not a test issued or certified by Microsoft, it is probably worth close to nothing but you get a certificate. People L O V E certificates. Did I tell that you can repeat the final test as often as you like to? That's how much it is worth.
So I finished Excel by Wednsday and took the Power Point test this Monday and since I had time I clicked through basic Outlook as well. I am going to come out of this schooling institute loaded with certificates and with a cramp in my right index finger.
To use my time wisely, I also started typing exercises with a freeware just to keep busy. Maybe I will master blind typing while I am here! And I still have time for my blog which is good because next time I am going to tell you about reinvention and I am now a writer slash editor as well. Cool, hu?
Donnerstag, 9. Januar 2014
Volunteering
For about two years now I have been wanting to go back to volunteer work. After having worked as a volunteer for AFS for many years in Cologne, I started going to chapter meetings here, but I never connected.
Having a bit of time on my hands I looked into different things. The options were: walking the dogs at the animal shelter or reading to children.
In December I went to the animal shelter's information meeting. Every time I read something about the animal shelter, it is about their insecure financial situation. I did not know what to expect. It is situated on a big area on the outskirts of town. They have houses for cats, rodents, birds and my main interest - dogs. Everything was very clean and about fifty people work there.
While for instance the cats and chinchillas were unimpressed about their situation, the dog shelters were simply heartbreaking. Designed and kept very well, the dogs have the possibility to be inside and outside. But as soon as one enters their domain, the barking starts, echoing to a thunder in the tiled hall. They had just received a new group of 30 dogs from Romania, all little, desolate looking things and it was hard to bear.
One can go seven days a week to walk the dogs. You show your ID, pick a dog and can take it out for a walk. In my opinion life is not complete without a dog and unfortunately our place is not big enough to have a dog which reduces me to a person who pats every dog I meet on the street. But I am scared of the attachment to one of the poor dogs at the shelter.
There is a possibility to volunteer at the cat house. You go and pat the cats and play with them but they are full and then I am not a cat person. Furthermore one can volunteer at cleaning the cages and rooms.
I have decided to ponder this option a bit longer.
I also called the organization that reads to children in schools and libraries. I enjoy reading and I cannot stop myself to read out loud to my husband paragraphs of articles or books that I like no matter whether he likes it or not.
The lady on the phone told me that she would give my number to the lady in charge of my area of the city and that Tuesday 3 p.m. someone reads to the kids in a library near me. I decided to go and check it out. Well, the ladies there were not pleased to see me at all. I had just wanted to sit in the back and see how it worked but there was only one kid, two ladies and me. Nothing about sitting in the back... Since they were so unhappy to see me I decided to leave. A couple of days later I talked to the lady of my area on the phone and it is not that you simply start volunteering there, NOOOO. First you have to attend an information event that takes place once every three months. Then you have to attend a reading training and after that you have to accompany an experienced reader before being assigned to a group af kids at a school or a library. Most people volunteering there seem to be retired ladies who have time in the afternoon which is not a bad thing but it is not me.
After this telephone conversation this idea was ruled out completely. For now I am becoming a member of the animal welfare organization in Munich.
For the interested reader, I include the links below.
http://tierschutzverein-muenchen.de/
http://www.lesefuechse.org/
Having a bit of time on my hands I looked into different things. The options were: walking the dogs at the animal shelter or reading to children.
In December I went to the animal shelter's information meeting. Every time I read something about the animal shelter, it is about their insecure financial situation. I did not know what to expect. It is situated on a big area on the outskirts of town. They have houses for cats, rodents, birds and my main interest - dogs. Everything was very clean and about fifty people work there.
While for instance the cats and chinchillas were unimpressed about their situation, the dog shelters were simply heartbreaking. Designed and kept very well, the dogs have the possibility to be inside and outside. But as soon as one enters their domain, the barking starts, echoing to a thunder in the tiled hall. They had just received a new group of 30 dogs from Romania, all little, desolate looking things and it was hard to bear.
One can go seven days a week to walk the dogs. You show your ID, pick a dog and can take it out for a walk. In my opinion life is not complete without a dog and unfortunately our place is not big enough to have a dog which reduces me to a person who pats every dog I meet on the street. But I am scared of the attachment to one of the poor dogs at the shelter.
There is a possibility to volunteer at the cat house. You go and pat the cats and play with them but they are full and then I am not a cat person. Furthermore one can volunteer at cleaning the cages and rooms.
I have decided to ponder this option a bit longer.
I also called the organization that reads to children in schools and libraries. I enjoy reading and I cannot stop myself to read out loud to my husband paragraphs of articles or books that I like no matter whether he likes it or not.
The lady on the phone told me that she would give my number to the lady in charge of my area of the city and that Tuesday 3 p.m. someone reads to the kids in a library near me. I decided to go and check it out. Well, the ladies there were not pleased to see me at all. I had just wanted to sit in the back and see how it worked but there was only one kid, two ladies and me. Nothing about sitting in the back... Since they were so unhappy to see me I decided to leave. A couple of days later I talked to the lady of my area on the phone and it is not that you simply start volunteering there, NOOOO. First you have to attend an information event that takes place once every three months. Then you have to attend a reading training and after that you have to accompany an experienced reader before being assigned to a group af kids at a school or a library. Most people volunteering there seem to be retired ladies who have time in the afternoon which is not a bad thing but it is not me.
After this telephone conversation this idea was ruled out completely. For now I am becoming a member of the animal welfare organization in Munich.
For the interested reader, I include the links below.
http://tierschutzverein-muenchen.de/
http://www.lesefuechse.org/
Mittwoch, 4. Dezember 2013
Unemployment
I should have done this weeks ago. Ok, so I am unemployed now. I receive a certain amount of money every month according to what I earned in my last permanent occupation for the last 1½ years and the unemployment office pays my health insurance. Now my objective is to find a new employment.
I have done a couple of things since I came back from the mountains. I was able to translate a bit and do some proof reading which I always enjoy. My best friend got married, I went to see one of my all-time favourite bands with my sister (the concert sucked most of the time, unfortunately) who stayed with us for a couple of days,travelled a bit, was sick for a week, watched tons of TV and searched for job ads. I have written a couple of applications and got turned down a couple of times. I have been awfully lazy, one of my main weaknesses. And now I will tell you more about all this.
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