You know those kinds of self-help interviewing books which tell you
do this, don’t do that, they want to hear this and not that, say this even if you think the other.

You know what this is ? A surefire way to land a job that you’ll most probably hate.

It’s also called PR spinning except you’re not spinning the reputation of some giant company.

What you’re spinning is your reputation, and you’re no giant company.

And that’s not even the worst of it. The worst of it is you’re lying to the most important person in the room: yourself. You’re denying your identity and what you believe in, just so you can nail a job that most probably will make you unhappy for some time coming until you realize your mistake and you’re ready to be and do who you really are.

This might be one hell of a painful way to figure out you just have to embrace who you are and do what you do best, what you enjoy.

it wouldn’t look like anything – it would feel like something/p>

Ask me anything

One thing I noticed is a clear mistake when writing up cover letters is including too much, unnecessary detail. At the stage when you’re simply firing out a cover letter.

1. The power of communication lies in simplicity: of the message
Cluttering up multiple messages about yourself, the company, what prompted you to find the job, why you’re applying etc is obviously not simple for you to do or for someone to read.
Except when you’re applying for jobs in sectors such as the public sector, or to become a doctor or for you MBA application and so on.

2. Showing your fit with the job, the benefits you could bring (as in skills and talents) seems to be enough to capture someone’s interest; And then they can click your resume. Compact and to the point is something every busy person appreciates: I know I do. Attracting interest is the point of this cover letter, not explaining details: that’s for later on when they decide they want to know more about you.

3. Less is more. A job application is a way to make yourself interesting, to make yourself a potential candidate; You put yourself out there and hope your judgment concerning your fit with their needs and you fit in their environment was right. So don’t show everything from the go, just show enough to make recruiters interested in your profile, interested enough to place you on the short list.

I spent six months sending out job applications and this is how I learned the above and I hope it will help you to avoid spending so much time getting it wrong before you get it right.

Education has now become a luxury from at least 2 considerations:

A. We are in an economic crisis, still; the effect are still here, at least for fresh grads

It is especially difficult for advanced degree holders since they are the ones who bet/ invested their own or their parents money in such a degree believing it would be a good investment not just in terms of growing and developing your knowledge but also betting they would have a place to put all that knowledge to practice in a successful position that would give them satisfaction. What a bad investment this has just turned up to be.

Thinking that taking a job now that is under their qualifications is not the end of the world and that things would turn out for the better is naive. The “outliers” handicap will always hang above their heads and hold them back. This is not just a case of delayed breakeven point.

Undergrads are also in there because their student jobs get cut so they come out of school with less hands-on experience. At least they have the chance still of extracurricular activity and NGO involvement.

B. the internet and the connectedness it brings has brought enormous opportunities that simply outbalance those a classical education brings.

You can learn exactly what you want and access all the books you want, plus find mentors and maybe even teachers online to get you through gracefully.

Meanwhile starting up a business has never been simpler or more intuitive especially nowadays, when reality is more and more defined in terms of 1000111010

You can simply reach out and grab anything you like from the internet and bring it to life, given the freedom to not have to deal with classic education, which under these above mentioned circumstances is worth it. You skip the time you spend in school to get something that a grad would hardly ever get.

Conclusion: A student only gets a theoretical taste of what can be done but never given the freedom to just do it. The in between part, the one where you get taught how to do it paralyzes you into inaction. Someone who’s been free to learn what he wants will be empowered to think he is the only and best person to know how something can be done and he will go out and do it.

A mother on the face of the earth, of the many that live here and now (who happens to be mine) has told me over and over again how I should never let things “half-done”. Half-done is a word by word translation of something like: left undone, makeshift, incomplete. When you give up on doing something half way through to completing it.

As a dutiful daughter, I completely disobeyed. ‘Til this day.

Realizing this may be the one thing that in fact hampers me most in reaching out for what I believe in and from reaching out to those goddamn stars.

It’s not about being afraid to reach out but giving up before you even start.

That’s the gist the inability to do what you know you would love, doing and being where you should be at this point in your career.

The point is to work at reaching the start steadily and without ever giving up, slowly, progressively, until you’ve reached them all.

Otherwise think about it: what’s half a star to reach for? Or half a decision to stick by? Or half a life to live? Or a half a world to enjoy? Always knowing there’s something missing. Always knowing there should be more to it.

To all you parents out there here’s another thing: don’t stop even though it seems no one is listening. Because it could be that we are listening, just in a very passive mode. At some point in the future the “empty” words might come alive.

The problem of water is a problem of forecasting.

Water problems around the world are just an effect they’re not the cause.

We couldn’t foresee major natural disasters this year, Haiti, Pakistan, tsunami earlier on. Nature isn’t really working with us. So why would it be so hard to believe that one day water would suddenly start to be less available for those who had tons of it and never feared it would be gone? There are chances that something might happen to the water we always took for granted.

The problem of the industrialized world is it hasn’t quite figured out how to tell the future. We don’t know if in one year there’s going be a shortage of water disaster sweeping over Europe, like the Haiti or Pakistan disaster that no one could tell. But if it would happen we would want someone to give us a hand.

There’s a golden rule of networking, which some people believe it is the success of many around the world (think of it: everytime someone wins an Oscar or they become the next president of the US or they are making a difference in the world they THANK PEOPLE’s HELP). Meaning human contact and maybe networking really are a factor of success.  The golden rule of networking as I said before is to give before you ask for something. GIVE FIRST.

Can your brain imagine you living with less water than you currently are? Not having your usual shower in the morning? Or collecting rain water? Then, it’s entirely possible that it might happen.

GIVE FIRST.

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