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CV

9 December 2010

#343 Quit your job

Just walk away if it's not for you.

Just walk away if it's not for you.

The day I got tired of my job as a telemarketer was a Monday. I had worked there for three years. All through high school, I had devoted myself religiously to being self-sufficient. I had recently refused to accept money from my parents. The computer, driving lessons and clothes where paid for by myself. I got drunk with my own money, ate out with own money and went to the movies with own money. Money I earned working as a telemarketer. An abomination that paid for my independence.

The day I got tired of my job was a Monday night. I sat at my phone and put on my headset. I was one of the top three most talented telemarketers at the company. I earned several hundred Euro a month working just three weekends a month. It was rewarding and easy. All you needed to do was to disguise your voice depending on who you were talking to. Psychological and manipulative. I couldn’t open the door to my conscience even for a little bit or else I’d be fucked. For some reason the door was ajar now. I had a lump in my stomach that had been there the last few weeks. I called a number and the ringing tone was replaced by a man's voice. Once he answered, I categorized who he was; how old he was and how I should talk to him. Then I read from my script. Rhetorically, charming and appealing. When I was finished, I made a dramatic pause. A snail measured the eternity in the next room. Then the man spoke. He wanted in. He wanted to buy the largest and most expensive package I had to sell. He was ready to contribute 1000 euro. I kept my calm and the lump grew. I wrote down all his information talking at the same time telling him that he had made a good choice and how this would benefit all parties involved. When I finished the conversation with a charming and convenient "have a nice evening" the lump had begun to vibrate.

I looked down at my papers and was about to take off my headset when the phone rang. It was the man's wife. She asked me about the call. Asked me to tell her what he had said. I narrated everything verbatim. The lump in my stomach grew lumps in its stomach. The woman said that her husband had suffered a stroke. That he didn’t know who he was. The lump’s lumps gave birth to smaller spiky lumps. I apologized a thousand times. The woman said it was okay. I ended the conversation with a silence. Then I took off my headset. Got up and walked away. Never went back.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 hour or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
You might regret your decision. It can be difficult to find a new job. You’ll be poor. It doesn’t look good on your resume.
Pros: 
You won’t have to do something you don’t want to do. Your heart will thank you. It opens a world of opportunities. You can go back to school, find other jobs, start your own business or any of a thousand other things.
Taggar: stroke, quit your job, persuasion, moving company, job, headsets, CV, conscience, bitter fashion, 365 things you can do
31 October 2010

#304 Get an internship

There’s constant talk about how youth unemployment is high, higher, highest. Politiicans, agencies and economists are horrified over the numbers. We are not horrified at 365. We have different figures. We have: “Seven things you can do if you are unemployed”.

First, I moved away from home to become a poet. Then I drank wine and wrote poems. Two years later I moved back to my hometown again. I had applied for a writers' education and made up my mind early on that I’d get in. I didn’t. Instead, I stood with the rejection letter in my hand and kicked a wall so hard that I got a crack in my big toe. I was in pain, and angry. For several months, I had an ulcer and debts. Eventually they got enough of me at the employment agency and said that I should take any available job. I refused. Then they suggested that I become an intern. That sounded good. I got an internship at Göteborgs-Posten. Then they thought I should get a new internship because the one I had managed to get was in the wrong area. I promptly changed employment agency.

At the new employment agency, birds chirped and I could take off the bandage from my big toe. My supervisors were two young girls, and they praised me for my initiative and for that I had managed to get an internship so quickly. I wondered if it was okay despite being in the wrong area. They laughed and wrote something secret in their papers and said that now it was okay. I worked three months at Göteborgs-Posten and learned a lot. Then I got a job at a radio station because they had read something I wrote in the newspaper. Then I got an apartment because I was working on the radio. Then I got a record deal and a girlfriend. All in one week. I should move away from home more often.

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Free
Cons: 
You might get a lot of nos. But it is not dangerous.
Pros: 
Through your internship, you will probably learn a lot of things that are good to know. Through those things you can increase your chances of getting a job there and even if you don’t get a job there you’ll have a lot of new experiences to decorate your resume with.
Taggar: the employment office, phone calls, internship, Göteborgs-Posten, CV, bureaucracy, 365 things you can do
25 October 2010

#298 Write a great CV

There’s constant talk about how youth unemployment is high, higher, highest. Politicians, agencies and economists are horrified over the numbers. We are not horrified at 365. We have different figures. We have: “Seven things you can do if you are unemployed”.

One of my friends has a good CV. He has written scripts for a television soap, was a rabbit at Liseberg, has been paid to talk about TV series in radio, reviewed music in a men's magazine, worked in the psychiatric emergency room and made music videos for some of Sweden's best pop bands. I would like to write his CV. I’d like that on my CV. That I typed the resumé of the man with the world's most colorful resumé.

But now I know what you think:

“How do I write a great CV, if I haven’t done great things?”

But dude! You do amazing things all the time. You just don’t know it. Babysitting your siblings shows responsibility, mowing your grandfather's lawn indicates a large botanical interest and a sense of design and all the times you’ve hacked into various servers is a big show of creativity and ingenuity.

When employers read applications for a job the person in question will go through thousands of gray and dull papers. It is about being able to formulate and color things that really might be gray. I might go so far as to say that it is about daring to be poetic, bombastic and not giving a crap about minimalism. You can have a minimalist coffin when you die if you want but so long as you’re alive it’s about taking all the colors you've got on your palette and painting with giant brush strokes. Nobody likes a showoff, but everyone loves a positive spirit with great faith in themself and a positive outlook on life. Write that you’re a cheerful fellow. Write what you like and dislike. Let your commitment and passion shine through the paper.

Bonus: Simple advice found here. http://cvhandboken.se/

Text: Navid Modiri

Required time: 
1 day or less
Cost: 
Free.
Cons: 
You will certainly be denied a lot of jobs despite the fact that you have a fantastic CV. But there’s no reason to give up.
Pros: 
A person with a great CV can look at it and feel fantastic. And if I were an employer at some point and had to choose between a person with a fantastic CV and a gray mouse with a stiff CV, I would chose the more fantastic person without blinking.
Taggar: seven things you can do as unemployed, psychiatric emergency room, men's magazine, CV, a radio, 365 things