An Odd Obstacle for Young Italian Job Seekers

March 12, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 6 Comments

The Situation

OK, so you are young, Italian, from the south of Italy, have just finished struggling through a five year degree course which took seven or eight years and you have had the courage to move all the way up to Milan to do a Master in some business school or other. All in the hope of landing an internship (internship is ’stage’ in Italian), which may become a permanent job.

You have just about finished your Master and are doing the interview rounds. You have a degree mark or 100 or higher, possible ‘cum laude’, and have passed all the Master exams with flying colours. Everything looks positive.

Then you go to a few interviews only to find that you are not called back for a follow-up interview. You cannot understand why, all the questions asked seemed so normal. Friendly even. I mean they even asked about your boyfriend/girlfriend. That was maybe a little unusual, but, well, they do want to get to know you.

The Obstacle

Do you remember that odd, but seemingly innocent questioning concerning your boy/girlfriend? Well, perhaps it was not as innocent as it first appeared. Because, the interviewer was trying to establish whether your ’separation’ is likely to affect your work, presumably because the employer has had problems of this type in the past. And unless you answer satisfactorily, you may not be offered an internship, let alone a full time position. It appears that those from the south of Italy who are seeking work in the north are more likely to receive a grilling about relationships than those from the north.

Now, whereas this line of questioning may very well be considered illegal in the UK, in Italy such questions are quite legal and normal. However, these questions could be described as being more than a little discriminatory, even if, with the rigid Italian employment laws, companies do need to be very sure that they are not going to end up with deadwood. It is still very difficult to remove poorly performing employees in Italy, hence these investigations into such indirect personal matters.

The (possible) Solutions

You could simply lie, and say you have no boyfriend/girlfriend at the moment, but if they find out later, you could face problems, and these problems could prejudice your future career.

As an alternative, you could say that the relationship is not serious, that you are more than happy to work in north Italy and willing to move out of Italy if offered the opportunity. Many companies in Italy are well aware that many Italians are highly reluctant to move away from their places of origin for much more than a short time, and so they are often extremely content to find an Italian who is prepared to live permanently in another area of Italy, or even better, to travel regularly or move abroad.

Then again, you could be honest and let the company take you as you are, and risk not being offered an internship or a permanent position. Then at least you will know what kind of company you are dealing with.

If your boyfriend or girlfriend is in north Italy, either studying or working, make this very clear and you will be considered a lower risk.

Above all, be aware of the potential traps contained in questions about relationships and have an answer prepared. Occasionally such questions may simply be a way of monitoring your reaction to emotional issues and nothing more, but…. Better safe than sorry, as the old English saying goes.

One thing is certain though: it ain’t all that easy for young Italians to find a job.

OK, I guess this post should be in Italian, but those Italians who can understand it are potentially very good job candidates for multinational Italian or foreign companies. And knowing this might be helpful.

Tags: boyfriend, Business, business school, candidate, career, company, degree, future, girlfriend, illegal, internship, interview, investigations, Italia, Italian, Italians, Italy, job, master, Milan, odd, problem, problems, questions, relationships, situation, stage, training, travel, UK, Work, young

Pasticceria Scarpato - Nice cakes, shame about the website

February 16, 2008 · Filed Under Good Italian Things · 1 Comment

I won’t say how I found out about the site of Italian biscuit and cake maker, Scarpato, but I decided to check it out. Well, I do like Italian food and one of the aims of this blog is to do a little promotion of all things Italian.

So, off I went to have a mosey around.

What I found was a very interesting selection of Italian cakes and pastries, plus a few other goodies, as you can see in this .pdf version of their 2007 Christmas catalogue. Check out the fun turkey and piggy cakes on pages 16 and 18. Very original. However, although these temptations may well tempt you, there is nowhere on Scarpato’s clean looking site that I could find that actually tells you where you can lay your hands on these scrummy looking delights. Neither within Italy or any other countries.

Not knowing where you can find these things is one thing which lets Scarpato’s otherwise nice little site down, the other thing is that the site is only half in English, and even though you may click on the little US/UK flag, this does not guarantee that everything you will see is in English. Maybe I could rustle up a little translation work from them!
What a great shame - lots of tempting treats all locked behind a virtual window. Another wee problem is that many of the cakes are shown on the main site in their decorative wrappings, but you cannot see what the actual cake looks like.

Yes, I know you could try to contact this company via email or phone, but it would save their and yours if they invested a little more effort in their website. I hope they do.

I might ring the Verona based Scarpato up and gently bend their ears over these little oversights.

PS Please let me know if you have heard of this company. I think I have seen their stuff on sale in the shops here, but I don’t think the Scarpato brand has been etched into my brain in the same way as Barilla, for example.

Tags: Christmas, company, contact, email, English, good, interesting, Italia, Italian, Italian food, Italy, phone, products, promotion, translation, website

DIESEL

January 28, 2008 · Filed Under Italy · 4 Comments

Nope, I’m not going to waffle on about eco friendly fuels, but in my continuing micro-attempt to raise the feel-good factor for Italy in these troubled times, I’m going to have a look at an Italian brand, which, at first, quite a few years, I did not know was Italian. Not a surprise, I did not even know how to pronounce Versace until a more fashion conscious friend corrected me.

Anyway, DIESEL actually kicked off way back in 1978, but the company did not start to become an international brand until the late 1980’s. Now, of course this 100% made in Italy company is very well known at an international level. Traditionally, Italian fashion tended to cater for the upper ends of of the market, so DIESELs operation could be viewed as being a wily attempt by its Italian owners to bring the international strength of the Italian fashion industry down into a younger, for the Italian fashion industry, market sector. A shrewd move which paid off.

Now this company, based in Molvena, a relatively unknown town in north eastern Italy, can boast stores in locations as prestigious as Lexington Avenue in New York city. The company provides employment for around 3,500 people too, and while this may not be an enormous number, it is not at all bad for a company that manages a worldwide presence, and is also about average for a fashion sector company from what I’ve managed to glean.

Sales of 1.2 billion Euros were achieved worldwide in 2005, a figure which is not too far behind that of the archetypal Italian brand managed by one Giorgio Armani at 1.69 billion Euros in 2005. Both companies appear to have a per capita sales income level of around 350,000 Euros. This compares quite favourably with the 2006 income of the British Burberry group, which achieved a per capita sales income of 373,000 Euros in 2006.

All of the above goes to show that Italy has people that are more than capable of producing world beating products and brands. Just imagine what this country could do with good sound leadership.

PS If you think I’ve got my facts wrong - tell me!

Tags: Armani, Business, company, Diesel, good, Italia, Italian, Italy, made in Italy, market, Maserati, People, product, profit, sales, strong, town