Indie Interview with The Calorifer Is Very Hot

A strange and ever changing combination of punk, psychedelic pop, and garage-beat hits you when you put a track from Italian indie band The Calorifer Is Very Hot! on.

It can be hard to figure out what to call their music and quite frankly that’s their fault, as they explain: “we started out without any idea what music we wanted to play, knowing only that we wanted to create our own identity. We listen to a lot of different music, from 50’s rockabilly to new age electronics and we try to combine it in our own way”.  With the punk faced beat-pop that crawled out of this melange, they have been taking on Europe.

So, how did The Calorifer Is Very Hot! set off on their musical trip?

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Berlusconi’s Advice

Mr Berlusconi, the man who would be Prime Minister of Italy (again), and one of Italy’s potentially top five sinners, dropped a slight clanger on prime time TV, yesterday, I think it was.

In an interview he told a young worried female ‘precarious’ worker that she would be able to solve her financial worries by simply marrying a millionaire. He even offered his son as a potential partner.

By the way, ‘Precarietà’ is an Italian word used to describe those who do not have a full time work contract.

Veltroni, Berlusconi’s number one election opponent was, understandably, quick to turn this off-hand comment into vote catching capital. Veltroni observed, quite reasonably, that in a country in which more and more youngsters are worrying about their futures and their finances, Berlusconi’s ‘advice’ showed just how out of touch the media magnate was with Italy’s populous and its problems.

Meanwhile, and unsurprisingly, Berlusco has been playing his ‘advice’ down as being ‘tongue in cheek’. Trouble is that many Italian youngsters may now be rather wary of voting such a joker in.

Still, if Berlusco does manage to get Italy’s top political spot for a third time, if nothing else, he will keep the Italian people amused.

Oh, the Italian electoral circus – pure entertainment.

An Odd Obstacle for Young Italian Job Seekers

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.

Appearing as a Witness in an (semi-formal) Italian Court

As I’ve mentioned a couple of times recently, I was called to appear as a witness in a law suit.  I went to court today.

For reasons of confidentiality, I won’t say why, but I don’t see why I can’t talk about the experience in general. You never know, someone may find themselves in a similar situation someday, so this post may help them understand what to expect, especially if they have been called to appear in front of an semi-formal court in Milan. You will find out why I thought this was ‘semi-formal’ a little later on.

To kick off, I expected the hearing to be at Milan’s main court building, so I went there, passed through the metal detector, entered the huge main hall and found a sign. Only the court I needed to go to was not listed. Wrong building, I thought. I suspected as much, and had even asked my other half if there were other courts in Milan. She said no. Oh well.

I looked around and, somewhat hidden away on the left and right hand sides of the main entrance, there were two information offices. I showed the letter I had received from the lawyers to the lady behind the desk and she shrugged her shoulders as if to say ‘Not again’, and then she explained that the court I needed to go to was in a street nearby, behind Milan’s imposing main court building.

I was given directions, got a little lost, and hopped in a taxi because time was running a little short. That’s when I discovered that the other court premises were behind the main building. It would have been helpful, I feel, if the address of this other Milan court had been given in the letter I had received from the law firm which had called me to appear as a witness. If the ‘other’ Milan court had been on the other side of Milan, I would have had a problem. Moral: Ring and ask for details of exactly where the hearing will be held.

After having arrived at the other court building, and after having passed through, and set off the alarm, of yet another metal detector (If there are a lot of people in front of you, then passing through the airport style system, complete with x-ray machine, could take some time….). At another information desk, I was told that the court I needed to go to was on the first floor, but in the event, the room, for it was not really a court room, was on the second floor. There was a little notice which showed the name of the judge presiding over each ‘court’ and, luckily, each room was clearly numbered.

I arrived in time, and waited for about fifteen minutes before being called in front of the judge. The hearing was semi-formal, and the room in which the hearing was held was an office. Behind a desk sat the judge, and to either side of the desk were two pairs of lawyers representing the parties.

I was told to remain standing while the judge explained that what I was about to say must be truthful, and asked me if I understood this. I replied in the affirmative, and was told I could sit down. I was asked my name, address, date and place of birth, and then was, very briefly, questioned by the judge about the case. While I spoke, the judge wrote what I said, and then read what she had written back to me. This was useful because for a moment I got the impression that she may have misunderstood something I had said. In the event, she had not, and her check confirmed this.

After the judge had questioned me, the four lawyers present were asked if they had any questions, and they said that they had not – to my slight relief. I was then asked to sign the judge’s ‘transcript’ of the statement I had made, and to sign another document. I was thanked and told I could go.

Total time taken: about 15 minutes in front of the judge. I think it went quite smoothly.

As I have already mentioned, the only potential problem was knowing the exact location of the court room.

Oh and one small, obvious, but possibly useful, tip. Make a brief list before the hearing of the information that you think the judge or the lawyers may ask for. I did this, referred to it, and it was handy.

Speaking to a lawyer friend beforehand may also prove useful, as this will allow you to understand what to expect in terms of questioning during the hearing. I did this too because I like to be prepared. I have done a lot of negotiating in the past, and have always found that good preparation helps you keep control of a situation. Yes, I know that this was not exactly a life threatening event, but you never know, and it is better to be safe than sorry.

Finally, my Italian is good enough to allow me to deal with these situations (At least after today, I know it is!), but if you do not speak Italian very well, then it may be a good idea to speak in your mother tongue, in which case, your testimony may be postponed until an interpreter can be present. Not doing this could, potentially, put you in a difficult position, but then again, the lawyers’ calling you should consider that a non-Italian speaker may have problems before the hearing in my opinion.

Verdict: In all, a lot less traumatic than a job interview, I would say, but then I was not exactly a key witness, so I did not receive a real grilling. Not fun, but an interesting experience.

Cv’s, Resumes: mug shot or not, that is the question

Many of my students at the business school where ply my language teaching trade are going through the traumatic ‘looking for an internship’ phase at the moment and one of my charges raised quite an interesting question. He asked ‘Should I include a photo with my CV?’. I’m afraid I was unable to answer this question directly, aside from replying with a decidedly non-committal , ‘It depends’.

In today’s world, it appears that more and more companies here in Italy do actually want a mug shot included with job applications. However, it is very difficult to know which companies want one and which do not. Sometimes you include a photo and do not get invited to interview, other times you send no photo and don’t get an interview.

The trouble seems to be that nobody knows which companies are photo-friendly and which are photo-allergic, so to speak. Net result – confused job seekers, and both candidates and companies losing out in the search for the perfect job/employee, simply because the CV/photo policy is not at all clear. Indeed, some departments in an organisation may require a photo, while other departments may not, which further confusticates what is already a confused issue.

Personally, I’d prefer to see a ‘no photo at all on a CV’ policy, because I think that a photo may subjectively and unfairly bias those seeking potential employees. After all, just because someone does not look like Brad Pitt or Cate Blanchett should not prejudice their chances of getting work. I do accept that ‘pretty people’ are a priority in some work environments, but if this is the case, then the aesthetic worth of a candidate can be judged as soon as they walk into the interview room.

I don’t think it will be long before potential interviewees discover the joys of Photoshop and start touching up their photos to make them look more appealing. In which case, the value of photos forming part of job applications will diminish and interviewers will need to resort to actually inviting someone to interview (or should that now be ‘audition’!) so they can judge a candidates’ aesthetic value.

Looks as though those who look like Shrek better start thinking about setting up their own businesses, or resign themselves to life long unemployment. What an odd state of affairs.

Oh, and the photo of my good self on the About page of this blog has been edited a wee bit, coz I hate photos of myself and I do not think I am at all photogenic. Luckily, I work for myself!