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

Mastella Resigns, again

January 17, 2008 · Filed Under Life in Italy · 3 Comments

Only this time, Prodi decided to accept Mr Mastella’s offer. It sounds as though someone reminded Mastella that it does not look all that good for a government to have a Justice Minister who is under investigation for corruption. Then again, maybe Mr Mastella found out that the allegations against him (and many of those who are members of his party, from what I’ve read) were highly likely to be transformed into charges. Again, not good for a justice minister to be facing charges, especially in today’s Italy, where regard for the country’s politicians appears to be a rock bottom levels.

One may also conclude that the light seen by Mr Prodi must have been quite bright, although he has resisted appointing Antonio Di Pietro to the position of justice minister, most probably because he knows that Di Pietro would start overturning too many stones. And such an approach would most definitely fatally fracture Prodi’s ever more fragile coalition government.

Of course I will not mention that Mastella was probably doing his level best to keep Prodi out of other investigations, which could have led to Prodi himself facing allegations of wrongdoing. And this situation does not, in any way, explain why Prodi may have been reluctant to accept Mastella’s initial resignation.

The political turmoil in Italy continues to be tumultuous, as usual. Situation Normal - you may know the rest….

Tags: Di Pietro, government, investigations, Italy, Mastella, Prodi, situation

My feet

October 29, 2007 · Filed Under Italian politics · Comment

I think it may be true to say that my feet have quite a lot in common with Italy’s current bunch of politicos.

For a start I have one left foot and a right one, but when I cross my legs the left foot becomes my right foot and vice versa; much in the same way as Italian politicians flick from the left to right, and vice versa, of the political spectrum.

My feet are also rather close to one another, despite one being on the left and one on the right, again in much the same way as Italian politicians who tend to form rather unholy mixed left and right alliances. And when my feet are next to one another, such as when I am standing, they could be said to be on the centre left and the centre right, which is where most Italian politicians find themselves, when they are not in the crossed legs phase, that is.

If I don’t wash my feet, they become rather smelly - in much the same way as Italian politicians who tend to smell a bit iffy as a result of the continual investigations into activities which are not generally in the best interests of the Italian people.

Tickle my feet and they will try to escape. Beppe Grillo has been tickling Italian politicians rather a lot of late, and the politicos are doing their level best to escape his attention. If you really irritate me, I may use one of my feet to give you a kick. Levi plus the much tickled Prodi have been trying to kick bloggers into touch with their senseless anti-blogging legislation.

Alas, my feet are unable to use the Internet, and they do not really know, nor want to know, what the www is. And one may understand from Prodi’s recent assault on bloggers that, much like my feet, he probably has no idea what the Internet really is all about, and does not want to go to the trouble of finding out.

Of course, my feet, although being apparently separate, are controlled by a much larger interest, which in my case is my old brain. And indeed, the further you dig into the convoluted world of Italian politics, the more likely it is that you will come across one single large interest that leans neither to the left nor the right, but that manages to guide their every movement, in the same way as my grey matter influences the actions of my feet. Indeed, it probably would not be all that untrue to say that the actions of many Italian politicians, whether left or right, are governed by ‘connections’, almost in the same way as my brain connects to my feet and commands them to act.

Finally, the combined age of my feet is around that of the average age of most major Italian politicians. Well, I will admit that they are a little bit older than Mr P and Mr B, but not much younger than the Italian president, Mr Napolitano.

Yes, my two feet have rather too much in common with the stars of Italian politics. But at least my feet cannot speak, and, you will be pleased to hear, they will never be elected into power. At least the living museum is safe from my feet, and their ‘connections’.

Tags: Beppe Grillo - in English, blog, Blogging, Funny, Grillo, idea, influence, internet, investigations, Italia, Italian, Italian politicians, Italian politics, Italy, Levi, Me, museum, People, Politics, Prodi