What do you think about work? For some, it is a question of how to do it less; and for some others, it is a matter of survival in society. Let’s take this one: work is one of the basis of societies. People have nightmare or dreams with their jobs because it defines our status, it gives us freedom, it enters us into adulthood, it gives us a purpose… But you know that working as and independant young one is hard and the EU deals with this problem? Here is my reflexion.
The problems
There are several points that we all can define as the causes of unemployability before the 30’s years old. Let me get into the point(s). Some organizations or companies have the fear of having unexperts working with them so some of them require even years in the same sector. This also makes the youth fear and insecurities. Youth might think they are always unprepared so they must have a lot of studies. That’s our next point. People believe that we must have a career mandatory. (Insert dramatic voice) Unless you have superior studies, you would fail in life without a job. How killing!
We can work with medium studies and with no studies. Since I’m in Austria, I discovered that there’s a lot of posibilities if you don’t have huge status diploma and thousands of courses and three languages fluently spoken like a native. Not only fault of our mentality but companies as we said before. How then can we have experience if you don’t let us work? I give clues later.
And then let me speak about the conditions. Youth people often have to live with their parents hundreds of kilometers away from the work just because the apartments or the houses are so expensive that it is imposible to be independant and start a family/new life alone. But how my father can do it and not me? He has experience on his job and you don’t, so the first years you may gain between the 40% and the 60% of what you would earn in 3-5 years; And that’s if the contract is for an undefined time, which is more commom to find it temporally. And gender or nationalities is often an issue of unequality in companies.
The hand
This sounded really despairing and I put companies as the same level as the Evil incarnated. I do apologize. But the truth is that we are fighting this. The most clear: what I do. Yes, I am a volunteer and this a win-win job. I give my hand in a certain area while I learn in a foreign country and I can make a Youthpass (we spoke before in another post) that is like a resumee of what I did here; And let me tell you that is even more useful to ask for a job than a career diploma in many cases. We also work!
Also, this is not the only thing that you can find. Internet is crowed with ideas, experiences, blogs, suggestions, international jobs, interships, non-European volunteers and much more that is headaching to think. People share their experiences in social media, ask then how they did; organizations offer interships or scholarships, fight to apply them; companies look for crew of other countries, use all the tools on your hand to give them reasons to hire you.
This can also help with the people of distance and the difficulties of living alone. Then you receive conditions that allow you to stay: a paid insurance, a place to live while your work is on during a period of time and any sort of subsidy. Do you want also one of my advice? Enterpreneurship doesn’t only mean to create your company. If you use the (psychological) tools that enterpreneurs pray like it was the Bible, this world is at your shoes. There’s a lot of courses of enterpreneurship even for free that you can use in your own direction. And here’s the second advice: enterpreneurship is based on energy. Energy to create, energy to be responsible, energy to be brave, energy to think, energy to meet… Being active in a nutshell.
If you accomplish these requirements, you prove to be one of the best options of the market. Wouldn’t this then guarantee you a position in the company? You don’t need to answer. Proof to be that master, that salvation, that mesiah that they are waiting for. Thus they won’t even care about gender, nationality, ethnicity or any kind of that. Companies are greedy so instead of fighting, be better than they and proove it that you’re the way to make them gain money.
One or two more general advices
First, the father quote: boy, this is tough. So allow yourself to fail and be patient. Of course you can be scared, but don’t let the fear win this time. With corona-stuff we entered into a crisis and we need new ideas and fast people that can save the economy; so take this another father quote on mind: don’t stare at the floor, the sky is upper your head. Also try not to be nervous. It is not like to be dressed casual or in smoking-suite. Be yourself and avoid lies. For many, being dressed in a simple way is better than being “over-fancy”. This also applies to respect; Speak with respect to the people you are suround, but don’t exceed your esteem, you’re not talking to the queen. And finally but not less important: always learn from others and yourself.
José M. Gómez