Election day

Today is the day Portuguese people choose their new president. To mark this special occasion, I would like to quote a classic Portuguese writer:

"Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently and always for the same reason."

- Eça de Queiroz

Christmas in Lisbon 2010

This year the Lisbon city hall decided to cut on the Christmas lighting budget on the account of the financial crisis. Nevertheless, the light-show is still as pleasant as always. If you visit Lisbon at this time of the year, get out there and enjoy the Christmas spirit. A special thanks to my friend F. for providing the photos.

 

A curious new song by SilverSky

Searching for a job in Norway, the saga continues :)

A few days ago i went to the yearly EURES employment fair. Fortunately, Norway was the only country that brought a company with it, which was also looking for engineers ;). I approached the Norwegian representative for NAV (the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Organization) and asked if she could give me some tips on job seeking in Norway and i got a few suggestions that somehow surprised me and which i am posting here in case anybody else is searching for work in the land of the midnight sun.

1. Do not put your picture in your CV. This is done in order to prevent companies from hiring people base on their gender, looks or skin colour. This information totally amazed me, not only because it is so civilized, but also it is totally anti-portuguese. In Portugal there is a general consensus on how the photo on the CV is so important, so any job seeker usually is advised on how he/she should look on the photo, what clothes to wear, etc.

2. When reading a job ad there is usually a phone number and a contact person with whom you should talk to in order to get extra information about the job (e.g. whether or not you qualify for the job, if only people with 5 years of experience should apply, etc.). In Portugal I have never tried to contact anyone before sending an application, nor have I ever talked with someone who did, so this was news to me. 

Who else? ...again

Who else?

The "status quo" of Education in Portugal

"They have between 25 and 30 years old, face nearly four decades of work and half of them have not even studied twelve years. Only Turkey and Mexico are worse than Portugal in the OCDE group."

Of course that we can blame the government but, as i read in a comment to this news:

"There is no government that replaces the parents."