Elizabeth Taylor

One of my favorite movies of all time is Rhapsody with Elisabeth Taylor. I love her sense of style and the touch she brings to the movies. She died today from a heart failure at the age of 79. She has over 50 movies, and known for her support for gays in Hollywood, and her fight against AIDS/HIV.
This is just a short blog devoted to her great acting sense of style and her beauty!

"I have the emotions of a child in the body of a woman" Elizabeth Taylor

I love my wallet*

When I was in Portugal a few weeks ago, I bought one of the favourite things that I own! I needed a new wallet and I came across this wallet by Portuguese designer Sandra Guerreiro. It only costs 20 euro’s, but maybe that is a lot for a bag made of reused plastic bags. But their so unique and none of the wallets are the same, and to state the obvious they are environmentally friendly! On my wallet, I really like the fact that you can see the H&M plastic bags. It is just so colourful and so great! You get check out Guerreiro’s website if you are interested http://www.sandraguerreiro.com/

"I care and I am corporate!"

Recently, at a party telling a bunch of hippy 20 some-year-olds that I do a master in corporate communication I was met with disapproving looks and responses close to, “oh you are one of those corporate people.”
Before I started my master in Corporate Communication, I was curious about the direction of my education and if it would take the shape of “profit as the essence of success”, but instead, to my surprise, my school emphasizes on teaching us about stakeholders, ethics, corporate governance and corporate social responsibility. It has in fact stirred a great interest in me to work in the sector of corporate social responsibility.
In my previous job, I noticed how much I indeed cared about what the company I worked for did for its community, environment etc. Corporate social responsibility is the company’s ability to regulate itself according to the environment, employees, community and stakeholders to ensure it meets ethical standards. I want to go to a store and pick up a product and know it is environmentally friendly (not just pretends to be, -which unfortunately too many does), or that the product supports cultural industries in its community and that is truly socially responsible. Every time you purchase something you are indirectly supporting a cause. I want to know the brand I buy doesn’t indulge in “green-washing,” corruption, or in harming its environment.

Although I cannot say this for sure, I do feel the recent trends in consumer behavior shows that people do care about what they buy and what the brands they purchase stand for. I think bad CSR and/or corporate governance can be the death of a company. Therefore, I see the important role that CSR plays in winning the public’s trust and respect. Even though, my boyfriend agrees, he argues that profit essentially always comes first. Perhaps it does, but it does not take away from CSR.

In terms of corporate governance, I read about a global company who had its "internal laws" stating that if someone was caught stealing they were to be handed over to the state of the country the company was operating in. Sure enough, when an employee was then caught stealing, they were turned in and in return the government hung the employer. This is because the laws in the country did not match the ethics of the company. I find it very interesting to question whether a company should have its own laws or create laws depending on the country. But anyways, this is for another discussion.
So back to the disapproving looks I received from my encounter at the party. Being "corporate" is not about solely profit or being “one of those corporate people”. It is about caring about the community, the planet, and the employers and about people in general. It is about creating a space where communication and an open dialogue to criticism and to strengthening relationships can take place whether it is online or offline. Unfortunately, I think more often than not, amongst young people being "corporate" has more negative connotations rather than positive ones.

If you want to read more about CSR here are some links I recommend:
These are the predicted changes for sustainability and CSR:

http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/01/05/5-predictions-sustainability-csr-2011?page=0%2C0

Also a link to Harvard professors Michael E. Porter, who explains how CSR should be done:
http://blogs.hbr.org/video/2011/01/rethinking-capitalism.html

-pictures are from Bing image search.

Reffel applied for 100 jobs and only got "no" for an answer

Yesterday, just after I had published my last post on CV's, I came across the newspaper about Reffel Delemi who is educated ingenieer and master in "project-communication." She searched 100 jobs without acceptance and worked in kindergarden and as a receptionist. She says she may think some of it is due to being blond and not taken seriously enough, while the rest of the reason her foreign name.

Adding a picture to her CV may decrease sceptism due to her foreign name- giving employers a face to the CV, but as my career councler said, "you might not be hired because employers simply get a false impression of who you are based on a picture."

The foreign name doesn't really surprise me, I do get the impression that some employers may be more sceptical to a foreign name. When applying for jobs myself, a friend suggested I change my name. It is easy to tell Reffel to colour her hair dark and change her name, but its sad that it may be the reason she is getting "no." But with that said, I refuse to believe it is the complete reason that she is not getting a job. Perhaps the best thing when applying for a job is to hand the CV in person?

Although, I do not doubt those two factors play a role in her not getting a job, I am convinced if she gets an interview then her looks or her name cannot be the entire reason she is not getting any jobs. But ofcouse I may be wrong!

Regardless, I just looked in the paper and it looks like she is getting tons of job offers now. Good way to start the new year.

The picture I have is from Vg.no

What is the perfect CV like?

I am just about to run out of the house for a meeting, but quickly writing a little blog post cause its a little while since my last post now.
Yesterday I spent a lot of the day rewriting my CV. I think I have 5 different looking Cv’s now. I have no idea what is more effective or which one to use. Some people tell me personalize it; ”put picture, interest, hobbies, other skills in there. Spice it up!”They tell me that the employer wants to know who you are as a person. They also tell me that I in particular should make it personalized since I have a foreign name in Norway.

And then the others say, ”take out the picture, don’t add your gender, your birthdate, your interests or hobbies.” The arguement here was that your employer does not care about your gender, your hobbies or whatver because they are looking solely for your skills. Keeping it corporate and professional.

Then there is the length! I was told to shorten my 4 page CV to one page, which I did so painfully yesterday. I have seen many lengths, but in Norway I have come across few CV’s that are only one page. So what does your CV look like? What do you think is the most successful CV? Keep it short or long? Personalize or do not? Looking forward to hearing what you guys think. I have run out now :--)

Blogging

i just finished reading The new Rules about Marketing and PR by David Scott.The more I learn about PR, marketing and social networking, the more I realize how important it has become to understand what Scott calls ”the new rules.” I created this blog after my bachelour degree, because I wanted to start a blog not only for journalistic reasons but also wanted to find my voice in a blog. Therefore there is very few people who know about my blog. But this is essentially a blog for YOU! So,I want to open it up to more people as I don’t believe I have successfully been to make my own voice or a specific topic that may be interesting for you guys to read about. I am interested in so many things... How do I pick one topic? How do I manage my blog so that you would want to read it if you do not know me? Therefore, I invite you guys to tell me what you want to hear more about. You can tell me what is successful and what is not successful on my blog. I appreciate all comments.
Thank you

Oh What a Useful Society!

I have been reading a book named, "Kunsten å Være Unyttig" which translates into "The Art of being Useless" by Per Henrik Gullfoss. This book has really been inspirational to me because I am one of those people who need to use every moment of my life to do something I believe is useful. The book describes our society as a place where self-worth is based on how useful we are. How often have you met someone when the first question they ask you is “what you do?” And you find your self answering what you are studying or your job title. We say this because people consider it to be useful and being useful gives meaning to our lives. And what would life be like without meaning? We never answer, “I laugh, I love, and I seek wisdom and beauty.” Many of us choose an education or job because it is useful and not because we are really interested or enjoying it. “But what if we realized that the point of life was not to be useful, but to live life (Gullfoss)?”
The author tells us to revaluate what we consider “useful.” It explains that what truly gives life meaning are the things that we consider to be useless. In particular, the book describes four assets that are useless but vital to be happy. One is to love (and no not only love for selfish reasons, because you are lonely or whatever, but truly love and not expect anything back), to seek joy (by this Gullfoss means that we should do things we want to do and more importantly to not make excuses, because ultimately you always have time for the things you really want to do), to seek wisdom (this does not mean how smart you are but to not be afraid to “bite the apple,” to make mistakes, but to learn from those mistakes). And last but not least, to seek beauty (this does not mean the superficial materialistic beauty but the inner beauty). Once you have been able to put this into practice then you will find joy in the things you do. For example you no longer come up with excuses of why you cannot go to the gym, because you take time to do the things you want, or you vacuum the house not because you have too, but because you want too.
I cannot explain the ideas of this book in such a small blog, but I only wanted to share with you the main ideas. The book only costs 65 kroner’s on the internet. It is only 84 pages and written in big text so it is an easy read. I recommend this book to anyone who feels guilty for sitting around doing nothing one day or for not using all their time doing useful things. You cannot spend your time in any better way than to read this book!

Tenk hvilken befrielse det ville være, hvis mennesket innså at livets mål ikke var å gjøre noe nyttig, men å leve livet.
- Per Henrik Gullfoss