I: International Students (and others). Bullying.

International Students (and others) are vulnerable to bullying in a number of areas. In general they have little idea of the expectations, laws, responsibilities and rights they can expect in their host country when they seek part time work to support themselves.

Employment conditions in the new country may include a minimum wage, paid annual leave for full time or part time employees, carer's leave, parental leave, freedom to join an industrial union or the right not to be sacked unlawfully. If you don't know about this, your rights at work could be abused by a predatory employer.

Unfortunately, some employers are unscrupulous and prey on new arrivals, convincing them that conditions are the same or worse than in their homeland.

Misunderstandings can also lead to a perception of being bullied when the dominant culture is not understood or doesn't live up to the myth. For example, Australians have a reputation for being extremely laid back, but has one of the highest populations in the world working more than 50 hours per week. Many international students are surprised that reality doesn't fit the myth.

Prior to the global financial crisis, 38% of Australians didn't take their annual leave compared to 13% of Germans. I suspect that figure has increased over the last year or so with more people feeling insecure in their jobs due to the overall economic downturn. People who are unable to change jobs easily are also more vulnerable to being bullied.

Employers may often observe other religious holidays through negotiation, but new arrivals are sometimes not aware that this needs to be discussed prior to an event, and not just take the day/s off. New arrivals have reported they believe they are being bullied when they have their pay docked for taking time off without negotiation.

Unscrupulous employers may also encourage students to accept cash payments - this doesn't go down well with the Taxation Department and may result in being paid less than the award wage. This is a form of abuse.

Some jobs are advertised on a regular basis. Beware! There is a reason for this which may have to do with either appalling conditions or a bullying boss.

There have been instances of newly arrived female students being targeted by men from their homeland. Some wait at the airports for incoming flights at the start of semester, meeting the girls as they disembark. Pleased to be met by a "friendly" person from their homeland who offers to help them negotiate the new country they may become victims of serial abuse and bullying...

Interviews: There are some vile brutes (men and women) who delight in belittling interviewees. They are scornful of the application, make degrading, intrusive and offensive comments and are proud to 'toughen them up for the real world'. These serial bullies have a new target in each interview, and do untold damage particularly to young people who go into the interview bright eyed and bushy tailed only to emerge crushed beyond belief.

One brute phoned the candidate after the interview to discuss how she could have improved her performance in the interview. He then proceeded to criticise her clothing in none too complimentary ways. The young lady wore a tailored outfit which wasn't a designer brand - she was a student after all!  There was no discussion of her suitability for the job, or her competence in answering his questions.

International students may have a lot of pressures on them from home. They're in a foreign country and many are expected to receive an education to enable them to get a 'good' job that will support their family when they return. Unfortunately the employers who prey on students can undermine not only their studies but their confidence which can have a negative impact both in the host country and on their return.

Here tomorrow: Journal


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There are many outstanding resources on line. A couple I find useful are Bullying. No way! an Australian resource for teachers and students, and a UK site Bully On Line. This is in no way an exhaustive list, and each country will no doubt have equally good or more relevant websites. If you're being bullied please seek advice from a professional health care practitioner experienced in this area.

Over at jumpingaground I'm spending the month Drabbling using alliteration, mostly with a climate related theme.
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Did you jump, or were you pushed? 4 important things to remember for your next interview.

It's a horrible experience either being laid off, or leaving a job under a cloud whether of your own making, or just some rotten circumstances.

It's perfectly reasonable to be a bit anxious about how you'll manage the inevitable questions at your next interview. Basically your approach will cover these 4 important points:

1.   Be as honest and direct as possible.

2.   Keep your explanation brief.

3.   Move on to the next question after having finished your answer on a positive note.

4.   Lastly, take responsibility and don't blame others. You could mention what positive things you've learnt    from the experience.

Career-Intelligence has further helpful ideas on how to approach your next interview after having been made redundant.
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An interview with a future Victorian Premier

What on earth would make someone run in a State election, especially when they know they don’t have a snowballs chance in hell of being successful?

But maybe, just maybe it’s important to have another look at the meaning of success.

I’m not a particularly political animal. As my mum would have said, “Politicians give me the pip”, meaning that they generally big note themselves, they make grand promises and don’t deliver, and all too often avoid the things I hold dear. Little things like honesty, integrity and valuing the resources that will enable us to survival on this planet we call home…stuff like that. Cynical? Possibly.

Recently, however, I had the opportunity to sit at the kitchen table and really talk with a young man about his motives for putting himself out there, and throwing his hat into the state political arena.

I’m not sure that Facebook is the standard method of declaring ones political intentions; perhaps it’s a Gen Y thing. Nonetheless, Facebook it was, and I was so impressed by his gutsy move that I was enticed out of my secluded “family and very close friends only” cave to 'friend' Matt Taylor: Independent candidate for Mornington (Victoria, Australia) in the 2010 State election.

It’s rarely easy to stand out from the crowd. But here was a young man, who my daughter had known at school, only just finished his University course, declaring that he was unhappy with what was being presented in the current political arena and he was prepared to make a stand.

I’m deeply impressed by Matt’s determination to ‘do something’. When others (including me) were saying:

“Politicians, you can’t trust them”

“Both major parties are pathetic”

“None of them are worth voting for”

“They’re equally as bad as each other”.

Matt was equally unimpressed with what was being offered at both Federal and State levels, and decided that he wanted to learn more and “give it a go”. He really felt the need to do something and be involved in some way that till then had been an unformed need. Matt’s experiences after this reminded me of the expression “bite off more than you can chew, then chew like crazy”.

He really didn’t have much to go on. He has no close family or friends involved in politics, so there was no one to show him the ropes and introduce him to the basic requirements let alone the complexities and demands of running your own campaign on a very small shoestring budget.

But the first hurdle was registering himself as a candidate. He took a day off work at his new job to register, nervously announcing his intention to the seasoned Electoral Manager in Dromana, a small beachside town on the Mornington Peninsula.

The way Matt described it, the manager (very politely and kindly) looked askance at him, enquiring if he really wanted to go through with it, and did he know what he was getting himself in to. The implication was clearly: the other blokes have been doing this for years, they know the ropes, they’re seasoned veterans, this is a safe *Blue Ribbon seat … “What on earth are you thinking!” (*Meaning that the Liberals have been comfortably ensconced here for many many years, and it would take more than a young buck like Matt to knock them off.)

One of the many things I was intrigued to hear was the amount of support Matt received from other very politically astute and experienced people. He explained that most people he met were encouraging and happy to share their wisdom. He described them as being friendly and supportive, and he enjoyed meeting new people and hearing their different viewpoints.

Matt described the experience as being a huge learning curve (really!). He knew he didn’t have a hope of winning, and he’s still keen to become more involved in politics in the future - possibly standing for local council. He feels he’s gained an enormous amount of confidence and has become more assertive. I observed drive and determination, and quite a matter of fact attitude of ‘there’s a problem, what can I do to fix it’ not in any way arrogant, but almost as questions: “How can I help?” “What can I do?”.

I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again, young people often get bad press. We rarely get a balanced view or hear of the gutsy young people prepared to get off their butts and see what they can do. We’re leaving them a pretty shabby planet, and they have to pick up the pieces and it’ll take quite a bit of ingenuity to get it back to a good working order again.

Quiet, unassuming, and prepared to follow his heart and seek out new challenges to fulfil an inner need. Matt was rewarded with over 600 votes. For a beginner, learning from the ground up, with few mentors, I think the appropriate word to use is success.

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Thinking about interviews makes me feel sick

Benny from Fluent in 3 Months recently wrote an interesting post discussing confidence from the perspective of someone learning to speak a new language.  In "Fake it 'till you make it"  he gives some good tips on confidence building that are equally applicable to someone going for an interview,  making a presentation at work, returning faulty merchandise and myriad other things.

Benny discusses self produced confidence

My approach to get what I want is to presume from the START that it’s going to happen. I then just follow the path that is most likely going to lead to that result.

There is no “maybe” in my mind. When I start a language mission, I presume from day onethat I am going to be successful. This isn’t arrogance – it’s a crucial part of the strategy to make it happen. Any doubt is going to do me no good, so why should I embrace it as most people would?

and he goes on to make the observation that "Negative self-fulfilling prophecies work really well, so I'm just doing the same thing for positive ones".

Over the years, I've heard many interesting excuses from people about how they are unable to attend interviews for jobs and courses because they don't have the confidence. They expect to go to jelly - and they're missing fantastic opportunities as a result. Their negative self fulfilling prophecies are alive and well, and extremely unhelpful. Whilst Benny is pretty full on, he's got a point and it's certainly worth thinking about for your next interview.

My additional suggestion if you are particularly unsure of yourself would be to find a trusted person to work with who can give you reliable feedback.  As I said above this could be a valuable technique for interviews, presentations and other daily activities that require you to appear confident even if it's not how you feel inside.

A technique I used a couple of years ago when I was teaching business students to make workplace presentations, was to suggest they adopt as many positive mannerisms as possible from the most confident person they admired for the 5 minutes of the presentation.  Each presenter was then asked to rate their level of butterflies/nerves/sickinthestomach/fear/sweaty palms etc. The audience (the other students) were requested to give honest feedback on their apparent confidence. It was abundantly clear to every student participating that it IS possible to feel horrendously nervous, yet APPEAR to be in control.

For many of us it's a matter of learning a few techniques that work for you and applying them. We can still feel unsure and insecure, but come across confidently.

What do you think?

Interview preparation - speak up!

I want to follow up from yesterday's comment about interviews. If you don't like talking about yourself or your skills and talents at interviews, try the following suggestions, and let me know how it goes.

To get some idea of the more tricky questions, you could Google 100 most difficult job interview questions or 20 most challenging interview questions. No matter how bizarre they seem, they will have been asked at sometime in an interview, and it’s a good idea to be prepared! I guarantee it’ll help you when you get a really curly one thrown your way. Your brain will kick in with “ah, yes, I know how to handle this kind of question”, it's prepared and is less likely to freeze with fear. 

Take a deep breath, pause (this is a very important step) and slowly and calmly begin. You’ll appear more confident and assured if you don’t rush, even though you may be quaking inside.

The importance of pets!

The next step in interview preparation is to answer the questions aloud. Ideally you’d have an honest, yet tactful adult to assist, but for many people, that isn’t possible. In this case I often suggest to my clients that they practise in front of their pet if they have one; failing that, a compliant child or baby will do. 
I’m not being flippant. It really does help.

A respectful adult can, however, give valuable feedback, not only about the content of your answers, but also about your body language, which as you know is incredibly important in the whole process. It’s often stated that the interviewers opinion about a candidate is made within the first 30 seconds of an interview. That’s pretty scary stuff, particularly when you’re nervous already. So any constructive and supportive steps you can take are worth working on, well before you arrive.

Acknowledge your strengths 
It feels awkward for many of us to tell someone that we’re good at things, particularly those of us from cultures where we’re encouraged not to brag or gloat about how competent we are. This is a definite negative in an interview and you can lose your dream job if you don’t overcome that childhood training.

If you’re good at something, you need to share this at interview. If you think of it as sharing and informing, it might be more comfortable than if you think of it as ‘selling’ yourself. ("Selling" has a lot of negative overtones, more suited to a product, and it’s no wonder we feel uncomfortable with it, after all few of us want to be seen as a commodity).

There are a couple of things going on in the ‘talk it aloud’ practise, not least hearing your own voice stating your positive qualities in a confident, unapologetic tone. It helps you hear the um’s and ah’s, and to practice until these are, if not eliminated, then at least less frequent. If you sound like you don’t believe in yourself, how can you expect the interviewer to?

Sometimes it’s easier to say to your pet: 
“One of the things I’m really good at is ….”, 
“I want to work at (insert name of company here) because ….” 
“How would my friends describe me? My best friends describe me as loyal …. "

It’s ok to repeat a question occasionally if you go blank, it lets your brain catch up.

When you hear yourself speaking, you’ll detect if you’re convincing or not. The benefit of pets is that they don’t bore quickly and you can rehearse frequently. And if you think you’ll become stale, remember the fantastic actors in long running shows who can move us to tears even though they may have preformed the same show for weeks or months. It can be done!

Your interview questions
Remember to think of some questions you want to ask the interviewer/s. Again, Google is a great resource.This invitation usually comes at the end of the interview just as you’re breathing a sigh of relief that it’s almost over. If you haven’t thought it out, (and asked it aloud in the privacy of your home to your cat) you’re likely to blurt out the most inane thing like I did some years ago - my stomach still sinks at the memory.

In summary:

• prepare
• educate the interviewer/s about your skills and strengths
• practise, practise, practise - aloud!
• arrive early, breathe deeply and give it your best

Good luck!

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