Different brands in different cultures

Today we had the third day at Personal Branding 4EUth Employment. We focused on different brands in different cultures. Before starting, we had an energizer dancing popular, famous and fun songs from each country like La Macarena and The penguin. After we got energy, the morning started with an activity in groups managed by Silviu, about the stereotypes of different countries as India, Siria, Slovenia, Azerbayan, etc. The positive and negative aspects of them were argued. The main idea was that “We are branded by the country we come from”.

Then we discussed about what it is said about our countries. Some of the words were that Spanish people are emotional and lazy, and Romanian are hard-workers, efficient and work cheaply. We decided that it is useful to know how foreign people see us in order to have perspective. At the end of the morning we saw two motivational videos that expressed the idea that we should follow what we want and don’t give up and later we could taste “Mamaliga”.

Another energizer was done before we returned to the activities related to Personal Branding. It consisted in learning how to say “Hello” to bears, Slovenian and Spanish guys and crazy women also.

Andrea was the person in charge of the activities in the afternoon. First of all, we watched a video about brands and we needed to find out the most important message on them which was that Brand is a promise of value. Other messages were that you have to be yourself, passionate, original, unique, confident. Moreover, we found out that life and work can be combined.

The second video was about colors and its meaning in Brands. For example, green means nature, red means passion or blue is related to safety. And we can find that some people are a brand as Steve Jobs, Uncle Sam or Donal Trump. With our buddies we talk about them and chose some characteristics of their brands. Also we created a personal greeting between buddies.

At the last break of the day we enjoyed the feedback with an Emil’s game and a proposal of Andrea. “What have you learned today?” That was the question that she gave us and we connected our feelings with a thread. Then we started the war for the board list.
Expectations over the cocktail party for tonight are on the table now.

Maria Sanchez, Carolina Sanchez

Day 2: Self-awareness

There was a new day at Personal Branding 4EUth Employment youth exchange program with plenty of activities focused on Self-Awareness, the main theme of the day.

During the mornings we were lazy and sleepy and because of this we were “punished” by Vlad, one of our colleague to make some exercises in the beautiful morning from Somesul Rece. Then, there came the workshops that focused on topics such as: how competent we are, what are our main qualities and weaknesses, what are the main challenges to find a job in a European environment and what makes us unique.

In this multicultural environment we could find that uniqueness is a very rare quality, but the good part is that we all have a unique fingerprint that we use to mark our personality.

As part of a simple exercise we have had the chance to discover that we all have a powerful strength. Thus, Guillem said he likes to improvise, Marc is adaptable, Teodora said that she never gives up, Alessia is emphatic while Andrei said that he is “el amante.” As for myself, I am ambitious and I was impressed to discover that I am not the only one who characterize herself in this way. Mihaela also shared my belief and at that moment I realized that small things are more valued than bigger ones and that what makes us unique in the world is not something that only we have, but something that combines with all our characteristics. The combination between them all generates our uniqueness.

During the middle of the day, we changed the focus a little bit from ourselves and moved on in discussing the challenges about working in Europe. We all split in groups and had to find what are the main challenges but also the proper solutions. Finding the solutions was not an easy part, at least not for my team as there are a lot of problems in putting them in practice and make them realistic.

By summarizing all the challenges found out, I would mention that when you want to find a job in Europe you face problems such as: organizing and writing your CV, money, language barrier, home-sickness, adaptability, discrimination, weather, cultural shock, time zone and contacts. Based on our own experiences and knowledge on the domain we could find solutions to each of the specific problem. However, most of us got stuck at discrimination because unfortunately, it appears on many level and its effects are never the same.

The long trip in the mountain at the end of the day was the top of the iceberg for all of us. With an adventurous spirit we decided to follow a 10 year old boy in the mountain and climb its cliffs in order to find…actually, we never knew what we were going to see in the end, but we followed the boy with great enthusiasm and joy. We were so captured by the road that we rarely noticed the “ortigas”

We finished or second day with laughs and Alberto, our Gandalf, made our day and we thank him for that.

Madalina Hodorog

Day 1: Know Each Other-Photo Gallery

Dare to be different!

bswarms.com

bunnis.deviantart.com

bunnis.deviantart.com

uptenlist.com

http://www.foxyladydrivers.com/foxyblog/2010/12/21/be-different-be-female-friendly-approved-in-2011/#.UfUxv5wWmqk

http://www.motivationalmemo.com

What is a brand?

Personal branding

Employment vs Young people

Because of the global financial crisis which started in late 2000s many people lost their jobs.  Young people are no exception. Moreover, young people are the social group that is most affected by the crisis. If the rights of their older counterparts are protected by syndicates and government, when it comes to young inexperienced people nobody wants to raise a hand. This is because young people are believed to be dumb and unwilling to work. But is this so?

For instance, I have a friend who works each summer as a waitress at a local pub, the money that she earns are enough to pay for her studies and other expenses during the academic year. As I do, she studies to be an accountant, with all this, both of us, think that we will not be able to find jobs as accountants and the only option for me and for her to get hired, is either to find work as unskilled laborers or to train ourselves in fields where there is a shortage of workers, as an example IT or army.

Since none of us are willing to hack lines of code or kill people in faraway countries the option of last resort will be to receive unemployment benefits from the government and hope that they will never run out.

Daniel Cornea

Why Personal Branding?

Personal Branding 4EUth Employment was implemented because of the present economical context from EU countries. According to EU statistics regarding youth in 2009, although students have greater conditions of living, they face the problem of not being able to find a job after finishing their studies, they lack education, they do not participate in democratic actions or they are not healthy. The present situation occurs both because there are less available jobs on the market but also because of the greater competition. As students have to face the two phenomenons, they need to develop new skills in order to be suitable for their jobs and for the persons who hire them.

Not only this, but economic recessions such as the one from 2008 has a negative impact on students and the effects of it tend to be long term. Moreover, education do not provide students the skills necessary to apply for a job such as being able to have a rational mind, be innovative, able to work under stress conditions or have a team spirit. Employers require candidates skills and abilities that are covered only 2%-7%, according to a study by Junior Achievement Romania and IBM.

According to a study of the Romanian population, studies are taken into consideration based on several competences such as:

–          To have an analytical capacity

–          To be innovative

–          To be focused on results and have the capacity to resolve problems

–          To be able to work in teams

–          To be proactive

–          To be able to communicate efficiently

Moreover, the linguistic competencies and communication skills are also very important for the employers.

By paying a close attention to the mentioned competencies we discover that they can be easily learned through non-formal education. Personal Branding for EUth Employment comes to address these topics and presents students the ways in which they can improve their skills or develop new ones by participating at this project.

Therefore, the theme selected for this project is of major importance for students who are looking forward for a job in the domain they have studied. As students participating at the project will be from two European countries, the problem of employment will be discussed from both a national and European perspective and it will also help students to broaden their knowledge regarding the theme.

Based on non-formal education methods for self-development, self presentation and promotion, the project’s main objective is to present students personal branding strategies. Developing a personal brand is essential for the advancement of a career and several techniques are used to achieve the personal goal. In order to do this, students must identify their qualities and know to promote them in a personal, unique way- an idea that also consists as an objective for the present project. The presented goals are also in accordance with Youth Exchange organization in the sense that it promotes active citizenship, European cooperation, multiculturalism or education

Visit Cluj-Napoca!

Cluj- Napoca is a city full of fun where approximately 50.000 students from all over the world study. Cluj -Napoca is the capital city of Cluj county and it is one of the most visited cities from Romania.

Places that we recommend to visit:

Botanical Garden (Republicii no. 42)  spreads over 14 hectares and contains among others a small Japanese garden, greenhouses for equatorial and tropical plants, a small water course through its middle, and a tower which can be climbed to get a better view of the garden arrangements.

It was founded in 1920 by Professor Alexandru Borza and it belongs to the Babeş-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca. Its organization is based on the scientific conception regarding the classification of plants and phytogeography, harmoniously combined with the artistic refinement, which offers the Botanical Garden a hint of charm and a special picturesque character, according to Visitcluj.ro.

The National History Museum of Transylvania is an architectural monument of the 19th century which contains over 400,000 cultural possessions from the basic exhibition that demonstrate the historical evolution and the degree of civilization in the Transylvanian lands from prehistoric ages up to the 1st of December 1918, illustrated by different objects from archeological findings, medieval and modern ceramic collections, tin, glassware, weaponry, photographs and documents, books and newspapers, etc. (visitcluj.ro)

The Roman Catholic “Saint Michael” Church  is a great historical and religious architecture monument is one of the most imposing gothic edifice from our country. It was built approximately between 1350 and 1480, being the first hall church from Transylvania.