Nataly

No. I'd go into more detail, but I don't want to skew the results in one direction or another. Let's stick to the "hypothetical" and straightforward scenario above

The answer to both questions is "it depends." For me, the possibility of "hooking up" with a lot of people is meaningless, because a truly valuable relationship is valuable because it's good and a good relationship/connection is rare - quantity is not the same as quality. As for marrying a member of the royal family... Generally speaking, it sounds like my idea of hell... But if you love someone, again, it's a rare thing, so it would take a lot for me to give that up... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

If I met a girl I fancied and she gave me her number I would call her straight away "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

4 days. But it's not quite as straightforward as the "hypothetical" situation above. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Guys: you meet a girl and you *really* fancy her. You ask for her number and she gives it to you. How long do you wait before you call her? Feel free to elaborate.

Hmm.. It tells me the content is not available?! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Oh no... We travelled about 10 yards on the camels... The 120 or so km were on foot. It was from 06 Nov to 14 Nov, with 7 days of trekking in there. Edit to say: temperatures varied quite a bit.. From 5° Celcius at night to 41° Celcius midday. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Ummm... I didn't spot any cafes in the desert - not even as a mirage!! Ha ha ha!!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Well, one or two of the Morocans might have volunteered to keep me warm, but luckily I had a very good (single) sleeping bag "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Wow... Just... Wow... Got back to "civilisation" yesterday, but to be honest, I could have stayed in the Sahara indefinitely. We walked over 100km across a surprisingly varied landscape... We slept under the stars and the sky was so clear it looked like there were billions of little white dots up there... We rode camels (although our guides refused to let us have a race, or play camel-polo, or bring a camel back with us in our luggage - spoil-sports!!)... We learned a lot about the nomadic culture and also the modern way of life in Moroco... We ate a lot of couscous(!)... In short, I can't think of a better way I could have celebrated my 30th. It was simply amazing. If any of you ever have the chance to do one of these challenges for charity, I would 100% recommend it. Heck - I would go out of my way to make it happen even if you didn't have time to go. Check out some of my pics here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=306603&id=699986277&l=4b6a0c8940 Everything about it was incredible

I'm sure that depends on the type of job you are applying for... If you want to work in PR, for instance, I would think that might be the case - if you're aiming for a role with MI5, having no presence at all is probably a good thing!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I don't want to bring up politics in here, but honestly the burden felt by small companies could be dealt with by having better laws / support. This way it wouldn't be all young women who are discriminated against and all small businesses who are exposed to financial risks. Unfortunately, it's a vicious cycle IMO... Give people limited options / resources and low-level jobs / unfair salaries, and they will be forced to screw the system, which will encourage people to discriminate against them, which will encourage screwing with the system, et cetera, et cetera. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I really like the idea of hiring someone on a trial basis... I have believed for a long time that the interview process is not necessarily the only or the most effective way to hire the right person - it's just the easiest. I have had good interview experiences and bad ones... I once got offered a job where the interview had gone really well, but I had to turn it down - I knew I couldn't deliver at the right level at that time. So it's possible to have excellent interviewing skills and not have the competencies for the job itself... Unfortunately, it follows that the opposite is also true... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

When I was in recruitment, I was told to watch out for the "halos and horns effect" ("the tendency to rate a person high on all performance factors or low on all of them because of a global impression one has.")... Basically, human nature is such that in an interview setting you actually tend to decide on the person within about 10 seconds of them stepping into the room... That's why the way you carry yourself makes a big difference in that first impression - often interviewers will favour the most charismatic candidate over the most qualified one. But "most qualified" does not mean "best person for the job"... There is a good link on common rating errors here: http://www.creighton.edu/fileadmin/user/AdminFinance/HumanResources/docs/Compensation_Performance_Mgmt/Errors_in_Performance_Evaluations.pdf That article is more about performance on the job, but some of it applies to interviewing biases as well... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

By young, I meant less than 50 - in the business world, the optimal age (cerainly in the UK) seems to be in the 30s... And yes, women of "birthing age" get discriminated against, BIGTIME and it is not fair. We earn less money, get slighted for promotions/partnership, and hardly ever reach the senior levels even if we never have children! What stinks for a minority of small businesses is much worse for 50% of the population. I'm not going to get started on this, because it's a bigass can of worms... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I don't know if Ireland has the same employment laws as the UK, but as of 2005 or 2006 it's illegal in the UK to discriminate on the basis of age (in addition to race, gender, religion, sexuality). So employers are not allowed to say or hint that they want someone young - they are not allowed to ask dob either. Although you are free to put it on your CV if you want. And anyway we all know people are discriminated against on all counts regardless of all these laws... I suppose in a way it may be no more or less discriminatory in France, except that they are perhaps more upfront about it. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

"There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

You and D are both right - in North America, there is that distinction between the CV and the resume. In the UK, however, everyone uses CV instead of resume. The average UK "CV" is 2 pages, although junior jobseekers often can't justify more than 1 page, whilst senior jobseekers can get away with 3 (or exceptionally 4) pages. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Give them that Goth pic you posted some time back. What an *excellent* idea!!! Perhaps I will get a job as a dominatrix!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I somewhat agree, but having worked in recruitment (in the UK), I can tell you that there are certain expected "standards" one would expect on a CV. And from all my googling, it would seem the above-mentioned criteria are pretty standard in France. Trust me, we binned CV's a lot less than employers do, because recruiters can re-dress your experience before sending it to the client... Clients, however, discriminate on a WHOLE lot because they can... Even the university you attended... In fact, not stating whether you had graduated with a first, a 2:1, etc., meant we were automatically suspicious of poor exam results... "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

That's odd... Figuring out a person's age is usually pretty easy... All you need is to look at their first job or what year they graduated from university, etc... Usually there are a bunch of hints, so the fact that you didn't need to drive for the job but they asked about your driving licence?? Well, I think it's weird!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

CV (or Curriculum vitae) is a latin expression which can be loosely translated as [the] course of [my] life. In the UK, it's called a CV; in the States and Canada, I believe the Anglos call it a resume. ie: what you use to apply for a job. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

Yeah, I put running and yoga - one shows "drive" and the other maturity/calm. Out of the list this is the only one I can kind of understand, because you can show your caracter/personality, which could point to whether you are a team player, et cetera.. The other ones, not so much!! "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

I spent ages translating my CV to French and last week I proudly showed it to a local froggy, who immediately pointed out loads of stuff I was doing "wrong"... I didn't include the following: -a picture of myself -my date of birth -my marital status -how many (if any) kids I have -my hobbies !!!! I was shocked! To me, the only reason you could possibly use that personal info for is to discriminate when you're hiring!!! I really didn't believe him, but according to google (and google knows everything), he's right! Oh well.. When in Rome.. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss

God.. One of the comments on that link suggests the solution is for bikers to "buy a grown up car" - argh. If I had a penny for every time I hear it's the biker's fault.. This is SUCH a bad attitude to have. "I have a big vehicle so I have the right of way" I also took a defensive driving course, where we were taught to ignore whose fault something is and to just deal with it in the safest way possible. If everyone had this attitude that whatever happens at least they drive well/defensively, it would solve a lot of problems.. On a bike, it doesn't matter if what I'm doing is *right* if it means that car is going to plow into me.. It's more important to avoid an accident than to be "correct" (and dead). Honestly, though.. Any biker with a brain looks *everywhere* when filtering traffic, so it's no excuse for a car to switch lanes without looking... EVERYONE has to look. "There is no problem so bad you can't make it worse." - Chris Hadfield « Sors le martinet et flagelle toi indigne contrôleuse de gestion. » - my boss