Hi my friend,

I come from Greece and I am only …47 years old.  It means I have lived half a century… ! 

However, I feel terribly old, and what is the reason for this?  I can not find a decent employment in my country since 2005 !!  I WORKED hard all these years looking for jobs, but no….  no result…  I am only working part-time now with 400 € per month…  Can YOU live with that money?  I have a contract with that until April 2009…. And then they will fire me…

The reasons not finding jobs are plenty.  I am …OLD for my country, because if they hire me they should pay me more than a young girl.  If she is paid let’s say 600 €, I should get 1,000 €.  I don’t ask for that, I ask for any amount they can give me so I CAN LIVE AND SUPPORT MY MOTHER !!  You see, for every three years of work, they pay you more, and I have worked since 1983…

I am suffocating in my own country and I wish I could leave Greece, live elsewhere with better conditions and a decent life with a good job.

The problem to hire me here is I know too much…  I know Business Administration, Marketing, 3-4 foreign languages, public relations, crisis management, advanced computer knowledge, medical and pharmaceutical terminology, since I have worked for over 17 years in top international pharmaceutical companies…  They don’t hire me, because when I took interviews the Managers felt threatened by me…  I organized a medical congress with over 5,000 participants and they fired me after my successful organization of the congress !  During the congress, I had good and serious job offers by three Professors – doctors – Presidents of Medical Associations to be a freelancer congress organizer, but I would prefer the “security” of my congresses company….  Then they “stubbed” me in the face…  I gave them in their nerves… I was too annoying for these three women, when after I returned to my company at the end of the congress, they said EVERYTHING I was doing was WRONG…  I was working inside a public big hospital, the biggest in Greece, for over 13 hours a day, non-stop !

Never mind, each day passes and we learn our lesson in our lives….  I did tremendous efforts to find jobs; they all replied, “YES, YOU ARE VERY GOOD….  EXCELLENT PRESENTATION IN YOUR LAPTOP, BUTTTT…”

I really have enough of this unemployment thing, like I said, I work for only 4 hours a day now, and the rest of my day and night as I don’t sleep much, I devote it to be successful in Internet Marketing.

I gave money to different companies in the Internet;  so far, I earned a little in a project but didn’t continue it, because their system was not working well.  I lost money but I LEARNED a lot.  Even how to be let’s say a ….WEBMASTER…

Oh, I must say, I have the honor to be the Greek Test Engineer for MICROSOFT USA, working for a US company, which has MICROSOFT as their only client.  Of course, I called and sent my CV to Microsoft Greece, but you will never understand their mentality unless you live here… I have no “uncle” to hire me; I have no “big person” to push me to get in the company…  I have only my mind and my hard work..  That was good and enough for my US interview and they hired me at once with joy, but it is NOT ENOUGH FOR GREECE…

I have to starve now, because THAT’S THE SYSTEM, pray that something better will come up in September – I have some options for full time jobs in the public sector.  For the non public companies, I am too …expensive… and USELESS…  or that how I am FEELING…..

I am a nervous wreck this August, as this is my last one of my life, and I am expecting a miracle in September….

PLEASE PEOPLE IF YOU BELIEVE IN GOD, PRAY WITH ME….

Big thanks to you all for listening to me !

To a better life for us all,

Maria