Hostel Territory

So we've set off to Barcelona to live the dream and open our very own hostel. We're keeping this journal online to keep everyone updated of our progress, adventures and mishaps navigating Barcelona's booming tourism industry, Spanish bureaucracy, and daily life in Catalunya.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Sadly, Ariel, who has been with us for a year, left for a new exciting job in England working with a percussion company. It's always sad to see members of our team leave, but it's great to know that he's pursuing his passion. Additionally, Alex is returning to Venezuela in February to attend a photography seminar.

So that means that we've just hired someone new for the hostel! I don't want to jinx it after the guy we hired in August just never showed up and was never heard from again, but I think we've got a great addition to the team.

As we saw in the our other searches, there are some very (over) qualified candidates searching for jobs here. The jobless rate for people ages 16-24 in Spain is a whopping 42.9%.

That considered, I still find it unbelievable that people respond to job postings with blank emails and only a CV attached or cover letters with any of the following sentences:

"I'm the one u're looking to work with" (r u really?)
"i can speek ingles and sapanish" (ah, I can see that)
"
I would be willing to work for less money if my girlfriend and I could stay in a room at your hostel" (uh. next!)
"
if u will call me for an interviw u can see and u can immage" (since when did it become okay to apply for jobs in MSN/SMS speak?)
"
I wanna do a test with you, i work there in your hostel for 1 month free only to you know me and do a test to discovery that i can be good with this work" (I know times are tough, but really?)

This is saying nothing of some of the creepy mugshots people attach to their CVs. If your picture makes it look like you just killed someone, smoked a crack pipe, haven't showered in three days or any combination of the three, don't put it on your CV for potential employers to judge you by. Just saying.