Long time no see...

Yeah, I know, I did neglect my blog here for a while. I do hope I can do a bit more on here again, but altogether 16 Facebook pages, Instagram, my own photo business and hunting for work eats up a lot of my time.
Just some few updates:
1. I'm NZ citizen since October 2018
2. I'm also no German citizen anymore, because Germany wasn't happy for me accepting NZ citizenship without confirming with them first - which is pretty ridiculous, as I thought Germans are allowed to chose the place they live in - obviously true, but only to a certain degree of commitment ;-)
3. Atm I live off some of my savings, do more photography again and I also work on some private projects - applying new skills. I'm also trying to get back into movie related contracts, if work in that area picks up again.
4. I'm a bit frightened about some general development here. I often hear things like "we must be more equal to other regions like Australia, USA, Europe..." or things pointing in this direction.
What people don't consider, though, is, this "status" of those countries comes at a price. The bad stuff connected to this so called wealth comes over as well. I could write hundreds of pages about this subject, but I don't see it making any difference, so I might just write some bits at a time.
I just start with one actual "favorite" though, which came up a lot lately.

The expression "over-qualified"! This is something that I heard a lot in Europe, but it only starts to pop up here now too. In essence it means, someone has a lot of skills, and a potential employer fears they have to pay this person too much. Actually it's a pretty stupid expression, and the reasons for using it are even more absurd, true for Europe as well as for NZ. If someone is willing to work for a certain wage, despite having more skills, then that's this person's decision. The potential employer should be happy to get a higher qualified employee for less money. This was actually the case when I came here some 10 years ago. Now I start to hear this absurd expression more and more. Well, a person my age, having had two full educations and having worked in another profession, and running their own business, is of course "over-qualified", so what? Is this actually relevant? If I decide to dig holes in the ground for a living, what's the relevance that I can also set up a server and an entire computer network for a company? Isn't it my own decision, if I want to leave computers behind and rather work with my hands again?
A question, if you were an electrician... Can you cook? If so, aren't you also over-qualified, as you have an additional valuable skill?
"Over-qualified" is, in fact, no real thing. It's a term, invented for one single reason, to decline a potential employee without having to explain why.
This in turn has some negative effects. First, employers (or HR) just get lazy, as this makes it too easy for them.
The other, more serious effect is, the potential employee has no idea what they did wrong. They don't know if they messed up the interview, if their skills weren't right, if the employer just didn't like them etc. So he/she has no chance to make necessary changes and keeps searching for a job they're not likely to get, just because they aren't told what they did wrong.
I've watched this in Europe, for 30 + years, sitting in the front row. It didn't do any good in Europe, and now, happening here too, it does exactly the same sort of harm.

To all the potential employers out there, please, don't just reject someone on the grounds of an absurd term like being "over-qualified". You are over-qualified yourself. And you don't help anyone (including your own company) when you use this as an excuse to reject someone. This person, if told about their shortcomings, might change the points you didn't like in the interview and with that actually turn out a very valued employee in a second try. This can actually save you money, and costs you maybe five minutes of your time. Or do you really want to end up like many countries in Europe?

Germany, my country of origin, has found an ingenious way to get better unemployment statistics (see the link below).
It's about how "unemployed" is defined. Actually, their numbers are by far higher than their statistics show. For example, people aged 58+ without a job, aren't in the statistic anymore because it's unlikely they ever get a job again.
People not employed but receiving govt funded education, aren't counted unemployed (which, of course they are).
People in govt programs where employers pay them 1 Euro per hour and govt pays some difference, are not "unemployed" either, and so fort.
So please don't just believe some rose tinted statistics, but rather think about what consequences some actions may have!
Read this article, I have been through this myself:
Debunking the myth of low German unemployment

GTC - 2017, Fashion Photoshooting Event #2

This time I post some stronger edits, means some Photographic Tricks ...

GTC - 2017, Fashion Photoshooting Event