Editor’s note: This article was first published in May 2012. It is a news item about a comic due to run for eleven monthly chapters; the “5 million people” in the title refers to the number of unemployed in Spain at the time.
Leo is a 40-year-old salesman with no job. He is finding it hard to get back into the job market.
He is also the main character of a comic that, month by month, will show his methods for finding work. It comes from the consultancy Impulsando y Entrenando tu talento, which will publish a new chapter of the comic on its website on the first Tuesday of every month.
Eleven months, eleven chapters, in which Leo will get past a series of obstacles to reach his goal of working again. The stories begin when he is laid off because of an overall drop in his company’s turnover and shrinking sales margins.
Presented as an innovative and original initiative, his adventures are stories that will sound familiar to many Spanish families.
Leo’s chapters
Leo’s story begins, in the first chapter, with his dismissal, and offers a way of portraying the everyday situations he faces while looking for work. Many readers will identify with the stories, and some will reflect on the mistakes they make in their own job search.
In other chapters, Leo will tell other stories, such as:
- Learning to position himself in a job market in crisis
- How to focus his search on his goals
- How recruiters think
- What companies expect
- Tools for standing out from other candidates
- Writing an attractive CV
- Working from home
The idea behind the comic
The consultancy that launched it believes the character reflects the day-to-day reality of millions of people looking for work in Spain: everyday stories of anyone searching for a job, and the long wait for that reply call that never comes.
Comic strips that tell stories in a different way: concise and, above all, educational and thought-provoking, according to Impulsando y Entrenando Talento.
Featured image: Tad Dorgan, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
