Jobs Ireland

Written by Yuki Noguchi, Correspondent, National Desk, NPR News

With the unemployment rate at 9.4 percent and ticking up, millions of Americans are in the job market for the first time in several years.

But the job market has changed in that short time. The paper resume is laughably passe, at least in some circles. Not having a profile on the social networking site LinkedIn is, for some employers, not only a major liability but a sign that the candidate is horribly out of touch.

“If someone sends us a paper resume folded in thirds, stuffed in an envelope, it’s hard to take it seriously,” says Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, an online real estate brokerage.

Kelman says he has friends in their 30s and 40s who just missed the social networking boat and now need coaching in how things have changed.

For example, he says blogs and Facebook pages have gone from mere kids’ play to essential for communicating with employers online. Someone applying for a job in marketing, for example, will do much better in an interview if he or she already commands an audience through a blog. People in sales look better if they can prove they have a broad network of contacts in their field.

These new rules especially hold true in the high-tech fields, where being up to the minute is considered essential. But even other industries are following suit.

Job applicants are required to submit their resumes digitally at UMB Financial, a bank based in Kansas City, Mo.

“We get very few paper resumes,” says Pat Cassady, the director of recruitment at UMB. Cassady says 10 to 12 percent of UMB hires come through LinkedIn, and she searches niche networking sites for active users who might be promising business leaders. She is even planning to use Twitter to reach out to new recruits.

Landing your Ideal Job – Interview Preparation Tips

I have talked to a lot of Job seekers over the past month and I have been amazed at how poorly many of them have been preparing for their interviews. In the current climate it hard enough to get to interview stage for a position, so when we do we need to impress the socks off the interviewers! We need to go into the interview confident, positive and prepared. Here are some key points you should consider prior to interview.

Do you know where you are going and how to get there?
I would suggest that you go out to the company a day before the interview, so you know exactly how to get there. I used to walk into the reception area to get a feel of the organisation prior to the interview.

Do you know the names and titles of who you are meeting?
Have you where possible researched those individuals? Use the internet or even your personal network to get as much information on your interviewers.

Have you researched the company?
Again the internet is a super place for learning about an organisation. However in addition to that – Do you know of any working or that has worked in the Company that you could talk to prior to your interview. You should know exactly what the company does, who their competitors are and what the company’s values are?

Do you fully understand the Job Description or do I have a detailed job description?
Always make sure you clarify any grey areas prior to interview. It will keep you from getting thrown at interview stage.

Did you write your CV?
Many people are getting their cv done up by Agencies or even CV services. Often the end result is that the CV is not written in your words and reads like a foreign document. So know your cv and make sure it represents you and not someone else.

Many interviews today are competency based interviews.
Practice answering competency based questions. Eg. Tell me a time you dealt with an awkward customer. Do “Mock” Interviews with friends or family prior to the interview and ask for constructive feedback.

I strongly believe good preparation will help quash nerves at interviews and ensure that you maximise your chances of excelling at your next interview. And who knows your next interview might be the last one you have to prepare for in a long time. Good Luck!!

Have you had enough of LinkedIN?

Did you fail to understand how to utilise Twitter?

Are job boards not really performing for you as they used to?

Is your web site combined with the traffic purchased from Google AdWords delivering candidates?

Is the Monster CV database just….

Well if you answered YES to all the above, you might be interested in the Jobs Market The Irish Recruitment Social Network.

Still in BETA, but getting there quickly!

Worky.com is a new Irish Recruitment Social Networking site.

Ireland is a nest for the recruitment sites. Obviously a very small number of the sites work well for the employers in Ireland since the market can only support a certain number. Worky is different, since it is built to be a global recruitment social networking market. Worky is in essence a LikedIN with no registered users. Or Monster with no jobs. Or both in the same time actually.

Where is the full Worky recruitment site article.

Recruitment Article of the Day:

How Recruiters can use Boolean Searches by Pushpa Sreenivasan

By Pushpalatha Sreenivasan: The use of Web 2.0 Technologies in Recruitment has been well documented over the last year or so in this blog. While Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook grab most of the headlines one of the less talked about but most effective tools Recruiters can use is using Boolean Searches.

As an introduction if you have not used Boolean searches in the past, a Boolean search is where one enters the key words into a search engine like Google or Yahoo within the inverted commas and use words like OR, AND, NOT which are called as operators with modifiers such as Quotation Marks “” and Parentheses () to narrow the search.

For example, OR can be used to search to include results that contain either of the words you are looking for. For example EAI OR EIM. OR is a good tool to use when there are several common spellings or synonyms of a word.

As for AND, its used for inclusion of key words. For example if I’m searching for a Java Developer, as I need both the key words “Java” and Developer to be present in the CV I need to give a command like this in the search engine – “Java AND Developer

The “AND” operator narrows the search down by combining the key words.

This way, one can play with the Bolean operators to narrow the search and get precisely what one is looking for.

How does Boolean Search help in recruiting?

Firstly, it comes handy to sort out the information a Recruiter is looking for. Once the data is sorted, then the search conducted within sorted data proves even more effective than search with the raw data. Also, Boolean search has the capability to increase the search in terms of speed and efficiency when searching profiles online through search engines. One of the ways to get a hang of it is trying with various operators with some permutation and combination.

If you are a job seeker and want to get much more visibility of your profile make sure your skills and experiences are clearly defined in the form of key words and people know how to get in touch with you.

Another best ways of using Boolean Search is not sticking to one search engine. Using multiple search engines enhances one’s access to certain extraordinary information, which sometimes your most favourite search engine would not be able to pick up. This is quite interesting and also the introduction of this new search engine www.zuula.com. In its own words, Zuula is an innovative Internet search service that gives its users quick access to web, image, video, news, blog and job search results from all the major search engines. This really comes handy as one need not hop from one search engine to other.

The author of this article has been with the Oracle India Recruitment Team for the past three years and can be contacted at pushpalatha.sreenivasan@oracle.com

Recruit Ireland offers Free Jobs Advertising for Ireland’s Employers.

Ireland Inc has not ground to a halt. Despite the current economic uncertainties of businesses across Ireland, new businesses are starting up, some are expanding and vacated positions do need to be filled. But doom and gloom prevails and confidence is low. RecruitIreland.com is combating this by taking immediate action and launching a campaign offering Free Advertising to Ireland’s employers in a bid to get Ireland’s talented workforce back into employment.

“By enabling Ireland’s employers to advertise jobs on our website free of charge we believe we will be providing a valuable service to businesses at a time when they need all the support they can get,” commented Emma Henry, Marketing Manager RecruitIreland.com.

RecruitIreland.com has a large talent pool of loyal, highly qualified and skilled professionals visiting the site on a regular basis. Employers who place their jobs on RecruitIreland.com will benefit not only because the service is now free of charge, but because it will also draw in highly skilled candidates who may not otherwise have seen those positions advertised.

“We also hope that this will bolster the confidence of those who find themselves unemployed, that they will see that there are jobs out there and that as a Nation we have not ground to a halt.”

By offering free advertising to every employer across Ireland RecruitIreland.com aims to create one central bank of all the available jobs in the country, thereby taking some of the strain out of the job hunt for job seekers.

RecruitIreland.com is Taking Action to Get Ireland Working Now!

 
Facing the Future with Ease
Education, Enterprise & Enthusiasm.
NRF Annual Conference

Thursday 23rd April 2009, Citywest Hotel, Saggart, Co. Dublin.

In the midst of the economic turmoil we have decided to create a conference

that will look to the future with conviction, positivity and energy rather than concentrating

on the all-consuming negatives while still addressing those issues of concern to the industry.

Frank Collins, NRF President.

To register for the Conference email director@nrf.ie

The conference is FREE OF CHARGE for staff of NRF member agencies

and ?75 euro per person for non-members.

With thanks to our primary sponsor RecruitIreland.com

and co-sponsors CXC Global Ltd, The Irish Times and Rubicon Advertising.

Time Item Duration

9.00am Coffee and Exhibition Viewing 30 mins

9.30am Chairperson: Rowan Manahan (Fortify Services) 25 mins

Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr. Billy Kelleher TD

9.55am Frank Collins, NRF President 10 mins

Appreciation of the Situation

10.05am Alan Haugh (NERA) 15 mins

Fostering a Culture of Compliance

10.20am Annemarie Muntz (CIETT) 15 mins

The Crucial Role of Our Industry Internationally

10.35am Panel Discussion 20 mins

Panel to include Mark Fielding (ISME), Frank Collins (NRF),

Anne Marie Muntz (CIETT)

10.55am Coffee Break and Exhibition Viewing 30 mins

11.25am Lucy Gaffney (Chairperson, Communicorps) 25 mins

Triumph Through Adversity

11.50am Tempy Cummins (Vision 2 Reality) 30 mins

Taking it Personally: Managing our personal response to stressful times.

Owners/Managers feel it too!

12.20pm Damien Mulley (Mulley Communications) 20 mins

Blog Marketing – Who? What? How? Why? (Live Demonstration)

12.40pm Rowan Manahan (Fortify Services) 20 mins

What Say Our Target Audience?

1.00pm Light lunch & exhibition viewing 40 mins

1.40pm Bill Boorman (Tin Hat Strategy) 40 mins

A 13 Point Plan for Survival & Growth

2.20pm Conference Officially Closes 10 mins

2.30pm Optional Workshop 40 mins

Structured Networking and Discussion of Key Topics of the Day

NRF Annual Conference 2009

Irish Recruiters Group on LinkedIN Event:
(note: this event is only open to members of the Irish Recruiters Linkedin group and for recruiters only not job seekers)

Irish Recruiters first conference: “The Future of Recruitment – Part 1: The Road Ahead”

This is the first of a two part series that will look at how technology is revolutionising the recruitment industry in Ireland and all around the world. This is a unique opportunity to bring social network, agency, job board and multi-national recruitment leaders together to talk about their particular companies and industries and give their opinions on the road that lays ahead with the recession we are currently in, the evolution of unified communication, the empowerment of individuals using social media, search engine sourcing through Google, Yahoo and Live, database mining, the expansion of cloud computing and the increasing number of business models entering the market through technical innovation.

The conference will include content on:

• Who exists in LinkedIn and how to use it effectively to recruit. How will it evolve and what is the future roadmap of the platform.
  
• What challenges the largest recruitment agency and job board in Ireland are experiencing in the current climate and their views on technology and the future of recruitment.
• How Microsoft recruits and what are some of the challenges it is currently experiencing in the global and Irish market place. As well as best case examples of sourcing, recruitment branding and the use of the Internet.
  
• How cloud computing is evolving recruitment and what skills, tools and techniques are needed to be a savvy internet recruiter.
• The future trends, techniques and technologies from around the world that are radically changing the way recruitment will be done in the future.
• Examples of Irish companies that are offering innovative recruitment products and services and connecting to job seekers in new ways.
  

On the day we have some excellent presenters contributing to the debate on what is the future of recruitment and offering very specialised views on what changes they are witnessing in their own businesses and verticals. I’m glad to say that some of the most impressive recruitment leaders in Ireland have agreed to take part. I’m hoping from them and the people who attend we will have a hugely educational and very interactive day which will allow all who come go away with a fresh new lens from which to review and improve the way technology is changing the industry.

As well as listening and learning the event will also be an excellent
opportunity for you to take part and voice your opinion by asking
questions at the end of individual presentations or during the panel
discussion.

Presenters:

Declan Fitzgerald, Global Sourcing Manager, Global Central Sourcing Team (GCST), Microsoft

Declan has over 13 years experience in HR and recruitment and is currently a recruitment evangelist and global sourcing manager in Microsoft. He currently  specialises in creating sourcing initiatives to support the companies move to distributive development in India, China, Israel, Denmark, UK and Ireland. He is the author of the Irish CyberSleuth blog and has given sourcing training to teams in Europe, Israel, China, Singapore, Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Australia.

Joe Ffrench, Recruitment and HR Senior Manager, Microsoft

Joe has over 15 years experience in human resources and recruitment. He manages the recruitment for Microsoft’s 1200 employees business in Ireland across a range of operations, sales & marketing and research & development disciplines.

Anne Heraty, Founder and CEO of CPL Resources PLC.

Anne is one of Ireland’s brightest recruitment minds and is CEO of CPLs recruitment agency portfolio and HR services business. She is a winner of the Ernest and Young Female Entrepreneur of the year and widely recognised as one of the most successful business women in the country.

Jane Lorigan, CEO of IrishJobs.ie

Jane has been CEO of IrishJobs.ie for over 4 years. She is a key member of the Saongroup which is an Irish company that is one of the fastest growing online recruitment companies in the world. The group has expanded quickly in the last 2 years and now has operations in the UK, USA, Canada, China, India, The Gulf, Caribbean, Central America and South Africa.

To Be Confirmed of LinkedIn

LinkedIn has agreed to fly over from the UK and take part and will be forwarding me the name of their representative soon.

Agenda

1.45 – 2.00  Registration

2.00 – 2.30  Intro - “Recruitment Darwinism. Where are we now” by Declan Fitzgerald

2.30 – 3.15  LinkedIn – “Some facts! Tips, Products and the Road Ahead” by TBC

3.15 – 4.00  CPL – “Challenges that exist and the future” by A.Hegarty

4.00 – 4.30  Break – Tea, Biscuits & Networking

4.30 – 5.15  Microsoft – “Challenges and innovation in a flat world“! By Joe Ffrench

5.15 – 6.00  Irish Jobs – “Challenges that exist and the future” by Jane Lorigan

6.00 – 6.15  Short Break

6.15 – 7.00  “Cloud Recruitment and what is an internet recruiter” by D.Fitzgerald

7.00 – 7.30  Q&A Live Mic Session

7.30 -         Finger Food & Networking

This is an invite only event for members of the Irish Recruiters LinkedIn Group. Tickets will be  reserved to 175 members and it will be a first come first served policy. In the event that the conference is cancelled a refund will be offered. No video or audio recordings can be used at the conference. If you have any questions you would like to have asked at the live mic session please send them to declanfi [at] microsoft.com. To kick off the discussion I will be asking some of the best to the panel. If interested in attending please book early to facilitate the organisation of logistics on the day. Thank you!

The great thing about a job interview is the way that it narrows the field. If you can get in front of the people making a hiring decision, that means that you've already moved from a group of perhaps 100
resumes to a field of just a few serious contenders. At that point, your chance of getting a job offer improves dramatically.

Of course, having surmounted that huge hurdle, the last thing you want to do is blow it. To that end, here are 10 job-interview gaffes to avoid.

1. Complaining about the parking or directions.
Don't think it doesn't happen! As cordial and happy-go-lucky as your interviewers may seem, they don't want to hear a job-seeker complain that the place was hard to find or that the parking is inconvenient. The best (that is, the worst) example of this I ever experienced as an HR person came from the candidate who said, "Seven handicapped parking spaces next to the front door? What, are you having a wheelchair convention or something?" That was a short interview.

2. Bad-mouthing your previous job, manager, or company.
If you've been laid off or suffered some other unpleasant experience at your last job, it's easy to launch into a litany of everything the old employer did wrong. Don't do it! The interviewer is bound to wonder "Will this person be bashing me behind my back on some future interview, too?" Zip it.

3. Digging into details off the bat.
The typical selection process allows plenty of time for you to learn everything you need to know about the company's dental plan, its tuition-reimbursement policy, and the size of your cubicle. Don't ask about any of these items on a first interview, when you should be focusing the conversation on the role and the organization.

4. Groveling.
Employers want to hire people who can do the jobs and who are enthusiastic about the work. What's not so appealing is the candidate whose every word and gesture conveys the message, "Hire me, I beg you!" Joblessness is no fun, but you don't help your chances of getting the nod by presenting yourself as a candidate whose most notable attribute is desperation.

5. Answering a question before you understand it.
The absolute worst answer to any interview question is the response that shows you weren't really listening. When an interviewer asks a question that requires thought, like, "Tell me about a time when you had to convince a team of people to change gears," you don't want to blurt out, "Oh, I've done that a million times!" Any "tell me about a time when" question is a question that the interviewer has chosen to elicit a specific problem/solution story from you. Take the time to think through the question and compose a thoughtful answer. A few minutes of silence in the room won't kill anybody.

6. Spacing out.
Any interviewer worth her salt will be able tell when you've zoned out. If you're wondering whether the 5:40 train will get you home in time to watch the playoff game, the interviewer will spot it in your eyes. If you're really out of it, he may throw you a curve ball like, "So, who would you say was the most effective member of Teddy Roosevelt's cabinet, and why?" Stay in the room, with your eyes either meeting the interviewer's or looking thoughtfully at the ceiling. Or your shoes.

7. Slouching.
We'll throw in tipping the chair back off its front legs, resting your head on your hand, and lacing your fingers together behind your head.

8. Cursing.
Interviewers love to put job candidates at ease. When you reach the state of ease that lets an "f-bomb" escape your lips, you've gone too far.

9. "Opening the kimono."
It's tempting to share with a sympathetic interviewer the news that this job search has been really hard, that you're not getting callbacks, and that you've already sent out 150
resumes. Don't do it. Smart job candidates put out a vibe that says, "I'm glad to be here with you and this job might be fun, but I'm a capable person who's aware of his value on the job market."

10. Doing anything disgusting.
The long list of personal gross factors includes picking one's teeth or nose, spitting, and other unmentionables that are best left to the imagination. Any of these is a sure-fire interview-killer (and can we really blame the employer for that?). One candidate asked me for a cup of water, took a sip, swished it around in his mouth, and spat into a potted plant. Niiiiiice!

Liz Ryan is a 25-year HR veteran, former Fortune 500 VP and an internationally recognized expert on careers and the new millennium workplace.
Contact Liz at liz@asklizryan.com or join the Ask Liz Ryan online community at www.asklizryan/group.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely the author's.

If you prepared your CV properly, and applied to the relevant job you like, there are only three possible outcomes. You will get a mail saying you are not suitable or something similar, you will not hear from the recruiter at all, or,…. Your mobile will ring! Everyone loves to get that call: “This is John. I’m calling to see if you’d like to come in for a job interview.” Your pulse races, then your stomach drops: “What am I gonna wear? What am I gonna say?”

The time has finally come! You’ve been called for an interview. Now what? Don’t sweat it! Prepare yourself to win. You know you’re ready for the job…now you have to convince the employer as well!
Getting ready is a probably the most important part of your interview. You will likely (and you should!), spend more time preparing yourself than you will in the interview. Preparing includes getting to know more about the company and the job, and being able to explain how and why you’re the best person to hire. To help you study, be sure you have a full job description. If you do not have one from when you first applied for the job, be sure to ask the person who is arranging your interview for a copy. Even if you do have it, make sure it is the most recent and the most complete job description.

What then? Try to find the examples in your past or work experience where you have made achievements that are relevant for the job. Simply list all the requirements from the job description, and prepare a short answer that showcases what have you done in the past that shows you will do it good in the future job as well.

He honest in the interview. And even more important: Be yourself!