Category: Career

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Career CV CV Database Job Site LinkedIN Monster Recruitment Social Recruitment

Irish Jobs Sites – what’s in the bag for 2014?

The recession had a very negative effect on the Irish job board industry. All the job boards are struggling. The number of jobs advertised in the last 5 years is lower than the number of jobs advertised in a single year before the recession. All that is really happening in the jobs board space are sites that really never get any mileage. Most just lack the innovation really. Publishing and marketing a jobs board in 2014 and using the marketing channels of the ’90-es, does not work as well.

Job Aggregators in Ireland

The recession brought aggregators to Ireland. Those have a benefit of a low marketing cost, so the recession suites them. They all work in some or another freemium model. The easy adoption is fuelled by the fact no manual work or investment is required from the employers. It costs nothing so why not? In Ireland, especially in the recession, we learned to like the “free”!

SPAMmers

There isn’t a month that a new Irish aggregator job site isn’t published. As an employer, they email you with the link to their site that is full of jobs. You might even find your own ones, although those might be the ones you had advertised on some job site a year ago. Those sites are usually low-cost web sites with about a penny invested in the design. They usually contain links to their supposedly social media profiles. By clicking on those you will most likely find that they have about 1 (or even not even that!), followers, likes, etc. The one I got today called www.JobsIE.ie – took their ignorance to the new level and didn’t even make the social media profiles they are linking to from their page. All those are the sites bound to disappear in the darkness of the Big Data on the internet. Never to be found by the search engines or the visitors. Their business model is based on spamming the employers and job seekers, with an aim to sell anything on top of their fermium model. Quite often they are passing off as a known job site, in this case, JobsIE.ie sounds like the Jobs.ie by SAON Group. Some employers might be fooled and actually end up paying them thinking they are paying a known job board, with over 10 years in existence.

International Aggregator job sites

The largest international aggregator job site that shored in Ireland is, of course, Indeed.ie. Is it profitable here in Ireland? I am guessing not. Do they care about it? I am guessing not as well. By having their presence in Ireland they are probably using Ireland as the rest of the internationals, paying their taxes here, or .. ehm,… avoiding to do so as to do Google, Apple, and the rest of the US gang here.

What is next for the Irish job sites?

It really depends on how the Irish economy develops in the years to come. If the recession continues, it is unlikely for any new job site to appear, and it effectively means a Status Quo. A handful of the leading sites will still be here, not turning any or turning a minimal profit. The shortage of proper advertising budgets will benefit those scammers and imposters. On the other hand, if the economy turns around, and especially if it does so rapidly (oh how we all wish that to happen!?), the new doors will open. There will be space for innovation. There will be space for the entrepreneurial spirit and new projects to be launched in this space. That is simply because there is no model that actually works well for everyone in the online recruitment today. LinkedIn, we know now isn’t the answer for most jobs. Neither is a traditional job site like IrishJobs. Monster changes so many times lately that I do not know what it is any more (but a CV database)? BranchOut and all those apps sitting on top of Facebook simply do not deliver anything to anyone. We need something new for the future. What do you think it is?

Categories
Career Recruitment Search Engine Social Recruitment

Discoverly’s nifty free Chrome extension marries data from Facebook & LinkedIn data (exclusive)

Ivan Stojanovic - Discoverly - The Inspirer

Facebook boasts a wealth of data about your relationships but very little professional information. LinkedIn is just the opposite.

A startup called Discoverly has developed a chrome extension that marries data from Facebook and LinkedIn. Founder and chief executive Theodore Summe jokes that Discoverly is “playing Switzerland” between the two social networking giants, which don’t speak to each other.

“Facebook and LinkedIn are great but don’t play well together, so valuable potential of users’ social data goes unrealized,” Summe told me via email. San Francisco-based Discoverly is building a series of products under the tagline “putting social to work,” and it competes with social business services like Rapportive.

discoverlychrome

Prior to starting Discoverly, Summe worked as a senior product manager for the Chatter product at Salesforce and was a technical analyst at Morgan Stanley. He has grown the team to five employees, including a UI and developer lead.

Summe gave me a link to the beta version, so I was able to give the service a whirl prior to today’s launch. I clicked the link, registered both my Facebook and LinkedIn accounts, downloaded a Chrome extension, and waited about five minutes for the service to “warm up.”

Once you’ve installed the free extension, you’ll be asked a series of personal and professional questions. I completed the quiz in a few minutes and was informed that I’m “practical, realistic, matter-of-fact,” which are qualities that I apparently share with both Michelle Obama and Alec Baldwin. Winning.

You’re also invited to create infographics from your social data. Discoverly can pull information from Facebook and LinkedIn to discern the location of your friends, popular universities in your network, and other insights. This is a particularly useful feature for those who are considering applying to college or moving for a job.

All in all, it’s well worth the five-minute download to view Facebook data on LinkedIn, and vice versa.

Recruiters might use Discoverly’s chrome extension to track down candidates and quickly discover whether they share any mutual friends on LinkedIn or Facebook. It’s also potentially valuable for graduating students and new entrants to the job market.

At every turn, you’re asked to share Discoverly’s findings with your friend networks. Clearly, the product is built to go viral. It’s fun and contains some useful information, so I could see it taking off.

From a privacy standpoint, Summe stresses that you already have access to this information on Facebook and LinkedIn. The startup merely makes it a bit easier to navigate. It won’t share that you’re using the service with your networks without your permission.

Discoverly also offers a business service, which is primarily how it plans to make money. That product is used by 40 corporate customers in beta. The startup has raised a small seed round of $750,000 from Bessemer Venture Partners, Atlas Ventures, and senior executives at Yammer. It’s a graduate of the Silicon Valley-based Alchemist accelerator, which only accepts early-stage enterprise startups.

By Christina Farr, Venture Beat.

Categories
Career Internet Interview Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

Is Phone interview enough? LinkedIn poll suggests…

The responses to the recent poll on LinkedIn:

When presented with a good IT candidate not available locally, would you do the phone interview?

Show that the phone interview is the way to start the interviewing process. Still, the majority of the recruiters would fly the top candidate in for the last round of the interview before the job offer is made.

You can see the results and put your vote here:

Categories
Career CV Database Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment Recruitment Agency SEO Social Networks Social Recruitment

Recruitment Advertising Workshop

Great Recruitment Advertising Workshop event organised by Stephen Harrington Recruitment Manager: Sales | Marketing | Multi-Lingual @ Allen Recruitment. Here is the original announcement:

When and Where:
Aviva Stadium, Lansdowne Road, Dublin 4 – Vavasour Suite, registration at main reception.
Wednesday 24th April, from 8.45 to 11.30am
Enter via entrance A on Lansdowne Road
Car park is situated on Lansdowne Road

Who is attending?
Confirmed attendees include Jonathan Campbell (Social Talent), James Mailley (Monster), Jennifer Bray Kennedy (TMP), Ivan Stojanovic (Jobsboard.ie), Lynne Rooney (LinkedIn) and many more from many or Irelands best known companies.

The Format
We will run two sessions, in each one there will be four discussions happening at the same time. There will be no presentations, each discussion will be started by the discussion leader but after that, the conversation will go where ever the participants want it to. You can join in at any time by providing details of your own experiences or asking questions. If you find that one discussion is not so relevant to you, you can simply get up and join another one mid-way through!

The agenda:

8.45-9.10 Registration, Tea/Coffee and Pastries

9.10-9.20 Welcome by Brian Cunningham, MD Allen Recruitment

Session 1

Job Boards
When to use job boards, which ones should you use, quality applicant’s v quantity, filtering applicants?
Career Websites
Effectively advertising on your own careers site, employer branding, SEO, getting candidates on to your site
Alternatives to advertising
Searching for candidates directly (Boolean, xray etc), referrals, networking, job board databases
Start your own discussion
This is a break out area where anyone is free to start another topic that is relevant to them!

Tea/Coffee

Session 2


Job Boards
Getting the most from these, how people find jobs on job boards, getting your jobs to the top of the lists
Advertising Master class
How to measure success, getting your adverts noticed, the psychology behind advertising, what we can take from advertising in other industries and apply to recruitment.
Referral’s and Networking
Referrals, Networking, social networks & Talent Pooling
Start your own discussion
This is a break out area where anyone is free to start another topic that is relevant to them!

Well done again and thanks for the Allen Recruitment “cube”!

Categories
Career CV Database Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Recruitment Consultant job by the SAON Group

Here is a new job for the Recruitment Consultant advertised by the SAON Group (IrisJobs.ie):

Resourcer/Recruitment Consultant

 

Saongroup operates online recruitment websites for recruiters and career seekers across four continents – Europe, Africa, Asia and the Americas – and websites live in 29 countries. The Group also includes Candidate Manager, a leading provider of recruitment management software. Saongroup.com has been headquartered in Dublin, Ireland since its foundation in 1995.

In March, Irishjobs.ie and Jobs.ie launched a new service, TalentScout, which in addition to advertising vacancies on www.irishjobs.ie and www.jobs.ie now gives their large corporate client base access to a Headhunting and Candidate Filtering service.

Due to the successful launch and client reaction to TalentScout we are now looking to expand the team and we feel that this position would be well suited to a candidate who is currently employed as a Recruitment Consultant. This is an excellent opportunity to progress your career with Saongroup, a company that is internationally recognised as a Market Leader in the online recruitment space. The role offers an excellent commission and bonus structure with a rapid path to promotion for the right candidate.

Job responsibilities:-

  • Conduct telephone interviews
  • Use innovation in attracting staff to include networking, headhunting, and database search.
  • Post vacancies on all available media and identify new media to source applicants.
  • Manage and filter incoming applicants
  • Create application forms and screening questions
  • Liaise with Account Managers and Sales Manager regularly on progress of open roles

Skills required:

 

  • At least 2 years’ experience in recruitment
  • Expertise in sourcing via headhunting and social media required
  • Human Resources or Business related degree desirable. CIPD qualification an advantage
  • A proven ability to build strong client relationships
  • Tenacity to develop new business, both face to face & on the phone
  • A record of success in a highly results driven environment
  • Track record of achieving monthly revenue targets
  • Great time management, computer proficiency and excellent communication skills
  • Proficiency in using Salesforce or equivalent CRM
  • Experience with applicant tracking systems is useful
  • Ability to work in a fast-paced, rapidly-changing environment
Location Dublin 2 (Dublin Centre, IE)
Payment Not Disclosed
Category HR / Recruitment, Sales – €35k+
Terms Permanent, Full-time
Last updated 15/04/2013
Contact Denise Hannon
Categories
Career Internet Job Site Recruitment Recruitment Agency

Adecco Ireland & my iPhone 6

My Adecco goodies arrived in the post today thanks to the good people of Adecco Ireland.

Thanks, this will get my “iPhone 6” safe!

Adecco Ireland iPhone 6

Categories
Career Internet Job Site Jobs LinkedIN Recruitment

Recruiting a Pope on LinkedIn

An interesting job post I Stumbled Upon,… (not really, I saw it on Mashable). It is for a Pope. Is it a good job spec? I’ll let you be the judge of it yourself:
popelinkedin1
popelinkedin2

Categories
Blogs Career Jobs Recruitment

JobBridge could only work if…

With JobBridge in the news again I couldn’t resist to clearly put myself in the ranks of those who are against it. Not like the Socialist Pary members like Paul Murphy MEP who writes JobBridge to nowhere! (I like the article!), but quite close to it. The internship scheme is a good idea and could work quite well if done right. The one we have today is very, very far from it. It is no surprise it is causing such all these troubles for the government, with the majority of people expressing themselves unusually vocally about it. And the majority of the votes are the NO votes for the national internship programme.

The internship programme could actually work well. If… If the rules are set right. Imagine that a company can ONLY get an intern if the intern will be doing exactly what the company specialises in, and if the intern will learn skills during the internship that will make him the very attractive hire for the same company he got an internship from? To put this in real life example the rules should look somewhat like this:

1. No internships for the jobs that are paid minimum wage (by that same company). Why? The government has a chance to get unemployed placed in the job and it should aim highest possible paid ones.
2. Internship can be offered where the work performed is one of the core skills of the company. A marketing company can have a marketing intern, not a web designer. A web design company can have a web designer as an intern, not a marketing person. Why? Simply because the internship is there for the intern to learn.
3. Strictly no receptionist, admin, PA, and similar internships.
4. A company must provide a Mentor for the intern. Such a mentor should prove he/she will dedicate 10% of the working time to the Intern for the training. A mentor must be a senior staff member (in years of experience) and have the skills relevant to the internship.

The internship should be exactly the same as the initial training a new hire gets in the first few months on the job. It would give the company an extended period to test and try the intern before they make a hire. A trained intern after 6 months of the internship should be a far more interesting hire than a new candidate since the company has already invested in the intern who is ready to start the work immediately (or has been doing it for the months already).

Wouldn’t this make far more sense than the Internship programme we have today?

Categories
Career Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment Search Engine

JobsBoard.ie will let you find the job 3 times faster than Irish Jobs site!

JobsBoard.ie will let you wind the page 3 times faster than Irish Jobs site!

There is plenty of job sites in Ireland. Each of them has plenty of jobs. Most of the jobs are the same on the job sites. So what site to choose? Perhaps the one with the most jobs? Perhaps the one you find shows the best results? Jobs most relevant to you? Jobs advertised by the employers you like? There is plenty of choices when it comes to job sites in Ireland.

There is one thing to consider. It is the speed of the job site. If you visit it regularly, the more important it is. Will you wait for 10 seconds to see the jobs you want? Will you wait for 10 seconds every time you visit the site? Not if you can avoid it, and not if there are faster sites that will let you browse or search the jobs a few times quicker.

Here is the sample of the JobsBoard.ie and IrishJobs.ie web sites. The speed load comparison is done by www.whichloadsfaster.com:

Why wait for your job forever? Visit www.JobsBoard.ie today and register for the daily new jobs now!

Categories
Career Job Site Jobs Recruitment

Careers Service: ‘DIT Style’

I got an email from the Dublin Institute of Technology to check their new Careers Site called “JobScene”.
This is the exact text that welcomed me there:

To access jobscene and view our current opportunities you must register first.

I must register to see jobs? I am guessing there is a reason for it? Perhaps it is a closed service just for DIT Students? Well, the second sentence reads:

To register: Enter your name, email address and date of birth. It is not compulsory to enter a student number.

So, I do not have to be a DIT Student to see the jobs? You just need my age? Why?

The fact that one cannot see the jobs without revealing his/her age is something I really do not understand. Not only it might be a slight problem that Google will not reveal it’s age, hence the website SEO is dead before it started, but why do you need my age, and email, name and whatever else you need to reveal the job openings just baffles me. The DIT Careers people obviously know something you and I don’t!

As a job seeker – one would never sign up to it.

There is also a great service for Employers. Here is what the DIT Careers Service site reads:

Employers: To pledge a job click on Hireland.ie.
What is Hireland.ie ? Hireland is an initiative brought to you not by the government or any lobby group, but by ordinary people who realise we all need to do things for ourselves. We need to Kickstart Ireland. So Hireland is asking Irish Businesses to think differently – and to pledge a short or long term job now.
WHAT HAPPENS WITH MY PLEDGE?
Your company will appear on our Pledgers wall and becomes a positive ripple effect for all to see. Your pledge will be counted and become part of Hireland’s Growth index and form part of a powerful voice that Ireland is open for business.

So as an employer I can’t advertise my jobs on the DIT Careers Service web site, but am sent to some other web site? And there I actually cannot advertise jobs but get listed on “Pledgers wall and becomes a positive ripple effect for all to see.”
Eek? I don’t need a ripple effect? I need staff?

Unbelievable? Yes, I agree. But here is a screenshot of the page.

Categories
Blogs Career Jobs Recruitment

Video in recruitment in Ireland

I often get asked about the effectiveness of the video used for recruitment in Ireland. I always struggle how to explain that it so far never worked for a single recruiter in Ireland. The reason is that it does work really well for some recruiters internationally. I was never really able to define why does the video not fork here. I looked at about a hundred different video campaigns for jobs already. Neither really looked impressive. The visitor’s number as well don’t show impressive numbers. The average is about 3 views a day. There are just a few samples of the top of the YouTube search for the ‘Jobs in Ireland’.

Thumbnail 1:51

No Jobs in Ireland !!!!

Are you looking for work ? Well then , Don’t come to Ireland !!!

there’s NO work In Ireland !

by longgoodbyeIreland
| 7 months ago
| 256 views

Thumbnail 2:23

Living In Ireland – Robert

Hourie

Robert answers your questions on Living In Ireland. Questions asked: How has

the recession affected the IT industry in Ireland Is it expensive to …

by ITGempool
| 9 months ago
| 700 views

Thumbnail 2:05

Supermarket Chain, Dealz, promises 200 jobs in Ireland

Cut price supermarket chain, Dealz, which has opened stores in Blanchardstown and

Portlaoise says it is planning to open 6 more stores across the …

by ballywire
| 5 months ago
| 915 views

Thumbnail 2:58

Welcome to Recruiters – Professional Recruitment for Ireland

See www.Recruiters.ie Recruiters – Looking for you. Recruiters is an award winning,

responsive “Recruitment Practice”. We recruit for the best …

by RecruitersIreland
| 1 year ago
| 378 views

Thumbnail 0:57

Finding Jobs in Ireland

Find jobs in Ireland using rssjobs.ie. Easy application and dozens of new

jobs added daily

by JobsinIreland
| 3 years ago
| 1,101 views

Thumbnail 6:41

Ireland

Downgraded! Private sector sheds 39000 Jobs!

Video commentary about the latest news including food stamp participation at a 27

year high, Fitch downgrading Ireland’s credit, the US private …

by DEMCAD
| 1 year ago
| 3,587 views

Categories
Career Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

Manpower Employment Outlook Survey: Employers in Ireland to be challenged by marketplace uncertainty in Quarter 2 2012

Despite hiring intentions remaining weak, the percentage of employers surveyed expecting to add to their workforce is the highest since Quarter 4 2008

Dublin, Tuesday, 13th March 2012 – Manpower, the leader in contingent and permanent recruitment solutions, today releases the Manpower Employment Outlook Survey, which reveals that overall hiring activity will remain sluggish in Quarter 2 2012. Of the employers surveyed in Ireland, across five regions and 11 industry sectors, 7% anticipate an increase in headcount, the highest percentage since Quarter 4 2008, and 10% expect their workforce numbers to decrease, resulting in a Net Employment Outlook of -3%. When adjusted to remove seasonal variations, the Net Employment Outlook stands at a muted -2% which is relatively stable both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year.
“Our Q2 research results reflect the uncertain business environment and challenges faced by employers. Rapid adjustments are required to operate at present; businesses have to manage demand fluctuations, increasing operating costs and competitive pressure, which require maintaining tight control over costs and increasing productivity,” commented Krissie Davies, Manpower Ireland Managing Director. “A workforce strategy aligned with the business strategy, as well as flexibility, are likely to be critical to success in the current climate,” she added.

Industry results
Employers in eight out of 11 industry sectors anticipate negative hiring activity for Quarter 2 2012. The strongest Outlooks are reported by employers in the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing (+10%), Public & Social (+4%) and Pharmaceutical (+3%) sectors. In contrast, the weakest hiring intentions are anticipated by Restaurants & Hotels (-17%), Transport, Storage & Communication (-17%) and the Mining & Quarrying (-13%) sectors employers. A subdued hiring pace is also expected in the Construction (-8%), Finance & Business Services (-6%), Wholesale & Retail (-5%), Manufacturing (-3%) and the Electricity, Gas & Water (-2%) sectors.
“Industry sector results correlate with the two-speed recovery pattern that has emerged in recent years. Employers in the Agriculture, Forestry & Fishing and Pharmaceutical sectors anticipate positive hiring plans while the weak Outlooks in the Wholesale & Retail and Manufacturing sectors is due, in part, to low consumer spending in Ireland,” said Davies. “The current uncertainty in the EU will likely continue to challenge tourism and export-led businesses during the first half of the year,” she added.
The Outlook for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fishing sector strengthens by 6 percentage points compared to Quarter 1 2012 and by a considerable margin of 17 percentage points year-over-year. The Outlooks decrease in seven out of 11 industry sectors both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. The sharpest year-over-year declines are reported by employers in the Restaurants & Hotels and Transport, Storage & Communication sectors where Outlooks sink 22 and 19 percentage points, respectively.

Regional results
Employers in three out of five regions surveyed expect negative headcount growth in the next quarter. Munster employers report the weakest hiring plans with an Outlook of -10% which represents a decline of 11 and 7 percentage points quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year, respectively. The Net Employment Outlook for the Ulster region stands at -5% which improves marginally compared to Quarter 1 2012 and the same time last year. The most positive Outlook is reported by Leinster employers (+1%) and employers in the Connaught region report muted hiring plans with an Outlook of 0%.
“The employment market will remain challenging for job seekers in Quarter 2 2012 and networking is key. Manpower recommends carefully reviewing job specifications to invest time applying for suitable roles. It is essential to tailor CVs and cover letters to highlight the skills and competencies needed by each of the different organisations one is looking to join. Outlining not only responsibilities, but also achievements and carrying out sound company research, can help one’s CV stand out from the crowd,” recommended Davies.
The holding pattern on hiring is most prevalent across the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region with employers in 12 of 23 countries reporting relatively stable hiring plans compared to the first quarter of the year and those in nine anticipating an increase in the hiring pace. The hiring picture is mixed compared to this time last year, with Net Employment Outlooks falling in 13 countries but improving in seven. Regional hiring plans are strongest in Turkey (+26%), Israel (+17%), Romania (+13%), Norway (+11%), and weakest in Greece (-13%) and Spain (-8%).

The next Manpower Employment Outlook Survey will be released on 12 June to report hiring expectations for the third quarter of 2012. The Manpower Employment Outlook Survey is available free of charge to the public and can be downloaded from www.manpower.ie.

Categories
Career Internet Job Site Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency Social Recruitment

TruLondon – Career Websites Lab – Applying science to define the ideal career website

#truLondon is next week, and by the looks of it – this is going to be the biggest one ever. 48 speakers or ‘Track Leaders’ in two days? With the tweetup and RIDE events added to the #tru event as well?

On top of the most interesting,… well to be honest impressive is the better word list of participants to any #tru event ever, there are some new things happening this time. Live streaming will surely be watched globally. One other thing that caught my eye is the detailed plan and schedule to build a recruitment web site – during the two days of the show. I have spent the best part of the last 10 years of my life defining what the recruitment web site should be, and hiring and managing teams who would work on the same. In fact today, I actually do very little outside of that main task – designing and building the future recruitment sites. Obviously when I saw the detailed plan to build a recruitment web site with the collective thinking of long list of people I have learned a lot already, I got excited! This is what Bill has planned for us next week:

TruLondon – Career Websites Lab -Applying science to define the ideal career website

The Brief – Day 1

  1. Defining a career website
    1. TruCareers – The Tru career website
    2. Who is it for employer or candidate
    3. What is it – a job board, an information platform, a community platform, gateway to the ATS
    4. Defining the audience
      1. Active job seekers, semi active, inactive
      2. The visitor personas
      3. Where do they hang out, what do they use: Search engines, social, job boards, offline, mobile
      4. What should a career website contain
        1. Brainstorming functionality and content
        2. What is most important
          1. Defining what is important for the individual personas
          2. Scoring functionality and content
          3. Defining the wireframe structure
            1. Defining the user journey and what they need to see/access
            2. Defining the Home Page
            3. Defining a Job Family Page
            4. Defining the wireframe structure
              1. Defining a Page focussed at an active jobseeker
              2. Defining a Page focussed on a less active job seeker

Build the wireframe before day 2

  1. Presenting the prototype
    1. Feedback
    2. What would you change – why
    3. The candidate experience
      1. Expectations low or high
      2. Employer requirements, volume, filtering, prescreening
      3. Using channels
        1. Content via Facebook, LinkedIn, blogs etc
        2. Do you stay in channel or direct to career platform
        3. Capturing information, how do we…
          1. Register (LinkedIn, Quick Apply, CV Parsing, iProfile)
          2. Follow
          3. Express interest
          4. Apply
          5. Mobile
          6. Continuing the engagement, linking with other platforms
            1. ATS
            2. Talent Community
            3. CRM

This #truLondon, is going to be something else!

Categories
Career CV Jobs Recruitment Recruitment Agency

CareerZoo Careers and jobs fair

During the Celtic Tiger years and later in the recession the careers and jobs fairs do not seem to be going away. People talk about job boards (going away) and social networks, but there was a tremendous buzz yesterday over the weekend in The Mansion House. In fact so much so that the cue to enter was at some stages all the way to the St. Stephens Green. And rightly so!

The exhibitors list was great. There have been jobs in plenty of sectors. From the general feeling browsing around, I couldn’t help the feeling that the IT sector, in particular, is buzzing like crazy. Plenty of companies to choose from, and not all of them in Dublin’s Silicon Docklands. Plenty of new ‘faces’ as well this year. Gamin sector with their nice stands and of course Twitter. Twitter in fact deserves a special mention since they are the first company that brought T-shirts back into the goodies and did not even bother with the usual pens, etc.

Besides plenty of employers, there was a long list of universities as well as showcasing their educational programmes. It made me think that it would have been a perfect opportunity to lock all the exhibitors in the room, without any visitors, and let them make sure that the training courses and programmes on offer actually do produce the skillset the other side – the employers currently have, and will have in the future. It could be organised as the half day conference with the roundtable at the end. It would benefit both sides, the education sector and the employers, and most of all the job seekers. Note that in the recent pols 70% employers in the IT sector stated that they are aware they will have to look outside of Ireland for their staff needs in 2012.

CareerZoo was a truly great event that will definitely help match a lot of employers and job seekers. Talking to the company representatives and HR managers, every single one of them I spoke to have been happy with the response. The quantity was there definitely. Judging by the excitement of the recruiters – the quality was there as well!

The directors of CareerZoo Brian Ó hOisín and Jackie Slattery have done an excellent job once again!

Categories
Career Job Site Jobs Recruitment

No quality candidate needs apply.

Once a year I get an urge to write about the job seekers experience on the employers careers sites. Why? It really is an easy topic to write about because the careers web sites are usually some hybrid sites. Partly managed by the employers content management system and then some application tracking system brutally glued and stitched to it. The results are in most cases horrendous. Marketing people are not allowed to even come close to the carers section of their own company site. It is owned by HR and via some strange channel managed by the IT department outsourced to some ATS solution provider’s partner. Who is really responsible for the HR site of a corporation is in most cases a total enigma. The results are that it is a really tough work to apply for a job in most companies on their own web sites.

The problem with that is that good candidate do not need to spend their time to get through the hurdles of an employer’s career site. They get headhunted by the agencies. So your poor careers section if filtering quality candidates. Like saying to the visitors:

No quality candidate needs to apply.

Looking at the largest companies in Ireland and their careers sites, there is one that has been completely different from the others. Oracle has a recruitment web site where a candidate can actually apply by just uploading their CV on the same page where each job is advertised! I know you must be thinking, well that is not really rocket science. After all, all job boards work like that. But go to apply to a random job to each of the 10 employers of your choice. It is a full days’ worth of work!

Now Oracle buys Taleo – this might be the best thing that happened to job seekers ever.