If you have ever wondered how it feels to be a wounded deer amongst a pack of wolves? I now know, having posted my CV on monster.ie, and having ticked the ‘Public’ button with the expectation that some reputable employer might contact me, no less that eleven ‘headhunters’ have contacted me in the past week. And at first it feels good to be wanted, it has soon turned into a feeling of being a piece of meat being sold quickly to make a profit, before the ‘sell by’ date.
The only time I’ve been placed by a headhunter, it turned out to be my worst job to date. And I should remember this, but I continue to have to relearn this lesson. But as some of you know, I have very few contacts here in Ireland, and most of the jobs I found in the States came from contacts I had, or, believe it or not, my reputation, neither of which I have here.
Here in Ireland, job posting in the paper appear to be bare legal requirements rather than open positions that have been filled by preselected candidates or have requirements that require 5 years experience in a technology that has only been available for 3 years posted by HR people who don’t know a twit about what the job requirements really are.
The reality is that I would take a job in Cork at half the salary I make in Dublin (€ 60K) just to work back in Cork. Damn the fancy titles, IT ditch-digger would be fine, well, maybe but you get my drift, it’s just not worth the money to be working in Dublin. There is no other way to say it, working in Dublin sucks!
But Cork seems to be very ‘Cliquish’ and me having no contacts here is proving problematic. But I’ll bite the bullet and keep trying, the sun will shine in Cork someday, and so will I.