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.
Greetings Branedy,
from Cork. I moved here from UK, in November 2005. I’m now starting to look for work in Cork and have even less experience than you about how to get a job here.
Perhaps we could keep in touch about what we find out about the culture of vacancies in Cork? I have two prospects here, neither of which I have yet met.
Greetings Branedy,
from Cork. I moved here from UK, in November 2005. I’m now starting to look for work in Cork and have even less experience than you about how to get a job here.
Perhaps we could keep in touch about what we find out about the culture of vacancies in Cork? I have two prospects here, neither of which I have yet met.
This is funny, in a sad sort of way. I have read your blog, also, not thinking through the Bath to Cork reference.
The Cork job market seems really hard to break into, and I have taught in Skerries, and tutored in UCC. Just no further.
I’ll be linking to you, and talk to you soon.
This is funny, in a sad sort of way. I have read your blog, also, not thinking through the Bath to Cork reference.
The Cork job market seems really hard to break into, and I have taught in Skerries, and tutored in UCC. Just no further.
I’ll be linking to you, and talk to you soon.
Interesting point about Cork. I moved down 3.5 years ago and I’ve been on both sides of the fence since then. I actually found it much tougher as a hirer rather than a hiree. It seems really hard to get any interest when you advertise on Monster or in the Examiner.
As a job seeker, I found it pretty easy to get interviews with Motorola and McAfee due to my EMC background. But there does seem to be a dearth of jobs at the more experienced end of tech in Cork.
I’ll be doing a job ad in The Irish Times in the next two weeks and it’ll be interesting to see the response. So far I’ve blogged that job both on argolon.com and web2ireland.org and have received one CV so far! Irishjobs.ie is next and we’ll see how that goes.
The way to break into any clique really is to get out there and meet people as you did with the bloggers dinners and BarCamp, Branedy. I’m convinced that many of those contacts that I’ve made at those will be invaluable over the next few years.
Interesting point about Cork. I moved down 3.5 years ago and I’ve been on both sides of the fence since then. I actually found it much tougher as a hirer rather than a hiree. It seems really hard to get any interest when you advertise on Monster or in the Examiner.
As a job seeker, I found it pretty easy to get interviews with Motorola and McAfee due to my EMC background. But there does seem to be a dearth of jobs at the more experienced end of tech in Cork.
I’ll be doing a job ad in The Irish Times in the next two weeks and it’ll be interesting to see the response. So far I’ve blogged that job both on argolon.com and web2ireland.org and have received one CV so far! Irishjobs.ie is next and we’ll see how that goes.
The way to break into any clique really is to get out there and meet people as you did with the bloggers dinners and BarCamp, Branedy. I’m convinced that many of those contacts that I’ve made at those will be invaluable over the next few years.
Have you considered using something like ‘Linked in’ to help with the networking. It’s a useful way to move somebody from ‘casual contact’ to ‘keep in touch for business reasons’
Have you considered using something like ‘Linked in’ to help with the networking. It’s a useful way to move somebody from ‘casual contact’ to ‘keep in touch for business reasons’
Well to answer both Conor, and Paul, I was trying to ‘get out there’ but now as I’m working out of Dublin, time and distance are interfering. My original intent with meeting up with the other bloggers was to find friends. I was working from home from in Cork to a company in Donegal and it was getting down right lonely. In that vein, I wasn’t looking at exploiting friends, I was looking for fellow geeks to talk to. 😉
As for Linkin, I joined years ago, but in my attempts to find colleagues I had no luck even finding ANYONE from previous companies, companies with 10,000 employees, no one was using it. Only recently have I seen any traction here for linkin. So in that area, it looks like I will have to start using it again.
Well to answer both Conor, and Paul, I was trying to ‘get out there’ but now as I’m working out of Dublin, time and distance are interfering. My original intent with meeting up with the other bloggers was to find friends. I was working from home from in Cork to a company in Donegal and it was getting down right lonely. In that vein, I wasn’t looking at exploiting friends, I was looking for fellow geeks to talk to. 😉
As for Linkin, I joined years ago, but in my attempts to find colleagues I had no luck even finding ANYONE from previous companies, companies with 10,000 employees, no one was using it. Only recently have I seen any traction here for linkin. So in that area, it looks like I will have to start using it again.
I’m on LinkedIs as is Paul so feel free to add me as a contact.
My motivation for meeting people at the dinners and BarCamp was social too and it’s just a nice bonus that it also helps professionally.
I’m on LinkedIs as is Paul so feel free to add me as a contact.
My motivation for meeting people at the dinners and BarCamp was social too and it’s just a nice bonus that it also helps professionally.