Careers and Jobs

I posted previously about how to get the best out of recruitment agencies. I thought it might be useful to create a list of agencies to help those of you new to the Irish job market or for those of you who have not been job hunting for some time.

The list below are general agencies and will cater for most jobs including accountancy, HR, technical, IT, construction, Pharmaceutical, Banking, Hotel, Administration, Sales and Multilingual.

HRM
Eden Recruitment
Premier Group
CPL
Brightwater
Manpower
Hunter Marshal
Qualitas
Ormond
Grafton
Hudson
Sigmar

The lists below are specialist recruiters who specialise in a particular field, function or sector.

IT Recruitment Agencies
Elan IT
Enterprise People
Rescon
Computer Futures

Sales Recruitment Agencies
School of Sales
Sales Placement
Berkley
BMS

Banking & Finance Recruitment Agencies
Accountancy Solutions
Q.E.D
FH Recruitment
Executive Connections
Delta Resource

Administration & HR Recruitment Agencies
La Crème
Office Angels
Maryb
Capital

Hotel & Catering Recruitment Agencies
Noel Recruitment
Caterassist
Maria Logan

Construction Recruitment Agencies
ICDS
Atlanco
Matrix

Pharmaceutical Recruitment Agencies
Life Science
Brunel
Kingsley

SHOCKER: One in five people are claiming disability benefit but are actually fit to work. 22,038 individuals are claiming disability benefits but when examined 4,722 were deemed fit to work. I would never have guessed this!!

So who is benefiting from the fraud – looks like everyone!!

1. The claimant – Yes the taxpayer is getting hit in the pocket again. While we are miserable at work those defrauding the system are relaxing in St Stephen’s Green funded by us.
2. The doctors – Correct me if I am wrong but I guess they are making a living handing out sick notes.
3. Investigators – Wow there is a whole new career path here. All you need to do is grow a thick mustache like magnum and spend your days hiding in a skip outside claimants houses with your camera. What a great job!!
4. The Irish Workers – Reduced travel time to work as there are 4,722 less cars on the road during rush hour traffic. And dwellers in the city center will gain from reduced noise pollution which is now a huge problem according to the Herald.
5. Government – This is 4,722 people they do not have to find jobs for and they can manipulate their figures to keep them of the published unemployed figures.

So the morale of the story is that Fraud pays – not!! If you know anyone cheating the system direct them towards this site for inspiration to get back on the tools.

I am regularly asked about recruitment agencies with particular focus on “BEST”.

Who are the best agencies?

There are very good agencies in Ireland and very bad agencies. To complicate things further there are some bad consultants in the good agencies and good consultants in the bad agencies. With this in mind it is more important for you to find a relevant agency (see below for information on how to find an agency for your skills) and a good recruitment consultant rather than a good agency. How do you find these? You can ask friends and colleagues who they have used and more importantly found good. Recommendation is the best way to locate good consultants. If you have no network it is then the old reliable – trial and error. I can recommend agencies such as www.edenrecruitment.ie but I cannot stand by your experience because of the above points.

How do you get the best out of agencies?

Find a relevant agency – It is important to identify agencies that specialise in recruiting in your field. No point registering with financial and accountancy specialists when you work in sales. One way to identify relevant agencies is by searching on job boards such as www.employireland.ie and this will show you what agencies have jobs suitable for you.

Build a relationship with the recruiter – Ideally meet your consultant. If this is not possible at least stay in touch but don’t stalk. Staying in touch shoe that you are still available for work making life easier for the consultant

Know what you want – Be clear about what you want. Recruitment consultants do not offer career advice. They place people in jobs and do not help them decide what career path they should choose. With this in mind be careful what advice you get from consultants as they have an agenda and a job to fill – how impartial is their advice.

Manage your expectation – Recruitment agencies provide you with a free service so you should expect what you pay for. The biggest complaints from jobseekers about agencies revolve around the service level BUT jobseekers do not pay. Expect nothing so anything more than this is a bonus.