Careers and Jobs

The papers have been focusing on global financial jobs loss over the last few days with thousands more jobs lost as a result of financial sector meltdown. Back home there was also more negative job news

Hewlett Packard announced that it wants to cut 24,000 jobs globally which has increased uncertainty with its 4,000 employees in Ireland. HP employs 4,000 staff in Belfast, Dublin, Galway and Leixlip. The global job cuts will represent a 7.5% of its 178,000 global workforce. It is expected that most of these job cuts will come from EDS a recent acquisition. EDS employs 400 staff in Dublin.

250 jobs will go in Waterford with the news that buy-out talks for poultry firm Cappoquin have collapsed. This is a huge blow for the poultry industry in Ireland with the direct job loss and indirect impact on 50 producers for the firm in Munster.

Finally Tourmakeady in Co. Mayo had some bad jobs news when local firm Caideil MP Teoranta announced that it would be closing with the loss of 32 jobs.

Heed a career coach or interview coach in Ireland?

A new career site Careersportal has been launched aimed at 2nd and 3rd level students. Much needed if you ask me!! The site will provide information on a variety of careers across industry sectors. Apart from supporting students the site will support parents and teachers and guidance counselors keeping all up to date. This is a problem sometimes with career advice from an educational source – there can be a lack of up to date knowledge about the job market, trends etc.

Careersportal will give students as much information as possible to help them make an informed decision on career direction. It will include tools like Career Exploration to help find a suitable career, employment sector or educational course. It will also profile 30 sectors in Ireland and up to 500 occupation profiles. Companies in Ireland also get an opportunity to profile themselves.

Hopefully initiative like this will reduce the large number of graduates pursuing the wrong qualifications and careers. If you are a student you should definitely check out the site. If you are currently working this site could still prove to be a valuable resource.

There are fears of job loss at shannon-based firm Unbrako Europe SPS International following its sale to a US firm. Workers were informed of this news on Monday when they met the new owners. SPS has been based in Shannon since 1960 so is an established employer in the region. The company operates in the manufacturing sector making socket screws and fasteners for machinery and equipment.

Other news this week that will send shivers through munster is that Dell has closed a plant in Austin with the loss of 900 jobs. Dell is a huge employer in Limerick and Dublin. Dell is currently exercising global cost cutting and plans to reduce headcount by 10%. Hopefully Limerick and Dublin miss out on the job cuts.

We will keep you posted on other job news stories and relevant career, cv and interview advice for job hunting in Ireland.

This post is for the benefit of employers thinking of introducing psychometric assessment into recruitment processes. Having said this jobseekers can see why clients use assessments.

What are the benefits of psychometric testing or objective assessment?

Psychometric Testing enables more informed hiring decisions by providing additional information about an applicant
- Testing has been proven to work better than just an interview. Stand alone interviews put too much emphasis on the ability of the interviewer (they may not be an interview specialist or even trained).
- Testing provides you with objective information enabling objective and defensible decisions

Psychometric Testing will improve the efficiency of a recruitment process
- Help you identify unsuitable applicants early on in the recruitment process which means that you spend less time and money and resources on them
- Help you identify and measure the key competencies required for the job. This will help you get a closer fit and enable the hiring manager to be more productive and effective

Psychometric Testing allows you to investigate beyond just the hard skills
- Testing enables you to assess an individual’s potential rather than just hard skills.
- Testing provides information about the way someone goes about daily duties which is just as important as their hard skills
Psychometric Testing prepares you for beyond recruitment and selection
- Testing provides information about the candidate in terms of likely strengths and weaknesses. This means you can manage and develop new hires effectively.

Psychometric Testing portrays a good company image
- If you uses testing you will be viewed as a fair organisation and progressive if you use online testing.

If you are an employer and you want more information about psychometric testing – contact Measurability. Measurability provide assessment services to organisations nationwide (Dublin, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo & Galway) in a variety of industry sectors.

I posted previously about “net reputation” and how it can have a positive BUT also negative impact on your career. Sites such as Bebo, Facebook and MySpace can bring your career to a halt as many employers now use these as a valuable source of information on potential employees. There is a new networking site that you do not want your details on – JuicyCampus. This will be a real career stopper.

Good News for the Dublin today as ServiceSource announced the creation of 100 Multi-Lingual sales jobs in Cherrywood. ServiceSource is based in San Fran and established its EMEA offices in Dublin 2005. The company currently employs 175 staff in Ireland.

There was also good news for Belfast where Fidessa announce that it would be setting up a Development Center. This will mean the creation of 26 high skilled software programming jobs. Hey are these not the type of jobs the Government and IDA have promised us!! Apparantly we were considered but the availability of Engineers in Belfast swung it – hmmmm!!

Recruiters are making much noise about the fact that the internet is now a key tool they use to check out potential hires. I take this with a pinch of salt as I know many agencies and companies recruit staff. Most don’t even check qualifications or references so why the sudden uptake in candidate checking online.

Having said all this it might be worthwhile to Google your name a see what search information actually appears. Research has indicated that 62% of British executives were signed up to Facebook so Ireland must have a similar percentage. This would mean that there is a lot of personal stuff up on the net. This would also mean that many of those actually hiring would have a profile so jobseekers can actually check out a potential boss.

Will networking sites impact your career prospects? – the jury is still out. Anyway I don’t use them so I am alright Jack.

Rather than focusing on how internet usage might affect future jobs I think employees should focus on how internet misuse can cost immediate jobs. FACT: Internet misuse during work hours can cost you your job. There are many high profile examples such as the senior executive in a leading Irish bank who lost his job as a result of researching night time activities for a trip to Vegas on a work pc.

The moral of the story is keep social networking but not during work hours.

Interview Skills Training