Careers and Jobs

Two positive news stories to tell you about – cherish them as they are few and far between at the minute. It looks like we are spreading the love too as jobs are created both sides of the border.

Complete Telecom announced that it will be growing by 10 staff as part of an ongoing expansion. The jobs will be created at their HQ in Dublin with a few scattered regionally. Most of the roles are in Engineering and Support. Get your CV’s dusted down as recruitment is happening as you read this post. Complete hope to have the new positions filled by September.

Citigroup announce that they will be creating 145 new jobs in Northern Ireland. This is great news and financial services and insurance sectors have been taking a bit of a hammering with the Axa Insurance news and Hibernian news. The Citigroup announcement will bring the number of staff to 850 in the North. Lets hope that this is not a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul and that this move is not part of a strategy to access cheaper costs in the North.

We are a run of good stories now with these last two announcements. Let’s hope it continues. Need help with CV Writing Service or Interview Coaching?

It looks like there is more bad news for the Insurance Sector with the announcement that Axa will shed 120 jobs at its Dublin offices. This news follows a previous announcement by Hibernian that they will shed 580 jobs moving them to Bangalore in India. We brought you rumours of this Hibernian announcement a few months back.

Axa plans to shed the 120 jobs through voluntary redundancy and there may be plenty of takers as they also plan to restructure pay scales. Basically those left in the company may have to take a pay reduction. This scenario is not uncommon in this climate as a leading Estate Agent in Ireland reported the same move recently to fight of the possibility of redundancies.

Axa has seen its turnover drop drastically over the last number of years so this latest news does not surprise many commentators. Having said this for those affected the news is always hard to take.

It also looks like Northern Ireland is not safe from the current economic conditions. Toughglass in Co Down has announced 60 compulsory redundancies.

If you have been affected by redundancy – a career coach, interview coach or CV service could help you navigate these difficult times.

Looks like we have more to talk about than the bad weather today. A friend of mine has been predicting a recession for the last 10 years. And guess what the newspapers announce it is finally here. Tell us what we didn’t know!! Official reports of a recession have been agreed by most experts but what they cannot agree on is when it will pass. Anything from 2-10 years by the sounds of things.

This news was amplified with the announcement that Hibernian Insurance will let 580 jobs go in Ireland. Irelands loss is India’s gain. The bulk of these jobs will be support and back office. It now looks like the slow down is affecting other sectors outside of manufacturing and construction.

So does the slow down in the economy offer opportunities or threats to you? I guess it is what you choose. I think I will go for the opportunities. If you feel this news offers a threat then take some action – make yourself recession proof. This could mean retraining, getting a new job, moving sector. If you need help from a career coach, an interview coach or a CV professional then get that help. If you have alternative option then start taking action.

HIBERNIAN

If newspaper reports are correct Hibernian could be moving 250 back office jobs to India. Trade Union Unite hope to grill management at a meeting this Friday.

This outsourcing initiative by Hibernian could be as a result of parent company Aviva announcing 525m in cost cuts worldwide.

It seems that both Hibernian and the Unions are denying this.

Hibernian is Ireland’s largest general insurer and employs 2200 staff in Ireland (1500 of which are represented by Unite). If the jobs do go this would represent a 10% cut in workforce.

Let’s hope that this is just speculation but the signs don’t look good. Outsourcing to low cost economies seem is a well beaten path these days in Ireland.

DOMINO’S

There is some positive jobs news in that Domino’s Pizza has announce that it will be opening 7 new stores in Ireland with the creation of 225 jobs. They currently have 34 stores in Ireland