Pay attention.

One of the unfortunate issues surrounding the job hunt since the onset of the recession is that more and more people are 'spamming' their CV's out there for any job that vaguely matches their skill. That I can understand. What I can't understand is the fact that so many people at the moment are sending their CV's for roles that they have absolutely no qualifications for. In the ten years that I have been in the recruitment business this has been an on and off problem and it typically happens in really busy times - but lately I am receiving three or four applications every day from people who have no discernable skills for the job that they are applying for.

What that actually does is it affects the candidates credibility with the employer or agency. It's not something that is just happening to me, I have spoken to several recruiters who are having the same problem and it is affecting their perception of their candidates. That is the downside of the times we live in.

So the advice is this - read the spec on line and see if you are a match - then apply. There is no point throwing the CV in just for the craic. What I would always suggest at this stage is that if you feel that you might have something in common with the job is to ring up the recruiter and have an initial chat. It may mean that you aren't the right candidate, but it may uncover another role that the recruiter hasn't advertised.

I’m No George Lee But.....

We are in economically straitened times. I believe (and I have to stress this is a personal opinion) that we as a nation talked ourselves in to the recession and as a result it happened a lot sooner than in other countries. When I say ‘WE’ I mean everybody - politicians included.


If you look at the UK at the moment they are on the cusp of a recession and will announce that they are in one on Friday. Ireland on the other hand allowed a number of events to happen that brought the economy to a halt sooner than it should have. Firstly the speculation on stamp duty on property before the election in May 2007 meant that nobody bought a house on the off chance that they would make a saving after the election. Then the introduction of new VRT and car tax measures meant that the annual rush to register new cars became a crawl as people waited to buy in July. Then when July came around most people decided to hold off until January 2009.


That dithering caused a knock on effect for thousands of businesses and they had to rein in their spending. Those events coupled with consistent warnings that the recession was just around the corner meant that people began to err on the side of caution.


The net effect of all of this was that the economy screeched to a halt instead of the anticipated soft landing that we were promised.


Outside events played their part, but within the national context we have ourselves and the Irish media to blame for some of the fix we are in now.
The media seem to be taking great delight in the unfolding events – after all it is their bread and butter. What all that reportage is doing is creating a cloud that scares people and creates a culture of fear.


At the coalface of recruitment I can tell you that very little has changed since last year. The amount of roles that are being offered by clients hasn’t changed dramatically. Our company has a strong pharmaceutical and medical device base of clients and they are working away oblivious to the doom and gloom. What has changed is that candidates are being scared away from moving because like Chicken Licken’s friends they have been led to believe that the sky is falling down.


Sometimes I think that nobody thinks these things except me. This time I am glad to have been proven wrong. I spoke with a senior HR specialist at a large multinational earlier this week. As we were shooting the breeze she said pretty much what I was thinking that the media had walked us in to this far earlier than was necessary. She like me said that she wasn’t advocating burying our heads in the sand, but was advocating balanced reporting.