Things to consider at Easter

The Careers Service is closed from Friday April 22nd until May 2nd inclusive, and we will reopen again on Tuesday May 3rd.  You can still avail of all our online services during the closed period...if you are considering composing a new CV or updating your existing CV then have a look on our website http://www.ucc.ie/careers/students/Job_Search_from_Start_to_Finish.php or you might be preparing for interview - all the information you need is online.  If you need help in choosing a graduate career or just deciding where to start, then the gradireland Careers Report will reveal your strengths and skills, pinpoint graduate jobs and careers that suit you, and set you on a positive plan of action.

The gradireland Careers Report uses questionnaires and psychometric tests to explore your interests, strengths, personality and abilities. The assessments are devised and delivered by leading graduate assessment test specialist Cut-e group.
The questionnaires and practice psychometric tests take approximately 30 minutes to complete, but...
...you don’t have to do everything in one sitting: you can return to the Careers Report tools and assessments as many times as you wish.
You can download your own personal Careers Report and action plan to take away.

Using the gradireland Careers Report tool is FREE, but you need to be registered with gradireland.com and signed in.  - www.gradireland.com/careers-report
Finally, Happy Easter from all your Careers Team.

2 Day Event to help you prepare for Placement in the College of Business and Law

The Placement Managers of the Careers Service UCC, (College of Business and Law) are organising an event to help you prepare for Placement - open to 2nd years.  Events include CV checks, Practice Interviews, Case Studies and Career Talks.

To sign up :  email Steffi at s.wojtek@ucc.ie ASAP

http://www.ucc.ie/careers/students/placementflyer.pdf

Graduate jobs and job creation in Ireland and Northern Ireland

The latest news stories from GradIreland about graduate jobs and job creation in Ireland and Northern Ireland (March 2011).

Business/Financial

Irish Times 30 March: Networking website LinkedIn www.linkedin.com is to create 100 jobs in Dublin. Positions will be in sales, business development, marketing, customer services, finance, HR and operations. http://tinyurl.ie/3wp

Irish Times 24 March: Dublin based Smith & Williamson Freaney www.swf.ie is to create over a dozen jobs in its investment and pensions section. http://tinyurl.ie/3ty

Irish Independent 23 March: Deloitte www.deloitte.com is to create 125 jobs in Belfast over the next two years. These jobs will be for both experienced consultants and graduates http://tinyurl.ie/3tz
RTE 21 March: First Ireland, an independent insurance broker, has announced the creation of 15 sales jobs in Dublin http://tinyurl.ie/3u0

Irish Times 7 March: Galway-based financial services provider Acorn Life www.acornlife.ie is creating 150 new jobs http://tinyurl.ie/3u1

Inside Ireland 2 March: Newry-based First Derivatives www.firstderivatives.com is to create almost 360 jobs over the next three years. 347 of which will be consultancy and operations posts and 12 managerial. http://tinyurl.ie/3u2


Computers/ICT

Inside Ireland 28 March: Hewlett Packard www.HP.com/go/jobs is to create an unspecified number of jobs for highly skilled technology professionals in Belfast. http://tinyurl.ie/3vb

RTE 23 March: A joint venture between Zagg www.zagg.com makers of accessories for electronic products, and a County Clare firm will mean 140 jobs by the end of next year, and 300 by the end of 2014. http://tinyurl.ie/3u8

RTE 22 March: Communications company Three www.three.ie announced 50 jobs in finance, product development and sales. Jobs will be nationwide as well as in head office http://tinyurl.ie/3u9

RTE 15 March: Online games company ZeniMax www.zenimax.com is to set up a customer support centre in Galway, and is expected to create hundreds of jobs over the next few years.http://tinyurl.ie/3ua

Inside Ireland 15 March: Data warehousing and business intelligence firm Teradata www.teradata.com is to create 30 new jobs in Dublin. http://tinyurl.ie/3ub

Irish Independent 11 March: Belfast based Aepona www.aepona.com is developing new mobile and web-based applications and will create at least ten jobs http://tinyurl.ie/3uc

Irish Times 4 March: 40 jobs are to be created with the establishment of six start-up companies supported by the DCU Ryan Academy for Entrepreneurship. www.ryanacademy.ie http://tinyurl.ie/3ud

Inside Ireland 1 March: Schrader Electronics www.schraderelectronics.com is to create 130 jobs in Antrim http://tinyurl.ie/3ue

Construction

RTE 30 March: According to Treasury Holdings 350 people will be employed in the construction of the new Sligo Town Centre development http://tinyurl.ie/3wo


Engineering/Manufacturing

Inside Ireland 28 March: Global energy firm GE, who operate power plants in Galway and Cork, are to create 20 engineering and IT jobs. http://tinyurl.ie/3vf

RTE 24 March: The Metal Improvement Company www.metalimprovement.com has announced 20 technical manufacturing jobs in Galway. A further 20-30 jobs are planned by 2015. http://tinyurl.ie/3ui

Irish Times 18 March: Kildare-based wind and solar energy company Natural Power Company www.naturalpower.com is to create 50 highly-skilled positions. http://tinyurl.ie/3uh

Inside Ireland 18 March: Carlow-based Hi-Spec Engineering, www.hispec.net announced a new joint venture with Europe Dairy Systems, www.europedairysystems.com creating 12 jobs. http://tinyurl.ie/3uj

Inside Ireland 18 March: Forklift manufacturer Combilift www.combilift.com it is to create 25 jobs in Monaghan http://tinyurl.ie/3uj

Inside Ireland 10 March: Terex Corporation www.terex.com is to provide 35 highly skilled positions in Dungannon. http://tinyurl.ie/3un

Food industry

Inside Ireland 21 March: Dublin firm Kooky Dough www.kookydough.ie, is creating ten new jobs. http://tinyurl.ie/3tx

Inside Ireland 13 March: Monaghan Mushrooms www.monaghan-mushrooms.com is to recruit 20 graduates in a range of disciplines. The graduates will also participate in a Training Programme http://tinyurl.ie/3u3


General

Irish Examiner 28 March: According to KPMG Business Outlook Survey www.kpmg.com the manufacturing and services sectors are more confident in their future prospects with an increase in employment levels anticipated. http://tinyurl.ie/3vc

Irish Examiner 8 March: The number of job vacancies for professionals rose 26% in the year to end February, according to the Morgan McKinley Employment Monitor. www.morganmckinley.com This year-on-year increase suggests business confidence is improving across the professional jobs market. http://tinyurl.ie/3u6


Hospitality

Inside Ireland 23 March: Three Domino’s Pizza stores www.dominos.co.uk are to open in the North creating 100 jobs in Larne, Armagh and Carrickfergus. http://tinyurl.ie/3ve

Irish Times 21 March: The Castlemartyr Resort in Cork, www.castlemartyrresort.ie is to recruit 30 new staff in catering, sales and general hotel management. http://tinyurl.ie/3uf

RTE 13 March: The Dinn Rí Group www.dinnri.com is to create 130 jobs following its purchase of a number of venues in Waterford. http://tinyurl.ie/3ug

Medical/pharmaceuticals

Irish Times 18 March: 250 new jobs are being created at Randox Laboratories www.randox.com a bio-technology company in Co Antrim. http://tinyurl.ie/3uk

RTE 16 March: Almost 300 jobs were announced for Kerry, as part of the first phase of the development of a Global Pharmaceutical Centre of Excellence (GPCE). www.gpce.ie Jobs were announced by the International Prevention Research Institute (iPRI), www.i-pri.org Global Research Services (GRS), www.grs-cro.com and Optivia Biotechnology. www.optiviabio.com Positions are mainly in R&D http://tinyurl.ie/3ul

RTE 11 March: Biotechnology company, Amgen www.amgen.com is to buy Pfizer's www.pfizer.ie plant at Dun Laoghaire, securing 280 jobs. http://tinyurl.ie/3um

Inside Ireland 10 March: Dow Chemical Company www.dow.com is to create up to 25 jobs at a new facility in the Northern Ireland Science Park. http://tinyurl.ie/3un

Inside Ireland 2 March: Kelcourt Plastics www.kelcourt.com is to create 55 jobs with the opening of a manufacturing operation in Tullamore. http://tinyurl.ie/3uo

Recruitment

Irish Examiner 18 March: Recruitment firm Hays www.hays.ie is hiring 40 graduates to work in offices in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway. http://tinyurl.ie/3up

Retail

Irish Independent 28 March: SuperValu is to create 400 jobs this year as it plans to expand 34 stores and open new stores in Mountmellick, and Manorhamilton. http://tinyurl.ie/3vg

Inside Ireland 2 March: Retail group Bestseller www.bestseller.com are to expand in Ireland with the creation of over 200 jobs. The group are to acquire up to 30 new stores nationwide. http://tinyurl.ie/3uq

Careers Help on Video...a nice change from lots of reading!

If you’re trying to figure out what to do and where to do it, well then you are not alone. Kiss goodbye to trawling through pages of job profiles, sit back and get the scoop from an industry insider. Careerplayer is a site dedicated to helping you find your perfect graduate job.   What's different is that it allows you to select different video clips which profile graduates in typical graduate jobs. You can select from a menu of questions whihc might be asked at interview so it’s a very useful resource for interview preparation.

Check it out at:
http://www.careerplayer.com/home.aspx

To help make CareerPlayer as simple as possible they have split everything into 3 main channels:


Careers, for information on industry sectors and graduate job roles. Advice, for application tips, and Employers, for the latest graduate jobs, graduate scheme and Internship listings.

New Tips for your Telephone Interview

Tips for the telephone interview

To impress over the line, you need to be as enthusiastic and prepared as you would be face-to-face.
Helen Menhenett reveals how it's done

Selected from the guardian.co.uk, Monday 4 April 2011 09.30 BST

You might think that the best thing about a telephone interview is that, like a radio presenter, you don't have to worry about how you look.
But, an interview is still an interview even if you don't have to go to their offices. You need to be as prepared and well presented as you would be for a face to face interview.

Initial interviews by telephone are more common than they used to be. It's an inexpensive way to screen candidates in the initial stages of a recruitment campaign. The recruiter may just be looking for a confident manner and intelligent responses to some set questions. But don't take anything for granted. You may find you are on the phone for an hour and a half and are expected to answer detailed questions about previous roles and achievements.

Don't allow yourself to be caught on the hop. If you're not able to make some quiet time when they call then set a time for the interview to take place. You have to be a bit more organised about the telephone interview because it's on your home turf. Make sure you won't be interrupted and be sure to charge your phone in advance. Keep a copy of your CV by the phone and all the other relevant information you might need. Prepare and compose yourself in advance. If you sound confused and disorganised you might not get a second chance.

You should have some information from the prospective employer about the role and company. Think about answers you might give to their questions, particularly with regard to competency based questions. Do your research and prepare some questions to ask them exactly as you would for a regular interview.

Smile when you talk on the telephone. You'll be more relaxed, you'll sound more confident and assertive. Seriously think about using a headset for telephone interviews. Apart from the fact that it will make it much easier to take notes you'll be able to concentrate on the conversation rather than on balancing the phone between shoulder and ear while you search for a pen.

In all other respects treat the interview as you would a one to one but remember that time tends to be limited for a phone interview. It's a good idea to ask at the start, if not before the interview, about the structure or sequence of the interview process so you know what to expect. If part of the process is going to be that you are offered a choice of topics to brainstorm you don't want to be taken by surprise.

A phone interview is likely to feel less spontaneous and flexible than a one to one. The interviewer may well have a set script of questions and while you may feel rushed, at some points, if the interviewer thinks they have the information they need they will want to move on.

This is the tricky thing about the telephone interview - you can't judge reactions in the same way as when you are face to face with an interviewer. It's a little harder to engage the interviewer in a two-way conversation if she has a schedule of questions and a row of tick boxes. As you don't get the feedback or body language information that help in the face to face situation, it might be useful to ask questions such as "is that what you needed to know?" or "do you want me to go into more detail?"

Other things to bear in mind? Make sure you sound enthusiastic, the sort of person they want on the team. Pace yourself, a good interviewer knows you may need a little time to compose a good response, so do take time to think about answers. Be aware that they may be pushing you to answer as part of their interview technique. Listen carefully and if you don't fully understand the question, ask for clarification. Don't allow yourself to become flustered, especially if some of the questions seem either irrelevant or overly-specific. And remember the interview may need some time to make notes between questions so don't worry unduly about short silences, be patient.

Make sure you have the interviewer's email details so that after the interview ends you can write to them a thank you note, so as to reiterate your interest in the role and outline key points discussed and what you think you bring to the table.


Helen Menhenett is head of research at outplacement provider, Fairplace