Post 13 - Your CV

Reading CVs is a big part of my job and sometimes that can be quite funny. We get to see crazy pictures and some CVs are really hilarious. However my first advice would be to try not to have a funny CV, that's not what you want :)

Your CV is going to represent you until you get to meet with someone. This is ok to have something a bit creative but do not over-complicate things. All you want is a call from the Recruiter so make it easy for him to find what he is looking for.

A few tips

• Easy to read CV, bullet points rather than text (most recruiters only spend a few minutes on your CV)
• In Ireland I would not recommend you to put a picture of yourself (some recruiters do not like to have a picture on the CV)
• Make sure you use only 1 font and size
• Avoid using colors, if you want to highlight something use Bold & Underline
• Make sure your contact details are clearly indicated (and right!)
• Mention your Nationality and language skills (it is essential for multilingual roles)
• Make sure all keywords are on your CV (IT Skills for example or anything specific)
• Describe what you did in each role with at least 3 bullet points 
• Send a specific CV for different type of roles, do use a title (for example "French Customer Service"...)
• If you worked to set targets, do mention them!
• Avoid complicated format / Table... The Europass CV is actually not great and I would not advise you to use this
• No typo! Get someone else to look at your CV before sending anywhere
• Try to keep it to 2 pages maximum (unless if you have 20 years of experience...)
• When applying in Ireland, send a CV in English

Structure of a Good CV:

1. Name and contact details
2. Education
3. Work Experience
4. IT and Language skills
5. Hobbies & Interests

It is important that your CV looks good so spend some time on this and ask for advice.

  

Post 12 - What language skills are on demand in Dublin?

I am a multilingual recruiter and sometimes candidates can get a little frustrated because they do not get quick feedback on their applications. This is the tricky part of my job and I must admit that I do not always come back to candidates as quickly as I'd like. The main problem in Multilingual recruitment is that we deal with huge volume of candidates. I place about 100 to 150 candidates a year so that keeps me busy :)

Some languages are on very high demand. Here is a list of languages that I am always recruiting for:

• German, all my clients are asking for German candidates, every day!
• Swiss German
• Dutch/Flemish
• Norwegian
• Danish
• Swedish
• Finnish
• French

Lately we have experienced a huge increase of demand for the following languages:

• Hebrew
• Arabic
• Russian

For the following languages we have lots of candidates so the competition is much higher and our clients would ask for exceptional candidates:

• Italian
• Spanish
• Portuguese/Brazilian Portuguese

My advice is to send a good, easy to read CV (bullet points please!). Make sure your nationality and language skills are on your CV, this is the first thing I am looking at.

Post 11 - What to do in Dublin?

Why do so many tourists come to Ireland every year? Museums? Monuments? No they come here for the extraordinary nature and the Irish people!

Still there are a few things to visit in Dublin, here is a selection of places you have to visit:

• Kilmainham Gaol (jail in Irish): http://www.visitdublin.com/Asset/see_and_do/historic_sites/Kilmainham_Gaol

I love this visit and I must have been there at least 10 times since I moved to Dublin. This is a great place to get to know a bit more about Irish history and some famous Irish names (Eamon De Valera, Charles Parnell, Countess Markievicz, Joseph Plunkett...).

• Guinness Storehouse: http://www.guinness-storehouse.com/en/Index.aspx

This is the most visited place in Ireland and in fairness I can understand why. Everyone who comes to Ireland knows about Guinness. A lot of the storehouse is about Advertising and this is really entertaining. The visit finish with a Guinness and a great view of Dublin.

• Stephen's Greeen, Merrion Square and the Georgian's doors

I am lucky enough to work on Merrion Square in an old Georgian House and I think it is a privilege. When it is sunny outside the whole team goes for a picnic in the park!

• A bit of Shopping on Grafton Street or Henry Street

Those are the main shopping streets in Dublin. Grafton is on the South Side and Henry Street is on the North Side. You can even get Ladurée Macarons in Brown Thomas in Grafton Street!!

• Powerscourt & Glendalough, Co Wicklow (http://powerscourt.com/; http://www.glendalough.ie/)

Ok this is not in Dublin but if you want to get out of Dublin without spending hours in the bus/car, this is a great place to go. Powerscourt is a lovely place to go with waterfalls and a lovely Avoca Shop. Glendalough is a great place for a walk in the Wicklow Mountains.

• Trinity College and the Book of Kells

This is not only one of the most prestigious school in the world, this is also a very cool looking one! The library is amazing and if you don't have any interest in the Book of Kells I would still advise you to pay a visit. It feels a bit like Hogwarts in Harry Potter's books.

• Phoenix Park and Dublin Zoo

Wants to see reindeers in Dublin? Yes you can! Just go to Phoenix Park and you will see lots of them. If you can't find them you can always go to the Zoo and watch their Lions, Tigers, Giraffes... Dublin Zoo is very good and you can take great pictures of animals.

• Johnny Fox (https://www.jfp.ie/)

The highest pub in Ireland :) Ok this is a bit far from City Centre but it is worth the trip. The food is good but you can just go for a pint. This is very touristy but I still love it.

Post 10 - CPL Recruitment "The best people for the job"

I had to write a little post about CPL (http://www.cpl.ie)... This is my employer for over 8 years now and they gave me a chance when I arrived in Dublin with my "broken English" (my manager often jokes about this saying that I could not speak a word of English but that's not true!!).

It is a bit of a love story and I do not see myself working anywhere else. Here I got everything I was looking for: recognition, a motivating salary and freedom! I love working here because this is still a relatively small company and you feel like you can talk to everyone and your ideas will become real.

We have a very inspirational CEO: Anne Heraty. She founded Computer Placement Ltd in 1989 and made it a very successful company. In 2006 she won the Ernst and Young Businesswomen of the year Award.

Our Core values:

Customer Focus
Accountability
Respect
Effective Communication
Empowerment

CPL by the numbers:

• We placed over 22,000 people in jobs last year
• We employ over 7,400 people
• We have 32 offices in 9 countries (UK, Spain, Hungary, Ireland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland & Canada)
• We do Temporary staffing, permanent recruitment and Managed Services & Outsourcing

CPL is also: 

• Careers Register http://www.careers-register.com/ 
• Flexsource Solutions http://www.flexsource.ie/
• Techskills Ressources http://www.techskills.ie/
• Thornshaw Scientific Recruitment http://www.thornshaw.com/
• Kate Cowhig Healthcare http://www.kcr.ie/
• Private Homecare http://www.privatehomecare.ie/
• Servisource http://servisource.ie/
• Nifast - http://www.nifast.ie/ 
• Interaction 
• Career Consultants http://www.careerconsultants.ie/

Post 9 - We are Dublin by Wissame Cherfi

Today this is going to be a very short post because I will let this video directed by Wissame Cherfi do the talking: http://www.wissamecherfi.com/project/we-are-dublin

I think this gives you a great overview of what Dublin is made of: a great diversity of people!

Enjoy :)

Post 8 - Which US Multinationals are in Ireland?

When I look at all the American companies in Dublin I always wonder how Ireland made that happen. Irish people are very good at networking and they have great connections with the USA. Also the cost to operate in Ireland is very competitive thanks to their very low corporate tax.

Here is a little list just to make you want to work here :)
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Microsoft
- Linkedin
- Google
- HP
- Dell
- Salesforce
- Getty Images
- Airbnb
- IBM
- Boston Scientific
- Metronic
- Fidelity Investment
- Oracle
- Citrix
- ServiceSource
- Covidien
- Avaya
- ...

Today, over 115,000 people are directly employed in over 700 US Firms in Ireland. And every month there are new US Multinational operating here in Ireland.

Post 7 - Interviews Questions

As a recruiter I get to prepare candidates for interviews all the time and most candidates would like to know precisely the questions that they will be asked. However every clients I am dealing with have different questions and interview styles so this is always tricky.

However I have listed below some questions that will be asked very often for Customer Service/Call Centre roles: 

• Describe a situation where you went beyond customer expectation.
• Describe a situation where you had a complex problem and explain how you resolve it.
• Describe a situation where you had communication difficulty and what was your response.
• Describe a situation where you had a goal and a task to achieve but you had a lack of resources.
• How do your team manager or colleagues describe you?
• Describe a situation where you exceeded work performance.
• Describe a situation where you had to use strong commitments.
• How do you ensure that you are learning?
• Tell me about a time that you had to deal with a difficult customer?
• Tell me about your Customer service experience?
• Tell me about a time you were unable to resolve a problem and how you managed with this situation?
• How is your experience meeting the deadlines and targets
• How are your technical skills, what programs you normally use...?

To answer those questions you need to give an example of a time in a previous job where you did the following things.

The best way to answer these questions is to begin by describing where you were at the time (eg. When I was working at ‘Microsoft’), describe the task and what you did, and finish with a result (eg. We succeeded in the task and were given a bonus). 

Strengths and weaknesses questions. Always be prepared to give 3 strengths and 3 weaknesses! This question is not as tricky as it sounds. 

Give the Strengths that you have for the particular role you are applying for. For example for a Customer Service role: "great communication skills, ability to explain things to customers, good problem solving skills, great interpersonal/people skills..."

Give true weaknesses that are not going to stop you from getting this job. For example for a Customer Service role: "I am not great at giving presentation in front of a large audience, I had to do this in the past and I can do it but I would need to prepare myself very well." This is a good answer and will not be an issue with the employer because he can see that this is something under control. 

The most important in an interview is to be positive. Always be positive about your last job, colleagues, manager, employer...