Lack of Jobs in Galway?

Proxy

Does anyone feel there is a lack of employment opportunities in Galway? I mean full time employment now. Both myself and a friend (both coming out of college) were looking for work (should specify, any IT related work) in Galway since Christmas and really getting nothing worthwhile. A lot of the responses were from companies or recruiters in Dublin and the East coast. And they say theres a skills shortage in Ireland?

One reason we figured was the main international airport being in Dublin, tends to keep big international companies away. Its not just us IT people though, a few other friends in other disciplines (science and engineering) have said they're beginning to even look abroad since work here is getting pretty thin. Any opinions?

PopeBuckfastXVI

I have a friend in IT who recently did two interviews on the same day in Galway... not sure how he got on though...

What's your qualification?

majiktripp

Work in IT myself and there is definately a lack of jobs here in Galway, theres an influx of cheap fforeign labour too, which is a small contributing factor but not the main reason. I think its due to, as you mention the East Coast attracting most of the major companies and hence more of the employment.

biko

I guess a lot of people being made redundant from large local companies can't have helped either. They probably swooped up a lot of local opportunities.

veryangryman

You tried HP/CISCO/Nortell? Thats 3

Outside of that, Ericsson Athlone (bit far away..depends on whether you would commute/move)

PopeBuckfastXVI

veryangryman wrote: »

You tried HP/CISCO/Nortell? Thats 3

Outside of that, Ericsson Athlone (bit far away..depends on whether you would commute/move)

They're 3 S/W companies... you can get an IT job in almost any business with a computer.

majiktripp

Theres another Company in the Mervue Business park you should try called Multis, they recycle old Pc's as far as I'm aware, good place to try aswell.

Proxy

Yeah tried those three, nothing going. We've both tried a lot of companies. Luckily my friend just got a job in SAP, but i've already accepted one in Dublin and i'll be leaving lovely Galway (everybody; awww...).

Pope my qualification is information systems so i've a bit of business too. Just finishing off a Masters at the minute. Any second now...

Playboy

If you want a well paying IT job then move to London .. They are crying out for people over here and pay probably the best salary in the world in the IT sector.

PopeBuckfastXVI

Oh yeah...

.Apologies for being so angry.Just annoys me so much people n Galway are so ignorant of IT.

cornbb

I work in software in Galway and I'm also under the impression that such jobs are scarce on the ground. Dunno if I could stick around for long if I had to look for a new job.

majiktripp

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Oh yeah...

.Apologies for being so angry.Just annoys me so much people n Galway are so ignorant of IT.

I know how you feel, your not the only one...

biko

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Apologies for being so angry.Just annoys me so much people n Galway are so ignorant of IT.

I actually read the book AND saw the film. That clown is fecking scary!

majiktripp

biko wrote: »

I actually read the book AND saw the film. That clown is fecking scary!

One of Tim Curry's better roles!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOUMIXbTM5U&feature=related

Sherifu

PopeBuckfastXVI wrote: »

Apologies for being so angry.Just annoys me so much people n Galway are so ignorant of IT.

In joke for years to come

sgthighway

Checkout all the Medical Device Multinationals because they all have IT Departments.

You have to consider the supply side as well. Galway draws in a lot of young folk to college, a lot of who want to stay on. Also people who have been in Dublin / abroad for a few years want to move back and settle down so you are competing with people who have a bit of experience. It is a very competitive market.

mountainyman

Proxy wrote: »

Both myself and a friend (both coming out of college) were looking for work (should specify, any IT related work) in Galway since Christmas and really getting nothing worthwhile.

[1] You are a new graduate and you've been looking for 2 months. That isn't long.

[2] Try duolog


MM

BrokenArrows

The company i work for Micros-Fidelio are currently on a recruitment drive.
Support jobs for their software.

have a look on the net for more info.

MattKid

what sort of pay for someone with 10 years epos experience. My contract is up mid July

Krieg

In college, we have to do work placement this summer (Industrial engineers). Luckily we have 2 staff helping us find placements but its not looking good for many.
Mcdonalds and the like are actually being considered (as a last resort).

I realise work placement is slightly different then actual employment, but I think it still proves the lack of available jobs here

Mrs OBumble

Galway is a city of about 70,000 people. Dublin is a city (four cities???) of 1.5 million people. Stands to reason that is where most of the jobs are. Also, lots of people who grew up here want to move back when they start thinking about families, which is also once they've got real work experience. So competition is tough.

I work in IT and have 10+ years experience. It took me 4 weeks to find a job in Galway, and I'm making about 2/3 of what I would if it was in Dublin. Some friends with experience in administration/clerical and early-childhood-teaching also took about 4 weeks to find job, and said that other people they met had similar experiences. Without experience, you'll easily find that it takes longer (and I'd seriously recommend you take at least some part time "anything" work, to help keep you motivated and thus employable).

How robust is your job-searching? Have you set yourself work-hours (ie job-searching hours) each day? Targets for how many of the job-search web-sites to check each day, and how often to give recruiters a call-back (I recommend weekly at least)? How much cold-calling are you doing each week? Are you flexible? (SAP almost always have those business-partner-agent type roles going .. the ones with the dreadful hours 'cos most of their partners are in the states).

kayos

Ok not the situation I have ever found in either hiring or looking for work in IT (software) in the west. You say you are just finishing up college, should your question not be Lack of graduate level jobs in Galway. There is a world of difference between a fresh out of college grad and some one with a few years industry exp. in terms of hiring potential.

I was working for a company in Limerick and we actually had to go get UK contractors due to the lack of supply in the Limerick region, or let me say lack of decent supply, plenty of Muppets. Only decent Irish contractor we had was from Galway. We where just looking for C#, ASP.NET, SQL and a bonus if you had OLAP/MDX etc.

When I left that company I walked into a contract in Galway with the most ease I have ever had. From initial contact from the Agency to having all the contracts signed was all done in a working week. All the contractors I know around Galway are pretty much beating back offers for the past few months.

Oh just a tip if you can plug yourself in terms of BI, data warehousing, OLAP, MDX the market will snap you up.

Dubit10

lads it's not just galway.My friend has a full EC driving licence and has been trying to find full time well payed employment in Dublin for 9 months now and nothing doing.To many polish/latvian/ drivers doing the work for peanuts.One employer told him he was out of his mind looking for 32,000 euro a year(the average industrial wage) when he could pay a fella 18,000 to do the same work.He is sick of it and is looking at moving to Australia where he is told work is available and the wages are excellent.

TerrorFirmer

ciotog

For what it's worth, I joined a software company this week that has hired 10 or 11 in the past 3 months. The majority are people who have a few years experience (I believe they also have a graduate program, don't know if they're taking in many). Did two interviews with them and the whole thing took about 2 weeks, so like kayos I think the jobs are there but may not be graduate targetted, unfortunately.

GerardKeating

Proxy wrote: »

Does anyone feel there is a lack of employment opportunities in Galway? I mean full time employment now. Both myself and a friend (both coming out of college) were looking for work (should specify, any IT related work) in Galway since Christmas and really getting nothing worthwhile. A lot of the responses were from companies or recruiters in Dublin and the East coast. And they say theres a skills shortage in Ireland?

One reason we figured was the main international airport being in Dublin, tends to keep big international companies away. Its not just us IT people though, a few other friends in other disciplines (science and engineering) have said they're beginning to even look abroad since work here is getting pretty thin. Any opinions?

Just found this site. not sure about it

http://www.jobsgalway.ie/
http://www.galwayjobs.ie/

galwayrush

Watch out for 2 major Firms locating to Galway soon, one will be in Oranmore and the other in the old Ag College near Athenty. both Healthcare related.

Mrs OBumble

kayos wrote: »

I was working for a company in Limerick and we actually had to go get UK contractors due to the lack of supply in the Limerick region, or let me say lack of decent supply, plenty of Muppets. Only decent Irish contractor we had was from Galway. We where just looking for C#, ASP.NET, SQL and a bonus if you had OLAP/MDX etc.

When I left that company I walked into a contract in Galway with the most ease I have ever had.

That rings true: I had lots of recruiters trying to convince me that I wanted to work in Limerick, Shannon, Tuam, and even Letterkenny! Most of 'em only know about two locations in Ireland: Dublin and anywhere else.

sgthighway

galwayrush wrote: »

Watch out for 2 major Firms locating to Galway soon, one will be in Oranmore and the other in the old Ag College near Athenty. both Healthcare related.

Please define soon.

galwayrush

sgthighway wrote: »

Please define soon.

I only know it because i'm involved in the Building Trade, the one in Oranmore was mentioned in the Local Papers a few times, something to do with the harvesting of animal embroys for medical purposes.

dafunk

Along with every second person in the capital I worked in the IT Industry in Dublin for about four years and some things about it were positive but for the most part, in my opinion, it's a horrible industry to work in. Every second person has IT experience so it is competitive, it's easy to get jobs at the lower levels but harder as you go up the scale. I actually left Dublin for Galway to escape the IT Industry. If you get in with a good company it can be enjoyable but there's ALOT of IT jobs in Dublin that are like sweat shops, you're packed into overcrowded spaces, with bad working conditions, few benefits, working 10 hours and day and spending three hours a day commuting because all the jobs are based in Industrial estates on the outskirts of the city. Add 17 holiday days a year into the pot and I can't think of a single reason in the world to do it. Money or no money. Having said that if you get in with a decent company that treat you well it can be very rewarding. I, for one, will never return to it.

ciotog

dafunk wrote: »

Along with every second person in the capital I worked in the IT Industry in Dublin for about four years and some things about it were positive but for the most part, in my opinion, it's a horrible industry to work in. Every second person has IT experience so it is competitive, it's easy to get jobs at the lower levels but harder as you go up the scale. I actually left Dublin for Galway to escape the IT Industry. If you get in with a good company it can be enjoyable but there's ALOT of IT jobs in Dublin that are like sweat shops, you're packed into overcrowded spaces, with bad working conditions, few benefits, working 10 hours and day and spending three hours a day commuting because all the jobs are based in Industrial estates on the outskirts of the city. Add 17 holiday days a year into the pot and I can't think of a single reason in the world to do it. Money or no money. Having said that if you get in with a decent company that treat you well it can be very rewarding. I, for one, will never return to it.

Would it be rude to ask what you do now?
I would have to agree with your sentiments on Dublin - I really didn't like the place when I was there. Have to say the company I just joined here seem like a good bunch.

dafunk

ciotog wrote: »

Would it be rude to ask what you do now?
I would have to agree with your sentiments on Dublin - I really didn't like the place when I was there. Have to say the company I just joined here seem like a good bunch.

I work in academia, passing my knowledge on to the next generation!

I love Dublin, I grew up there, with the exception of a few summers here and there I lived there for 30 years. It's my home and I think it's a great city. I just couldn't stand the commuting, the thankless work, the lack of holidays and the cost of living. People in Galway do feel hard done by with wages compared to Dublin but the cost of living is not comparable. Even if you earn 60 - 70 % here of what you would earn in Dublin you would still have more left in your pocket at the end of the month and a better standard of living with it.

ciotog

Sounds like you've worked out a good balance then. You're right about the salaries - people are easily blinded by a number though

death1234567

ciotog wrote: »

I would have to agree with your sentiments on Dublin - I really didn't like the place when I was there.

That's probably because its a smelly overcrowded ****hole. . God I hate Dublin. It is tough get IT jobs in Galway especiallt the high paying ones you get in the big smoke but the quality of life here makes it worth it.