Finding an IT job in Ireland

geodude

Hey guys,

I've finished college this year with a computer systems degree and have been looking for a job for the past few weeks. I would like to focus on web development and have applied for a number of jobs on the usual job sites, jobs.ie, monster.ie, gradireland.ie etc but have not heard back from any of them. Its been 3 weeks now and i must have applied for about 20 positions.

Is it normal to have to wait this long to be called for an interview? All these jobs seem to want 2-3 years experience, which i dont have yet...

Any suggestions guys?
I'm starting to worry now, I've heard that there is a lot of IT jobs out there... doesn't seem to be the case with me.

Should I be looking somewhere different for graduate positions?

starlit

Hey OP, I'm in the same situation as yourself though I finished a higer diploma in computing last year and had already work experience in IT for a few months before the course. I'd suggest for you are the graduate programmes like in various companies not necessary all IT companies like google, IBM, Microsoft but with other companies too that might have IT graduate programmes namely Kerry Group, Deloitte, Accenture and a couple of the foriegn banks and a few other business companies.

It might be worth looking into a business/company locally in your local area if there might be IT positions going thats where the recruitment websites like monster.ie and your college careers website will have these positions advertised and maybe advertised in the paper or a notice board locally.

Word of mouth or someone recommending you in a company if you know of anyone working there or a friend or family might know someone in a company that might help. It might be worth starting small like helpdesk and work your way up depends if its software or programming or another area you want to get into. Would you do a professional cert or a masters maybe or a short IT course with FAS or fetac maybe to keep you occupied until you find a job?

The best recruitment website I think is your college careers website where they have job boards and jobs advertised they are more genuine like, I'd avoid jobs.ie at all costs, irishjobs.ie are ok if ads are from reputable companies rather than recruitment agencies, monster.ie and gradireland.ie I have found are the other best recruitment websites. My horizon website will show up all the recruitment websites that offer jobs so might be handy to look into that and creat a job profile and work on aptitude things on it.

Its imperative to have a professionally laid out CV too. If the CV doesn't get you an interview something is wrong. You may need to have someone professional have a look at it. Applying for 20 jobs is a good start where you are now but you need to be able to get called for an interview after so many applications often could take over 100 before you get an interview whether its a phone or face to face! You got the skills and qualifications, have you enough work experience you can talk about in an interview though? Depends on your work experience, I think you should be aiming for graduate positions rather than job requirements with 2-3 years experience. How much of the job requirements do you meet do you meet all of them or or is it just you don't match the 2-3 years work experience? If thats the case they might get in contact with you but you are competting against people who have 2-3 years even more years work experience. If you meet only some of the requirements they will go for someone who meets more or all of them and they are going to choose the person who has more experience.

I think with IT it takes a while especially now as its an employers market and they can pick and choose and job seekers cannot afford to be fussy anymore you may need to look into other areas outside your field or would you consider unpaid work with WPPs to get you started even for a few months? I know a lot of people with science degrees who are working in shops like! Different I suppose if you have business degrees I guess you are keeping in within your field. You wouldn't think about going to london maybe for a short workplacement? If you could get any job you are well on your way to leading your career into IT that way even though it might be a back door...any bit of work experience whether its in IT or not will help you find a job in IT. Thing to consider about IT you need to keep updating your skills so maybe self help courses or reading books in the latest java programming editions or something like that might be worth reading it will show an interest that you are keen to work in IT! If any of your friends or family that might needs help with IT related stuff give them a shout and let them know you are willing to help even if its to fix a printer or to find a file or something they deleted!

Don't give up, keep trying is all you can do. Best of luck with the job hunting OP!

6679

Great advice snuggles285

Your CV go into your careers office and ask them for advice on your CV as they should know what should go in what shouldnt be there. I got my CV done by someone who did the hiring process for KPMG and now works for the careers office in a London University. I actually got interviews a head of some of my friends even though they had better experience then me due to the fact my CV was better.

It has taken me 6 months (I didnt look for a job during the summer as I was doing a J1), 100s of applications and 10 interviews to get an job offer and I only got that this week. All but 3 of my interviews I got through gradireland.com including the place where I got a job offer from.

What I have found is when you are going for interviews, the smaller companies expect a lot more and you will get grilled but the bigger companies look at your willingness to learn and to have a lot of research done on the role/company.

From my experience I would advice to stay well clear from recruitment agents. May work for some people but not me, sure me and 4 of my friends where all with agents and all of us got jobs on our own.

I have been offered a job with a big Investment Bank in development and I have a lot of experience in web development.

My other mates have jobs with
An house sale/rent website
consultancy firm - few people have jobs here
accounting firm

We all have CS degrees with 2.1s upwards

yeppydeppy

Try recruitireland.com and irishjobs.ie and avoid agencies. Companies in Limerick / Shannon always seem to be looking for web developers.

BostonB

geodude wrote: »

...have applied for a number of jobs on the usual job sites, jobs.ie, monster.ie, gradireland.ie etc but have not heard back from any of them. Its been 3 weeks now and i must have applied for about 20 positions.....

Searching on the web and/or job recruitment sites are not the only way to find a job. Even for IT. Word of mouth and personal contact is as successful. You could also target companies with no current job adverts, that match what you are looking for. Assuming that you do some research on potential companies first. Don't just spam them with some generic application.

geodude

wow, thanks for all the replies guys. Its good to hear i'm not the only person facing this problem.

I would say I am fairly qualified in this field. Been using PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript for a number of years on some personal projects, dont really have much of a portfolio to show off though. I look at the job prospectives and tick nearly all the boxes except for the experience. This is my first real job since college after all.

I had a lot of languages on my CV when I first started applying for jobs, its down to just a few important ones now. I've been updating my CV for the last few years and have been adding a lot of languages which I touched on in college, dont want to draw any attention to these in an interview as a few difficult questions could come up.

To be honest I would rather make a decent effort at finding a suitable job than going into any old job until one pops up. I'm back living with the parents and dont need the cash at the moment... just anxious to get my professional career started. I still go to the university library every few days read up on some topics and to work on some projects. Building a website at the moment using the codeigniter PHP framework and learning the basics of HTML5. Trying to keep up with the latest trends in technology.

I'll definitely have a look around for some local businesses and see if they have any available positions. Living in limerick, dont really know of many places off hand but I'll have to research it I guess...

starlit

geodude wrote: »

wow, thanks for all the replies guys. Its good to hear i'm not the only person facing this problem.

I would say I am fairly qualified in this field. Been using PHP, MySQL, HTML, CSS and Javascript for a number of years on some personal projects, dont really have much of a portfolio to show off though. I look at the job prospectives and tick nearly all the boxes except for the experience. This is my first real job since college after all.

I had a lot of languages on my CV when I first started applying for jobs, its down to just a few important ones now. I've been updating my CV for the last few years and have been adding a lot of languages which I touched on in college, dont want to draw any attention to these in an interview as a few difficult questions could come up.

To be honest I would rather make a decent effort at finding a suitable job than going into any old job until one pops up. I'm back living with the parents and dont need the cash at the moment... just anxious to get my professional career started. I still go to the university library every few days read up on some topics and to work on some projects. Building a website at the moment using the codeigniter PHP framework and learning the basics of HTML5. Trying to keep up with the latest trends in technology.

I'll definitely have a look around for some local businesses and see if they have any available positions. Living in limerick, dont really know of many places off hand but I'll have to research it I guess...

I'd say if you haven't heard from them after three weeks, I be doubtful you hear back from them unless you follow up with them, if you don't hear back from them or delay or not willing to give feedback, just move on and keep applying for jobs. Its important to land you cv at the right desk I suppose and to find the right job for you not necessary perfect but right for you all the same but guess its about risk taking too but go with it what ever happens. If a good opportuntity comes up take it you never know it could do wonders for you career, you won't know unless you try.

Limerick is a fairly good location, The banks might a good place to look when hiring IT graduates but anywhere else like small/big companies is worth looking into. You might need to apply further afield than limerick and look into neighbouring counties and other cities too to get the pick of the bunch, you might get more offers that way and be able to apply for work. If you have you heart set on limerick, consider voluntary work like I said for a few months doesn't have to be a wpp it could be just a company that might take people on for a few weeks.

You have the core languages and they are fantastic. Might be an idea to create an online portfolio of your html and php stuff if you created websites and projects related to them. Its good to show what you have done in your projects, explain briefly of your projects in your CV but focus on one or two major ones that would be relevant to the job you are applying for. Like if its specifically php required for the job just mention your php projects. Its a good idea to keep up to date with new editions of programming languages they often change every so often. That's great that you are keeping up to date anyway at the university library and reading up and creating your own websites in your own time. Shows enthusiasm, initiative, being innovative and willingness to learn. Keep researching companies anyway and see what career path you would like to go.

trellheim

Has anyone any good experiences or can recommend agencies, a mate is starting back after a break, about 9 years experience, and is looking for a good agency to find a perm job.


Ta

irishguy

There are tons of IT jobs out there, but unfortunately you need a few years enterprise experience. Its a bit harder for a grad. Your best bet would be to apply for a graduate program (you may be a bit late for some of them) try gradireland.ie .Companys like accenture, IBM, Ericssons, Deloite, AOL, Canada Life, version 1, Curam, Merrill lynch, FINEOS, Norkom, NewBay, Fidelity, Terra Nua, State street will all have big graduate programs where you will get excellent experience. A lot of it is about who is on our cv as apposed to what you know, so I would go for the big well know companies also I would strongly consider looking at London, as all the big banks are hiring and the money would be good.

That said you have to be very interested in technology (read blogs/tech sites) and getting a decent grades. I would consider doing sun certification or equivalent as this is the kind of thing you will get asked in an interview and it looks like your interested.

Also most recruiters wont bother with you as grad jobs are harder for them to find and they get paid less for placing you. I would go to places like Morgan McKinley (They do all the IDA backed work) as they will have roles at all levels. Any other questions just ask, as I have been in the same position and guys here helped me, now I am doing the interviewing