Would anyone be able to help in this situation?

valdigre

She joined me in Ireland last year, July, coming from Central Europe.
I have been working here in IT and she was working in another country as Sales representative/office manager (for many years).
Her English is currently as it needs to be for a similar job in this country, as for the experience, I am sure it is more than enough, but...

That is the problem... Ever since she arrived here, she cannot find a job on a similar position and by a similar position I mean an "office" job: secretary, sales representative, office manager, assistant etc. She chose to work as waitress and other positions just to earn money and pay the bills, in the mean time...

But she cannot stand it anymore and I cannot blame her. She is wondering about leaving Ireland and going back home which would essentially also mean us splitting up... I do not want this to happen but I cannot her... I feel helpless...

I don't have influential friends or friends that have friends that could offer her a job or at least an interview, chance.

She sent CV thousand times and hardly anyone came back with anything, even "No, thanks". We tried finding her a course that would confirm her skills and be some kind of a door to the Irish employers, but it seems that those courses cost a fortune and hardly give anything in return - at least this is what career advisors told us.
We went to welfare, but they could not offer us any help, because she had not enough tax contributions etc... They even could not offer her any relevant courses because she was working... As a waitress... And courses/free trainings or placements are for unemployed...

She tried recruitment agencies, but they were not helpful at all, after checking her CV we were just told that it is fine and they will come back to us. They never did.

I don't know what to do anymore, I know that it is not really that easy to find a good job but it seems to be nearly impossible to be even given a chance if you are immigrant without any Irish experience... I guess IT and maybe other sectors could be an exception.

She gets depressed, stopped believing in herself, her skills, worthiness and tears just come to my eyes as well when I see her in this condition...

Would anyone be able to help in any way, direct us, point us to something we can do?

I am sorry if this message sounds begging, stupid, childish or whatever, but I don't care, I just want her to be happy and help her.

She is an environmental engineer after University, I cannot let her work in restaurant anymore...

draiochtanois

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valdigre

But she is not trying to find a job as environmental engineer, set aside the fact that her English would not be technical enough for this kind of position.

But her English is technical enough for office related duties and responsibilities, we even invested in some courses here however she does not have any certificate from Cambridge like organisation.

She has a technical education, is smart and ambitious however her work experience is not even related to environmental engineering.

She is 25 and has more than 4 years experience as secretary/sales representative/office manager and she is trying to find something similar here. To no avail...

draiochtanois

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BizzyC

Have you had her cv & cover letter reviewed?

I've seen plenty in the past where a person claims to be fluent in English, but the cover letter reads very differently.

valdigre

Well, I guess I cannot be the judge to decide if her English is perfect regardless if it is spoken or written, can I? I guess some certificate would be nice to validate that, but at this point, she does not have one.

I guess everything is clear once a recruiter invites for interview and they have a chat?

That did not happen but I have seen her cover letters and they were perfectly fine.

draiochtanois

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gandalf

The problem is that there are an awful lot of people chasing jobs of that type still and if there is a question mark over her English language skills then she is going to the bottom of the pile unfortunately.

Are there any jobs being advertised in Telesales or Customer Service with her native language. There are a large number of multinationals here who are always looking for multilingual employees. Depending on the companies the initial pay can be low but once you are in other more appropriate opportunities could open up to her.

allibastor

If I could make a suggestion, your lady has work which could actually make her a valuable asset to a technical recruitment agency.

She has a technical background, good English and a different language.

Recruitment companies in Dublin are always on the look out for good candidates for internal office positions.