As we were all enjoying the lull that followed the one trillion euro of quantitative easing that the European Central Bank infused the European banks with, and the second agreed bail out of Greece, along came the Greek elections to throw the political process there into utter chaos, the results of which favoured parties on the extremes that seem to believe that Greece has the option of remaining in the Euro while reneging on all of its austerity pledges.

Now, for the first time in the history of this economic crisis, senior European leaders and finance ministers are openly discussing a Greek exit from the Euro zone. The head of the Irish Central Bank, Patrick Honahan, uttered when must be the greatest understatement of this crisis. He said that while a Greek exit is possible, it will not be attractive.
The fear is that it will be very very ugly, horrendously so. There is no mechanism for a Euro member to leave the Euro, and if Greece has to do so, the fact is that Greece will probably be compelled to exit the EU. In addition to that, Greece will inevitably default on all of its debt. A Greek exit will set a precedent – it will undermine the oft stated immutable fact that no country can or will leave the Euro zone. The consequence will be to spook the markets to the possibility of a Portuguese or Irish default, and horror of horrors – a Spanish or Italian one.

While Europe might have the ability or inclination to firewall Portugal or Ireland, there is no possibility of controlling the conflagaration that would engulf Spain or Italy. There may not even be the inclination to shield Ireland or Portugal – when the burghers of Germany see the Euros that Germans carefully and dilligently salted away evaporate in the event of a Greek default, there is the possiblity that they will retrench and refuse to shield any of the other peripheral nations. At least we appear to be at the point of end game, and in reaching this point we might move past the point of hopelessness and chaos, and begin to pull our way out of this mess.

The one thing that unifies the Chinese and the Germans is a strong work ethic matched with a sense of restraint. And these are cultural traits that the Germans are now trying to foster in the rest of the EU. Hence, we are working longer hours for less, and the Fiscal Compact will enshrine restraint in law across the EU. That will be all very well if it works, but this ‘durch sprung technik’ re-engineering of the peripheral economies of Europe walks a fine line between success and catastrophe, and for the moment the path of austerity appears to be veering towards catastrophe in the likes of Greece and Spain.

Ireland was first in line for the austerity medicine, and can’t seem to get enough of it – In contrast to the other peripheral countries we have been almost hungry for punishment, and have remained diligent in imposing a series of austerity budgets on our staggering populace. There seems to be something of the willingly subjugated about the Irish – we have accepted our punishment almost with a sense of relief, and maybe this is a legacy of us having been eight hundred years under the Imperial heel. Independence and self determination never quite sat well with us, and we comprehensively blew it. We now default to our subjugated state, like abject slaves who had the audacity to flee the plantation; returned now we toil on with downcast eyes and a profound aura of shame. That is how it feels, but maybe – just maybe – we are edging towards a Germanic or Chinese ethic of hard work and restraint, of living within our means, and maybe – just maybe – we will some day stand out on the news feeds with headlines such as: Ireland achieves four per cent growth. Ireland has achieved zero unemployment. Ireland has the highest Gross National Product in Europe. We will be back to those headlines, however this time round they will be based on solid foundations.

This comes as a big surprise as it is the first signs of growth in sixteen quarters, and the rate of growth was very strong by comparison to current International levels. The Central Statistics Office accompanied the report with a nice visual that very clearly shows the rates of employment decline in recent years, strikingly delineated in sixteen large red blocks, nearly all of them pointing South. The biggest one is positioned in the latter quarter of the year Two Thousand and Eight. This one reflects the period of free fall that followed the collapse of Lehmans – this equates to a rapid shedding of eighty thousand jobs, truly a grim and worrying time for the economy. Oddly, there is quite a large decline in the third quarter of two thousand and eleven, and this goes to show why the sudden increase in the last quarter comes as a surprise.

The increases reflect other positive news – specifically in relation to the IT and Hospitality sectors, which have seen an upswing in recent months. Employment within the Information Technology and Communications sector enjoyed its fourth quarter of growth. One would expect that employment in the manufacturing sector would have increased over the last few years in line with surging export numbers; however, this has not been the case – this sector has suffered a consistent decline in employment numbers, and this can only be explained by increased productivity – in other words, making more with less. It seems, though, that the decline in manufacturing jobs bottomed out in the third quarter of two thousand and eleven, and actually saw a slight upswing in the last quarter of the year. The paradox in the figures lies with the Agricultural sector – this area has seen income increases of up to sixty per cent over two thousand and elelven, however numbers in employment in this sector have continued to decrease. It will be interesting to see if this decline is arrested and that this sector will reflect its booming orders in the next CSO quarterly review.

A recent report from Dr Sandi Mann of the University of Central Lancashire states that such an existence can even be detrimental for physical and mental health. Dr. Mann is a psychology lecturer at the University, and she recently presented her findings at the annual conference of the British Psychological Society’s Division of Occupational Psychology in Chester.
Dr. Mann stated that the overwhelming conlusion of her survey is that boredom is often a direct result of a worker feeling unchallenged in their role. This leads to a fulfillment deficit.
Such common ways of coping with workplace boredom include drinking too much coffee and grazing on chocolate and other snacks. She also highlighted a tendency to drink more alcohol at the end of a boring work day.

There are also productivity concerns in her findings – many of those surveyed firmly stated that boredom contributed to a loss of productivity and also caused them to make more mistakes in their work.

Dr. Mann strongly recommends that workplaces promote healthy snacks. Other means of dealing with boredom that Dr. Mann suggests are that workers be required to multi task rather than be locked into repetitive processes – multi tasking and job rotation can add a dimension of novelty to a worker’s role, and lead to increased productivity.

Stress has been traditionally viewed as a consequence of either too much work or a worker having undefined duties or responsibilities. Dr. Mann believes that boredom is in fact that most pre-dominant stressor in the modern work place.

A happy employee is one who will glance up from their work station, and announce: wow, is it five thirty already? This is an employee who as clearly defined and diverse tasks, ones with parameters and achievable goals, ones that allow the worker a sense of achievement at the end of each working day or week. A worker who enjoys these conditions will be one that never has time to be bored.

This is only a slight increase, but hopefully it is one that reflects an improvement in economic conditions. The more cynical – or astute – might claim that it is a due to massive emigration, and this is of course probably true. The headline figure for those on the Live Register would no doubt far exceed this if we did not have the valve of emigration.

The other piece of good news today is the fact that the Industrial Development Authority saw a marked increase on the amount of inward investment in two thousand and eleven. There was also a corresponding increase in employment in IDA supported companies. Inward investment saw a thirty per cent increase on two thousand and ten, while there were thireteen thousand new jobs added in IDA supported companies. This was an increase of twenty per cent on two thousand and ten when there were ten thousand , nine hundred new positions created. Once the shake out of job losses over the year in IDA supported companies is factored in, there remains a surplus of six thousand one hundred and fourteen new jobs created over the last year.

Companies that had sizeable investments in Ireland over the last year included  Intel, Twitter, IBM, Pay Pal, CocaCola, Amgen, Pfizer, Analog Devices and  VMware. Twitter was an especially welcome addition to the pantheon of digital heavyweights that are making ireland their European headquarters. The fact that Ireland can create a cluster of such heavyweights is compelling evidence that Ireland is a suitable destination for inward investment. Further endorsement of Ireland lies in the fact that Intel is creating a half a billion euro expansion of its plant in Leixlip. These are the precedents that will hopefully attract further investment to Ireland.

Exports Lead To Jobs

The budget of two thousand and twelve, by necessity, can not be designed to stimulate the economy. At a time when the economy is gasping for measures that will spur job creation, the Government must further apply the breaks. There was some respite for the lower paid with an increase on the Universal Social Charge band from just over four thousand euro to ten thousand and thirty six euro.

In terms of creating jobs, there was a mixed bag of indirect taxes – fuel surcharges can only have a direct impact on the bottom line, however an increase in DIRT tax is designed to encourage people to spend their savings; if there was to be a lift in consumer spending, there might well be a corresponding lift in jobs. However, an increase in the rate of VAT can only dampen conumer spending further.

My feeling around this budget is that it should not overly dampen the incipient growth that Ireland is now experiencing. It seems that Ireland is experiencing employment growth in certain sectors. Recent positive employment data from America shows an increase of 120,000 jobs last month, however there has been the suggestion that the majority of these jobs are seasonal / retail.

Some hope that this is not the case for Ireland comes from a recent report by  Irish Jobs Site Jobsearch.ie . This free jobs site has seen a steady increase in jobs posted over the year, 2011, and the report categorically affirms that this is not down to any increase in marketing activity. The report states that these increases have been quite sectoral – however, it seems that the majority of extra jobs being created are not in retail or other service industries, and are in areas that seem to be more beneficial to the economy – the preponderance of extra jobs added over the year have been in the IT and Digital Sectors, while there has also been a significant up-tick in jobs that relate to manufacturing, particularly in the pharma and bio-medical areas.

This news appears to reflect the health of our export sector, and if only Europe can sort out the Euro debacle and America finds its form again, then this sector will be given its head and will pull Ireland out of this slump and will hopefully reduce the severity of forthcoming budgets.

With Version One, it is great to see an Irish IT company in expansion. This is a company that has increased turnover by forty per cent and is looking to increase sales by twenty per cent in the coming year.

Information Technology is actually an area that is seeing a shortage of candidates – many Irish IT companies complain that there is an insufficient level of adequately trained jobseekers coming out of Irish colleges, and they are often compelled to look over seas for suitably qualified candidates. The shortage in candidates with the available skills appears to particularly relate to many areas of software and web development, and there seems to be a particular shortfall of Java and PHP developers, and IT / Cloud engineers and architects. This shortfall is often quoted as an impediment to expansion in the IT sector, and is a situation that needs to be addressed if Ireland is to succeed in becoming an international centre for web and IT excellence.

For those whose skills are not so much in demand at the moment, there are opportunities in the Southern Hemisphere. There were close to twelve hundred jobs on offer at The Australia Employment Expo 2011 at the Aviva Stadium over the weekend according to the Irish Times. These jobs were largely in the blue collar, but it is reported that there is a strong demand in Australia for medical candidates. Western Australia has a large demand at the moment for candidate to service the booming oil, gas and mining sectors. In other words, they are desperate for people to shovel their resources into the gaping Chinese mouth.

Australia definitely seems to be an attractive prospect to the Irish unemployed, especially as we endure the dark cold winter evenings, but there has been quite a bit of anecdotal evidence about the negative aspects of working in Australia – firstly, there is the isolation in being so far from home. Secondly, there is the lack of friends or relations – in other words, no sense of community. Thirdly, many emigrants to Australia report that there is something missing in terms of soul or culture. And lastly, there is the rising cost of living – in many places the cost of a coffee is up to 4 euro. That said, there are few jobs here, while Western Australia estimates that it will need one hundred and fifty thousand people to fill jobs over the next five years.

Germany Says No

Humans, on the whole, have a natural propensity towards optimism. If we didn’t, we would never have endured the periodic freezes that punctuated our existence – as our distant ancestors stared at a bleak iced over tundra from the mouths of their caves – as those who have lost their jobs might now be staring out their windows at a bleak overcast commuter estate –  they would have thrown in the towel (or bearskin) if they didn’t have this inclination to hope for better. In fact Anthropologists believe that it was in times of climatic change that we saw major spurts in our evolution – that is the thing about humans: we fight our way out of adversity.

As we will with the current economic crisis. The writer’s natural optimism figures that the Senior Eurocrats have a plan, most likely in the form of the collective issuance of Eurobonds, however it is waiting till the last possible moment before it enacts this plan, as in the interim the basket case countries are implementing austerity and reforms that they would not be inclined to implement if they felt secure in the knowledge that there is a safety net of Eurobonds. This is what is termed Moral Hazard. If they keep the conditions arctic, we will put our heads down and take the pain. If they show us some respite, then we will promptly demand a pay rise and book the sun holiday.

According to today’s Daily Telegraph Europe is owning up to a plan – it appears that the first technical discusions are being had on what it terms ‘stability bonds’.

Germany is of course reluctant to agree to universal bond that will see a higher rate imposed on its bonds. However, the imperative is relentless – Spain is beginning to suffer impractical spreads on its bonds. Whatever about Germany’s reluctance, or the reluctance of the seventeen nations of the eurozone to surrender something of their fiscal sovereignty, circumstances are passing them by – it will be a choice between a compromise or disaster.  However, from the prow of this sinking ship the German finance minister stridently protests about the dangers of moral hazard. The idea of the lazy Greek resuming  the indolent life of living off the fat of German land has become the German nightmare.

While, of course, in an ideal World it is ideal to be able to pay out high social welfare payments, the Department seems to be shifting the burden of cuts onto the private sector employers and this policy can only serve to further strain company cash flows and jeopardise existing jobs and future job creation.
The banner proposal is to compel employers pay the first month of an employees sick leave, regardless of pre-existing employment contracts.  This is estimated to shave one hundred and fifty million off the Social Protection bill each year.

Further announcements include the fact that Public Sector will see some constraints applied to their rates of annual leave, with minimum allowances being reduced to a minimum of twenty two days per annum to a maximum of thirty days depending on grade.

There doesn’t seem to be any clarification at this point as to whether this will be only applied to new entrants to The Public Sector – if so, unlikely to make much difference as there is an ongoing hiring freeze – or if it is something that is to be applied to existing Public Sector workers. If it is a case that it is to be applied to existing workers, there will no doubt be the usual digging in of heels by the Unions. Their recalcitrance in the face of such issues has already been evident in the battles they fought over the eighty something leave days per annum that FAS workers have been entitled to in the years preceding retirement – this to all sane people is a ludicrous situtation, explained away as necessary to prepare FAS workers for the transition to retirement – nevertheless, the unions thought it justifiable and fought to maintain this. If the Governentt is to continue the destructive policy of squeezing more cuts from the private sector, it is only because they are eternally intimidated by these barmy Public Sector union officials.

There seems to be an early limitation in this idea as Google + is accessed by a User’s personal Gmail account (Avatar names or pseudonyms are not permitted) and only one user can be an administrator of a Google + business page. This raises the problem within a company of allowing only one user to create the company business page, and of tying it to that user’s personal Gmail account. There does seem to be a commitment to allow more administrators in the near future.

As regards how Irish business will utilise this, judging by the general utilisation of Facebook and Twitter by Irish companies, things don’t look too promising. The sad fact is that Irish business mostly sees Social Media as a box to tick – In other words, we need to be seen to have a company Facebook page or Twitter account. The fact is that most businesses miss the point – Social Media can be leveraged for consumer engagement and brand building. The general trend seems to be to put up a Facebook page, a post saying Hi!, then maybe another cursory post, and more often nothing. The same with Twitter. Most businesses see Social Media as a chore that pays no apparent dividends. The clever businesses create original content, share relevant content, and update their communities on new products and services. They see Social Media as a valuable engagement tool – a two way conversation with their consumers. They are open to criticism and they take it and deal with it, and in doing so they can often enhance their product or service. Social Media represents a valuable End User Testing group. The key is to nurture it, to contribute to it, and to never lose interest.

This report is based on the NCB purchasing manager index which showed that the Irish Manufacturing sector saw a marginal increase in production last month. This is the first increase that the sector saw in five months, and the report is based on an increase in new orders from export markets.

This puts Ireland in stark contrast to other Euro Zone countries where the decline in manufacturing has proved to be worse than previously thought. The Eurozone Purchasing Managers’ Index has seen a decline from a figure of forty eight point five in September to a figure of forty seven point one for October. This is indicative of the relentless slide towards recession that Europe seems to be suffering.

Meanwhile, the Purchasing Managers’ Index in Ireland has managed to remain above the fifty mark for the third month running – to ride above fifty indicates that an economy is in growth which to dip below it indicates economic contraction. By comparison, the wider Eurozone has seen the Purchasing Managers’ Index stubbornly remain below the fifty mark, with a figure for factory output declining from forty nine point six to forty six point six for October.

The contraction extends even to Germany, and that news along with a threat to France’s credit rating, is singularly ominous for the ‘Euro Experiment’. Add to that a sudden increase in unemployment in Germany, and the one certainty is that we live in ‘interesting’ times. It is actually a Chinese curse to say: may you live in interesting times!

In the past, Ireland managed to sit out the European dark ages – a little ‘keeper of the light’ on the periphery – but even with these instances of good news, Ireland will find it hard not to be affected by the upheavals that are convulsing the European mainland, or more specifically the Eurozone. An essential requirement for an export led recovery is to have a thriving export market. It won’t be only our Euro export markets; there is the potential here for a crises that can ripple out to The UK, America and beyond.

The major impediment to steady jobs growth in this economy lies in the difficulties that the SME sector faces. The fact is that small business in Ireland face a perfect storm of squeezed off credit and poor consumer sentiment. If credit can be restored well then all else will follow, however banks are keeping a very tight hold on the purse strings, partly to meet the stringent liquidity rules that have been imposed on them by regulators.

Even with that, a recent report from IBEC shows grounds for optimism. IBEC undertook a business sentiment report in early October, and the main points of interest in this report are that at least half of Irish businesses intend to retain all of their staff in the coming three months, while a quarter of all businesses surveyed intend to hire new staff in the coming months.

Unfortunately though, it seems that Multinationals hold a deficit of optimism over Indigenous business, with the ICT and Medical Devices sectors proving to be the most upbeat. Indigenous Irish business with an export function are doing well, and are most optimistic – they have been busy in the last few years gaining competitiveness and leveraging new markets. In fact, all of Irish business have been actively involved in the last few years in cutting the slack in their operations and gaining competitiveness and this has helped lift the balance sheet and as a consequence managerial optimism.

In light of ongoing turmoil in Europe, the very fact that Irish business can maintain this optimism and increase exports suggests that the Irish economy might be straining at the leash, and that if a solution can be found to all of this uncertainty around the Euro the Irish economy will see a massive surge of growth, and a consequent diminishment in employment. At least it’s nice to think that might be the case.

To make it in your chosen sector, be passionate about it. Give it everything. The people who do well in are the people who have a genuine passion for what they do. Yes, have a good CV, but also have a fantastic online presence. Maybe start a blog, share your knowledge, flaunt your expertise and insights. Enhancing your own brand online is a very good idea.

Join Twitter; follow people you respect or companies you admire. Many companies are now using Twitter as a recruitment tool. Source content which interests you and tweet it to your followers.

Linkedin is one of the most innovative tools in recruitment. We spend on average 60% of our days looking at profiles. Ask your colleagues or former boss for Linkedin testimonials. Connect with people within your industry. Look at the groups your prospective work colleagues are on and join them.
Recruiters search companies via keywords, Let them find you. Fill out all the keywords you can.

On Linkedin there are some industry groups you can join for free and attend their events (once a month), for free. Industry professionals attend these events and this is a great way to get to know people in the industry, (follow them on twitter and Link with them on linkedin).

Get daily updates from Blogs, keep abreast with the latest news, sign up for ezines. If you go into an interview and mention something about the industry which is relevant and have a discussion you will automatically start to put yourself at an advantage.

It’s important to research the companies where you would like to work for: use Google to look up any recent news, go onto the website look for recent press releases. Anything you can find about their history is valuable. Any testimonials on Linkedin, if the company has a linkedin/FB/Twitter page, make sure to follow them.

Just some tips from a Recruitment Consultancy point of view – get testimonials from bosses and colleagues you worked with in your internship and place them on your Linkedin profile. Then research recruiters: both companies and individuals. Engage with those companies and individuals: follow the company Facebook page, connect with the recruiter on Linkedin. Don’t do job enquiry emails with every recruiter in town in the CC field – we instantly delete all emails like that. Personalise each email enquiry you send out.

The best of luck.

Many companies devote a lot of funds and resources to training and facilitating sales personnel. A lot of thought goes into the process, and the marketing department acts like a support arm to the sales department, ensuring that the product and brand is polished and presentable, and targeting it to markets where it meets with a higher demand.

Many people enter sales, only few make a career of it. A true sales professional will sell to needs. They will not pressurise or endeavour to con a customer – there is truth in the maxim that a good sales professional should endeavour to make a customer rather than a sale.

For those seeking a job in sales, there are a wide array of areas that they can focus on. It need not conjure up the cliched image of a sales person knocking on a door and trying to sell a vacuum cleaner or encylopedias. There are sales jobs in every conceivable sector of the economy – medical sales, corporate sales, van sales, car sales, B2B Sales (business to business), B2C Sales (business to customer ), Advertising sales, Agency sales. And there are an equally large amount of specific roles – Account Directors, Account Managers, Business Development, Sales Support to name but a few.

Those making a career in sales, often are individuals who enjoy variety, and working autonomously. They enjoy working to and attaining targets, and they of course enjoy the trappings that a successful sales career can bring.

Jim

 If you are trying to get your first job in sales it might be a good idea to avail of the JobBridge scheme and use the internship opportunity to learn the secrets of the trade first.

JobBridge is the Government’s national Internship Scheme  where jobseekers have a chance of gaining 6 or 9 months experience and the opportunity is not exclusive to graduates but it is also open to those who would like to break into a new sector and learn the required skills. An internship will provide the real workplace application for theoretical knowledge and opportunity to gain new skills while providing the added benefit of an assigned mentor’s experience and guidance.

On top of the existing social welfare entitlements interns receive €50 a week from the Department Social Protection. The host company can also cover the out of pocket expenses but any other payments could influence the Benefit in Kind and social welfare status and are therefore not to be expected. Companies such as KPMG, AerLingus, TV3, Accenture and HP are participating and there are more than 2,600 internship opportunities available across Ireland at the moment.

To qualify for a Jobbridge internship you will need to be on the Live Register and certify that you have been receiving Jobseekers Allowance/Benefit or signing for Social Insurance Contribution Credits  for at least 3 months. Applications will be accepted until June 30, 2011.

JobBridge scheme has provided internship opportunities to 1,124 people so far which an impressive amount is seeing that it was only launched in July.

Jobbridge scheme has launched a regional roadshow in Athlone yesterday and will take it to Galway – Septemebr 28, Cork – September 30 and Limerick – October 12. The roadshow aims to encourage companies to create internship opportunities.

Some of the internship opportunities to date have been questioned by the online community, and those that were clearly in breach of the scheme’s objectives have consequently been removed from the program. Some organisations have advised external involvement in the scheme to keep the confidence in the initiative, but so far the jobseekers have effectively reported any questionable internship opportunities.

If you qualify for the scheme and want to gain new skills or put the ones you have learnt in theoretical environment into practice Jobbridge Internship can be just the right step on your career path.