Work in Ireland

Finding a job has become much easier since the advent of the internet. I remember trying to find my first job during the 1980’s in Glasgow, apart from the recession that we suffered at the time, finding a job was a laborious task. I would get the newspapers as soon as they came out and call the ones that I could, some I managed to give me a fax number to fax my CV to, however with most I had to sit and write application letters.

In 1986 I bought my first computer, an IBM, some much of the repetitive tasks were gone over night; now I could just save letters of application and my CV and print them customised for the work application, great.

Fast forward to 2008, man things have changed so much. I have just found a new website - Job Rapido they have taken the idea of search online for jobs one further step forward, so now instead of searching all the different job sites they pull various websites together into a central point - it saves time searching all the different web sites.

Therefore if I now wanted to find a job in Glasgow instead of loads of different searches on many sites I have one area - man I love technology. Go try and see as Jobrapido is bringing the next generation in online recruiting to Europe: Job search rather than Job posting.

Many companies and recruiting agencies post vacancies on their own websites instead of on Job advert sites. Jobrapido provides job seekers with a unique opportunity to search through the vacancies posted on traditional job boards and on all other sites containing employment offers.

Thus, using Jobrapido, job seekers save time and can be sure that they have not missed any job opportunities.

Jobrapido works like a search engine: you just need to enter a job title and location and you get all of the vacancies matching your search criteria that have been posted on thousands of websites.

If you don’t want to check the site every day, you can receive all the latest vacancies directly to your e-mail inbox. By subscribing to the Jobletter you will be notified daily by email of all job vacancies matching your search criteria.

The Jobrapido project began in Milan (Italy) and has already achieved a top three position among the most popular employment related websites in Italy. It has been rapidly developing throughout Europe and South America.

In Europe the Jobrapido sites already provide up to 2 millions of job vacancies arranged according to profession and location.

Since its beginning, the Jobrapido Team has been an enthusiastic, multilingual and multicultural group which aims to create the best European internet platform for online job searches.

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Why do I do it to myself?  I was driving back from Maynooth and I needed something for the computer and thought I would make my life easy by stopping at PC World in Liffey Valley.  Make my life easier - not what happened.

I have known for some time that the service in this shop is crap and therefore I drive a bit further usually and get what I need from PC World in Carrickmines - where the service is amazingly great.

I was only looking for some toner and a cable conversation.

“Hi, can you tell…”

“Sorry too busy just now”  - he walks away.

Fuck - am I some sort of invisible person.

So I try again by asking at the customer service, man imagine putting those two words together when talking about this PC World.

“Hi, can you tell me…”

“Sorry, you will have to get one of the guys on the floor”

“But it says customer service here” - he just laughs, chuckles like I have not yet been switched on.

“Any ideas if I just tell you what I am looking for?”

“Sorry mate.”

Two minutes later I am back in the car wondering why I thought this was a good idea.

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It seems in catholic Ireland this is the best way to get attention.

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I walk with my camera always, you just never know what you might see out and about.

this is of a Dublin Band Called Aortal playing on Grafton Street about a month ago.  There next gig is at Smithfield on the 25th May 2008.  They are Indie and good.

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On a beautiful sunny May afternoon this is the view from Phoenix Park, not so good when you are looking towards the city. But turn around and you have the largest walked and iner city park in Europe on your doorstep.

The park is under used during the week, and gets fairly busy at the weekend. There is horse ridding, Dublin Zoo, the Presidents Residence, running tracks, cycle routes, coffee shops - it is easy to spend a day there just wandering - that is if you can’t get out of the city into the great Irish countryside.

Of all the parks in Ireland this is the best by far - make use of it, in the evening it is safe until at least dark - cricket as you can see below is played there, football all over the place - and don’t miss the heard of wild deer that room the park.

History of the Park

After the Normans conquered Dublin and its hinterland in the 12th century Hugh Tyrell, 1st Baron of Castleknock, granted a large area of land, including what now comprises the Phoenix Park, to the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. They established an abbey at Kilmainham on the site now occupied by Royal Hospital Kilmainham. The knights lost their lands when Henry VIII confiscated monastic properties in 1537 and eighty years later the lands once more reverted to the ownership of the King’s representatives in Ireland. On the restoration of Charles II, his Viceroy in Dublin, Lord Ormonde established a Royal Hunting Park which contained pheasants and wild deer, therefore it was necessary to enclose the entire area with a wall. It was opened to the people of Dublin by Lord Chesterfield in 1745.

All the Facts

The Phoenix Park is the largest enclosed urban public park in Europe located 3 km to the north west of Dublin city centre in Ireland. It measures 712 hectares (1,760 acres), with a walled circumference of 16 km that contains large areas of grassland and tree-lined avenues. The park is home to a herd of wild Fallow deer since the seventeenth century. The name is a corruption of the Irish fionn uisce meaning “clear water”.

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Just a photo while I was out cycling along the Dodder yesterday. It can be a great place to get away from some of the traffic noise in Dublin. There are good paths along most of the river.

The River Dodder (An Dothra in Irish) rises on the northern slopes of Kippure in the Wicklow Mountains. From there it flows for some 20 km through Tallaght and the Dublin suburbs of Rathfarnham, Templeogue, Milltown, Clonskeagh, Donnybrook, and Ballsbridge before entering the Liffey at Ringsend.

The River Poddle is linked with the River Dodder as it flows through Tallaght - this link used to help with Dublin City’s water supply.

To catch sea trout on this river it is best fished in September at night when the river is in spate.

There is a weir just above the bridge at Ballsbridge and the river becomes tidal roughly where the bridge at Lansdowne Road crosses it.

The Dodder and the River Tolka are Dublin’s second largest rivers, after the River Liffey.

The Dodder was one of the major industrial rivers of Ireland for many years and is still dotted with may relic millstreams, weirs, sluices and old factories.  The river corridor supports a rich variety of birds, animals and insects as a special wildlife habitat comprising fast-flowing Areas of water, slow-moving pools, ponds and flooded marshy Area: s around its banks.

The Dodder is seen as the organising element of the recreational open space of Dublin’s southern boundaries extending from the sea to the Dublin mountains where the Dodder rises.  The river connects numerous sports grounds along its length as well as providing fishing to members of the Dodder Angling Association.

In managing the spaces along the river, the objective is to provide access along the river, while safeguarding and enhancing the natural characteristics of the river for recreation and conservation. Dublin City Council.

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St Stephens Green in the centre of Dublin is one of my quiet havens of peace in a city that sometimes seems like it will explode in a chaotic frenzy. At times the city just gets so busy it is good to step away from the noise, the traffic, and the crowded pavements.

I have two favorite place for this. I grab a coffee from somewhere and head either to Stephens Green or walk into Trinity College Dublin.

Stephens Green is normally big enough to find a place of peace, however it can get very busy during warm days in the summer. At other times of the year it is great, to walk in nature in the middle of the city is a real luxury that we can enjoy. The large trees, the birds singing, and the traffic kept at a distance.

This will all change next year. The entrance to the Green will be closed from the Grafton Street end to allow work to begin on the new subway/ Luas line that will connect main stations within in the city. It is great that this is happening, but losing the Green for more than a year is tough.

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Foreigners coming to live in Ireland are surprised at the lack of recycling in Ireland. Following on my my post last week about “Why do they drop rubbish in the Streets?” - I didn’t know the answer to that one.

So imagine trying to jump from there to recycling and encouraging everyone to do so. A tough job - and you would think that someone has to do it - however the Irish Government has little appetite to tackle the recycling problem in Ireland.

I don’t know if the reason is that the population is so spread out that they are not willing to burden the population with the cost. The problem ends up being that rubbish is dumped anywhere - often in the hills outside of Dublin.

Thankfully that has changed somewhat and the authorities no longer charge for the disposal of household rubbish - but that only applies to small household waste and certain types; for instance if you want to dispose of cooking oil properly and take it to one of the centres you will be charged - if you want to throw away any bulky goods you will be have to pay a fee, so furniture, timbers, DIY waste, rubble, you get the picture - so instead of going along and paying the fees, there is a small minority that will just dump this anywhere, and then it has to be cleaned up eventually, meanwhile it lies for weeks, an eyesore on this beautiful land.

Anyway we are now into the summer time hours for the Ringsend Recycling Centre - their address is Pigeon House, Ringsend, Dublin 4 and they are open Mon to Fri 9am - 8pm (until 31st Oct) and Sat and bank holidays 9am - 4pm. Make use of it.

Their slogan is laughable “the less you throw away the less you will pay” - the contrast with Vienna where I lived for a year is amazing. In Vienna there is a local dump near everyone, everyone will take their own rubbish that can be recycled and put it into the separate bins, batteries in one, papers in another, glass in another, there is a bin or skip for everything - all free, clean street they have!

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Finding work in Ireland is still very easy, however there are some basic steps to take before you start.

Have your CV translated into English and have someone who is used to Irish CV’s look at it for you. The lay can be quite different between Ireland and the rest of Europe. The focus of your CV is to get a job interview and not list everything that you can possibly think about yourself. Therefore every CV that you send should be tailored for that particular position.

Reverse chronological order is normal for a CV. Start with your personal details, then education and next work
experience. Layout the work experience, if you can, in the format of bullet points.

Be easy to contact - if you are not in Ireland while applying for jobs, add your full international telephone code, check your email regularly - employers here will not wait around for days for you to get back to them, they expect a reply that day or the next.

Sending speculative CV’s is okay and may yield results. Companies like Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, are always on the hunt for new talent - especially those with more than one language.

If you are replying to a job advert your letter should be short, the letter is to introduce your CV, a motivational letter will not be expected and will be seen as too over the top except for high level positions.

Be prepared for personal questions in the interview, talk about challenges that you have over come and have a few examples from a work place situation. Expect to be asked how long you are intending to stay in Ireland and what other hobbies or activities you under take.

Never be negative in an interview, never criticise a former employer, this will be taken as your character not them.

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The Bad Ass Cafe in Dublin’s Temple Bar area is one of my favorite eating places in Dublin.  Their food is good, very good when compared to the usual nosh around the city.  On top of that it is fairly priced and I never feel hurt by the sight of the bill, however they like others in the city have the awful habit of adding a 10% service charge, bummer.

My other half loves their Goat’s Cheese Salad, I on the other hand either have a burger, delicious, or one of the pizzas, hey somewhere you can get thin and crispy pizza - great.

They are located in Temple Bar just behind the Central Bank they open in time for lunch at 11.30 and close late - enjoy.

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