Career Corner with Liam Horan

Topics today:

Q: I have been working as office manager in a company for the past three months – without actually getting the stripes. The situation was that the previous office manager took ill and they recruited me on a temporary basis to take over the job. Initially, there was some resentment among the other three people in the office – at least two of whom might have felt they should have got the job. But that has now dissipated and we have a happy working environment. One of the two even confided in me that he was glad I had come in as he didn’t feel he would be able to do the job as good I can. Anyway, that’s not my reason for writing to you. What’s bugging me now is that the job is now to be filled on a full-time basis. I had hoped I would get the job without it being advertised, but it has been advertised locally in the media. What should I do? Does this mean they don’t think my face fits? (RK, email)

Q: I’ve been listening to your regular tips, and, while I agree with you assertion that an interviewee simply must ‘talk themselves up’, I wonder if there is a danger they could come across as arrogant. I believe it is important the interviewers like you as a person, and arrogance is rarely a likeable trait. Do you not feel there is a danger you could be giving people advice that could work against them? (DR, email).

Liam Horan, Managing Director, Sli Nua Careers Ltd, talks to Aidan Crowley of Community Radio Castlebar, in Career Corner –  a series of career tips interviews that will be broadcast each Monday on CRC-fm at 5.30pm GMT.

Community Radio Castlebar has a licence from the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland to provide a community radio service to Castlebar and the surrounding environs and was established in June 1995. The station broadcasts seven days a week, 24 hours per day. In June 2007 the station was awarded a further ten year licence for the period 2007 to 2017 on the basis of the business plan submitted to the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland. The station is managed by a company by limited guarantee which has a board of thirteen directors elected from the general membership. The membership is made up of three groups representing local statutory agencies, voluntary and local business groups and individual members of the community. The mission statement of the station is: “The service should reflect the needs in the local community as well as educate, entertain and inform its listeners”