Career Corner with Liam Horan – How to change career after years of self employment

Topics today:

Q: I’ve been running my own plastering business for 25 years.The business is me, full stop: getting the work in, doing the work, listening to what the customer is looking for, invoicing, chasing up the money, and even some of the day-to-day book-keeping. Alas, business is drying up. I’ve fought the good fight for the last few years. I want to find a new job. Problem is, I have no qualifications and don’t really know who’d employ me. Can a ‘jack of all trades’ get a fresh start? (DS, email).

Q: I’ve got the job, and the contract has come in the post. It’s about 90 per cent of what I would want it to be, but I feel the role description is too broad. I know from working in this sector that nobody could fulfil everything they are looking for in the spec. My fear is that this contract could be used to get rid of me down the line. I really want to do the job but should I kick up a stink now? (LN, 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”