Know the true value of your skills
By Mick O’Connor, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers Athlone Last year I had a conversation with a job-seeker while presenting at a careers fair. He made a comment that prompted a conversation I hope was ultimately of benefit to him. He stated that “my CV really isn’t that good because the only thing I’ve ever […]
Your biggest achievements to date
It is important to recognise our key achievements to date. They might have been in a different field to the one you are now in; they might even have been in your community life, or on a sports field or stage, but these achievements can be extremely powerful in terms of selling yourself to a […]
Career Corner with Liam Horan @CRC1029fm September 1st 2014
Liam Horan, Sli Nua Careers Ltd, talks to Aidan Crowley of Community Radio Castlebar – a series of career tips interviews that will be broadcast each Monday on CRC-fm at 5.30pm GMT. This week: Here we deal with these issues: QUESTION Q: I’ve just finished college. Reality looms, and it might even bite. What should […]
A different CV for each job application?
Q: Do I change my CV for each job application or maintain a large stock of my “current CV” and use that continuously? Mark McDonald, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers Dublin, replies: I have presented to, and spoken with, numerous job seekers throughout the country over the last few years. A common question which keeps […]
Let’s have more ‘I’, please
By Patricia Maloney, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers It’s more ‘I’ than ‘we’: this is a point I find myself making to interview training clients on a regular basis. “We put a very good system in place,” they say. Or “we achieved record sales”. In job interviews, it’s important to keep the ‘I’ in there. […]
Overcoming the vacuum so you can excel in Skype interview
Q: I’m being interviewed by Skype next week for a job. The position is overseas and I have the skills and experience to do it, but I am worried about the Skype interview because all the other candidates will be interviewed in person. I fear Skype may be impersonal and I am concerned I won’t […]
Old dog can still break from the traps, our weekly column from various newspapers around Ireland
By Liam Horan, Career Coach & Managing Director, Sli Nua Careers Q: I’ve been called to interviews. My immediate reaction was to run a mile. I haven’t done an interview since I left school, and that’s not today or yesterday – let’s put it this way, I’ve lived through my fair share of currency changes. […]
Blind alleys left me out in the cold
Q: I went for a job interview last week. I had myself all prepared to tell them exactly what I felt they needed to hear – my experience, and how that experience relates to their company. The interview panel comprised three people: but, really, it was like just one. He was a compulsive talker – […]
Handling the salary question
By Sabina Trench, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers We have talked here before about kicking to touch if asked the salary question in the first interview. LD (via email) asks if we have specific phrases she can use if she finds herself facing the salary question. Generally, we discourage the learning of lines, but […]
Bottom-up approach can make CV writing easier
Writing a CV can be a real nuisance. How can I wade through my professional career, studies, voluntary work, additional training, and everything else to produce a two-page document of just 800 words without driving myself doolally? Brevity can be a challenge for most people, which explains why a significant number of the CVs I […]