From September to November each year Irelands top graduate recruiters visit colleges to advertise their graduate programmes on offer. This event known as the milkround provides students with a great opportunity to meet with company representatives, gather more information on relevant traineeships and therefore make more informed career decisions.

It’s not just the guys here at Gradpool that see the value in attending recruiters’ presentations; your peers think so too. TMP Worldwide produced a report this year in which one of its findings was 88% of the students surveyed planned to visit employers at a campus fair this autumn.

Typical graduate recruiters that participate include PWC, Accenture, Kerry Group, Jameson and Aldi, all leading companies in their own right. Irelands biggest banks used to participate too but due to…. well you know the rest.

Most of the companies like those mentioned above will have fewer vacancies than previous years making landing a grad programme more competitive than ever. So do yourself a favour and take your head out of your assignments for a moment.

Gradpool

Nice one Sarah! An 8.5 out of 10 on the Gradfart meter!

Gradpool.ie for graduate jobs!

Here is a video outlining the aims of the project and below is the full press release and programme contact details….

Creating Champions of our Smart Economy

Innovo Training & Development and the Institute of Technology Tallaght (ITT)* have received €280,000 in funding to launch the pioneering Enterprise Evolution Programme (EEP); www.enterpriseevolution.ie. The funding was secured under the €20m Labour Market Activation Fund (LMAF) announced earlier this year by Tánaiste Ms Mary Coughlan to encourage and stimulate job creation. The Fund, a European Social Fund initiative, received 370 tenders and 26 were selected for funding of which Innovo is one of 4 private companies leading a winning tender.

Currently there are unprecedented numbers** of graduates and industry professionals with science, technology, engineering and business backgrounds who are unemployed. The EEP will take 80 of these currently unemployed individuals and through an intensive period of up skilling and retraining will facilitate them to create new, innovative and export led enterprises. These enterprises will become champions of our smart economy.

Speaking about the new programme, Declan Byrne, Director of Innovo Training & Development said “Many individuals who are currently unemployed are highly educated and skilled industry professionals across a range of disciplines. The EEP will provide a unique outlet to harness the ideas, creativity and expertise of these individuals to the benefit of our economy through the creation of innovative and export led enterprises while at the same time up-skilling and retraining participants in a range of smart economy area.”

Commencing in September 2010, the Enterprise Evolution Progamme will, over 2 rotations up-skill and lead participants to a diploma in ‘Enterprise Innovation’. The programme will take participants out of their educational specialism’s and broaden their skills base, in line with the objectives of national policy, particularly the ‘National Skills Strategy’, ‘Delivering the Smart Economy’ strategy and the continual fostering of an entrepreneurial culture in Ireland.

International best practice highlights that it’s the cross pollination of graduates in the science, technology, engineering and business disciplines that drives real innovation and value for existing organizations and for the creation of new enterprises. The practical application of this best practice through the EEP can assist Ireland’s economic recovery and add significant value to our balance of payments.

Speaking about the EEP Dr. Conor McCormack of MCor Technologies said “MCor Technologies are delighted to be ambassadors for the EEP. We feel that this programme will have numerous positive benefits to both participants on the course and the wider economy in general. Ireland has a highly educated and creative pool of talent that requires a medium like the EEP to develop world renowned organizations. Innovation and creativity were the key to the successful development of our business, and who knows the innovations that can be developed for Ireland Inc through a structured programme of activity like the EEP. ”

This holistic programme has both the personal and professional development of individuals who participate as its core. The essence of the programme is that participants are granted the freedom to create, explore and develop ideas and themselves in a supportive and innovation led environment. The EEP will create Smart Economy champions with extensive problem solving, creativity, team working, research and entrepreneurship skills. Graduates of the programme will also have a full appreciation of the challenges and nuances of delivering economic value through export led start-ups, R&D and intellectual property creation.

Speaking about the implementation of the EEP Pat O’Donnell of IT Tallaght said “This programme will provide a platform for skilled and experienced, but currently unemployed, graduates to broaden their knowledge of new and developing global industries. A unique feature of this course is that participants will engage in peer to peer learning facilitated by industry experts, leading academics and successful entrepreneurs to create new and innovative enterprises and solve innovation problems”

There are a number of key outcomes that this project hopes to achieve, which are as follows:
1. Participants will progress to start their own export led innovative enterprises
2. Participants can progress onto other enterprise incubation programmes such as the M50 Enterprise Platform Programme
3. Participants can access further education at level 8, 9 and 10 on the NFQ (Masters and PhD)
4. Participants will improve their employability profile and be recruited into R&D in the public and private sector
5. Participants will achieve a special purpose award in ‘Enterprise Innovation’ equal to a value of 60 credits at Level 8 on the NFQ accredited by IT Tallaght.

* (the Synergy Business Incubation Centre and the Department of Lifelong Learning are the units within ITT that are involved)

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For further course details, contact:
Orla Doyle, Training Manager, Innovo Training & Development:
Phone: 087 671 4117
Email: odoyle@innovotraining.ie
Web: www.innovotraining.ie

Join our Gradpool.ie Fantasy Football League by visiting fantasy.premierleague.com and joining our private league using the code 57366-19307 to be in with a chance to win a €50 Manager of the Month Prize.

You must join before the beginning of the month to be entitled to the prize. The Gradpool team have the right to refuse admission if you’re team is deemed to be excessively populated by absolute rubbish!

X Factor Nominate the Judges Competition

Win 2 tickets to see MGMT at the Olympia on the 17th September!

To win the tickets you must nominate a replacement judge for Danni Minogue and give a reason why they’re suitable.

The Top 3 comments with the most “Likes” on our Gradpool.ie Facebook page will go through to the final with our highly unskilled judging panel deciding the winner.

Hint: We’re all for shits and giggles in here so the funnier the answers the better. Your comments can be as degrading as you like so long as you don’t cross the decency line!
Competition closes 15th September.

Best of luck,

Dave and Andy

“Cheryl Cole said I’m adorable Gerrrrrrruuuuuuuuup!!!!!!!”

75% – Good hygiene & Cleanliness
72% – Humour
68% – Firm handshake
64% – Sit up straight and smile
62% – Ideal C.V. length of 2 pages

And the below items unfavourably…

92% – Unexplained gaps in C.V.’s
78% – Mobile phone on
62% – Incorrect spelling/grammar
27% – Creative font use

Confidence comes with preparation
Preparation is paramount. The number one reason graduates get nervous in interviews because they fear they may not be able to adequately answer a particular question. It is likely the first section you will be asked about after you are given an introduction to the company/role will be your C.V. This is an excellent opportunity to generate some confidence and get rid of the shakiness in your voice.

The classic areas to prepare well for are:
1. Your C.V. Know it inside out. It is the only topic you are 100% certain will arise during the course of the interview. It’s like knowing one of the questions on an exam paper in advance. As graduates, this should be easy as you would likely have very little relevant experience to the role you are applying. Graduates should therefore talk about how they made a difference to their part time jobs, what they achieved, and how much trust & responsibility they earned.

2. Educate yourself about the company, the role, the industry and also why you want to work for them instead of a applying for a similar role with their competitors. Interviewers often ask candidates what advantages the interviewee thinks their offering has over their competitors.

3. Hobbies/Lifestyle etc. This is your opportunity to stop pretending you are a robotic emotionless professionally blinkered workhorse who wants nothing more than to make more money for prospective employers, and tell interviewers what kind of person you really are. The majority of them will ask you what you do for fun. If you’re into going to jungle music gigs, base jumping, celebrity stalking or stamp collecting – tell them!

Or alternatively take some of Frankie Boyle’s advice!

My name is Dave and I am one half of the Gradpool.ie team. Our plan is to use this blog to let you guys know how myself and Andy are getting on as recent graduates running our own business as well as giving you info that may be of use to you in your hunt for a job……and also having as much craic as we can along the way too… 

The Proverbial Creek

So… You’ve studied hard for 3 or 4 years, you’ve finished your exams and you’re relaxing over the summer… What’s your next move? If you’re like one of the vast majority of graduates and don’t already have a job/graduate programme lined up, you’re very much up the proverbial creek… paddleless… So where do you start? Do you put yourself through the anguish of trawling through jobs websites or newspapers every day? Do you register with a results driven recruitment agency who won’t have your best interests at heart?

Both myself and Andrew found ourselves in this situation and thought that there just had to be a better way of finding a career. Over a couple of nice cool pints one night Gradpool.ie was born and here we are. If you haven’t already signed up why not create your profile for free and start applying for graduate jobs here.

New look site…

Now that the new look site is ready to go, we hope to rapidly develop Gradpool.ie into a market leader. We aim to be the first place that students think to look for graduate jobs in Ireland and to finally make the annual graduate job hunt less strenuous for you all.

Facebook and Fantasy Football!

Become a fan of or ‘Like’ Gradpool.ie on Facebook to have a chance to win excellent prizes.

The first opportunity to have a bit of banter with us will be the Gradpool.ie fantasy football league. Register @:Fantasy Premier League – a Fantasy Football Game for the Barclays Premier League

Once registered, follow this pathway; Leagues > Manage leagues > Create/Join and then paste the following code into the ‘Join a private league’ box: 57366-19307

Membership of our league is completely free and members have the chance to compete against Gradpool.ie staff, their friends and also the chance to win one of our Manager of the Month awards to the value of €50 and an overall first prize for the Manager of the Year to the value of €300. To be eligible for these prizes participants must be fans of Gradpool.ie on Facebook!

So, the very best of luck with the job search. Check back here regularly for more updates.

Cheers,

Dave

The Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin has encouraged Irish graduates to apply for new positions that will shortly be available in the European Union institutions. It is expected that more than a thousand positions will be offered annually to graduates from across the EU to work as administrators, linguists and support staff in the EU institutions. More information is available here.

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Leading Irish Tech Entrepreneurs to Deliver Seminars at NovaUCD

Colm Lyon, founder and CEO of Realex Payments, will launch the 14th NovaUCD ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ lunchtime seminar series next Wednesday, February 24. Realex Payments, a leading European payment service provider, offers a broad range of online payment services for over 3,500 domestic and international clients and currently employs over 70 people. Last November Colm was presented with the ‘Internet Hero Award’ at the Eircom Golden Spider 2009 Awards. This ‘Entrepreneurs Live!’ seminar series, organised by NovaUCD in association with theDún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Enterprise Board, will also feature three other leading Irish technology entrepreneurs, Howard Beggs, John Lynch and Ray Nolan. The aim of the seminar series is to promote a spirit of entrepreneurship among the academic, research and student populations at University College Dublin and beyond.

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Turmec Teoranta, a Meath based engineering firm is looking to recruit two engineers on six month contracts. A degree in Mechanical Engineering with experience in a steel fabrication environment and 2-3 years of pro engineer experience. For more information click here.

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Ion Trading are looking to hire a Strategic Marketing Analyst and a Sales Controller to its Dublin office. For more information click here

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If you have any news, thoughts or opinions on the graduate job marketing we would love to hear from you so drop me a line.

Cheers

The Gradpool Team