by Niall Murray | Dec 5, 2012 | General Interest, Uncategorized
What is your role and how long have you been with Collins McNicholas? I returned from London, where I had been working as an IT Recruitment Consultant, in November 2000 and joined Collins McNicholas as a Recruitment Consultant in our Dublin office. Currently, I am a Regional Manager with responsibility for our Athlone (Midlands) and Dublin offices. How did you get into recruitment? I would like to say it was a strategic career decision but I’m afraid I can’t. Redundancy in London in the late 1990’s was the trigger to visit a recruitment consultancy to discuss career options. Of all the career options we discussed, I found the role of the recruitment consultant I was meeting to be the most interesting and I have not looked back since! What are the biggest changes you have seen in recruitment since starting your career in 1998? The biggest changes must include the large queue at the fax machine shifting to the large queue at the one PC that had internet connection to less people sitting at PC’s and more carrying out all their communication through a smartphone. The technology we use to communicate has changed and with it the language we use with an increasing pressure to distil your entire message into a headline as the current generation do not seem to have the desire to read past one paragraph to get a message so I will stop now! What is the last/current book you are reading? The last book I read was ‘Learning and Language’. I have a fascination for what motivates people and influences people to be who they are. This is also linked to my interest to find the best match for an employer when seeking to recruit and for an individual when making a career choice. This has led me to my current further studies in Psychology which this book is a part of. What are your hobbies? Hobbies range from the above further studies in Psychology to Sport. Sport includes the annual pilgrimage of all Mayo football fans to Croke Park, (one of those years we will bring back Sam) to the stars of tomorrow at Lacken Under 10’s. It was fantastic to see Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper and Paul Flynn visit our club recently and see the lift it gave to the underage players (and to a few overage dad’s also). What is going to be the next big thing in recruitment? I think we are already seeing an increased requirement from clients to have a more flexible element to their workforce. Collins McNicholas, and other recruitment consultancies, will need to become genuine partners to their clients, becoming an intricate part of their talent acquisition and talent management process. The requirement from companies to have an element of their workforce as consultants / contractors, temporary staff is increasing all the time. It is incumbent on us to continuously develop and deliver innovative solutions to meet our clients changing hiring...Read More
by Niall Murray | Dec 5, 2012 | General Interest, Uncategorized
What is your role and how long have you been with Collins McNicholas? Regional Manager West and have been with the company 12 years. How did you get into recruitment? I fell into HR with an indigenous Irish company initially to cover a maternity leave – I enjoyed the recruitment element so applied for a recruitment role with Collins McNicholas and here I am today! What are the biggest changes you have seen in recruitment since starting your career in 2000? Really the changes our turbulent economy has thrown our way – ups and downs. Unfortunately the downs were tough in 2008-2009 but we weathered the storm. What is the last/current book you are reading? The Professional Recruiters Handbook – always good to keep up to date with new techniques in our industry! What are your hobbies? I love music, singing & dancing – I run a lot to keep fit. My kids and husband are my main interests outside of work! What is going to be the next big thing in recruitment? I think social media is the way forward and it will constantly evolve to bring new techniques and angles to source talent moving forward....Read More
by Niall Murray | Dec 4, 2012 | General Interest, Recruitment, Uncategorized
What is your role and how long have you been with Collins McNicholas? I am the General Manager of the Collins Mc Nicholas Recruitment & HR Services Group with responsibility for managing our office network around Ireland. I joined Collins McNicholas in September 1998 and set up the North West Regional Office in Sligo and when I say I set it up I literally walked into an empty office with a mac, a copy of the golden pages and lots of youthful enthusiasm. What has changed since …… the mac is long gone , the golden pages has gone online and well as for my youthful enthusiasm!! I hope I still have some of that left!! How did you get into recruitment? I went to Dublin City University and graduated with a degree in Business Studies in 1996. After graduating I was looking around at different career options and also looking at doing a masters in technology when I decided to apply to a number of recruitment firms in Dublin as a career in recruitment had been something that interested me after doing a project on the recruitment process in my final year. I sent out a number of CV’s and letters and got a number of interviews and eventually ended up joining a small specialist recruitment company called The Recruitment Business who specialised in IT and Financial services. It was around the time that the IFSC started to really grow and it was an exciting time to be involved with a growing sector. From talking to colleagues a lot of people end up in recruitment by accident but...Read More
by Niall Murray | Dec 3, 2012 | General Interest, Uncategorized
For the next week we will be getting an insight into the views, experience and personalities of our managers, starting today with our MD, Colman Collins. What is your role and how long have you been with Collins McNicholas? I am the managing Director of Collins McNicholas. I founded the company with my former partner Val McNicholas in 1990 having initially traded as Colman Collins & Associates for 8 months. How did you get into recruitment? I was previously the HR Manager of Nortel Networks and during that time I used the services of some recruitment agencies which were based outside Galway. I thought the service offered by these providers was very basic and felt there was an opening for a recruitment company with a vested interest in the region. What made you decide to start your own company? There was no professional recruitment company in Galway in 1990 and I felt it was a matter of time before someone established an office in Galway so I decided to be the first. A few months later I was approached by Val McNicholas who expressed an interest in buying into the business at which stage we became Collins McNicholas. What prompted you to expand the company to five offices? After the initial success of the Galway office we thought there was potential to expand the service nationally and we successfully expanded the company to 5 offices between 1992 and 2000. What are the biggest changes you have seen in recruitment since you started out? There have been massive changes in the areas of technology and employment law in the past...Read More
by Niall Murray | Nov 30, 2012 | Career and Interview Advice, General Interest, Recruitment, Uncategorized
Networking has become increasingly popular over the last number of years. Examples of networking events include; Open Coffee Mornings, Business Group e.g. BNI, BPW, Network; Chamber of Commerce Meetings and events, College Seminars, Public Networking Events, Marketing Institute of Ireland, ACCA, CIPD, etc. There are networking events happening in every city and town each week so tune into local press or radio to hear details of what is happening near to you. It is vital to use these opportunities and to be proactive while attending – if you are nervous about walking into a room of strangers by yourself then bring along a friend. By attending networking events you get the opportunity to meet new people and introduce yourself into new circles. You have to be prepared to talk – introduce yourself and speak about yourself. Be sure to have your thirty second sales pitch ready outlining who you are and what it is you do or hope to do – perhaps even have a business card with your name, area of expertise and contact details ready to hand out. Networking events assist you in developing a rapport with your peers and potential future employers. You may get speaking to someone from a company that is experiencing a problem and you might have helpful suggestions or solutions for them and this ultimately can lead to an employment opportunity. Networking events give you the opportunity to keep up to date with developments in your profession as many of these events have key note speakers bringing a wealth of knowledge on a particular subject so you can learn while you network!...Read More
by Niall Murray | Nov 27, 2012 | General Interest, Jobs in Ireland, Recruitment, Uncategorized
More than ever, people are using twitter, Facebook and other social media sources to not only learn about what’s happening in the world but also search for that perfect job! Most people agree that that the best way to find a job is through networking. Attending networking meetings, tapping into your own personal network, or asking friends who they know are all good steps. Similarly there are many ways to use social media in order to network, and eventually find a job. It is widely believed social networks allow all parties involved to better search for and reach their target. Social media allows us to network, to find people with like interests, and to meet people who can become friends or customers. It flattens out the world and gives us access to people we never would have been able to meet otherwise. For individuals it is a way to connect and share content with friends and like-minded people. For businesses it’s a way to tap into what people are saying about your brand, your product and/or your service, participate in the conversations, be open to new ideas and then use these insights to make better business decisions However As social media continues to evolve and its uses change and expand it is important to use it wisely and not see it as the holy grail! You’re on the job market so you’re using every tool at your disposal to find your way back into the workforce as quickly as possible and that includes making the most of your internet resources, including social media. But before you rely too much...Read More
