Ireland remains attractive for multilingual job seekers

Hays Ireland has embarked on a number of initiatives to find the difficult multilingual candidates that are currently so sought after by large multinationals across Ireland. One of the most exciting is attending events in the candidates' native countries.

German is a popular and difficult language to source for our customers so we decided to sign up for the Bilingual People Specialist Expat and Language Recruitment Fair in Berlin. We had attended a fair organised by the same people in Dublin, back in March which was a great success.

We were slightly concerned that the slaying of the Celtic Tiger had scared people off coming to Ireland so it was important to get a real feel for what the rest of Europe was thinking about us, or in this case, the Germans. We were relieved to find that there were many people, not just Germans, still interested in working in Ireland. Nearly all the people we spoke to were interested in applying for the jobs we had on offer or presenting their CVs for other jobs.

Paul O'Donnell and Martin Kelly from Ireland with Anne Payarolla from Germany

Professionals across Europe are interested in moving to other countries to improve their careers by polishing their second language - in most cases English. Ireland still has huge appeal. When you add in the number of major multinationals who have chosen to locate in Ireland, it is very easy to see why young professionals would locate here.

The multilingual fair in Berlin was a huge success for us, based on the quality and quantity of CVs we received. Since networking in Berlin 4 days ago, we've already arranged numerous interviews and look forward to seeing our first candidates in new roles by the end of the month.

The next multilingual destination is Amsterdam, for the equally sought after Dutch candidates. One good thing about working for a large international company is the support you receive from your native colleagues in the countries you are exhibiting. Our German team were fantastic in supporting us, 'Danke schön!' and we look forward to another wonderful collaboration in the Netherlands.

International assistance from our German colleagues