Is Returning to Work After Maternity Leave a Trick or a Treat?

Anne-Marie's son Harry the Dinosaur

Anne-Marie Walsh shares her experience of maternity leave and coming back to work in Hays as an IT Business Intelligence Consultant.

Almost a year ago, I went on maternity leave from Hays. I was like a kid leaving school for a very long mid-term break.  I was ready to go. Although planning a business intelligence event to coincide with my last day of work, (while being approximately 36 weeks pregnant) was not in fact one of my more einsteinien ideas!

I looked forward to maternity leave, my mind conjured up idyllic scenes of baby massaging, long lazy lunches with other mummies and general bonding bliss with my baby.   I did have some appreciation at that point of the nappies, feeds and late nights but I preferred not to dwell on that. 

Eleven months later and maternity leave is now a distant memory.  What was a bump is now a healthy hearty boy, a little man in the making.  Six months went by in what felt like four weeks.  I remember getting asked if I had to go back to work. I did, but I also wanted to. 

I love my new little man unconditionally.  Weekends are a newfound treasure where all I want to do is chill out with him (sometimes he gets annoyed and insists I let him go to bed). But the working week is great, my head needed it and I needed it. 

You'll be seeing plenty of Halloween masks tonight. But I think we all use masks on a daily basis to differentiate work from our personal lives.  The thing with going on maternity leave and then returning to work is that, for a while, it is confusing as to which mask you should be wearing. 

I wear the work mask and get motivated by getting the right people for the right job.  I also get energy from my client and candidate interaction and finding out about the market changes in the last six months.  They hadn’t changed too much - Oracle and Microsoft business intelligence experts were still highly in demand.

I also get to actually drink a warm coffee (new mums understand a sup of warm coffee while handling a new baby is the Holy Grail) and socialise with colleagues once more.  But in the evenings there is a change.  It is no longer ‘Oh I have worked a very long day I deserve to put my feet up…or do yoga…or some such thing’. Now it’s like a military operation… pick up your baby, make a gazillion bottles for your baby, make other food for your baby, clean up after your baby, bath your baby and try and play with your baby.

A discourse on ‘mindfulness’ is pervasive in health and psychology media at the moment.  It comes from eastern traditions and involves paying conscious attention to experiences as they unfold, so your head is neither caught in the past, or the future, but in the present.  Having a baby taught me to be more mindful.  Instead of wondering what I should be doing now or what I would be doing in ten years I had to be present and attending to a hungry, sleepy and at times, smelly little creature.  This was no time for daydreaming.  Equally, with the return to work it has struck me that one way to negotiate the work life balance is to be more mindful.  So when you are at work focus fully on that and when you are with your little person, give that your full attention. I suspect this may be more difficult than it sounds but a good thing to strive for nonetheless. 

I also figure this can’t be all bad for my little man.  He has a relatively competitive mum.  If I wasn’t chipping away at my own monthly plans I would be monitoring his developmental milestone and putting in some performance improvement measures. I suspect Crèche may be a breather for this baby! Some people choose to be working mums, some choose to be stay-at-home mums, others don’t have a choice.  I want to be a happy mum and for me that involves trying to balance home and work life.  It helps to be working in Hays, an organisation that supports that. 

Coming back to work has had its challenges, yes I am super busy and yes I have had the odd maternal pang of guilt, wanting to extend the weekends….  But I like being busy and I think it makes you value the time you have with your little one all the more.  I also value work more. Being a stay-at-home mum would actually have been a very bad career choice for me.   I always was a nerdy child so I identify with those kids that enjoy leaving school for the mid term break but really are secretly ready to go back next Monday morning.  

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Anne-Marie Walsh

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IT Recruitment Consultant
HAYS Recruiting experts in Information Technology

2 Dawson Street Dublin 2
 T: +353 1 6190505
E: anne-marie.walsh@hays.com

Life as a CoderDojo Mentor

I have been mentoring in DCU CoderDojo since May 2012. I heard about DCU CoderDojo from a friend on Facebook who was mentoring in Kilkenny.

I wanted to check out what it was all about but had no intentions of mentoring for several reasons. More than anything I felt I wouldn't have the confidence or the ability to teach. I decided to bring my nieces along to see if this would be something they'd be interested in. While there I got chatting to Stephen Howell one of the mentors about CoderDojo and I changed my mind. If I could help my nieces, I could help other children.  As I was on maternity leave, I felt mentoring would be a great way for me to keep in touch with programming. 

It has been an amazing journey working with the young people attending @DCUCoderDojo. We teach gaming and then move on to what is called CoolestProjects.  CoolestProjects is where young people use what they learned in CoderDojo to develop their own projects for a competition.

In DCU Chris (15) and Chloe Burke(16) worked on a project called Theorem App for the competition and Caitriona Carrigan (15) worked on a website where the user could play the guitar, drums or piano.

Noel King, the lead mentor in DCU and Paul Phelan from Intel devised CoolestProjects and an accompanying awards ceremony which is held annually to showcase the creativity and talent of the young people attending CoderDojo.

I was blown away by the talent for the Coolest Projects Awards 2012 and very inspired. The excitement on the day was palpable and the projects were incredible. Maciej Goszczycki (15) the winner wrote his own programming language!

Since CoolestProjects, Chloe has spoken at the Dublin Web Summit “a global gathering of the world's leading thinkers and doers in technology”. While Caitriona's website has inspired a game which is making its way in the UK GCSEs. 

Parents play a huge role in CoderDojo and with their help extraordinary things happen. Mike Kehoe is one of those extraordinary parents, as he helped DCUCoderDojo visit the IBM campus where we had a brilliant day coding and getting tours of the campus, organised by Mike. Since then, Fred Raguillet and an amazing team of mentors have started a CoderDojo in IBM Dublin and plans are afoot for one in IBM Galway.  

I was lucky enough to help start up CoderDojoGirls. This came about after a chat with Noel where it was observed that while girls start CoderDojo they tend to drop out a few weeks later. Noel asked myself and another mentor, Sarah Doran, if we'd be interested in starting up an all girls CoderDojo. We loved the idea! CoderDojoGirls@DCU now has an amazing team of girl mentors and roughly 30-40 girls attending every week. 

I have seen changes in the group. I can remember when the class started, the girls were quiet, now they're more vocal - they'll look for help when they feel they need it. I am even seeing more girls now attending our mixed classes.

Dublin City University (DCU) hosted the second Coolest Projects event on at the end of August with amazing prizes sponsored by Intel.  We had over 300 visitors and over 50 projects on display, this was a fun packed inspiring day.

CoderDojo members like Lauren Boyle, (8) created an app that teaches you how to bake cakes. Mitchell Dey (13) built an impressive stand-alone ‘arm’ that can articulate and grab, and it even has a light. Niamh Scanlon (11) created a website for people who want to learn how to code, or improve their coding skills. With such an array of talent on display who could not be uplifted.

In addition to all of this, we had flying drones and security demonstrations and amazing guest speakers, Joe Hogan (Openet), Con Moran (Crainn), Harry Moran (PizzaBot) and Shane Curran (Libramatic), were the order of the day. I was so proud of all the members who contributed, to see their work and to see so much talent in one room was so exciting. All I can say is roll on Coolest Project 2014. 

Life as a CoderDojo mentor is full of creativity, inspiration, positivity and innovation. James Whelton and Bill Liao, the co-founders of CoderDojo, have created something so special which nurtures goodwill amongst the volunteers. As a mentor I work with an incredibly supportive group of people, who make amazing things happen. There are so many exciting things coming up in CoderDojo. We'd love it if you could join us. 

If you’d like to become a mentor go to www.coderdojo.com. Check out this year’s entrants in the CoolestProjects Awards.

Niambh Scullian
Connect with Niambh on LinkedIn

@DCUCoderdojo

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IT professionals - Why you should consider a move into contracting

The last 12 months has seen a significant shift in the IT skills market in Ireland. The IDA has been very successful in bringing new investment into Ireland and this, combined with more confidence in the investment banking sector and blue chip organisation’s has led to a skills shortage in certain areas.

As organisations continue to move to a more flexible workforce model, they require contractors to fulfil the skills demand for certain projects. This combined with unfilled permanent positions means that there is an abundance of opportunities for IT contractors.

Skills in demand include:

• ·    Specialist networking and security skills
• ·     Developers with - Java, .net and Oracle
• ·     Automated testers
• ·     BA’s with financial services backgrounds
• ·    Technical Project Managers

What is the appeal of contracting?

• Market: There are now more contract opportunities available than any other time in the last 4 years.

• Attractive daily rates: Daily rates can sometimes be as high as double the permanent salary for the same position. As demand continues to outstrip supply rates will remain at a premium.

• Effective taxation: Whether you set yourself up as a limited company or you use and umbrella organisation such as CXC you can take home a much higher proportion of what you are paid.  Contractors should retain 80% of their invoiced hours.

• Variety: You can get exposure to multiple organisations and sectors as well as different technologies on a regular basis.

• Flexibility: You can chose when you work, typical contract duration is 6 months. However contracts often roll on, it is not unheard of for contractors to have worked several years with one organisation on multiple projects.

• Control of your own wealth management : Just because your not a permanent employee, it doesn't mean that you can't have a pension or income protection managed in a very tax effective way. 

So what's stopping you from considering a move into contracting?

James Milligan, Senior Business Director

Recruiting experts in Information Technology

HAYS Recruiting experts worldwide

E: james.milligan@hays.com

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Get Dressed to Get Hired

“What do I wear to an interview? This is a common questions asked by job seekers.  While you might have little control over the interview questions you are asked there is  ONE thing you can take charge of - the way you present yourself for interviews. 

The way you dress could clinch that much sought-after, once in a lifetime job. Or  it may leave you hanging in the background like the forgotten pair of last season’s trousers. A survey taken in 2011 said 37% of employers decided against hiring someone due to what they were wearing. While many people say “You can’t judge a book by its cover” unfortunately it happens.  Therefore I wouldn’t miss a job opportunity by not putting the time and effort into my appearance for an interview.

Just a week ago a lady came for an interview with me whose credentials were very impressive, however, my first impression was "doesn’t she look very polished?".  She made a lasting impression in a couple of seconds and will spring to mind for future positions.

Of course the dress code in companies can vary quite a bit. An accountant will dress differently from a java developer or an advertising executive. So should you dress according to your industry? The hard and fast rule here should be NO. Regardless of whether you are interviewing for technology, finance or hospitality sector you should remove all uncertainty by choosing professional attire.  A suit is the safest and best choice for any interview.

Here are a few essentials to consider when creating this lasting first impression.

For Women  

• Structured pencil skirt (below the knee will be flattering on most shapes)
• A good fitting pair of black trousers - if there is a second round this gives an alternative to your interview wardrobe
• A fitted buttoned shirt/ high neck blouse
• Suit jacket - one that’s comfortable enough and easily buttoned
• Shoes - this is a tricky one as you can slightly showcase a bit of personality here but with caution

                - no open toe

                - no bright colours

                - no skyscraper heels

                - no ankle straps

• Accessories - these should be as minimal as possible, think of your school days, nothing too ostentatious. If you have any facial piercings, it might be worthwhile leaving them at home.
• No bare legs - a woman not wearing stockings is as bad as a man not wearing socks.
• Do try it on a few days before the interview to avoid last minute panic

For Men - A Suit

• A solid dark toned conservative suit
• A light coloured long sleeve shirt
• Dark shade socks 
• A conservative tie - no animated characters or flashy emblems but you have the opportunity to add some colour to your outfit
• Generally a pair of well polished black shoes will be best.

Most importantly fit is crucial - if the suit is too big it will look like it belongs to your dad!

You should also consider your grooming. For the ladies - painted nails, low key make-up and conservative hair style. For the boys, if you like a one razor, back and sides on your head, wait until after you’ve been hired and also consider your nails.  

Maybe you don’t want to be conservative, maybe it’s a dilution of your individual personality? But bear in mind, you will be competing for a job against candidates with similar experience and background that will present themselves more conservatively. You have to ask yourself is it worth the risk?

Dan Zevin, a well known author says it all with “Never wear a backward baseball cap to an interview unless applying for the job of umpire”

Getting dressed for an interview doesn’t have to be a stressful ordeal just follow these simple rules and you’ll be well on your way to impressing what could be your new employer"


Susan Hogan
Business Manager 
Hays Information Technology
email: Susan.hogan@hays.com
T: +353 1 678 7649


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Career Zoo goes wild!

It’s been a couple of weeks since the third and most successful Career Zoo, the job fair for professionals. It was amazing! Firstly, the standard of the companies who participated rose considerably, check them here. A full range of industries were represented – healthcare, IT, telecoms, pharmaceutical, finance, manufacturing, management consultancy and retail. And there was an excellent choice of education establishments.

A big draw was the skills conversion courses offering new career opportunities for professionals. In just 6-12 months these courses allow individuals to retrain, free of charge, into a growth sector like software development, cloud computing or pharmaceuticals. I think these courses would offer a fantastic opportunity for those who are coming from the toughest industries like construction, architecture and engineering. Interestingly, we just did our own survey on skills conversion in the IT sector, which produced very good news for jobseekers (IT Skills Conversion Survey Results)

With such a stellar line up it was no surprise that the attendees went through the roof. It’s estimated over 10,000 people turned up over the two days. To be honest it felt like all 10,000 were there on the Saturday. There was a queue from the Mansion House all the way down Dawson Street late into the afternoon! I felt bad for the people who had to queue, but for health and safety reasons the staff at the Mansion House needed to manage the numbers. I hope that everyone got some value at the event after patiently waiting. Our stand was completely packed with a wide range of professional s offering their CVs and asking for advice. It fact it took a week just to get through the hundreds of CVs we received and contact the applicants.

The Career Clinic we hosted on behalf of Career Zoo was again a huge success and the walk-in slots were snapped up within the first hour on both days. I personally dealt with five, very talented individuals who welcomed the advice on their CVs, interview preparation and career strategy. However, I was surprised at how some of the attendees prepared for Career Zoo. It’s not very often you get a chance to have a face-to-face conversation with a potential employer before application. It’s a fabulous opportunity for people to make an impression and let all the great employers attending know that they should seriously consider them for a job. Nonetheless, it was only a minority who dressed formally. In fact there was one gentlemen with “Who’s your daddy” emblazoned across a t-shirt. You could argue it’s perfectly fine in the IT sector to dress casually to meet potential employers who might want to interview you, but I personally would have erred on the cautionary side and dressed conservatively.

In addition, it was quite common to meet people who did not bring CVs or who had ran out of copies. It seemed strange to me, that people would be content to queue for 20 minutes to get into the event, but not have carried out prior preparation. There can’t be too many events that gather companies of that calibre into one room wanting to hire people. I received CVs with addresses scribbled out on them, some missing numbers and one even missing a name! You can be sure, that the attendees who did their homework beforehand – researched the companies attending and the jobs available, produced well prepared and tailored CVs, dressed for a proper interview, tried to make an impression on the employers attending – would have been the first to get a call, or might even have secured an interview on the spot.

Overall, I think most people - exhibitors and attendees- got some real value out of the event and I believe there have already been hires. Credit to the organisers who have been able to build a bigger and better event than they had previously. Here’s looking forward to the next Career Zoo!

Stephen is responsible for the marketing and communications for Hays Ireland including the website, PR and social media. He is a member of the Marketing Institute of Ireland and is passionate about the development of marketing through new technologies.

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How to miss out on the best IT talent

The last 12 months has seen a shift in the dynamic of the IT skills market in Ireland.It is a job rich environment where talented candidates have a choice of companies and they are getting snapped up very quickly. However, I am observing the same hiring approach by companies as if it were a candidate rich market. This is resulting in disappointed companies, annoyed candidates and frustrated recruiters.

Some of the key challenges companies and candidates face include:
•Arduous recruitment processes that are either too long or have too many stages.
•Companies having unrealistic expectations about skill availability.
•Companies fishing for CVs without actually having approval to hire or being involved in internal or external bid processes.


I have discussed each of these in more detail with my observations and advice, in the hope that this will inform companies and lead to a more fruitful and satisfying process for everyone.


Recruitment that takes too long or too many stages
Whilst I understand it is crucial for a company to choose the right person for the job, it can be very frustrating for both the candidate and the company if the process takes too long or the candidate has to go through many stages. The consequence can include potential employers missing out on their desired candidate as a competitor moves more quickly or the candidate feeling like the company is not engaged as they are taking too long to “turnaround” the vacancy.


I would make the following recommendations to any company that faces the above challenges. Review your current process - are all the steps necessary? If they are, is there a way of condensing down the steps so that they can take place over a one or two day period? The reality is if you’re hiring a Java Developer for example, you may be one of five potential employers. The most successful organisations in hiring IT talent are asking candidates to clear a half day to complete all stages of the interview process and meeting all shortlisted candidates at the same time. This works for the candidate as it doesn’t arouse suspicion with their current employer by taking lots of time off. Also, it’s easier for you to make an informed decision having benchmarked several candidates in one go.


Finally, if the whole recruitment process is out of your control, make sure that you inform your recruiter that the candidate will have to be committed to a lengthy process. Otherwise you’ll find it very frustrating when you call a candidate you are excited about for a second interview and find out they have already accepted another job!


Unrealistic expectations
For the person appointed to carry out the recruitment sourcing, it can be a real challenge to hear the appointing manager ask for a combination of skills that are not compatible or don’t make business sense. A SharePoint Developer may be able to do some Oracle DBA work by the accident of a previous job’s experience, but this does mean there will be anyone else in Ireland with this skill set. Listen to your internal recruitment department and your external recruitment consultants. Investigate what they have done to find a certain skill. If they have taken exhaustive steps and can’t find someone then the likelihood is that the combination doesn’t exist. Ask the recruiter what they can find and make sure the hiring manager knows what options are available.


I have met with numerous internal recruiters and HR Managers over the last 3 months whose hiring managers don’t understand why they can’t find a specific skill set considering we have an unemployment rate of 14.3%. The reality is that very few of these are IT professionals. In fact, many of the unemployed are looking to retrain in IT, but it takes time to convert these skills.


Companies not having approval to hire
As a candidate there is nothing more despairing than going through a recruitment process, only to be told at the end that the hiring manager doesn’t have approval to hire. Of course this can happen due to a globally mandated recruitment freeze. However, if the request for new recruits is purely speculative, it will be beneficial for all parties if the recruiting personnel and candidate are made aware.


It’s becoming increasingly common for multinational companies to compete internally against other countries when bidding for business. Subsequently, it is normal for those companies to put out exploratory resource requests, especially for contractors. This is understandable as the workforce is required to deliver the project if the bid is successful. Nonetheless, you will get more value out of your recruitment agency relationship if you are open about your ambitions.


Believe it or not, any good recruitment consultant will have a multitude of vacancies and clients to service. A full understanding of your needs will allow them to deliver the best candidates that will stay the course. Then should your unfortunately lose the contract bid, those talented candidates will continue their interest and faith in your company.


The company, the candidate and the recruiter are all after the same outcome – a job that can transform someone’s life and a person that can transform a company. In the IT industry you’ll continually miss out on the best candidates if there isn’t a trust between all parties and open and honest dialogue. Considering the amount of energy and effort the hiring manager has to put into the process, it would be a real shame for it all to be for nothing.


James is Regional IT Director with Hays Recruitment, based in Dublin, Ireland. He is responsible for 2 business units - Corporate Accounts and IT. Corporate Accounts is responsible for delivering managed recruitment solutions to blue chip customers. These solutions include managed PSL, Master Vendor, Neutral Vendor and full Outsource Solutions. 

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Aligning Students' Course Choices with Future Jobs

By Paul O'Donnell, Director @ Hays

I wrote an article published in this week's Sunday Business Post suggesting that CAO applicants need more information when they are making their decisions about what to study. The key points from the piece are detailed below, leave a comment if you have any views...

Despite the continued success of the multinationals in Ireland, graduates here remain under utilised.

Nearly 20% of the 443,700 people on the Live Registrar are under 25. That’s roughly 80,000 people, a large portion of whom will be university graduates. Considering the latest CSO figures show there to be only 275,700 people in the State between the ages of 20 and 24, that 80,000 figure is proportionally very large.

Rather than finding a home in the ever-expanding multinational sector graduates are either emigrating (in 2007 the CSO shows there to be over 370,000 people between the ages of 20 to 24) or lying idle on the Live Registrar. So why the disconnect between the multinationals requirements and the skill-set that graduates have when they leave university?

In a recent interview on Morning Ireland the Editor of the international blog Tech Crunch pointed to the fact that Dublin was fast been seen in the same light as a Berlin or Helsinki as a digital hub and part of a wider European IT Eco-System. We have some of the most successful IT companies in the world here and half the world’s gaming community – a genuine smart economy. So incredibly exciting stuff but how equipped are our graduates to take up some of these created positions?

The figures would suggest not very. The reason for this may simply be that students are studying the wrong courses. According to the Higher Education Authority 21,906 people entered the Higher Education system for the first time in 2009/2010. Of these 1439 began studying within the sciences category. This includes subjects like maths, computer science, and statistics. This is the bread and butter of an aspiring knowledge economy yet it represents only 7% of new entrants into the higher education system.

Compare that with 5322 or 24% beginning their studies in the humanities and the arts. It is not to imply that there is anything inherently wrong with studying these subjects – but viewed through entirely pragmatic eyes the weighting seems incorrect.

It’s widely acknowledged that education system may need some tweaking if it is to support the strategy of developing a real knowledge economy in Ireland. Is mathematics being thought correctly at second level for example? Are there enough university spaces for subjects that will be directly related to the smart economy? These are extremely important questions.

But an equally important question, and one which perhaps has not received much attention, is what drives the decisions of CAO applicants to choose one course over another? Why are 24% of them choosing the humanities when it doesn’t really fit with where future jobs are being created? We can change the education system to focus more on practical subjects but CAO applicants have to be engaged with those subjects and fully understand their practical application in the real world first.

What’s missing is independent scientifically compiled information from an organisation that stands to gain nothing politically by pointing people in one direction of the other. An independent body that has experience compiling reports like this should be given statutory responsibility to collate this once a year. The ERSI or the HEA would be potential options.
Their reports should contain projections on the number and types of jobs that will be created and what courses are relevant to each individual job category. Given the 3-4 year Degree life span it should not only project immediate skill requirements but also requirements 5-8 years down the line. If that report was released yearly prior to the CAO application process perhaps this would help students opt for courses that will make them extremely marketable in the Ireland of the future.