Tell me why I don’t like Mondays

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If you were lucky enough to get a decent break over Christmas you will have come back to work one of two ways:

1) You've had your fill - literally and metaphorically - of the Christmas excess and the lazy days. You’re fully energised and pumped up for working. Your New Year’s resolutions include being more efficient at your job and aiming for that promotion.

2) You've been dreading coming back to work for days. You made a resolution for a dry January, yet you needed those couple of glasses of wine or few beers to save you from tossing and turning the night before coming back.

If the answer is 2, or something similar, now’s the time to act on it and it doesn't necessarily mean leaving your job. First thing to do is to pin-point why you dread going to work, if you haven’t done so already. It might be more than one thing. When you go home tonight take a piece of paper and write down what you like about your job and what you dislike. Then try to challenge and change the things you dislike.

Address the issue at work

If you feel you’re going nowhere in your job, set up a plan for your next one-on-one with your manager. Let them know how you feel, if they don’t already know. They might not see the signs that you’re de-motivated. Use it as an opportunity to show how good you are at your job. Even just listing your successes can sometimes give you a lift. Ask your manager what you need to do to get promoted or get a pay rise. If neither is available, or that isn't the issue, ask about changes in your job role or if you can take on some cross-department work.

Equally, if the issue is with your manager or other members of your team, bring the subject up in your one-on-one. It’s a very delicate subject, but if you don’t raise it, it will never get addressed.

Maybe you've already thought of and attempted to remedy some of the pointers above, or others. If so and you've not had any success, you might need to consider a change.

If you’re employed by a large company and you like working there, you could check for job opportunities in other departments or locations. Have a chat with a HR representative to see what options are available.

Change jobs

You may have just decided that the job and company you work for isn't going to get any better. If you’re happy with the career you are following, check out what jobs are available to you via job boards such as Irishjobs or Monster, Linkedin or a recruitment agency.

If you choose an agency that specialises in your field, they can help you from start to finish. A good specialist recruitment consultant can let you know what the current market is like in your profession i.e. opportunities and salaries. They can review and improve your CV and will represent you in relation to jobs that match your skillset.

Having that third party is really valuable, as they have direct communication with the hiring company and can sell your attributes stronger than a direct CV will do.

Equally, they will coach you for your interview, with specific tips in relation to the interviewers and they can also negotiate salary for you. Another advantage, which is just as important, is the solid feedback a consultant can receive on your performance, if you are unsuccessful. Although it’s worth noting that the hiring company is under no obligation to provide feedback.

Change career

The reason for wanting to leave your job may be because you want a complete change in your career. That can be a bit more challenging. Do you know what you want to do? If not it might be worth considering a career coach, who can help you analyse your strengths and what you enjoy doing, to establish some options for you. Once you've decided on your new career path you need to start walking that route.

A lot of job roles require qualifications as well as experience, even administrative or retail positions can ask for these. So you might be heading back to school. Once you've achieved your qualification, you might need to work voluntarily, just to build up that crucial experience that proves you can do the job.

A career change might be a drastic move, but the bottom line is that no-one should be miserable in their job on a day-to-day basis. We all have our ups and downs in work, but if the downs far outweigh the ups and you’re having the Sunday tipple, just to take away the dread from facing work the next day, that is not sustainable. You need to act.

We spend most of our life in work, some of us are lucky enough to love our jobs, the rest should at least like theirs. Make your resolution to end your unhappiness.

Stephen Flanagan
Senior Marketing Manager
Ireland

HAYS Recruiting experts worldwide
16 Fitzwilliam Street Upper
Dublin 2

T: +353 1 619 0580
E: stephen.flanagan@hays.com

Paris to Nice: Wish us good luck!!

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They say you only find adventure standing on the edge of your comfort zone, well here we are, teetering on the precipice, with my friends, Mike, AMT, Kelly and Arlene, about to push our boundaries. Over the last number of months we have amassed over 1500km each, we have climbed Mount Leinster, conquered Clifden and beaten everything Wicklow could throw at us. Are we ready for a 700km cycle over 6 days?

We've completed the training, not to the level we would have hoped but way more than we thought achievable when we set out in March on our first spin. I think we can all identify a point in time where we realised we had just achieved something we'd assumed impossible. Not quite record breaking feats but enough to engender a sense of pride.

These highs are accompanied by the inevitable lows. When the bike disappears from under you and terra firma smacks you hard or your energy drains to a level not conducive to completing another 50km. Your confidence is knocked and the ability to complete 700km through France seems like a fantasy. If I'm honest that's where I am. My last cycle left me with nothing in the tank. A day dozing on the couch and trying to replenish my stock of calories to get me through the evening was all I could manage.

So maybe the answer is, "I'm not sure...". However, there is a lot more to this journey than just us cyclists. In order to be eligible to cycle we needed to commit to raising €15,000. We couldn't do this on our own. Family and friends, "colleagues" has long since become friends, were going to be central to achieving our goal, and so it proved. The response to all our events was incredible, in days where demands on both finances and time are high, we were blown away by the efforts of all to help. The messages of support and donations from abroad are inspiring and it is clear we are not taking this journey alone. A huge thank you to Hays Ireland as well, who have supported us all immensely through-out this whole journey. They have been with us every step of the way and we are so grateful for that.

So with less than 24 hours before we take on this once in a life time challenge, it only remains to say thank you to everyone who has been there for us over the last few months, for giving of your time and money so that we can make a difference in the lives of the children that attend Barretstown. So, let's ask the question again. Are we ready? Of course we're ready, we havent come this far to give up now!

By Thursday 25th of September, we will have cycled 700km over six days to raise €15,000 for Barretstown. You can help by donating what you can here.

Philip Bourke 
Marketing Executive
Ireland

HAYS Recruiting experts worldwide 
16 Upper Fitzwilliam St Dublin 2
T: +353 1 619 0580
F: +353 1 670 4738　
E: philip.bourke@hays.com

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How is your job hunting on social media?

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Almost everyone is involved with some form of social media. You might be snapchatting, while your gran is using Facebook and your dad is using a fan forum to talk about his favourite football team. Everything is social these days. And most importantly, people are being ‘social’, without realising it. That’s a crucial thing to remember when you are looking for a job.

How private are you? 

Social media has been around for a long time now and more and more people are savvy to the privacy settings on the likes of Facebook. Are you? The majority of employers will now search for any presence you have online because they want to get a feel for the type of person you are, something that’s hard to obtain in an interview. You might think what you do in your own time is your own business, but if you publish it on the world wide web and don’t adjust your privacy settings correctly, you’re leaving yourself open.

As a recruiting organisation, we’ve multiple examples where a potential employer has been impressed with a candidate in an interview and then lost interest after viewing what they considered unsavoury material on the candidate’s social media profiles.

Blurred lines

A lot of us have work friends that we’re connected to on Facebook. Social media has blurred the lines between work and non-work situations. Some of us may be connected with bosses, but even if we aren’t, you’d be amazed how the social ‘network’ can lead to our bosses coming across our posts. Therefore, if you are considering moving jobs, it’s advisable to keep your thoughts and feelings away from social media until you get the job you want and have handed in your notice. In fact I’d go as far as to say if you have any negative feelings about work (even after you leave a company) you shouldn’t air them. Ireland is a small place and you could cross paths again. Also, consider that you might need a reference at some stage, so refrain from any outbursts.

I know a recent case where someone announced they got a new job on Facebook, forgetting about the current work colleagues they were connected to. So by the time they were handing in their notice, the whole office knew they were leaving!

 Hiding the job hunt 

There are lots of places to go looking for jobs online these days. For example, Twitter is popular for the IT, marketing and communications industries whilst Facebook and Pinterest advertise jobs as well. However, the most popular place to look for jobs is still the job boards. Most of the job boards in Ireland, for example irishjobs.ie, prompt you to upload your CV to their database. It’s a way of being found by potential employers but it could also be a potential hazard if your employer uses these CV databases themselves.

Whilst LinkedIn is a very good place to apply for jobs, it is also the No.1 place if you want to be found. Recruitment consultants and HR professionals are well trained in searching LinkedIn for appropriate candidates and it’s common for people to be approached even if they aren’t looking for a job. The tricky bit is updating your online profile when you are starting the job search, as LinkedIn will announce any changes you make. The key is to turn off your notifications until you have updated your CV and then present yourself to the world again. If your current employer doesn’t hire regularly, you’re probably ok, as long as you aren’t linked to anyone at your company. But a word of caution, if you work at a large organisation or you know that your department is currently hiring, there is a good chance someone from work will be looking on LinkedIn and may come across you.

You might assume that I’m biased, but using a recruitment consultancy is actually one of the most discreet ways of job hunting. We can meet you before, or after work. We agree on what you are looking for and then we head off and try and match you up with a job that you want. We’ll also review your online profile and advise you if there any potential pitfalls out there.

How is your brand? 

Social media has turned the broadcasting world on its head. BBC, CNN and RTE don’t own the message any more. We do. Whether it’s understanding a war crisis, picking a hotel or even seeking entertainment, we’re increasingly looking to other members of the public as opposed to professional organisations. Equally, we are empowered to send our own messages as well and by sending those messages we are creating our own personal brand.

In my case, I post my opinion on marketing, recruitment, football and craft beer. So if anyone goes looking for me, that’s typically what they will find. If you’re looking for a job in a particular industry I would recommend building your brand towards that.

For example, if you are looking for a job/building a career as an accountant in Ireland, join LinkedIn groups for accountants in Ireland and get involved in the conversations. If you want to link in with someone make sure you personalise your message. Search for Twitter handles that relate to accountancy or look for accountancy stories and retweet them. Write blogs about changes in the industry or economic situations that relate to the industry. Set up or review your LinkedIn profile to ensure you have a compelling bio, a professional looking picture and accountancy keywords throughout. And make sure your LinkedIn profile matches your CV.

 Do a Google search of yourself and see what comes up. If there are a few photos or comments out there on the web that you think an employer would frown upon, get them deleted or adjust your privacy settings appropriately. Social media can make or break you as far as getting a new job, but if you take due diligence you can use it your advantage.

Stephen Flanagan is Senior Marketing Manager with Hays Ireland. Hays will be hosting a stand and running the Career Bootcamp at Career Zoo on Saturday 13th September at Dublin’s Convention Centre. Register if you would like some to hear more useful tips from Hays.