Search Results for 'Sli Nua'

Q: My company has moved to a permanent remote model for most employees. Some are happy, others not so much. I have been appointed remote work coordinator. This is a new role, and nobody really knows what is supposed to look like. I have to support the employees but where do I start? (BC, email).

Q: I am a professional female. I consider myself competent and ambitious. I am looking for a position of responsibility. It seems that most of those jobs are held and hired by men. The result is, more men. How do I access those roles when it seems really impossible? (BC, email).

Q: I have scoured the internet for a job. Anything I see, I’m onto it. However, I am not getting much feedback and am becoming frustrated. How can I be more effective in my search? (CP, email).

Last week, in this new world we inhabit, albeit temporarily for now, I did a day’s work for a company. If that day’s work had taken place a month or two ago, it would have unfolded very differently. I have every reason to believe it acts as a precursor of things to come, writes Liam Horan, Career Coach, Sli Nua Careers.

Q: In a recent job interview, I was asked a very unusual question: ‘how did you prepare for this interview?’ I didn’t know what to say and muttered something about reading their website. In fact, I had put in a huge amount of preparation, including speaking to somebody who works there and doing two sessions with a career coach, but I wasn’t sure I should reveal all of that. Would it show that I was lacking something? (AC, email).

Q: The closing date was today. Last night, after much procrastination, I finally opened the application form and started to fill it out. And I failed. Between competencies, experience, and exact number of months worked in jobs I held 20 years ago, and lots more besides, I just couldn't get my head around it at all. Is this a common experience? I hate missing out on this job opportunity but I had no alternative. (AC, email).

Q: “I haven’t done an interview in years. How do they even work these days? The last time I did an interview, I was asked to describe my greatest weakness. I hadn’t a clue what to say – and it’s not that I’m short of weaknesses to choose from. It just struck me as a daft question. How can a weakness be ‘great’ in the first place? And why would you want to share a weakness when you’re trying to get the job. Is that kind of question still being asked these days.” – (DG, email).

Q: There’s a company I’d really like to work for – two jobs that interest me have recently been advertised there. They even have the same closing date. Should I go for one or would it be a good idea to apply for both? (EC, email).

Q: I work in a small, tightly-knit sector where everybody knows everybody else. Companies are very jealous of each other’s successes. I recently went for a job interview with one of our main rivals and was amazed the panel spent so long trying to get me to talk down my current employers. For obvious reasons (i.e. because I’m trying to leave), I couldn’t talk my employers up too much, but I didn’t feel at all comfortable badmouthing them and declined to do so. Should I have entered into the spirit of it because that’s what they wanted me to do? (AC, email).

Q: My company have advertised a role I feel I should get – but I actually think they’ve advertised the wrong role. In reality, they should have created two or three roles and broken up the responsibilities differently. I believe this would be more effective and efficient for the company at a time of rapid growth. Should I say this to them in the interview? (LD, email).