Any graduates or recent graduates reading this within a 50 mile radius of Dublin should really be on their way to the RDS for the 1999 Graduate Careers Fair. The fair, run by AISEC in conjunction with The Irish Times and the AIB, will attract around 7,000 visitors and as many as 100 employers from Ireland and Britain as well as multinational employers.
"There would be a strong emphasis on IT and finance, but pharmaceutical and other sectors are on show also," says Liam O'Gara, the fair's co-ordinator.
Graduate starting salaries vary wildly, according to O'Gara, but a realistic figure is in the region of £15,000 to £19,000.
Students in any college in Ireland are welcome and local AIESEC committees are organising transport which will be either free of charge or have a nominal cost of only a few pounds.
As well as the staples of such an event - a free copy of The Irish Times and enough complementary biros to see you through your finals - would-be job seekers will find a wealth of information. Some companies are interviewing applicants on the spot, at the fair itself, offering a low pressure alternative to more normal formal selection procedures. At any rate, the setting of the fair offers job seekers the chance to see more of a firm's character than would be apparent from its brochures.
"It is a great chance to find out about the companies and to talk to some of them informally. You can find out what the people in a company are really like and what working in that company would really be like from chatting to people," says O'Gara.
The financial services sector in particular has grown rapidly in the recent boom years. Last year 3,000 jobs were created in this sector and some 44,500 people are now employed in the industry.
A huge 8,000 of these work in the IFSC in Dublin, mostly working in the international financial services industry. As well as the obligatory good degree, those interested in working here would need good communication and computer skills.
Even if you are not in your final year there may be good reason to go to the RDS. In many cases a bit of summer experience gained as an intern or on placement with a company could make all the difference.
"Companies don't have time to train people in the basics," says Ciara Timlin of the IFSC Panel, a recruitment agency. "A summer placement, even in retail banking or office administration, will allow you see how things operate."
IT MUST also be noted that not having a business degree is hardly an insurmountable hurdle, around 40 per cent of Bank of Ireland's employees, for example, have a non-business qualification. In engineering there is a strong demand for graduates, but an even stronger demand for those with relevant postgraduate letters after their name. With activities in civil, structural, plastic, chemical and software engineering running at levels never before seen in Ireland it is very tempting for graduates to go for the money straight away.
However, a major theme of the Government's development policy in industry is attracting research and development centres. In these centres, the postgrad is, and will be, king.
Science graduates are also in need of a good intensive visit to the RDS. According to Sean Gannon, Director of the Careers Advisory Service at TCD, they often don't realise the potential their degrees give them. Gannon warns that those interested in cutting-edge research in the development of drugs will have to go to Britain or the US. If they do not fancy spending any more time in the company of test tubes, electrodes and centrifuges, scientists will find they still have highly transferable skills - stock brokers have been known to court theoretical physicists who can bring a high degree of numerical analysis to the understanding of financial markets. There are other science-related job openings in the field of scientific communications - making technical and scientific information accessible in areas such as PR and technical publishing. As even the man in the pub's dog in the street can tell you, IT is the best gravy train to be on at the moment. Lavish benefits, a lot of travel and not a little money await those who join a big company. Even better, for non IT graduates, there is a huge shortage of people in the industry at the moment with the effect that anyone with a postgrad diploma or degree in IT can hop on the train too. Any number of colleges, from the University of Limerick to DCU and beyond, offer these courses.
EVEN with record numbers of students at undergraduate and postgraduate level studying accountancy, firms just can't get enough people. Students who have taken accountancy in college will have a host of exemptions but still face a few years of study.
With the market for employees the way it is, however (even the old route of taking people in at school leaving level has been reopened), companies are often falling over themselves to offer training contracts with salaries of between £9,000 to £12,000. With the growth in many sectors of the economy, these positions are by no means limited to traditional accountancy practises but also exist in many companies in the IT and financial services sectors.
There are many providers of postgraduate courses represented at the fair. Many of these, such as the Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business, offer valuable courses which will open up new employment horizons. One thing to be aware of, however, is that the closing dates for applying to these colleges vary. In some cases, the forms need to be in by December. By the time details are checked, references procured and essays about how brilliant you are, are written, it will be much closer.
