150 new jobs at D&B
D&B, the world’s leading source of commercial information and insight on businesses is to more than quadruple its workforce in Ireland within the next 15 months.
D&B Business Information Solutions Limited (DBIS) has already employed 40 people in highly skilled roles in Sandyford, Co Dublin following the establishment of a strategic business centre earlier this year. The company will create 150 jobs in Dublin by 2011 rather than the original 100 previously announced.
Positions currently being recruited by the company include researchers, software developers, analysts and support staff. The project is being supported by Government through IDA Ireland.

100 new jobs at Salesforce.com
Another 100 jobs are enroute by way of Salesforce.com, the enterprise cloud computing company, which employs almost 300 people in Dublin.
“Salesforce.com has been investing in Ireland since 2001 and now has almost 300 employees across sales, renewals and customer success. We are now actively recruiting across all functions in Dublin and plan to fill at least 100 positions,” said Dr Steve Garnett, chairman EMEA, salesforce.com. The new jobs to be filled include corporate sales account executives, business development specialists, marketing as well as roles in technical IT and support and will cover all major European languages.
The company is holding a recruitment day on Wednesday 13th October at the salesforce.com offices in Sandyford Business Park at 5.00pm. Details about the event are available here on www.salesforce.com/openday or check out the open positions on salesforce.com/eu/careers.

Mobile phone company creates 50+ positions
The launch of the new mobile phone operator eMobile, from eircom is also responsible for the creation of 50 jobs in its retail stores. It also plans to increase staff numbers even more across the country in the coming months.

The new headquarters will employ people in positions as varied as in-house sales, customer service, accounting, engineering, public relations, marketing, web design, graphics, supply chain, human resources and warehousing.
The Colorado-headquartered company is being supported by Government through IDA Ireland. Making the announcement, Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Batt O’Keeffe TD said that the Cork operation will be at the heart of the firm’s global growth.
“The firm’s decision to establish its EMEA headquarters in Cork reaffirms the county’s global reputation as a hub for innovation and advanced product design and production, with access to an educated and skilled workforce and modern transport infrastructure.”
OtterBox designs and produces device specific protective covers for high value smartphones and handheld devices.
Built upon fundamentals of hard work, innovation and perseverance, the company incorporates creativity and cutting-edge design into every product.

According to its 2009 annual report, 7,443 new jobs were created in Enterprise Ireland-supported companies, bringing the total number employed to 133,523. While 19,078 jobs were lost in 2009 the investment pipeline for 2010 indicates that new jobs created will exceed 2009 figures.
Enterprise Ireland is the Government agency responsible for the development of Irish companies and driving Irish export sales. Enterprise Ireland client companies are responsible for over 250,000 jobs (134,000 directly employed) and spend an estimated €19bn per annum in the Irish economy, delivering huge economic impact to communities across almost every town in Ireland.
The Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation Mr Batt O’Keeffe T.D. speaking about the agency’s annual report said a key priority for Government is to continue to deliver on the Smart Economy Framework and implement the recommendations of the Innovation Task Force. “We will support the continued growth of entrepreneurial-led firms that will underpin Ireland’s global reputation as a centre for innovation providing high-value, sustainable jobs,” he stated.
“We estimate that these firms, and other Enterprise Ireland-supported start-ups, can between them generate 60,000 jobs over the next five years,” said O’Keeffe.
Frank Ryan, Chief Executive Officer of Enterprise Ireland said the agency’s ambition and confidence for its client companies is high. “They have overcome difficult challenges in the past 18 months, demonstrated exceptional resilience and in many cases they have come through stronger, leaner, fitter, more innovative, and definitely ready to capitalise on the global recovery now in evidence.”
Ryan said that 2010 is about building for growth and global success. Enterprise Ireland is driving and supporting a high level of activity across key business areas - developing new markets, growing more entrepreneur-led businesses, co-financing company R&D, driving the commercialisation of third level research for the benefit of industry. Resources and efforts in these key areas are being intensified to support our clients in every way possible to ensure they capitalise on the global recovery.”

According to Dave Fannin, a producer at MUZU.tv, the company is delighted to begin the process of developing quirky, fun MUZU.tv shows.
“We really think that the search will provide a unique opportunity for anyone who loves music but is also seeking to gain the elusive foothold in television and Web presenting…. Our goal is to find people who can represent us and connect with our users by being friendly and relatable. As a music video website we are passionate about our subject matter and would expect the same from our presenters – whether their forte is music-related fashion, dance or a specific genre/style – all interests are welcome.”
The organisers want to cast the net as wide as possible so the Faces of MUZU.tv search is open to anyone who feels they have the energy and talent to front a music show. “Previous experience is always a plus but it isn’t a necessity – there are potential presenters out there who are just naturally gifted and definitely deserve to be given a chance. Certain skills can be learned but charisma is not one of them.”
Most shows will be recorded on a weekly basis, whereas music news will be daily. The initial flagship shows will cover all music genres, and include music news, reviews, performance and interviews from international as well as home grown artists.
There is a catch though – an obvious one for the roles in question – the application process involves submitting a video reel which will be available for other applicants and visitors to the MUZU.tv site to view. “There is the option for people to leave comments for or about their favourite presenters which will mean that the search is incorporating public opinion as well. The successful candidates will be asked to do a couple of screen tests at the MUZU studios before any final decisions are made,” he adds.
According to Fannin, MUZU.tv has plenty more ideas in the pipeline and he feels certain other concepts will emerge when they meet applicants. “There’s definitely potential for a host of different personalities to find a home at MUZU.tv.”
See: http://www.muzu.tv/thefacesofmuzutv

Mulley’s personal opinion is that in the future companies will have more of an emphasis of hiring staff with the most connections to knowledgeable people, as opposed to just hiring knowledgeable people.
“So [hiring] employees with a large Twitter following and a large number of people on Facebook are probably the ones that will be able to get you the information you are looking for faster,” he comments.
LinkedIn is another social network of importance, but very underused in Ireland. Great for lead generation and meeting new people in your business area, to their detriment many people see it as a static CV, uploading information and updating it once a year. Mulley says people should be going out on the discussion forums or using LinkedIn Answers to contribute information and show off their expertise. “People will know of you and you’ll gain a reputation.”
Apart from just having social media accounts, Mulley reinforces the fact that people update them – and ideally with an opinion. “I think companies that are looking for employees want people who can think about things, who can analyse things.”
Now that the default for Twitter and Facebook accounts is public, jobseekers with private accounts have to realise they are competing with other people who want to share with the world.
Mulley believes private Twitter accounts are almost a contradiction on what Twitter is all about. “Twitter is all about sharing information with a large number of people and contributing to public conversations… At the end of the day it doesn’t hide anything if you’ve a private account and send a message out, somebody can copy and paste that message and send it out to their network… all it takes is for one person to retweet that and 1,000 people have seen it or 10,000. It’s grasping at privacy straws.”

The brainchild of founder Edward Hendrick, the Sonru.com concept has been developed by CTO Chris Horan over the past two years. Fergal O’Byrne, CEO of Sonru and former CEO of the Irish Internet Association, says it is neither Skype nor YouTube. “We are educating the market. Companies think that anybody can see the video and that it’s like another YouTube. Unlike Skype the interviewer and interviewee don’t have to be online at the same time.”
According to O’Byrne, the main users of this innovative online video tool in recruitment are large companies and recruitment agencies wishing to recruit numbers of people remotely. Feedback has been very good from both recruiters and candidates. The real thing that candidates liked, he says, is that it gave them back some time; they didn’t have to take a day off work.
“From the candidates’ perspective it means they can be interviewed on their time and their location without having to incur the expense and the hassle of travelling to do an interview. That’s been the big plus from the candidates’ point of view.”
In addition, one of the reasons it appeals to both employers and candidates is that it’s secure. As it’s behind a password-protected area it’s not shared with the whole world and is not going to be a YouTube viral hit.
However, candidates must remember that as it mimics a face-to-face interview and is videoed, the recommendation is to dress appropriately, have proper lighting and not to have a messy room behind you.

If we had to review financial or engineering CVs, we would probably die of boredom

Here is a list of 45 cleverly designed media CVs.

While a strong and determined graduate, especially those with specific graduate and post graduate qualifications, will eventually find a position as a junior / trainee account executive with one of the agencies, it is at the level of senior account executive and account manager that the first major shortage peak occurs. This is due to a number of factors including employees taking the now almost obligatory world tour, as well as candidates having gained two to three years experience moving to another agency to gain broader experience, or even out of the industry entirely.

Additionally another peak in the shortage graph is with candidates with five or six years experience. These account managers are reaching a critical point in their career and are reassessing their options both within agency land and further afield. Those looking to stay in the industry are attracted by more senior roles in agencies and client side positions and have high salary expectations as this is the point in their lives where they are “settling down” having taken the world tour they are now looking at mortgages, pensions and perhaps even parenthood!

Continued shortages of good people will continue to drive salaries upwards, but candidates are showing a growing awareness of the realities of the market and are prepared to negotiate their salary, and are attracted by other benefits including flexible working hours, telecommuting / working from home, and the attraction of working with people with whom they get on, and being happy.

Tom Mc Walters - Prosperity.ie

Salaries in the media / advertising sales sector have definitely risen over the past number of years; a graduate starting out in a telesales role can command basic salaries of up to €25k (5 years ago, raw graduates would have been looking at starting salaries of as low as €18/20k) with the potential to bring this up to €35/40k when commissions and bonuses are factored in.We have even seen roles offering €30k basic salaries for candidates with a strong academic background and only 6 months telesales experience, so the media / advertising sales sector can be said to offer lucrative opportunities for hungry graduates with a flair for sales.

The same can definitely be said for the mid, senior and executive level roles where there is a definite shortage of quality experienced candidates - these are candidates with media/advertising sales experience as opposed to sales experience in other sectors. Candidates are now in a far stronger position to obtain the best deal possible for themselves due to this supply and demand issue. A candidate with 2 years media/advertising sales experience looking for a business development/account management role can reasonably expect to achieve a basic salary of €35-40k with commissions and bonuses generally taking this to or above €50k.

A strong media/advertising sales person with 4 or more years experience moving into their first management role can realistically expect a basic salary of €45-55k whereas sales managers in the industry, with 5 or more years experience and who can bring revenue growth and contacts to a potential employer now command basic salaries north of €60 with on target earnings structures taking overall remuneration packages into the realm of 6 digit sums. At the very high end of the spectrum a proven sales manager with 2 to 3 years experience at this level looking to take on a sales directors role or a sales director looking for a fresh challenge can without doubt pitch themselves to employers at the €80k mark and above, with overall packages with some employers coming in around €120k or more.

The industry is very candidate friendly at this point in time in terms of the salaries on offer. This is mostly due to market place competitiveness and the lack of candidates with genuine relevant experience. Hungry sales executives with an eye for business development and growing revenue streams, and proven media and advertising sales professionals who have a strong account base, can genuinely earn very good salaries in the current industry climate as most companies operate uncapped commission structures allowing the sales person unlimited earnings potential. Where the industry does fall short in comparison to other sectors within the sales industry can be in the benefits packages offered to candidates with most media/advertising sales companies only now coming around to offering additional benefits like health insurance and pensions and above average holiday allowances as a means to attract and retain staff.

All in all, if a graduate wishes to maximise his or her earning potential through a sales role or an experienced media/advertising sales professional is looking for their next move, the industry has many exciting and highly rewarding career opportunities where success really does PAY.

To view current sales jobs: http://www.prosperity.ie/category_job_search_24/sales_jobs.html

Jess Delahunt - Prosperity.ie