Stelfox Speaks At Ireland India Business Association Student Forum.

Stelfox is proud to have had two guest speakers at the Ireland India Business Association and UCD Smurfit Indian Student Career Forum on ‘Doing Business in Ireland’. The Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Sandeep Kumar was in attendance and spoke passionately about the opportunities that exist for India/Ireland trade.

Ireland India Business Association.

The event took place in the stunning Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School on the 2nd of May 2019. It was attended by over 60 students from all realms of study and the guest speakers included leaders in India/Ireland trade and alumni talking about their experiences.

The Indian Ambassador to Ireland, Mr Sandeep Kumar.

Mr Kumar’s interest in education and in the development of opportunities for students was clear. He spoke of his experience in Ireland and of what an open and accepting country Ireland is. He praised the great work done by the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and also the Ireland India Business Association. The key take away from Mr Kumar’s speech is that business leaders want to help graduates reach their potential so don’t be afraid to network and reach out to industry for guidance and help.

India Ireland Business Opportunities.

The panels were divided into three segments. The first included Ms Helen McDonagh (Infosys), Mr Eamonn Cronin (Acumen Aviations) and Mr Rohit Thakral (Target Integration). The talk was guided by Mr Mark Hamilton (BDO).

Each panel member spoke of their experiences of Irish businesses working in India and vice versa. It was a lively discussion including such topics as setting up a company in each country, trade opportunities and cultural differences. They also guided the students with some best practices for launching their careers.

UCD Alumni Talk About Their Experiences. 

The second panel consisted of alumni from the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School including Ms Shruti Goyal (Sega tic), Ms Shubhangi Sharma (Mylan), Mr Gaurav Juneja (Datalex), Ms Pooja Dey (Sage) and Mr Rohit Verma (In the Company of Huskies).

The panel spoke about their excellent experiences in the school and their career paths since they left. They also gave amazing insights into landing your first job after leaving college and how to network effectively.

Stelfox: Dan’s Story & Top Tips For Landing Your First Job.

The Stelfox team took to the stage with Neil Sullivan, Director Of Contracting & Consulting, and Dan Nadil, Senior Consultant Data Science and Analytics.

First up, Dan spoke of his own experience moving from India to Ireland and his own journey to landing his dream job here at Stelfox. He spoke on what he’s learnt along the way and helped the students avoid some of the mistakes he’s made.

Next, Neil gave some rock solid tips on landing your first job in Ireland, which you can read below, followed by a breakdown of the STAR method of answering interview questions.

A massive thank you to Thelma Harris of the Ireland India Business Association, and Patrick Gibbons and Michael McDonnell from UCD for inviting us to be a part of such an amazing event.

10 Tips To Find Your First Dream Job In Ireland

The Basics:

LinkedIn Profile: Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date with all the necessary information. Your LinkedIn profile is your passport to your next job. Ensure that it has all the information present in your CV and also recommendations from your previous managers, colleagues or customers.

Job Alerts: Ensure that you have job alerts set up for the specific job profiles you are looking for. We recommend Irishjobs.com, Monster.ie, Indeed.com, LinkedIn Jobs and Glassdoor as the top five job sites.

Working with Career Guidance & Recruitment Agency: Build good relationship and have constant communication with your career guidance counsellor. They will be able to provide advice and leads and also prepare you for the Irish industry. Meet and build relationships with 2-3 specialist recruitment consultants in your domain and get market advice as well as interview tips.

Seek Unpaid Internships: If you are offered unpaid internships in Ireland, take them! Especially if you are a graduate with no previous experience in the area that you want to move into. Experience is worth its weight in gold.

Dress Code:  Don’t get distracted by the company videos that describe their culture being casual and wear t-shirts or shorts to interviews. Always dress appropriately, it’s better to dress up than dress down.

Master Tips:

Power of Networking: When we say networking, we mean face-time. Building a network in LinkedIn is important, but the power of networking comes to the fore when you meet people in person. Attend as many meet-ups as you can. Master tip, all major events like Tech Summit and Pendulum Summit have highly discounted prices for students and sometimes they are free.

Triple Touchpoint: Most graduates apply for roles in the company and hope that the HR teams will contact them some day. A proactive approach helps you to improve the odds of landing an interview.

Send a thank you message: After any face-to-face or phone engagement, be it an interview or a conversation at a meetup or conference, drop a LinkedIn message or email thanking them for their time.

Small Talk: The interview process is a social engagement. Research demonstrates that an interviewer makes a subconscious, yet decisive impression, on the suitability of a candidate in the first few minutes of the interview.

Building a good rapport in the first few minutes of an interview is key to the success of any interview. Your body language, handshake, posture and physical appearance, coupled with the first few minutes of engagement are all very important, especially in Ireland. Talking about the weather, games or generally asking how the interviewer’s day is going so far would be a good way to start the conversation.

STAR Method: With competency interview methods being employed more and more these days, ensure you prepare well for these types of interviews. The STAR method, see reverse, is a great way to approach these types of interviews. STAR stands for Situation, Task, Action and Result. If you structure your answers like this, you will be in a very powerful position.

If you’d like to learn more about how Stelfox can help you unleash you unlimited potential email Dan Nadil at [email protected] and Neil Sullivan at [email protected]

You can also call us at +353 1 679 3182