Finding a job can be harder for highly qualified people

A new scheme is designed to help professionals who have lost their jobs and who have not had to apply for work in many years

FROM OCTOBER to December last year a group of highly qualified professionals, previously unknown to each other, met every Friday morning in an office on Pearse Street in Dublin. They were architects, business consultants, salespeople and administrators, and they were all looking for work. The weekly meetings were part of JobNet, aimed at helping unemployed professionals find work in a market that is unrecognisable from the last time most of them were job-hunting.

“What happened with the downturn in the construction industry and the recession generally was that we had begun to see an increase in the numbers of professionals wanting to use our services,” says Paul Mooney, chief executive of Jobcare, a back-to-work organisation founded by a group of Christian churches in 1994. “These were highly qualified people who had already achieved success in their careers. We realised that they didn’t need the kind of employment-preparation services we were used to providing and that they had very different needs.”

The JobNet scheme, set up by Jobcare, targets the kind of unemployed people who don’t need courses in writing CVs or tips on dressing to impress. “It’s often hard to get these people through the door,” Mooney says. “It’s the pride element. They have to go through the grieving process, and after that they feel they will be able to get a job quickly because they have skills and experience. It can be hard to accept that it may not be that easy.”

JobNet, which will be officially launched in Dublin on Tuesday evening, is funded and supported by management consultancy Accenture as part of its global Skills to Succeed programme. “It’s not about teaching basic skills,” says Mark Ryan, managing director of Accenture in Ireland. “It’s about creating a vibrant network for people to make contacts, it’s about career planning and it’s about reskilling.”

Each week the group is given a talk by an experienced business person. “One of the most important aspects of JobNet is giving people skills to talk about themselves with ease,” says Cora Barnes of Three Q Recruitment, one of the speakers.

A key part of this is mastering the American-style “elevator pitch”, whereby each participant is given a two-minute slot to sell themselves and their skills.

“It is kind of like if you were stuck in a lift with Bill Gates and you had to sell yourself to him between the first and the sixth floor – how would you do it?” Mooney says. The pitches are refined every week, and “by the time programme was over they were all pitch perfect”.

Another important aspect of the club is improving the networking skills of participants.

One participant, Gerard Spierin, aged 59, was made redundant last year from the sales administration job he’d held for 37 years. “The atmosphere at JobNet was warm and reassuring,” he says. “It has been brilliant in terms of giving me the skills and contacts to network, which is not something I ever had to do before. I now find myself passing on interesting work leads to other people, and you find other leads coming back to you.”

For lone parent Laura Rossney (37), who has a background in publishing and administration, taking part made her ask herself important questions. “I started to look at myself from a recruitment point of view: who am I, what do I have to offer, what skills am I not using?” she says.

After the course Rossney decided to pursue a career in counselling. In the meantime she has gained a place on a community employment scheme at Jobcare. “It’s exactly the kind of work I want to be doing, helping people,” she says.

Rossney believes JobNet creates a “safe place” for people at a professional level to be honest about their experience of unemployment.

“From what I’ve noticed on the course it can often be harder for people who are highly qualified, because there can often be more shame that you have fallen from a height and are still looking for work,” she says.

Elevator pitches  A two-minute sell

Could you carry off an “elevator pitch”, selling your skills to an employer in the time it takes a lift to get from the first to the sixth floor? Here’s how two JobNet participants would do it:

Gerard Spierin

“I am a mechanical engineering technician and have worked in sales administration for 37 years with a major machinery importer/distributor.

“Ten years ago my employer decided to use the opportunity provided by the dreaded Y2K bug to become a serious player in the generator market, and invited me to be the dedicated office contact for generator sales inquiries. At that time we were selling about 100 generators per annum, with a turnover of around €1 million, and were not well-known as generator suppliers. When I left in March 2010 we were selling more than 450 generators per annum, turnover was more than €10 million and we were on the list of two or three preferred suppliers for major tenders.

“I am now looking for a new challenge, if I can help you.”

Laura Rossney

“I am a highly motivated and self-driven individual with a passion for teaching and bringing out the best in people. I am adaptable and resilient, with more than 10 years’ experience in business administration and marketing. I can speak French and German. I am now working with Jobcare on a community employment scheme, helping people overcome obstacles to gaining employment. I am open to any work opportunities in this area. I also have a sideline in cake decoration called Taste and See Cakes.”