Careers 2017: CareerWise - experience and expertise in sourcing top talent across all sectors

CareerWise Specialist recruiters

During a quarter where much speculation has surrounded the possible implications for US multinational companies in Ireland, following the recent US election, Ken Murphy takes a sanguine view of this long-standing relationship.

“While I have no crystal ball on future events, my experience of working in and dealing with multinationals over the decades has shown that there are recurring cycles these companies go through, either in retrenchment or expansion.

“Given that the last two years have been record breaking for incoming investment, and the fact that the multinational sector has seen continual growth even through the recession, these companies have intellectual capital and expertise here that have been built up over many years.

“Many sectors like medical devices and biopharma are seeing huge growth, and their position here in Ireland is central to that. In fact, one of our biggest challenges at CareerWise is finding specific technical expertise for the expansion of these companies,” he says.

“The growth in many of these sectors is such that the task of finding the right graduates and personnel for the available positions is ongoing. We are showing an 18% increase year to date from 2015 in technical and supply chain roles which accounts for 92% of our business,” he says.

“The tight employment market for engineering and technical graduates means that we have to be very creative to source top talent, which is secured through multiple online and network channels with candidates placed at multinational clients from Europe, the US, Australia and Asia.”

With the Celtic Tiger years producing a rush of graduates into financial and legal careers, the engineering sector experienced a dip in intake that is still being experienced. CareerWise has a strong bias towards engineering, management and technical professional roles for the pharmaceutical, medical device, ICT and food/agri sectors.

“We have seen a steady and consistent growth of graduates finding employment within a very short period of time,” says Mr Murphy.

“This is compared to five years ago when graduates were forced with a decision to continue with further education through masters or PhD, or to leave for a distant shore. Candidate experience is central to our success, particularly when we operate in a tightening market with the surge in available opportunity in 2016.”

Looking to the future, he sees the need to attract back the cohort of graduates who left five or 10 years ago to kick on the new incoming businesses now emerging.

Having suffered its share of challenging years, Cork is now poised for a remarkable period of growth, Mr Murphy says.

“Cork is on the cusp of kicking on and really moving forward. We have a massive mix of industry here — strong bio, pharma and med devices, as well as ICT, food and agri sectors. Unlike other centres that have been perhaps overly reliant on a single sector for employment, Cork is fortunate to have built a number of sectors — all of which have continued to grow through good times and bad. When you factor in the lifestyle aspect of living here, Cork is an easy sell. We must now also position Cork to be able to generate a case for post- Brexit inward financial services investment as a foil to a crowded Dublin market.”

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