Post Graduate Courses at IADT

I don’t usually plug courses on this blog, but the people in IADT asked so nicely, I said I would mention them. I should state I’m biased, as I used to lecture there on their sadly now defunct ecommerce business systems course.

The Institute of Art, Design and Technology specialises in the visual and media arts, digital media and technology, and the business and cultural sectors. They have some great facilities out in their Dun Laoghaire campus. Some of the post graduate courses they run are listed below,

MA in Public Culture Studies
Postgraduate Diploma in Business in Cultural Event Management
MA in Screenwriting
MA in Visual Arts Practices
MSc in Cyberpsychology

Uniquely IADT also run a Applied Psychology degree” (DL141) which required 265 points last year. Whilst this is accredited by the Psychological Society of Ireland it has a strong focus on Information technology rather than psychology.

Some readers will be asking what is Cyberpsychology? It’s the study of the human mind and behaviour in the context of human-technology interaction. It encompasses all psychological phenomena that are associated with or affected by emerging technologies.
A simple example, look at how txt (text) speak is affecting our language.

This is a really exciting area. Some commentators argue how people learn is actually changing as a result of information technology. I pity the poor teachers trying to teach the young of today with antiquidated tools. How does blackboard and chalk compete with online games, with attention grabbing graphics?

Whilst the Government is trying (see NCTE for details) with the focus on sub standard physical buildings , investment in IT comes a poor second. You can’t safely install PC’s, Networks etc when the building has an adverse health and safety assessment. However any additional investment here will have huge benefits for future generations.
If you’re interested in E-learning as it’s called, see edublogs for a blog with examples of practical applications.

Application dates for the above courses vary, the earliest closing date being the 28th of August.

Have you reached your Saipan?

I really laughed when I saw this recruitment ad from Oreganfinancial.

It reads

“have you reached your Saipan?

Do you ever get the feeling that those around and above you are cruising, even incompetent…..
Many people talk the talk but we’re only interested in those who can walk the walk, if you can, come and talk to us.”

The writing is set against a huge map with Saipan coloured a vibrant green and a land mass bigger than a light blue shaded Africa and America!

For those of you not living in Ireland at the time, or with no interest in football, this ad refers to the infamous 2002 World cup incident ,when Roy Keane was sent home, or had himself sent home by Mick Mc Carthy. (Choose one depending on your point of view). It took over the entire Irish media and generated countless arguments which continue to this day. I guess with Roy Keane doing such a superb job managing Sunderland into the Premiership, Oregon thought this ad would attract attention. But have they limited their employee search to football fans or people living in Ireland in 2002?


The Saipan incident spawned an entire show “I Keano” which still runs occasionally in both Ireland and England.
I went to see the first run with some football mad friends and found it amazing that opposing sides felt the show supported “their man’s ” point of view.

What the incident clearly demonstrates, is there is no such thing as all black and all white. It’s very easy to put the blame on the other person, but it’s always useful to examine our own position to see what have we done that contributed to the problem.

For example, a good colleague told me the reason why our joint boss was making my life so difficult was I always reacted. His advice was just stay calm in the face of any provocation and he’ll get bored. Very difficult to implement, but once I did, problem solved. And yes, the boss was the real issue but I had to acknowledge my part in the problem. So an ability to examine a problem from different angles without getting into endless self blaming is essential in life.


PS
Sunderland are coming to Dublin to play Boh’s at the home of Irish soccer - Dalymount park on Saturday the 28th July. Some tickets are still available from Ticketmaster. I’m not linking there as I don’t understand why Boh’s have chosen this expensive method of ticket distribution, plus most fans buying here will support the English team Sunderland rather than our own home club Bohemians. Tickets for Galway United versus Sunderland have fully sold out without using Ticket Master. Is this a failure to examine an issue from all angles?

Keywords
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Bohemians Sunderland match

Say no to Ageism week

Hopefully we’ll all get to be old someday.

At the start of last weeks “say no to ageism” week, Niall Crowley of the Equality Authority states that discrimination on the basis of age is the biggest area being dealt with by the Employment Equality Acts.
He states their survey showed 38% of people thought it “fair” to assert that older people were “set in their ways”.

I think this is a key issue. It’s unfair to stereotype any group of people in a particular way. After all, we all know both younger and older people who are very set in their ways, who refuse to learn. An older person who demonstrates great ability is Charlie Walker who received a level 3 FETAC award in Information Technology in his 80’s.

Employers are finding it more and more difficult to attract suitable employees. The Gartner Group report that as many as 60% of IT organisations will under perform due scarcity of staff.
Ciaran Williams in the Irish Times reports that DIY chain B&Q opened a new store which employed only over 50’s in Cheshire. (I know, reverse discrimination!) Results were profits were 18% higher than other stores, turnover was six times lower and absenteeism was 39% less. Customers were also happier as they appreciated the staff’s detailed knowledge.
So as employers start to see the benefits of employing older staff, hopefully we’ll see less ageism.

However until then, older people will have a tougher time marketing themselves.
What do you do if you suspect your age is working against you?

Firstly examine your CV.
Does it demonstrate
You are still willing to learn and continue to develop yourself
You can cope successfully with change
You are flexible rather than rigid
Your salary expectations. (Many employers think older people will be too expensive)

Find a recruitment agency which targets older people. For example Manpower Ireland have set up a new division specifically for people in the 50 plus age bracket.

If you’ve been out of the workforce for a while, consider taking a job you are over qualified for, just to make that first step back into the workforce.

Many jobs are filled by networking. Look at your circle of friends and acquaintances and consider whether any of these are in a position to help you, by giving you a referral to a potential employer. For example if you know your bank manager fairly well, let them know you’re on the look out for your particular type of job, as they talk to other businesses all the time. I’ll come back to this topic as networking is becoming an increasingly vital skill.

Does your name influence your career choices?

Logically, you would think names do not influence career choices, although there’s a long tradition of actors and writers choosing different public names to their given birth names.

However, a new study on 1,000 twin sisters highlighted in Omnibrain reports the more feminine your name appears to be, the less likely you are to study maths or physics after the age of 16. So Anna or Elizabeth, assessed in the study as being more feminine sounding than Lauren and Ashley, are less likely to study maths or physics than their twin sister. So they are less likely to work in science or maths careers.

Trying to find out why this could be so, is more difficult. Defining cause and effect is much more difficult for the psychologists than it is for the natural scientists. Human beings are impacted by so many influences.

Is Elizabeth less likely to study maths because teachers do not expect her to, demonstrating the impact of influences outside the family home?
Or do parents treat the child with the more feminine name differently to her twin sister?

Either way the study demonstrates the impact of names.

More pressure on parents to choose the right name and maybe I need to think about a new career name!


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Caroline Casey lights a candle

The founder of Amnesty International, Peter Benson coined the phrase

“better light a candle than curse the darkness”

In other words taking even a small insignificant action is better than just complaining.

35 year old Caroline Casey lit a candle 7 years ago. She left her management consultancy job in Accenture to trek across India on an elephant for a 1,000 kilometres to raise awareness of disability issues. She then set up the Aisling Foundation in 2000. Aisling is the Irish word for vision or dream

The Aisling Foundation recognises company excellence in best practise towards people with disabilities. With 100 organisations representing 10% of the company’s population now taking part, the O2 ability awards is now a major event in the business calendar. Last Wednesday, the awards ceremony was held and shown on RTE on Thursday.
There’s growing awareness people with disabilities are not just a problem, but can make a very substantial contribution to a better society.

Caroline has just finished an Ashoka scholarship to support the development of an international franchise for the ability awards. She wrote about it in the Irish Times and you could see the turmoil and frustration of trying to get support for her ideas in a very honest way.

She comments on issues such as spending all our time trying to be the same as every body else, yet the true success stories are people who stick to their own beliefs and stand out from every body else.
She talks about feeling sorry for herself, sleepless nights, about giving up, key people not being willing to even meet with her, shame, avoidance of action and fear of failure. Eventually she decides to try and ignore whether she’s going to fail or succeed, but at least she’s going to make the effort.

We can all learn from Caroline. Fear of failure and being different, stops us from doing so many things that we would love to do. Yet like Caroline, if we accept we’re scared of the next step but try anyhow, our lives could be so much better.

Finally you may not be aware,but Caroline has been visually impaired since birth.

Key words
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ability awards

Career Assessments- Do they work?

There’s a multitude of career assessment tests around in various formats.
For a career assessment to be really useful it should look at a number of different aspects as follows:


1. Your interest in a particular area or way of working. Will you actually enjoy working in this area, for example- do you like shift work?
2. Your abilities, for example- verbal ability or numerical ability
3. Your personality,for example-are you more likely to be extrovert or introvert
4. Your values and beliefs- for example, work/life balance, or ethics

A useful idea is to think of the tests as a photograph. If you were trying to describe your appearance to some body online, prior to a first meeting, ideally you would send them a photograph. The photograph allows you to pick out the person at a first meeting in a crowded place. However when you actually meet the person you may obtain a totally different impression of them.
In the same way that a photograph can be taken on a “bad hair” day, you can get a very different result than you’d expect, if you take an assessment when you’re stressed or distracted.
This is one of the reasons why assessments with a professional qualified tester can provide more useful and relevant information than paper based or online assessments.

The information from these tests is designed to guide you in your decision making but don’t allow them to “label” or define you.
My first accountancy employer, insisted I do a psychometric test to assess my ability and interest in accountancy. Unfortunately, it showed I had no interest in accountancy, so I had a hard time convincing my employer not to withdraw the job offer. Some years later, working as a qualified accountant in a high status role, I realised the test was correct. I did not want to work as an accountant!

So was it a mistake not to act on the test results? Absolutely not. I developed a huge amount of analytical and decision making skills and gained some great experience which stands to me today. Additionally, I really wanted a 3rd level qualification and this was my only option as college was out, due to college fees which were charged in those days. As a bonus I also met my husband through accountancy, so have no regrets about the hard work I put in to qualify.

So yes, reputable career interest assessments do provide excellent useful information. We and our clients find them useful for quickly getting valuable insights. Like all information however, it’s how you use it that counts. If you feel the results do not reflect you, don’t be afraid to ask questions.

Note

Click for an introduction to psychometric testing

Keywords
psychometric testing
career advice Ireland

Image: FreeDigitalPhotos.net

What should I do if I work for a jerk?

American Penelope Trunk has produced a new book called “The Brazen Careerist”. It’s written in the same style as her blog. If you want really direct down to earth advice then take a look. She’s an American columnist, with an IPO (stock exchange listing), bankruptcy and a professional beach volley ball career on her CV
She gets lots of interesting comments, –for example, a recent blog entry on the younger generation earning less than the older generation generated comments on lifestyle choices, to the existence of a “grey ceiling” – older people stopping younger people from career progression

She’s written a “top ten questions” on your career for Guy Kawasaki's blog. These questions are listed below

"How much money does it take to be happy?
Is it more important to be competent or likable?
Should I sue a boss who is sexually harassing me?
When should I ask for a promotion?
Is being a generalist or a specialist the path to the executive suite?
What do I do about the gaps in my resume when I travelled or couldn’t find a job?
Will getting an MBA or any other type of advanced degree be a good use of time and money since I can’t find a job?
What’s the ideal length of a resume in a world where every resume is electronic and not printed out on paper?
How should I prepare for an interview?
What’s the right strategy for the search for a first job out of college?
What should I do if I work for a jerk?"


Here’s the answer to the last question
“Leave. I know there are classic Bob Sutton ( Note: Management guru) examples of revered jerks like Steve Jobs, (Note: Apple CEO) but I wonder about the people who put up with him. Can they not find another visionary to work for who is not such a jerk?
Staying in a job like this makes you look bad. People wonder why you put up with it. And, frankly, you should too. It’s like being an abused wife. The wife who stays always defends the relationship by how much she gets out of it, but to everyone else it is obvious that she should leave. The problem is a loss of personal perspective.”

On the sexual harassment question, she says not to sue unless you’re under physical threat. She suggests you can use it to boost your career!

The American system is very different from the Irish system and we’ve more easy to access legal protections such as the Employment Equality Acts 1998- 2004.
The Equality tribunal,can provide support to make a claim. The total compensation that can be awarded is €6,349 under the Equal Status Act (Average award €565 in 2005) or 2 years wages under the Employment Equality Act (Average award €8,643 in 2005)
If you’re on a minimum wage job this could be a lot of money but if your previously promising management career is in tatters, it’s not so good. This is a really difficult issue I’ll come back to.



For answers to all the questions go to Guy Kawasaki's blog, and enjoy.



Key words
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Your chance to work with a famous celebrity

A great idea from Arthritis Ireland to demonstrate people with a disability are not work shy. They are running a competition to select 12 lucky people to spend a full day working with a famous celebrity –ranging from John Rocha, fashion designer to Newstalk 106 presenter and rugby guru George Hook to Waterford hurling manager Justin Mccarthy.
You also get your photograph taken and will feature in Arthritis Ireland’s 2008 calendar.

Just two conditions though for entry. You must be over 18 and you must suffer from rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Mention arthritis and most people think “old”. Children as young as 6 weeks can get it and I’ve have a variant of RA since I was 15. You can get it at any age however. In fact most people with any kind of a disability are not born with it, they acquire it some time during their life either from illness or accident.

People with disabilities are two and a half times more likely to be unemployed than people with out a disability. Employers complain of difficulties in recruiting staff yet they often ignore a very talented supply of people.

Kieran Mc Dermott of Mc Donalds in Shannon reports (Sunday Times 3rd June) precisely because people with a disability find it difficult to get a job, their professionalism, commitment and loyalty tends to be higher. Employing people with a disability has also increased the number of customers he attracts.

So if you, a relative, or a friend have RA, simply submit a short note on how you or your loved one cope with the challenges posed by RA and why you should be considered for a place on RA work a day. You don’t have to be currently employed and you can submit an entry on behalf of some one else.

Closing date is June 25th with submissions to be sent to

RA Work A Day
Freepost F3886
First Medical Communications
60 Baggot Lane,
Ballsbridge
Dublin 4

Or email RAworkaday@firstmedical.ie

Key words
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career guidance ireland
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Comments- Technical Problems

A few people have told me that they've posted comments which have not appeared on the post. It appears to be a software problem as all comments should appear within minutes. Any comment that has not appeared is unfortunately gone.
Apologies for this, hopefully we can get it resolved soon.
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Thanks

Check for broadband before you accept the job offer!

The CSO (Central Statistics Office) has just released a new report on small businesses. These are defined as employing less than 50 staff so it includes farming and the public sector –not just business.
Interestingly the report finds that small business accounts for more than 60% of the entire workforce. Yet up until recently there has been limited focus on their needs with more attention to multinationals.

The Enterprise Ireland Agency has performed a great job bringing in numerous multinationals. But this also has a downside- as we’re seeing with Dell who employ 4,500 people here in Ireland. Currently they are trying to reduce headcount by 10% and this is likely to impact Irish employees. It is likely other multinationals will follow this trend as globalisation trends continue- i.e. move less skilled jobs to cheaper cost countries.

So the focus has started moving to smaller businesses. The Country Enterprise Boards were set up to help. They provide a range of services from grants, to training to cheap office accommodation. Some even provide a web site development grant. However small firms are less likely to avail of information technology according to the CSO report. This is a serious competitive weakness as there are numerous business benefits from using technology. Benefits that help companies stay in business.

I can’t find the source, but I recall over half of small businesses who attempted to get broadband could not get the service. So on the one side the Government is spending your hard earned money trying to develop small business. On the other side, small businesses can’t avail of technology due to lack of broadband. This situation has been around for years, (See the Damien Mullaly blog for an ongoing commentary or the Ireland off line website)
with small businesses including ourselves wasting serious time and effort trying to get broadband.

I once worked for a small business who had an address in University Technology Park in a Cork city suburb. Incredibly we could not get broadband as the local exchange was not configured for broadband nor were there any plans to do so- the exchange was too small !

So a key aspect to check if you’re considering moving to a small employer is do they have broadband? After all not having access to broadband means your employer is less competitive, which could affect your job in the future . Additionally accessing your email is going to be fairly tedious and your ability to use the internet restricted.

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