Blogs by Cathal McAliskey


Developing the Ideal IT Recruitment Process

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


The Irish IT sector is rapidly evolving, and so is the need for a tailored recruitment approach to meet its unique demands. I’ve seen first-hand the impact of an efficient, well-designed recruitment process that resonates with the Irish IT market. This guide offers practical steps and insights for talent acquisition teams on building the ideal IT recruitment process.


Is IT Contracting Right for You?

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Contracting Advice


IT contracting, especially in software development jobs, has become increasingly popular in Ireland. Contracting involves working on specific projects for a set duration, typically 6-12 months, usually paid on a daily rate basis. While the potential for higher earnings (up to 20% more than permanent positions) and flexibility attracts many professionals, it also comes with challenges like a lack of job stability and benefits.


The Future of Software Development in Ireland

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


I believe that the software development industry in Ireland is poised for transformative changes. With advancements in technology and shifting market demands, the future of software development in Ireland is rich with opportunities and challenges. As an experienced recruiter, I’ve seen firsthand how trends evolve and shape the landscape of these jobs. Let’s explore the key trends and emerging technologies that will define the future of software development in Ireland and how you can stay ahead of the curve.


Navigating Software Development Salaries in Ireland

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


Are you considering a career in software development in Ireland? Or perhaps you’re already in the field and want to benchmark your salary against industry standards? Understanding salary ranges for different types and levels of software development roles can be crucial for making informed career decisions. In this blog, we’ll delve into software development jobs in Ireland, comparing insights from recruitment agencies, including GemPool’s salary guide, to provide you with a comprehensive overview.


Navigating the Evolving Landscape of Software Engineering in Ireland

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


In today’s fast-paced digital world, software engineering stands at the forefront of innovation, driving progress across industries and transforming the way we live, work, and communicate. As technology continues to advance at a crazy pace, the demand for skilled software engineers has reached new heights. However, the skillset required to thrive in this dynamic field are constantly evolving, shaped by emerging technologies, changing market demands, and evolving best practices.


10 Steps to Develop Your AI-Driven IT Hiring Strategy

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


In the dynamic landscape of the Irish IT job market, talent acquisition teams and hiring managers are constantly seeking innovative approaches to fill crucial tech positions. With the demand for IT professionals soaring and the talent pool seemingly shrinking, companies are increasingly turning to Artificial Intelligence (AI) to revolutionise their hiring strategies. In this blog, we’ll dive deeper into the creation of an AI-based hiring strategy, designed to address the distinctive challenges of the Irish tech industry and empower you to attract, evaluate, and secure ideal IT talent.


Measuring the Effectiveness of Your Hiring Process

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


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Recruitment teams have a big responsibility of attracting and retaining top talent in today’s IT market. The tech industry in Ireland is highly competitive, and recruitment efforts can make or break the success of your company. That’s why it’s essential to measure the effectiveness of your hiring process.

Measuring the effectiveness of your hiring process can help you identify areas of improvement and ensure that you’re making the most of your recruitment efforts. By tracking key metrics, you can gain insights into how well your recruitment strategy is working and make data-driven decisions to improve it.


Top Growing Tech Skills in Ireland

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


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As a software development manager in 2023, you must know the market around you and the fastest-growing skills. The candidates that demonstrate an interest in your open positions will likely either have obtained these skills or want to learn them. With prior knowledge of these emerging skills, you can help map out a learning and development pathway for your existing team and utilise these skills when you grow your team.


Rising Above the Counter Offer Culture When Hiring

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


In today’s recruitment market counter offers are the new norm, especially in the IT sector. Think about it, if one of your top employees hands in their notice, you are going to do everything in your power to try and convince them to stay. There is such a skill shortage in the IT tech market that companies won’t let go of staff without a fight.


Writing a Tech CV to get Recognised

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by Cathal McAliskey
CV Assistance


How often have you found the perfect job, applied online and not heard anything back? In too many cases, good candidates miss out on being shortlisted due to a poorly written CV. In my job as an IT Recruiter, I review many CVs daily, and the bad ones always stick out. Your CV is a chance to make a great first impression, so it’s essential to get it right.


Career Roadmap for Software Engineers

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


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With a huge demand for software engineers in today’s Irish job market, software engineering is one of the most sought-after skills you can have. Many engineers believe that coding is the universal language of the 21st century.


Preparing for and Negotiating a Job Offer

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by Cathal McAliskey
Job Interview Preparation


In the current IT market, software developers change jobs roughly every 2 years, so it is extremely important to be well equipped in dealing with offers and hiring processes. Before entering interview processes, I would recommend doing these 2 things:


Top 5 Tech Careers to Keep an Eye On

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


IT is the driving force behind the growth of modern businesses. Today we see the importance of technology to our everyday lives, and the many opportunities to launch a career in the IT space. With IT constantly changing due to innovation, it’s crucial to plan out your career path and choose a rewarding vocation where you can be impactful. Here are some emerging career paths to consider:


Cloud Engineering- Everything You Need to Know

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


Cloud Engineering has gone from strength to strength with the emergence of the public cloud offerings from AWS, Azure, and GCP. This has led to greater demand for cloud engineers to build or maintain cloud infrastructure. A career in Cloud Engineering is very appealing with the vast opportunities for learning, especially the number of certificates on offer from the cloud providers.


Importance of Career Goals to Software Engineers and their Employers

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


Career goals are important for Software Engineers as they will keep you focused and keep you improving. Goals are targets to aim for, steps to follow with opportunities for progression. Let’s look at career goals, the different types, some examples, common mistakes and why employers should be interested in hearing about an individual’s career aspirations.


5 Ways of Attracting Tech Talent in a Remote World

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


Over the past year a lot of us have got used to our home offices and kitchen tables and have adopted working from home. What the pandemic has shown us is that we don’t need to be in a physical location to complete our job responsibilities and that commuting is time wasted.Going forward many tech companies will adopt more flexibility around remote working and this raises the question – How can Companies Attract Talent in a Remote World?


10 Best Questions to ask a Software Engineer During an Interview

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by Cathal McAliskey
Job Interview Preparation


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From speaking to many candidates and hiring managers I have compiled a list of the best questions to understand software development candidates. These questions cover a range of topics from ideal environment to interests and motivations. An interview must be considered from both points of view.


Why Now Is The Best Time For You To Upskill?

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by Cathal McAliskey
Job Interview Preparation


In the current climate there are great opportunities to upskill within software development. We are no longer wasting time on long commutes so we should have a lot more spare time on our hands. If you want to get ahead of the competition you should think about investing some of this time into upskilling and keeping up to date with modern technology.


How to move up the ladder as a Software Developer

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


It’s human nature to look to the future and look at where our jobs could lead us and a career in software development is no different. While the progression ladder isn’t as straightforward as other professions, there are two directions developers usually take – Technical or People. Both options provide a challenging direction for developers but require a lot of preplanning and reflection to ensure they follow the right path.


Cloud Engineer & Cloud Architect – What’s the difference?

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


Cloud computing is something that is becoming more popular within today’s IT industry with the emergence of the cloud hosting offering from Microsoft, Amazon and Google. IT Companies see cloud as the future.


Pros and Cons of IT Contracting

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Contracting Advice


Contracting is where you are hired to work on a project or task for a set period of time, normally 6 or 12 months. You receive what is called a contract for service rather than a contract of service (perm position). The 2 types of contracting are fixed term or daily rate.


Back Of The .NET

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by Cathal McAliskey
IT Jobs and Recruitment Insights


.NET is an open source developer platform used for building many different types of applications.Microsoft started to develop the .NET Framework in the late 1990’s with the first version beingreleased in February 2002, bringing managed code to Windows NT 4.0, 98, 2000, ME and XP. Since the first version, Microsoft has released nine more upgrades for .NET Framework, seven of which have been released along with a new version of Visual Studio. So we have .NET 1.0 through to .NET 4.8.