When I started out in IT recruitment in Ireland (more years that I care to remember!) the programming skills in demand were legacy languages like RPG and COBOL. there is not much demand for these skill in Ireland today!
Today its open systems languages like Java, and Microsoft platform skills such as .net and C#.
Database specialists (weather DBA, sys admins or developers) with skills in Oracle or SQL Server, and project leaders/Business Analysts with a hands on background in software development with Java or C# ( using SCRUM/AGILE) are also in demand.
What do you think will be the languages that companies will need to hire in say 10 yrs time? - what’s your vote!

Philip Brady

Director

CPL

email:  philip.brady@cpl.ie

Phone +353 61 208 644

Mobile +353  86 243 0763

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Grade inflation at Irish educational institutions.

Grade inflation presents serious difficulties for employers who are faced with the challenge of hiring recent college graduates or experienced staff at a professional level - how to pick the good candidate from the weaker candidate, when both have excellent qualifications on paper. Both multinationals and SMEs in Ireland are now very concerned about the quality of grades awarded.
At a deeper level the failures of the educational system at primary, secondary and third levels in terms of attracting and teaching the so-called "hard sciences" and maths is also affecting the quality of technical candidates at both graduate and at experienced levels.
If the government is serious about Ireland becoming a world leader in the knowledge economy, we need to make a serious commitment to changing our education strategy and start investing in our education system as a matter of urgency.
From my perspective, I have noticed that despite the recession, there is still a demand for high quality software developers, particularly in the current popular technologies such as Java, C#. .net, Oracle, Flex, C++, and that there is not a good supply of candidates with this experience, particularly at the 2 – 7 years career profile level. In addition, I am finding that candidates with this experience on paper are sometimes finding it very difficult to pass a technical test or get through a technical interview. My own intuition is that this trend goes back to the failings of the educational system, which is in turn underpinned by the failings of our government to commit serious resources into our educational system.
Until the government wakes up and starts investing in our educational infrastructure, this trend will only continue and possibly get worse and will ultimately affect our ability to attract inward investment.

What do you think, I would be interested to hear your opinion!