The Importance of Screening Job Applicants!!

February 26, 2024

An email I just received has left me staggered and it has prompted this blog post.

We are recruiting at Fuzion at the moment and our normal process is we list the role on the website and then we run an advert through the jobs advertising function on LinkedIn.

Despite a very careful job description and a request to attach a cover letter (a simple test of how interested the person is) you then are faced with a deluge of applicants, 95% of which are totally and utterly irrelevant.

Of course you will then also get a deluge of recruiters contacting you promising “perfect fit” candidates.

The screening of these applicants and emails takes quite a while and it is always made easier if applicants follow the instructions and write an intelligent cover letter.

Once I narrow down the applicants to a “possible” list I then test each candidate with an email asking them a few simple questions. Invariably these will include a general question such as “what interests you most about the role with Fuzion” and then something specific about them, maybe about some aspect of their CV that I need some clarification about.

I do this to get some extra information but also to test the person including their ability to communicate and to see if they are intelligent, to see if they are nice and how much they really want the role.

Sometimes I never even receive a reply , which shows that many people are just pressing buttons on LinkedIn and weren’t very serious about their application in the first place.

Depending on the responses I then decide who I should do a first “light” online screening interview and after that a deeper interview with other members of the team.

We don’t always get it right but for the most part the process has served us well and we have a really great team.

So, back to today and that email…

I received a response to one of my emails from an applicant who had a very interesting CV –

Based on my past experience, organisations or recruiters generally go through these questions on a 30 minute screening call. Is there a specific reason Fuzion does it on an email? 

I am available between 14:00 hrs and 16:00 hrs tomorrow and on Tuesday if you’d like to chat through the questions and proceed with my application.

Wow I thought, so I replied:

Hi X,

This is the most time efficient screening process for us.

Many thanks,

Greg

And while writing this blog I received a reply from this eager job hunting applicant:

Thanks for clarifying. However, this isn’t a time efficient process for me. Thanks for considering my application but I’d like to withdraw. 

All the best. 

Thanks,

Hmmm, I think there is a small touch of an attitude with this woman and she has done me and Fuzion a huge favour by showing me clearly who she really was.

My response:

Hi X,

You have just shown me how good my screening process is by demonstrating how much you were interested in the role.

Greg

Maybe we are approaching “full employment” and this attitude is probably a unfortunate by-product of this environment whereby some applicants think they are god’s gift to the employer world – they are not!

This is one of these another of those “you’ll never believe me when I tell you what happened today!” stories!

Greg

Greg Canty is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Management, Motivation, Personal development, Recruitment | 2 Comments »

Christmas Shopping with Micheál Martin!!

December 19, 2023

Last Saturday I found myself in the queue in Waterstones in Cork with a bunch of books and a game in my hands, Christmas presents for all and sundry.

The queue was moving fast as it always does (a well oiled machine) and the mood everywhere was light and jovial – while buying presents can be stressful I find that act of buying gifts has everyone in good spirits.

Behind me in the queue I heard lots of chit chat and the usual mentions of “Merry Christmas” between people inevitably bumping into others that they knew, all performing the same vital task. Hopefully we will be in that queue again next year, a year older buying presents for the same people.

One of the voices behind me sounded very familiar and when I turned around sure enough it was none other than our Tánaiste, and former Taoiseach Micheál Martin. He was chatting to some woman that he knew and it was just like any other conversation between any random shoppers, “how is so and so doing, haven’t seen them in ages, must meet up soon, say hello for me, Merry Christmas….”

One of the wonderful things about Ireland is that we will deliberately (I’m sure not always) leave that well known person alone to their moment of privacy and let them get along with the same every year human task of buying a Christmas present, and not bug them. No one was bothering him. Maybe they were close by, but I didn’t see security people for him and for this Saturday Micheál and I were the very same, two men in town buying Christmas presents for loved ones.

Micheál was relaxed, warm and friendly, comfortable in his own skin as he chatted and moved through the store.

Now, Greg being Greg I did want to say something to him but hopefully not bug him. He doesn’t know me but would probably recognise the face from all of the functions and Chamber meetings down through the years that I would have attended.

I reached out to shake his hand and without hesitation he reciprocated. I said “thank you for the great work” he has been doing on our behalf. I meant it and I wanted to communicate it. Politicians take a lot of flak from so many quarters and they should also be given credit for their service – I couldn’t think of another job as thankless as that one where everyone feels they own you 24/7. Despite the various challenges that we face as a country I think he has been great and always represents us superbly.

He thanked me for saying that and I quickly went on to ask that Ukraine gets the money and resources that it needs so it can keep fighting against Putin’s Russia and in doing so to make the world a safer place for all of us. He assured me it would happen and we both went off to continue with our shopping.

We should never take for granted that in this country of ours that this is still possible

Greg (the shopper)

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Christmas, Irish Politics, Politics | Leave a Comment »

Old Rockers, Roland and Brand Consistency

November 13, 2023

Roland

I couldn’t resist when I saw this gig announced…

Glenn Hughes formerly of Deep Purple, one of the greatest rock bands of all time was touring the UK to celebrate the 50th anniversary of their album ‘Burn’ .

The gig was at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, London and my London buddy Roger agreed to come along with me and spare Deirdre the experience of having to “suffer” through four hours of standing and listening to a night of hard rock complete with long hair, 1,000 guitar solos and even a 10 minute drum solo!!

While I wasn’t going to gigs 50 years ago when I was eight years of age, I did start at 13 and Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Thin Lizzy just hooked me and I’ve been a huge music fan ever since.

At that first Thin Lizzy gig that I went to, us boys wore our denims, our rock hero t-shirts and our leather jackets and this time at the Electric Ballroom while our gig uniforms were exactly the way they were, we have all aged more than a bit, but like Glenn Hughes who is now in his seventies, we still rocked !!

Glenn served up two hours of Deep Purple classics and while I never saw them in their prime at least now I heard all of those monster tracks delivered with precision 50 years later – I was in hard rock heaven.

Glenn Hughes

A huge shout out to Roger who declared that it was an “interesting experience”!!

In the spirit of great music and guitar heroes, Roger brought me to Denmark Street the following day which was famous as a haven for songwriters and record companies. Now it is famous for the collection of specialist shops selling instruments, everything for musicians and their rock star dreams.

One of the shops we couldn’t resist popping into was the Roland store – Roland are famous for keyboards, synthesisers and electronic drum kits and it was exhilarating watching potential purchasers sitting at the various instruments in display and putting them through their paces.

This of course included some young kids with their parents sampling the expensive equipment that might just be the next step to a career of stardom.

Before we left I noticed a display of t-shirts donning the famous Roland brand – wearing one of these would give me huge automatic kudos with the music fraternity even though my 7 years of piano lessons resulted in my 3rd teacher giving up on me with a break up note to my mother who was paying for my lessons “Greg is wasting my time, his time and your money “ .

That was very harsh !!

If she was a better teacher and inspired me more maybe I would still be playing and legitimately wearing one of these t-shirts (at least that is my version of the truth)

Feck it, I’ll buy a t- shirt, a very cool souvenir from my trip to London.

“Would you like a bag” the sales assistant asked.

“Of course” I said, and eagerly awaited a cool bag with that iconic cool logo to carry around London with me for the rest of the day.

My heart sank when he pulled out a white unbranded plastic bag and placed my t-shirt in it.

What a waste .. maybe they ran out of cool branded bags or maybe they just don’t value the little chance of their brand being carried around this bustling city?

I thought about Glenn Hughes and his flawless delivery of classic Deep Purple songs 50 years on despite being in his seventies and I thought about Roland and their iconic brand.

Put the t-shirt in a proper bag and give your famous brand the respect and consistency that it deserves

Greg (the rocker!)

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Brand Loyalty, Branding, Music | Leave a Comment »

Paddy and the tweet 

November 1, 2023

It can be like a drug at times …

You are one of the “brave” ones, one who has a prominent profile and one who has no bother speaking your mind on the public social media platform that we all used to call Twitter.

The fans / supporters / followers like what you said and say “well done, I’d never be as brave as that, I prefer to stay quiet”

Paddy Cosgrave fits the bill perfectly – he is a clear “leader” in the tech world with his hugely successful event ‘Web Summit’, and in many ways he became as prominent as many of the high profile speakers and tech stars who participated in the event.

As an avid Twitter user you couldn’t help but notice Paddy because the algorithms liked the level of interaction with his tweets, which were often controversial. He even resorted to spending money on the platform from time to time “boosting” his posts to make sure even more people saw his posts, which often were airing particular gripes of his about something or another.

The attention drug needed an even bigger audience/fix. 

One particular recurring theme with Paddy is his pure hatred of Ireland, the media here and the political establishment. A lot of his time and energy has been spent relentlessly bashing Ireland, a place which despite all of its issues is a pretty good place when you take a breath and compare it to other countries.

I’ve never met Paddy, but with me and others you would talk to, this bashing of our country started to wear very thin and people started to dislike this person that we didn’t actually know.

Without knowing the detail I’ve always understood that at the heart of this Irish bashing was a deep anger because he felt that Ireland didn’t do enough for him and his event to keep it on these shores.

Paddy also spent some time doing some investigative work “naming and shaming” various accounts on Twitter for one reason or another. At one point I recall getting a crisis communications enquiry from a potential client – they had been named and shamed by Paddy and with his volume of supporters and the huge visibility that goes with that, their personal reputation was in tatters and it needed some careful restoration work for them.

They were being cancelled by our boy Paddy. I always wondered what satisfaction did he get from putting so much precious time and energy into this public shaming?

And then there were the public spats with his former Web Summit colleagues – stormy waters everywhere.

When Hamas savagely attacked innocent Israelis on 7th October and the predominantly pro Israeli western world spoke about “unconditional” support for Israel, Paddy felt obliged to tweet.

Anyone using X/Twitter or observing the media coverage of the Hamas attacks could see how divisive this topic was with entrenched views on the different sides. Compounding the issue for most people was the lack of understanding of the history behind this bitter conflict, and before joining the Twitterati you were well advised to take a breath before adding your tuppence worth to all of the public outrage.

Paddy was trying to make a valid point – he commended the balanced response by the Irish government to the atrocities and criticised the other predominantly pro Israel, western world response. A war crime shouldn’t be then followed by a reciprocal war crime battering even more innocent people regardless of religion or nationality.

While he had a very valid point he didn’t read his audience – Web Summit sponsors and customers, all from the tech world are predominantly pro Israel (a tech haven in its own right) and they were outraged.

Whatever about “cancelling” a person on Twitter / X for what they have said, this crew voted with their pockets and cancelled their participation in the event, no doubt inflicting deep financial and reputational wounds on the phenomenally successful Web Summit. Even some of the high profile speakers decided to withdraw from the event inflicting even more wounds on this wobbling beast.

Paddy (probably crafted by his PR agency) offered an apology on Twitter and when that wasn’t enough to halt the tide of withdrawals from the event he soon stepped down as CEO – we all know it’s Paddy’s gig so that won’t convince anyone.

For Paddy and the rest of us who love expressing our views on X / Twitter the tide has significantly turned.

While the attention drug is very appealing, wanting to have our voices heard just isn’t working in the positive way that it might have done before, and all you get now is the risk of the downside.

Paddy learnt a very harsh lesson – we all need to pay heed as we could be next !

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Crisis PR, Reputation, Social Media, Twitter | 3 Comments »

When ‘East Meets West’ and the many twists and turns of life..

September 24, 2023

When we were in the process of buying our little West Cork retreat I found myself driving through the beautiful town of Schull in search of a gift for a friend that we were about to visit.

The display of beautifully lit mosaic lamps in the window caught my attention and within minutes I had the perfect gift (one of those lamps) being wrapped while I chatted to the sales assistant. The shop, ‘East Meets West‘ had an eclectic range of beautiful stock, everything from rugs, lamps, clothing, jewellery, furniture children’s toys and much more, all sourced directly from small manufacturers in India.

On another visit to the store a few months later I met the owner, Amanda Connell originally from Norfolk in England, and in no time at all I started to hear abut her colourful story, which was just as fascinating as her very special shop.

Life is full of personal and career choices and there are times when the ones we make aren’t the most obvious and some might say, a little bit crazy!

Amanda agreed to sit down with me at her gorgeous new home near Schull and share her story for the Win Happy podcast – I hope you enjoy getting to know Amanda as much as I did.

Greg

The Win Happy podcast is available on all podcast Apps and on Spotify.

This show has been produced by Fuzion Communications, a Marketing, PR, Graphic Design and Digital Marketing Agency in Ireland with offices in Dublin and Cork.

Podcast Production by Greg Canty

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Posted in Inspiration, Personal development, Podcast | Leave a Comment »

Blackberries and new traditions ..

September 18, 2023

I know that she won’t remember this but when little Hazel, my granddaughter came to visit us in Crookhaven in West Cork at the end of this summer I took her by the hand and we went up the narrow little road that runs behind our house on a special mission.

I wanted to create a little memory, the start of an annual tradition that we could share, just the two of us.

On this peaceful little road we picked blackberries together and filled a little carton between us. In between the blackberry picking she was just as fascinated by the loose gravel on the road. She was carefully examining the different shapes and placing the more interesting ones in with the blackberries in the carton.

She is not quite two yet (that is in October), but she was clever enough to know the difference between the blackberries that were ripe enough to pick and those that should be left to ripen some more, and just like other children as many were consumed on the spot as were placed in the carton.

When I first heard that my granddaughter was born (we were sitting up front at a John Spillane gig at The White Horse Bar and Restaurant when the text came through), as well as being overjoyed I had these idyllic notions about seeing her every week and I would be an adored grandad !

However, with these busy lives that we all lead the get togethers have all been very hit and miss but I do think that this little tradition of picking blackberries might be the perfect thing for us to do together each year, or at least until she can remember them…

“Do you remember when we used to pick blackberries together in West Cork?” she might say to me some day….”I sure do“

After the blackberry picking, I picked up the carton with berries and gravel, and little Hazel with her face covered in purple juice took my hand and we strolled back to the house together.

We started a new tradition, but she hasn’t quite realised that yet!

Greg

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Posted in Family | 4 Comments »

Spamming and the damage to your brand

July 31, 2023

Another one of these totally and utterly irrelevant cold “call” emails has cluttered my inbox.

They vary in style and content but the things they have in common are:

  • I have no idea who they are
  • There is no need for the services being offered
  • They all use this “cool”, familiar language

Here was today’s example..

Hi Greg,

Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to connect yet.

I understand; life gets busy.

I hope you don’t take offense to my persistence since I would love to learn more about the prospecting & outreach process in your company and see if we have any points of potential synergy.

(Company name) could help you accelerate your outreach efforts by automating the tedious manual tasks and spending extra time hiring.

Let’s jump into the demo and we’ll discuss everything?

Best,

Anastasiia from (Company Name)

In a world where we are all so busy, how can any company justify employing people to blindly harass poorly researched prospects and in doing so, damage their own brand?

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Branding, Communications, Email Marketing | 2 Comments »

No I didn’t

May 17, 2023

No I didn’t bump into my neighbour and great friend Brian as I was popping down to the local store to grab some lunch.

No I didn’t ask him if he wanted to join me and Dee for lunch.

No I didn’t ask him what he fancied for lunch and no he didn’t suggest that he fancied a nice baguette because he had spotted some guy cycling and he had a baguette.

No I didn’t get a fresh rustic baguette in the store, a selection of salads, marinated chicken breasts and some pastries.

No I didn’t come home, set a table in the garden for lunch in the sunshine.

No I didn’t text Brian to say lunch was ready and no he didn’t come over.

No I didn’t ask Brian and Dee if they wanted some white wine to go with this delicious lunch in the sunshine and while they said no first, no they didn’t change their minds….

No we didn’t have a great chat in the sunshine, we didn’t polish the bottle of wine and we didn’t have coffee and delicious pastries after.

No we didn’t have fun and no we didn’t spend too much time chatting to stop us from being back at our desks for work at 2pm.

No, I didn’t tell you the truth…

Sometimes you just have the embrace the moment because it just might not come again!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion Communications, a full service Marketing and PR agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Friendship, Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

When a big pay packet costs you too much

January 15, 2024

I’m doing a lot of job interviewing lately.

In Fuzion we are recruiting for a number of roles, and with candidates that are of interest I must ask them about their salary expectations/requirements. It’s a tricky question, but a very basic one.

“How much salary do you require to consider this role?“

It’s a very practical question and like the rest of us, the person needs to be paid appropriately, fairly and have enough to live on and hopefully some left over for the nicer things in life.

While we have to approach “pay” in this way there is an even more fundamental question that goes beyond the amount of money that you need to take up a role.

How much will this job cost you and is the pay sufficient for this cost?

How can a job cost you (and I’m not talking about travel expenses) you are probably asking.

Life is too short and every precious hour that you spend on this earth should be a positive experience, something that you can enjoy, that gives you fulfilment, comradery, that allows your passion to flow, that provides you with something valuable that you can’t get in other aspects of your life. This includes your work as much as other aspects of your life.

A long time ago I remember a boss of mine near the end of his career sharing with me that he hated his job and wished that he was doing something totally different. This guy was very comfortable and could easily have jumped ship so I asked him why he wouldn’t. He carefully explained to me what he described as “a fur lined mouse trap” -basically the package and perks were too good to leave so he was prepared to stay “trapped” as he called it.

Wow, what a huge price he paid for that time.

To take a job that is not right for you even if the package is great, is a hefty price to pay. While they might be paying you a lot, you end up paying the biggest price of all by not doing what YOU want with your precious time – you won’t get it back.

You need to #WinHappy

If you are interested we are a great place to work as long as you like doing what we do!!

Greg

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development, Positivity | 2 Comments »

A life of Mondays…..

October 16, 2023

If on your last day on this earth an angel appeared and offered you more time but the offer came with a big catch.

Each of those years was to be made up on Mondays and nothing else, Monday after Monday after Monday.

Would you take it?

Have a great Monday !!

Greg 

Greg is a partner at Fuzion a Brand Communications agency with offices in Dublin and Cork, Ireland

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Posted in Motivation, Personal development | Leave a Comment »

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