Blizzard to cut 200 jobs in Cork

opus

Just heard this on the news, not good

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0229/blizzard.html

I thought they were going full steam ahead.

deRanged

it's bad news alright - 200 is a lot of people out of work.

coyotefitzy

What will take their place? Its not like there are a lot of jobs around Cork at the moment.

evilivor

opus wrote: »

Just heard this on the news, not good

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0229/blizzard.html

I thought they were going full steam ahead.

That's very tough - quarter of the workforce gone. I knew Activision/Blizzard numbers were a little soft but didn't expect it to impact on Cork so soon.

run_Forrest_run

coyotefitzy wrote: »

What will take their place? Its not like there are a lot of jobs around Cork at the moment.

the IT sector is booming at the moment, look at Big Fish Games in Cork for example. Lots of others jobs available in IT in Cork. People need to realise we need to up-skill. Gone are the days of relying on Call Centre jobs for employment, the companies doing that sort of thing work off very tight margins and can easily move to the cheaper alternative and Ireland will never be competitive in that market when places in India etc will do it for a fraction of the cost.
It's bad news alright but another indication that the population needs to evolve with the times.

Sephiroth_dude

I never knew there were 800 or so people working there,thought it was much lower than that.

Sonics2k

I know a lot of people working there, having previously worked there for over a year, and they are genuinely terrified.

I really feel sorry for these guys, many of them have been there for 5+ years, have moved here from around the world to work there.

I personally know of two couples who have just gotten engaged and are planning weddings, and one of the couple are expecting a second child and have just signed a new one year lease.

Solair

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

the IT sector is booming at the moment, look at Big Fish Games in Cork for example. Lots of others jobs available in IT in Cork. People need to realise we need to up-skill. Gone are the days of relying on Call Centre jobs for employment, the companies doing that sort of thing work off very tight margins and can easily move to the cheaper alternative and Ireland will never be competitive in that market when places in India etc will do it for a fraction of the cost.
It's bad news alright but another indication that the population needs to evolve with the times.

The population is evolving with the times.
There's a major problem with this notion that everyone can work in the 'knowledge economy' and it's known as reality.
A fairly large percentage of any population is simply not capable of that kind of work, no matter how much training they are offered. Programming, in particular, is something that only a certain type of person can do. The vast majority of people find it extremely difficult to learn.

There's going to be a major problem if the only types of jobs available are all requiring huge levels of intellectual ability as there's going to be a hell of a lot of people who will be unable to feed themselves as they will not be able to cope with that kind of skill requirement.

The very reason that living standards rose after the industrial revolution was that there was a huge number of relatively low-skilled 'blue collar' jobs created that allowed people who didn't necessarily have massive ability to earn decent money.

I honestly think we're on our way back to the 19th century in the western world where a very small % of the population will control all the wealth and have all the access to earning power.

We simply cannot run economies based on the model that only people with a masters or PhD can earn an income.

(And that's coming from someone who knows this sector pretty well and who has serious postgrad qualifications )

Niall0001

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

the IT sector is booming at the moment, look at Big Fish Games in Cork for example. Lots of others jobs available in IT in Cork. People need to realise we need to up-skill. Gone are the days of relying on Call Centre jobs for employment, the companies doing that sort of thing work off very tight margins and can easily move to the cheaper alternative and Ireland will never be competitive in that market when places in India etc will do it for a fraction of the cost.
It's bad news alright but another indication that the population needs to evolve with the times.

Game development, software development, web design & IT are very different skillsets that are always lumped in under the same bracket. 70% of the jobs in IT have English + fluency in another language among main criteria so go to non-nationals & are in customer service.

A reality I'm all too aware of as a mature IT graduate who has sent 100+ applications without reply & was not succesful with the one interview I''ve had - for a 3 month work placement on €250 a week with 4 hours round travel every day. I have Leaving Cert German that I've been polishing up on recently via an evening class & Rosetta Stone but there's no way I have enough flair for the language or remote competency to handle customer service calls of a technical nature with German native speakers. & I suspect the vast majority of IT graduates are in the same boat, thanks to being lumped into learning a pointless, dead language from the age of 5 as an introduction to developing a second language. & were stuck learning the bloody thing for the next 13 years!

Booming, yeah?

run_Forrest_run

@Solair: I understand not everyone can or will up-skill or become developers but if more people do become more qualified for high-tech jobs this will filter down to other businesses, shops, restaurants etc. Overall it will make Ireland and Cork more attractive to investment, both foreign and domestic.

@Niall0001, I'm not sure I know where you're going with your rant there about learning a language at such a young age (Irish I presume) but keeping to the point here, yes the IT sector is booming. Yes I know 'IT' is a vast term but as already seen, games development is doing well, Quest Software are coming to Cork, even the place where I work is having difficulty getting suitably qualified people for various roles, ranging from Eclipse RCP development to general Java development.

Niall0001

run_Forrest_run wrote: »

@Niall0001, I'm not sure I know where you're going with your rant there about learning a language at such a young age (Irish I presume) but keeping to the point here, yes the IT sector is booming. Yes I know 'IT' is a vast term but as already seen, games development is doing well, Quest Software are coming to Cork, even the place where I work is having difficulty getting suitably qualified people for various roles, ranging from Eclipse RCP development to general Java development.

My rant about learning Irish at a young age is because 70% of jobs in IT are not for Irish people as a result of us having bad early experiences of learning a dead language instead of a European language that might get us jobs.

& all the above you mentioned are in gaming & software development.

On a lighter note: architects should be availing of their CAD experience to branch into the gaming sector, which IS thriving despite today's job losses. Tonnes of jobs in Edinburgh in the sector also, which sure beats having to travel the width of the planet to find work. A year or two's re-skilling would be involved but the transition should be fairly seemless.

run_Forrest_run

Niall0001 wrote: »

My rant about learning Irish at a young age is because 70% of jobs in IT are not for Irish people as a result of us having bad early experiences of learning a dead language instead of a European language that might get us jobs.

& all the above you mentioned are in gaming & software development.

On a lighter note: architects should be availing of their CAD experience to branch into the gaming sector, which IS thriving despite today's job losses. Tonnes of jobs in Edinburgh in the sector also, which sure beats having to travel the width of the planet to find work. A year or two's re-skilling would be involved but the transition should be fairly seemless.

focus on your technical skills and you will land a job in IT. I don't know why you are so hung up on a language to get an IT job, unless you want to get into localisation, technical writing or help desk which as we've already noted is only a tiny part of the overall IT arena.

Good point about the architects and CAD.

RedXIV

The multilingual thing will probably get bigger as the idea of globalised teams grows, but I would agree that strong IT skills alone should be enough to get a role, in urban areas at least.

The bigger problem is that the vast majority of IT roles out there are looking for experienced people (>5 years) which is leaving a huge amount of grads out of the loop

syklops

My company has been looking for an IT Support engineer in Cork for months and have not found a qualified candidate yet.

They got so desperate they asked for volunteers with the right skills to move from the Czech Republic to Cork, with a real nice re-location package to do it. I was even tempted myself. The only 'special' requirement is a couple years experience with Linux.

The last 2 placces I worked had one thing in common, Engineering was done on the continent, and Billing/Finance was done in Cork. I know a few people working for blizzard and some(not all) were/are happy to go do their 8 hours of, lets face it, unskilled billing customer care, and then go home and play WoW for eight hours and go to bed. I would imagine the exit interviewscould be fun "Where do you see yourself in 5 years? / Well I hope to have a level 90 Paladin".

My point is upskilling is a continuous process, you have to keep learning more, otherwise you stagnate. While I accept that (low level)programming does not suit everyone, the IT industry is much larger than just programming. There is management, there is facilities, there is sales, there is support, there is Quality Assurance, and a myriad of other roles. You don't have to be a genius for most of them, just hardworking.

I honestly think we're on our way back to the 19th century in the western world where a very small % of the population will control all the wealth and have all the access to earning power.

I actually believe the exact opposite. Never in the history of the Human Race has education been so widely available with such easy access. The level of education among westerners have never been so good. We are now at the stage where people who leave school at 18 have a chance of getting an office job because they are schooled in IT applications such as Office.

You can have an idea for a piece of software, you don't need to be a programmer just have an idea, and find people who will help you write it. NExt thing you know you have a start up with VCs knocking on your door. Its never been easier to learn, its never been easier to collaborate, its never been easier to get access to web space. The only thing standing in anyones way is laziness and/or a lack of vision.

opus

syklops wrote: »

My company has been looking for an IT Support engineer in Cork for months and have not found a qualified candidate yet.

They got so desperate they asked for volunteers with the right skills to move from the Czech Republic to Cork, with a real nice re-location package to do it. I was even tempted myself. The only 'special' requirement is a couple years experience with Linux.

Interesting is the job listed online cause I know several such people (I'm one myself in fact). Haven't seen it on my daily job alerts as far as I remember.

syklops

opus wrote: »

Interesting is the job listed online cause I know several such people (I'm one myself in fact). Haven't seen it on my daily job alerts as far as I remember.

Well its on our corporate page so I googled the title and found it advertised on:

locato.ie
simplyhired.ie
jobs.oodle.ie
citylocal.ie
jobisjob.ie
careerjet.ie

and others.

Btw, if anyone is interested or you know anyone interested, PM me your(or their) CV and I can give it directly to the guy doing the hiring.

Ludo

syklops wrote: »

Well its on our corporate page so I googled the title and found it advertised on:

locato.ie
simplyhired.ie
jobs.oodle.ie
citylocal.ie
jobisjob.ie
careerjet.ie

and others.

Btw, if anyone is interested or you know anyone interested, PM me your(or their) CV and I can give it directly to the guy doing the hiring.

Never heard of any of those sites.....Do they not advertise on irishjobs.ie and the like?

syklops

Ludo wrote: »

Never heard of any of those sites.....Do they not advertise on irishjobs.ie and the like?

Apparently not.

syklops

syklops wrote: »

Apparently not.

No wonder they can't find staff so, seriously.

opus

Ludo wrote: »

Never heard of any of those sites.....Do they not advertise on irishjobs.ie and the like?

Never heard of those either, here's a crazy idea why not post a link to the job on the available jobs thread in this very forum?

Ludo

opus wrote: »

Never heard of those either, here's a crazy idea why not post a link to the job on the available jobs thread in this very forum?

irishjobs.ie and http://www.recruitireland.com/ are 2 of the oldest and most popular recruitment websites for IT (and other areas). They are the first port of call for most people I know of in the IT industry.