Apple to create 500 jobs in Cork

opus

Good news

20/04/2012 - 07:12:36

Five hundred new jobs are being created at Apple's European Headquarters in Cork, it was announced today.

The computer technology giant already employs 2,800 people there.

Read more...

gbee

Good news, my son has an application is already so his timing was neat, with their new office block going up, does that mean they are not not coming to Opera Lane?

1966

Well done Cork.

evilivor

gbee wrote: »

Good news, my son has an application is already so his timing was neat, with their new office block going up, does that mean they are not not coming to Opera Lane?

Opera Lane? They are in Half Moon Street at the moment. Never heard any mention of Opera Lane.

leahyl

Great to wake up to some great news on the jobs front for Cork:)

omahaid

What sort of jobs are they? I can't really figure it out. Are they customer service jobs or production jobs or code monkey jobs?

Owen

Tech support and sales mosty. Apple don't do much production in Cork these days, iMacs are the only assembling line I think. Brilliant news for Cork, and fair play to Apple - they've been supporting Cork for a very long time now through thick and thin.

evilivor

Owen wrote: »

Tech support and sales mosty. Apple don't do much production in Cork these days, iMacs are the only assembling line I think

I think it's Mac Pros.

what the hell!

What we need now is an Apple store Really great news though

evilivor

Does any one know if these jobs are in addition to the 350 announced last summer?

Flesh Gorden

I could almost guarantee those new jobs will require fluency in at least one continental language

A quick look on their internal job site (jobs.apple.com) and every entry level sales and customer service job does

I've a friend working on one of their inbound sales teams and that seems to be their main focus as his own team and the other foreign based teams keep expanding.

codrulz

disregard.

deRanged

codrulz wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0420/apple-promises-500-new-jobs-for-cork.html
Apple already employs 2,800 people in cork and is expanding there base by 500!

we know! and it is great news.

Volovo

Wow, never knew so many people were already employed by Apple in Cork, thats fantastic. Good news for all involved.

el Bastardo

Well, I'd expect low level, call centre stuff in the main. Maybe you can add logistics, accountancy and QS support to that, but actually Ireland Inc usually gets low level, keyboard-monkey jobs that is one step above India in terms of education etc - but only because we speak English that people understand!

el Bastardo

el Bastardo wrote: »

Well, I'd expect low level, call centre stuff in the main. Maybe you can add logistics, accountancy and QS support to that, but actually Ireland Inc usually gets low level, keyboard-monkey jobs that is one step above India in terms of education etc - but only because we speak English that people understand!

So? Jobs are jobs even if what you expect to be the case is in fact the reality.

Nidot

el Bastardo wrote: »

Well, I'd expect low level, call centre stuff in the main. Maybe you can add logistics, accountancy and QS support to that, but actually Ireland Inc usually gets low level, keyboard-monkey jobs that is one step above India in terms of education etc - but only because we speak English that people understand!

Well I'm so glad you put that straight that my Accountancy qualification with a four year degree followed by 3 years of professional exams after having done quite well in my leaving certificate is no more than a 'keyboard-monkey' job.

I'll be sure to let me friends who work in multi-lingual customer support following their 4 year college courses involving a year spent studying abroad also fit into this category with myself.

May I ask tho as to what extent of education I'd required to achieve to get a non-keyboard-monkey job which you seem to alude to in your post.

Illkillya

Nidot wrote: »

Well I'm so glad you put that straight that my Accountancy qualification with a four year degree followed by 3 years of professional exams after having done quite well in my leaving certificate is no more than a 'keyboard-monkey' job.

I'll be sure to let me friends who work in multi-lingual customer support following their 4 year college courses involving a year spent studying abroad also fit into this category with myself.

May I ask tho as to what extent of education I'd required to achieve to get a non-keyboard-monkey job which you seem to alude to in your post.

This is not a good argument Nidot, you are focusing solely on your education rather than on the work itself. I know people who are highly qualified and working in jobs that are very basic. It would be interesting to hear about the challenges of the actual work that you are doing and how it supports your career development or how you can get a high salary there. I've also heard that those Apple jobs are mostly low level and low value jobs, but please do correct this misunderstanding (without ineffective sarcasm) if it is not the case, because that would be welcome news.

lilmissprincess

To be honest, I'd rather be having my qualification and working as a "low level, low value" job for Apple, who have a reputation for being a great workplace, than sitting at home, unemployed looking at my degree. Jobs are not out there in the fields that people are qualified for - the fact that there are jobs out there for these people to do outside of their field is really a bonus at this point in this economy - stop with the begrudgery! Positive thoughts - its a boost for the Cork economy which will go on to create more jobs!

Nidot

Illkillya wrote: »

This is not a good argument Nidot, you are focusing solely on your education rather than on the work itself. I know people who are highly qualified and working in jobs that are very basic. It would be interesting to hear about the challenges of the actual work that you are doing and how it supports your career development or how you can get a high salary there. I've also heard that those Apple jobs are mostly low level and low value jobs, but please do correct this misunderstanding (without ineffective sarcasm) if it is not the case, because that would be welcome news.

Many of the jobs which apple are offering are considered skilled positions.

If it is a call center job requiring fluency in a language is that not considered a skill. If it is a tech support job requiring familiarity and ability to assist customers in their queries and solve their issues is this not a quality job.

These positions would all be paying roughly the average industrial wage atleast. Most would in fact be paying much more than that. If you took the time to search for the type of positions Apple currently are advertising you'd find that they are quite above the base level of qualifications/experience required.

You mention how jobs should support your career development/get a high salary, and I'm sorry but I think you need to assess what it is exactly people are looking for in jobs. The majority of people see their career expectations with a good degree of clarity and do not expect to be CEO of Apple but rather a good employee who is renumerated accordingly.

Duggys Housemate

Its funny that people also dismissed "code monkey" jobs, which would probably mean writing software for OS X, and iOS ( Cork used to do dev but Jobs brought all dev back to Cupertino).

I wonder then, what is a good job? In any case load up on options.

omahaid

Duggys Housemate wrote: »

Its funny that people also dismissed "code monkey" jobs, which would probably mean writing software for OS X, and iOS ( Cork used to do dev but Jobs brought all dev back to Cupertino).

I wonder then, what is a good job? In any case load up on options.

I think I'm the only one to mention code monkey and that's a term of endearment as I am a "code monkey"/software engineer. I was hoping there would be a few software jobs in those 500 but it appears not...

Duggys Housemate

Apologies, omahaid. :-)

Oafley Jones

omahaid wrote: »

I think I'm the only one to mention code monkey and that's a term of endearment as I am a "code monkey"/software engineer. I was hoping there would be a few software jobs in those 500 but it appears not...

Product development does happen in Hollyhill, although it's a very small team. I also wouldn't discount them adding a few more software engineers yet.

omahaid

I'll be keeping a close eye

Duggys Housemate

Anone know what dev does there, then?

aidan_walsh

Mainly localisation and testing, AFAIK.

Illkillya

Nidot wrote: »

Many of the jobs which apple are offering are considered skilled positions.

If it is a call center job requiring fluency in a language is that not considered a skill.

No, a call center job is not considered a skilled position. Even with the language requirement, generally speaking call center jobs are low skill jobs.

If it is a tech support job requiring familiarity and ability to assist customers in their queries and solve their issues is this not a quality job.

Low level customer facing tech support jobs are usually low skilled jobs also.

These positions would all be paying roughly the average industrial wage atleast. Most would in fact be paying much more than that. If you took the time to search for the type of positions Apple currently are advertising you'd find that they are quite above the base level of qualifications/experience required.

Average industrial wage in Ireland is in the region of €35,000. If most of these 500 jobs are paying "much more" than that then I'll give a standing applause for Apple.

You mention how jobs should support your career development/get a high salary, and I'm sorry but I think you need to assess what it is exactly people are looking for in jobs. The majority of people see their career expectations with a good degree of clarity and do not expect to be CEO of Apple but rather a good employee who is renumerated accordingly.

Nidot, I mentioned three things (with an 'or' in between):

1. Challenges of the actual work that you are doing
2. How it supports your career development
3. How you can get a high salary there

Now I need to re-assess what people are looking for in jobs? Maybe I am completely out of sync with reality, but I would expect at least one of those things to be achievable in any skilled work environment. What exactly are you sorry for? If your work is not challenging, does not support your career development, and can never give you a high salary, then it will attract an entirely different type of candidate.

In response to some of the other comments:

Duggys Housemate: software development jobs for OS/X and iOS would be fantastic for Cork. "Code Monkey" in my experience is not a dismissive term, but a term used by coders themselves. Do you have any information to show that these jobs might be included in the 500? Fingers crossed...

lilmissprincess: It's not a question of begrudgery at all. Of course it is better to have 500 new jobs than no jobs at all, but it is reasonable to examine the nature of the jobs to determine if they are highly skilled jobs or if they are low skilled jobs (e.g., call center / low level tech support). Generally speaking, higher skilled jobs will have more value to the economy in the long run, improve the skills of our local workforce, and have less danger of moving offshore (e.g., if there was ever a change in our corporate tax policy). The higher value jobs would also help us to hang onto (or attract back) some of our brightest talent that has been forced to move to Dublin or overseas in order to support their career.

Still great to see 500 new jobs in Cork even if they're all just sweeping the floor, I just disagree with your implication that we should restrict our discussion to positive things only.

gbee

Illkillya wrote: »

Still great to see 500 new jobs in Cork even if they're all just sweeping the floor, I just disagree with your implication that we should restrict our discussion to positive things only.

I'm usually the grump, but I've taken a day or two off on this one.

el Bastardo

Illkillya wrote: »

No, a call center job is not considered a skilled position. Even with the language requirement, generally speaking call center jobs are low skill jobs.


Low level customer facing tech support jobs are usually low skilled jobs also.



Average industrial wage in Ireland is in the region of €35,000. If most of these 500 jobs are paying "much more" than that then I'll give a standing applause for Apple.



Nidot, I mentioned three things (with an 'or' in between):

1. Challenges of the actual work that you are doing
2. How it supports your career development
3. How you can get a high salary there

Now I need to re-assess what people are looking for in jobs? Maybe I am completely out of sync with reality, but I would expect at least one of those things to be achievable in any skilled work environment. What exactly are you sorry for? If your work is not challenging, does not support your career development, and can never give you a high salary, then it will attract an entirely different type of candidate.

In response to some of the other comments:

Duggys Housemate: software development jobs for OS/X and iOS would be fantastic for Cork. "Code Monkey" in my experience is not a dismissive term, but a term used by coders themselves. Do you have any information to show that these jobs might be included in the 500? Fingers crossed...

lilmissprincess: It's not a question of begrudgery at all. Of course it is better to have 500 new jobs than no jobs at all, but it is reasonable to examine the nature of the jobs to determine if they are highly skilled jobs or if they are low skilled jobs (e.g., call center / low level tech support). Generally speaking, higher skilled jobs will have more value to the economy in the long run, improve the skills of our local workforce, and have less danger of moving offshore (e.g., if there was ever a change in our corporate tax policy). The higher value jobs would also help us to hang onto (or attract back) some of our brightest talent that has been forced to move to Dublin or overseas in order to support their career.

Still great to see 500 new jobs in Cork even if they're all just sweeping the floor, I just disagree with your implication that we should restrict our discussion to positive things only.

Just thanking for what is (IMHO) a realistic opinion! Until you actually work a call centre environment, you know nothing - No toilet breaks etc!!