The Leader Interview..with John Fitzgerald, careers expert
IN LIFE there are the people who play it safe, and those who don't. Ever since he left school, John Fitzgerald's journey has been that of a venturer, a risk-taker.
There was the time he went to work on the family farm instead of taking his college place. The day in Ennis when he took a job selling golf holidays in America, having ever played just one round of the game. And what about the summer he packed in the permanent, pensionable job in London, for a job in Limerick selling cleaning products for half the salary he was on in the UK.
Sitting at his desk in his office at the National Technology Park in Castletroy this week, John is living proof that some risks are worth taking.
He is the owner and MD of Harmonics Career Crafting Ltd, a company which specialises in helping other companies to find new careers for staff who are being made redundant.
If the walls of this office could talk, what stories they might tell. Much happens within its confines - careers are carved and self-belief is restored.
"What it's about is - if you were made redundant in the morning - where can you find a new career? And it's not just about getting another job - it's about a getting a good diagnosis," the career coach explains.
"What is it that really makes you tick? What are your passions ? What are the skills that you are not using. What are your values? What's most important to you in life?," he continues.
While the era of the Celtic Tiger had people coming through the doors predominantly in search of a career change, now "it's more urgency based," according to John.
"Having said that, there is always the person who is not happy in what they are doing, but what we are seeing now is that the decision is being made for people . Whereas before it was 'I'm not getting on with my boss,' now it's 'get me a job'."
With an office also situated in Dublin, Harmonics Career Crafting have clients ranging from the supermarket chain Superquinn - which has just left 400 people go - to private individuals who have been recently been made redundant from, for example, the construction industry and Dell.
If there is a change happening in an organisation, the experts at Harmonics are called in to either help the company pre-plan the change or, if there are numbers to be reduced - to guide them on the best way forward.
But it's not a quick fix," says John of their method of securing new employment for their clients and more importantly, finding the right career for them. "It's not something that you come in for two hours coaching and then, hey presto, you're fixed. It's more of a continual process. We would be working with that person over a period of three to four months," he points out.
Reared on a diary farm across the road from Bruff rugby grounds where he lived with his parents Sean and Chris and sister Helen, John's own first taste of hard work was with his father, on the home turf.
"When I came out of school, I got Electronic Engineering in Moylish - it was either that or stay at home on the farm," he explains.
John chose the farm. However, by the middle of September he knew it wasn't for him.
"My mother made a call to a cousin of hers in Roches Stores in Limerick and there was a vacancy coming up in the menswear department, so that was my first example of networking to get a job."
John went in for an interview with the manager, Mr Crowley.
"Charlie Crowley - he was a lovely man," John recalls.
"He was a farmer himself originally from Dunmanway in County Cork and we got on like a house on fire. He was into the GAA. We talked about farming and we talked about hurling and I got the job.
"I was set up for life as a draper with a measuring tape over my shoulder. At the time it was almost like a profession. It was a great job. I was one of the lucky few - it was the mid-80's."
Looking back on his time in Roches Stores, one memory stands out of for John. "I remember looking out the window and seeing the guys coming in from Moylish where I should have been going at the time, and thinking I've lost an opportunity in life because they had gone to college, I was selling men's clothes. But what I got there was a great opportunity to meet people and to interact with people and also to sell."
John spent three-and-a-half-years at the O'Connell Street store. His days as a mens draper came to an end when a chance opportunity to travel to the States presented itself.
"I was a shop steward in the union in Roches. We had been sent on a training course for two days to the Old Ground Hotel in Ennis. There I met this American and he said that he was looking for an Irish guy to sell golf holidays in the States. I told him I was the guy. I had played one round of golf in my life in Enniscrone on my holiday," he says in a fit of laughter.
John spent a year in Stamford, Connecticut. Like the thousands of Irish before him, he was an illegal citizen. As a result his new American friend wasn't able to take him on in the same position he had offered him initially, so John ended up working in construction and on building sites. "You were called an Aer Lingus carpenter in those days because you got on a plane in Shannon and when you got off in New York you were a qualified carpenter."
In those days the first question asked was - can you hurl? "I said I could and I got a job the following day."
John spent a year in the States and returned to begin a job working with Aer Lingus in Shannon on the check-in desk. He then got a permanent job in Heathrow.
"Again I wasn't taking life too seriously - I was having a bit of fun," he says.
After two years in Heathrow he came back and took a huge drop in salary at the time to go on the road and start selling for a company here in Limerick - Total Cleaning Supplies- selling cleaning supplies into pubs and hotels and industries.
"I think I was on about 22,000 sterling at the time and I came back to about eleven grand basic.I always wanted to sell on the road and just wanted to get started and Tony O Connor in Total gave me that career opportunity."
He worked at that for a number of years and then went back to college by night, studying business in UL. He then got the opportunity to move into the health and safety industry - working for the former rugby player Phil Orr for a number of years before he was head hunted to another business.
"The opportunity came for me to get involved in a business called Training Decisions which is Career Decisions International now," he explains.
John was involved in that company for six years before he set up Harmonics in 2006 with Cappagh man Pat Hennessy who had his own recruitment business in Limerick for many years . What started as a team of two - just John and Pat working from an office in O'Connell Avenue - has developed into a business of five-full times staff and a team of 14 to 16 associates around the country who come in and support the staff on contracts in different regional areas.
To be able to speak about something with conviction, it usually helps if you have experienced it for yourself. Prior to setting up Harmonics Career Crafting, John himself was unemployed for six months. "I had a vision of what I wanted to do but I would say that going in and signing on in Kilmallock was not the most exciting experience of my life. However, it was definitely the best education for me in helping people who are unemployed who come to me. It was real life. I had to go back and borrow money to start my own business. It was a risk and it demanded a lot of self belief in myself that yes I can make a success of this."
And make a success of it, he did.
Next month sees John embark on a new journey in his career in the form of filming his own television series - The Career Coach. The show will air on RTE One early next year.
According to John the show will not be a quick-fix solution for people who are trying to get the right job for them- it will identify for them where they need to go and the baby steps they need to take on that journey.
It will feature John on his own, working with six people over six episodes. "It won't be me opening doors for people. There may not be six happy endings this will be real life fly-on-the-wall documentary stuff about challenging people to move outside their comfort zone."
In the current economic climate, it has all the hallmarks of ratings winner. Sky-rocketing live register figures mean that more and more people are searching for solutions to their predicament.
"I meet a lot of people who have been made redundant and their job title is their identity. I see a lot of middle-aged men who are just completely depressed and drinking their skulls off instead of re-thinking how can I reshape my life. People have got to want to change for themselves. I cannot make them change."
And now is the perfect opportunity for change, according to John who cites his own father learning to text at the age of 70 as an example.
"His hearing was fading. Prior to that he would have never have thought about using a mobile phone but then as the saying goes necessity is the mother of all inventions."
So what does John Fitzgerald do when he is not dispensing advice to clients be it in Castletroy or Dublin. Well, having played hurling with both Knockainey and Kilmallock, he still gets his GAA fix - going to local games and he also follows Munster rugby. Other times he can be found relaxing in the back garden of his Kilmallock home - that's where the tan came from he tells me when I enquire if he has been away on holidays.
John moved to Kilmallock in 1997 after he married local woman Gillian Wiley. And it seems to have been a meeting of minds on top of that initial attraction.
How did I meet Gillian? he smiles. "In a pub in Bruff. I went up to Declan (Gillian's brother) and I said 'who is she over there? And he said 'that's my sister Fitzy - don't go near her'," he says laughing. Gillian shares John's entrepreneurial streak running her own business, Little Uniques - a children's clothing shop - in Charleville.
John and Gillian have one daughter Sarah. The six-year-old hasn't shown the entrepreneurial streak just quite yet opting instead to put her focus on, what else, but Nickelodeon. "Drake and Josh are her favourites at the moment," smiles John. And with that the career coach heads home for some quality time with his two girls.
Favourite book: Fierce Conversations by Susan Scott
Favourite television programme: Dragons' Den
Favourite film: Schindler's List
Favourite holiday destination: Margarita Island, Venezuela
Favourite food: My mother's bacon and cabbage on a Saturday in Knockainey
Email to a friend
Print this page
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Weather for Limerick
Monday 21 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 12 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 13 C to 18 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: South
