Jamie O'Leary, Concierge

Jamie O'Leary is 33 and living in Mallow. He recently took up a position in Fota Island Resort after spending the last two years looking for work after he lost his job in Rent-A-Van, Cork.

"I was let go two years ago from Rent-A-Van where I had been working as a delivery man with the company. There wasn't many jobs about at the time so I contacted FÁS and I basically set about training myself and doing as many courses as possible to better my CV. I did about nine or ten courses with FÁS including health and safety, supervising, management - I wanted to do courses that would enable me to better personal skills so that I could be self-employed if possible."

After finishing in FÁS Jamie then moved on to Avondhu Blackwater Development where he continued to train in different courses.

"I did a couple of different things in Avondhu such as e-working and career skills and I went to Limerick every three weeks on another course and after that I also trained with Cork Chamber of Commerce. I did a lot of training over the last two years and I was looking for work the whole time on top of that. 

"The job in Fota came up five weeks ago for a Concierge position so I took that. I've been doing a bit of security as well for the hotel as I have previous experience in that area and I'm happy to have found a job. It was tough having to go to all the different training courses, and to not have a job but I was always willing to do it. I'm that kind of person, I'll do whatever I have to do and I'm always willing to learn."

Jamie lives with his wife and his two sons in Mallow and he says that although it was not easy for the last two years without a job, the training courses he took part in helped him in re-training himself.

"It's hard to get a job these days because your up against a lot of people in the same position as you but if you stick with it like I did, then it pays off."