Senitor IT Ireland: Q+A with Margaret Parker Grimes

After an exciting launch of the Irish operations, the Senitor IT Ireland team is growing. At the beginning of February, Margaret Parker Grimes joined Senitor IT at their new Dublin office. We caught up with her to discuss her career background, her industry predictions, and all things tech!

Welcome to Senitor! You have a pretty extensive career history spanning Payroll, Accounts and Recruitment Management, can you tell us how your career developed into where you are today?  

My varied career has taken many turns. I started off in Dublin, London, then Chicago for many years, New York, Dublin, Manchester & then back to Dublin and then to the West of Ireland.  I have been very lucky as I loved every challenge and met some amazing people along the way.  I had worked for l’Ecrivain when it started, and like many other positions I’ve had over the years, they asked me to return, so I did and for nearly 20 years.  I have moved to the West of Ireland, so for nearly 20 years I have worked remotely travelling for work when needed.  The job expanded into everything over the years, from accounts, payroll, recruitment, advertising, social media, marketing, even some tech support, the more challenges the better.  When l’Ecrivain decided to close after 32 years in business, the question was what to do next.  I love Technology, speaking to people and most of all a challenge, that’s why recruitment stood out for me.

After 20+ years of working within the fine dining and hospitality sector, what drew you towards the tech sector?

Working in fine dining was something I was very comfortable with, so when I returned to l’Ecrivain I no longer worked “on the floor”.  I have always loved technology and sometimes wish it was a career path I took.  Working in the tech sector was a natural progression, every day I learn something new, and I love it. 

What were the factors into your decision to move to Senitor?

When I moved back to Ireland from New York, I started working in computer sales (Gateway).  The buzz was electric, the sales were flying and I was good at it, so good I managed to be one of  top sales person on a sales floor of over 100 people.  The winners that year were treated to an all-expense paid trip to New York and bring a friend.  Recruitment was mentioned to me, and so I headed off to Manchester to work in Senitor Recruitment.  I loved the job but just found Manchester wasn’t for me, Dublin was where I wanted to be, and after a period of time I  returned to Dublin.

The tech industry is thriving, and this of course means that the market has high saturation of tech companies. What advice would you give to clients in order to acquire the top talent?         

Yes the tech industry is thriving and it’s so exciting at the minute.  The best advice for clients to acquire the top talent is to offer a good work life balance.  After Covid, we all realise how working from home is now possible.  I had being doing it for 20 years but for a lot of people it was new.  It’s nice to have a balance, and hybrid for me is the perfect solution.  Some jobs of course it’s not possible, but where possible it should be offered and most companies seem to be on board with it.

So you’ve told us what clients can do to find the perfect candidate – what advice can you give to candidates to help them find their ideal tech role?  

Sometimes when we speak to candidates, we help them realise that a lot of their most relevant experience is missing from their CV. Your CV is the first contact with the recruiter and the employer, if it doesn’t sell you, it can be a major hurdle towards going any further with your applications.

With the tech industry booming here in Ireland and Senitor launching its Irish operations, what are your predictions for the 2022 sector?  

Ireland, compared to many countries and economies across the world is a fairly small country however, Ireland has quickly become a global technology hub attracting companies from all over the world as well as being the birthplace of some incredible tech start-up success stories such as Stripe - and to cap it all off, it’s a truly a fantastic place to live and work. Declan McNamee is the Head of Operations in Ireland, with ambitious plans already in place to grow Senitor Ireland and I predict Senitor will be as well-known and successful in Ireland as it is in the UK!

If you're looking for your next role in the tech industry, get in touch with Margaret at margaret.parker-grimes@senitor.com today!