DEIRDRE O'CARROLL'S mobile phone is like an umbilical chord. It is permanently attached to her ear, or bleeping in her bag. As she moves about in her car going from property to property, the mobile phone connects O'Carroll to the office in Dublin city centre where she works and to anxious clients waiting for news of a bid. "I don't think I could live with out my mobile phone now," she confides in amazement. As a result of its constant use, she knows all the phone numbers of her clients "off by heart".

O'Carroll is an estate agent working in the residential section of Hamilton Osborne King. She grew up in Kilkenny. Her late father, Martin O'Carroll, was an estate agent with a long standing practice in the town. She remembers the buzz and the excitement of his job. "He was a natural. He would have made anybody want to get involved in the business. It was very much a one man show."

It was a natural decision for her to carry on the tradition. After school in St Brigid's College in Callan, she made a beeline for DIT Bolton Street to study auctioneering valuation and estate agency. "It's necessary to get some form of education. . . People recognise more and more that it's not as simple as it seems. You need to know what you are talking about."

After two years, she completed her certificate and got a job in Hamilton Osborne King, working in the commercial sector. She stayed there for a year and then returned to Bolton Street to study for a diploma in auctioneering, valuation and estate agency.

In the past, she believes, people were a bit wary" of estate agents and the integrity of their profession especially as it is so easy to set up in practice. "That image is changing. It has to change. The public is more informed. They are a lot more demanding."

O'Carroll describes the importance of interpersonal skills.

People are often at their most vulnerable when they meet an estate agent. "You have to be a people person," she explains. "You are dealing with people's primary asset. Not everyone is buying up. Sometimes people are really stressed out. While we'd be dealing with property every day, it's the biggest investment they will make. It's their livelihood. For the people involved in the buying and the selling, it is extremely stressful. It's a case (from our point of view) of minimising the stress involved. . . You are in constant touch with them."

After graduating from Bolton Street, O'Carroll went to the USA and worked in a recruitment agency. She came back to Dublin almost two years ago and started work with Hamilton Osborne King.

She says that this is one of the busiest times of the year for her profession. There will be several auctions a week from now until the end of July. "Some can be very exciting if there is very fast bidding," she says. "It can be pretty nerve wracking for people."

She is excited by the changes that are happening within the business. Properties are now being advertised on the Internet. Queries come in from all corners of the earth from interested parties who are "half thinking of coming home". For those thinking of a career in estate agency, O'Carroll says that "you need to be able to talk to people, think on your feet, be focussed. You have to be sure of yourself. You have to have an awareness of the business. You have to be patient. You have to involve yourself from the very beginning and follow it through to the very end.

"There's a lot of running around. Being young, being mobile is the name of the game.