Career profiles: from modern history to graphic design

Sinéad Gibney, modern and contemporary history, Ulster University

I knew I wanted to study history, because I always loved it. I enjoyed writing essays and I was always fascinated by politics.

The course at UU really appealed to me because it focused on modern history, and I could do a specialist module on the development of political thought.

In my final year, I did a mini dissertation on how the information revolution could impact on the development of socialism. This was before the world wide web had really come into its own, but it showed me how technology could be used for good, which later led me to a role as corporate social responsibility manager at Google.

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Through my undergraduate degree, I came to realise that an understanding of current affairs and politics could help to influence positive change in the world. I wanted to leave it better for people.

I love learning and have done several master’s degrees and professional certificate courses, including a master’s in equality studies at UCD, which helped me make the decision to move to the public sector.

Throughout my degrees, I developed research and policy analysis skills from processing, drafting and writing information, as well as teamwork skills through working in groups. I have developed the confidence to know I can apply these skills and make a difference to the world.

Sinéad Gibney is chief commissioner at the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission

Ian Haskins, apprenticeship in motor mechanics, Dún Laoghaire Institute of Further Education

I was always messing with cars, even as a kid. My dad was a mechanic and I was always around cars. When I was a teenager, I decided it was the career for me.

I trained in Dún Laoghaire Technical College, which is now the Dún Laoghaire Institute of Further Education. I used to go one day and one night a week, for four years. At the same time, I worked four days a week, getting on-the-job training in a garage.

There was a lot to take in, because cars are complex machines, but the basis of what I learned has stood me well.

Back in 2003, I was headhunted to work in a Saab garage. Even though they stopped making them over 10 years ago, I saw a niche in the market and, in 2017, established my own business, BH Motors and Sons & Saab Wisdom in Bray, Co Wicklow. I run the mechanic operation, and my wife and business partner Cathy runs the business side.

We work on all cars, but our specialist Saab Wisdom unit has additional expertise in servicing and securing parts for Saabs.

Mechanics generally will help each other out and give advice around certain models.

The car industry has changed a lot since I studied, but you will always hear in a garage that every day is a school day, you are always learning.

Ian Haskins is the owner of Saab Wisdom at BH Motors and Sons

Steve Lynch, philosphy at UCD

What use is a pure philosophy degree? Hmmm, let me think about that . . .

Well, I had a great time studying it as part of an arts course. A clever answer would be that it opened my mind and made me a lateral thinker, but it actually really got me through a time in life where I didn’t quite know what I was doing. I learned how to study and how to absorb knowledge.

Looking back, what I really needed was that time to figure out what was next. I knew I loved music and so I decided to do a master’s in music and media at Trinity College. Here, I started writing music for short films, and started to build relationships with directors until the point that people remembered me when they had paid work.

This is a business where you have to work hard, up to 70 or 80 hours a week, and it’s important to be flexible.

Today, I write music for lots of different mediums, including commercials and, more recently, scores for TV programmes including Obituary on RTÉ, Wreck on BBC and, coming soon, Sanctuary on US TV channel AMC.

Steve Lynch (StellarSound.ie) is a composer for film, TV and commercials

Noel O’Connor, electronic engineering at DCU

In school, being good at maths and physics was an indication that you should consider a career in engineering. I was lucky enough that friends of my older brother had studied engineering and could help me figure out that it was right for me.

I studied electronic engineering in Dublin City University, although the course is now called electronic and computer engineering. Academically, there was a diverse set of topics to cover and I found it mentally stimulating, with a strong focus on problem-solving through technology and using the language of maths to understand the physical world.

It was a challenging degree, with long hours, but that drove close bonds between the class and I formed friendships and networks that have endured to this day.

Of course, I learned a lot of technical skills, but perhaps what endures the most is the group work that gave me the skills to collaborate with other engineers and professionals.

Electronic engineers have traditionally looked at devices and, these days, devices store data, which led me where to I am today: CEO of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics and an active researcher at DCU.

Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, Insight supports over 450 researchers across eight universities, all working on data, big data, machine learning and artificial intelligence.

I work closely with industry partners and across a range of disciplines including health science, cultural theory, and busienss and finance. I need to understand their problems as well as find innovative technologies to solve them, while also bringing along and encouraging them to buy into a common vision. My undergraduate was an excellent foundation for this.

Noel O’Connor is CEO of the Insight Centre for Data Analytics

Paula Dallaghan, graphic design at Ballyfermot College of Further Education

I always had an interest in magazines, art and editorial design. I found a course in design technology in Galway, a QQI level five. I really liked it and, from that, I did a part-time graphic design course in Dublin.

I didn’t have a great primary or secondary education, so I always felt I was catching up and had to try harder. I did a few design courses, and I saw then that there was a graphic design course in Ballyfermot College of Further Education, which had – and still has – an excellent reputation. I did my portfolio from my aunt’s house, working on the bedroom floor, and applied. Straight away, I loved it, I completely loved it.

I have worked in print media for a long time, and I do enjoy it, but it is a shrinking industry. With graphic design, there are always new technologies, and smartphones have required us to have a broader skill set too. It’s okay to have your Photoshop and Illustrator, but you need more, so I did a six-month evening course in web design at IBAT, which gave me a knowledge of HTML as well as plugging other gaps.

During the pandemic, I did a diploma in UX (user experience) design through a Springboard programme.

This is definitely a career that requires ongoing professional development, but the skill sets I take away most are typography, layout and artwork production for articles and graphics.

I have a lot of transferable skills from my experience including app design and web design. I want to keep learning more though, including a course in video and motion graphics later this year.

Paula Dallagher is a graphic designer with additional expertise in editorial design, typography and illustration

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