Meath-born mechanical engineer David O'Donnell moved to Germany in 1998 "mainly for the adventure". Within a week he had three job offers and opted for a position with the giant automotive group Continental. He is something of a bike and petrol enthusiast, who also flies light aircraft in his spare time, so Continental was right up his street.
One of his early roles with the company fell into the “dream-come-true” category when he was assigned to the development of the tyres used on Porsche sports cars.
Another attraction of moving to Germany was love. O'Donnell met his wife, Heidi, when they were both students at the University of Limerick. Heidi went home and O'Donnell stayed in Ireland, having landed a position with NEC Semiconductors in Co Meath. Two years later he packed his bags and followed her.
At the time, O’Donnell’s German skills amounted to ordering a pint and counting to 10. “If you join a multinational company where English is the common language, it’s not a big issue. Naturally, though, you want to integrate so you make the effort to learn the language. Within a year I had a reasonable command and I’m no linguist.
“There is a perception that people need to have German to apply for jobs here. This is not necessarily the case. Irish people are viewed in a very positive light and are considered nationality ‘neutral’ in a good way.”
O’Donnell joined Continental on a six-month training programme that allowed him to work on different projects across the organisation. He settled into the R&D department and worked in various research positions until 2001 when he moved into a customer-facing role with Ford.
“I think I was steered towards it because Irish people are seen as open and good communicators,” he says. “I also think we do well because we’re flexible, willing to integrate and good at thinking on our feet.”
In 2003, O’Donnell became project leader for Ford’s entire tyre requirements in the Europe, Middle East and Africa (Emea) region across all of its brands. In 2007, he was promoted to vice-president of key account management for Emea. This involved looking after all Continental’s customers in the region.
“I had the best of both worlds with this role. I was still in tune with what was going on technically as I was constantly interacting with the engineering team but I also had the excitement of commercial engagement with customers.”
In 2009 O’Donnell was asked to move to the US as vice-president of key accounts for the Americas. “It was a very challenging time to be there as the automotive industry was in real trouble. We had to restructure our business and then reset our relationship with the manufacturers.
“It was a huge growth experience for me, not least because I was a double expat in that environment (expat Irish added to expat German), and it made me see myself from a different perspective.”
O’Donnell returned to Germany in July 2011 and took another step up the ladder with promotion to his current role. He is the first non-German to hold this position.
O’Donnell has experienced Irish, German and US business cultures.
“The Germans are very strong on planning and will test many scenarios in advance, go for common agreement on a direction and push it to completion,” he says.
Business cultures
"The business culture in the US is more blended and very upbeat. They certainly have great outward resilience and their enthusiasm often seems to be enough to pull people towards a vision. The Germans would tend to look more at the reality.
“Irish business culture is somewhere between the two. We do less planning but are quicker to react, possibly because change happens faster as our economy is more easily affected by outside forces. It makes us very good at firefighting, not something the Germans would be comfortable with on an ongoing basis.”
O’Donnell says years spent playing GAA provided him with good training for business. “I remember our coach telling us to stay close to the man and the ball if you didn’t want to get injured. Playing Gaelic games encourages a certain toughness and a willingness to roll up your sleeves and get stuck in. That stands to you in business.”
One of the things that surprises O’Donnell is how few applications companies like his receive from Irish jobseekers. “There is a demand for well-qualified English-speaking engineers but applications from Ireland are small, maybe because people think you have to have German.
“My advice to young engineers would be to stay at college and do a master’s as the standard of qualification required is higher now than when I came in here. Germany is on Ireland’s doorstep (I’m just six hours’ travel from my hometown of Trim) and there are good opportunities here.”
