What/where did you study and when did you graduate?
I graduated from UCD in 2016 completing a BSc in mechanical engineering and masters in mechanical engineering with business, rolling off the BOI graduate programme in September to the trading group.
What attracted you to the role you now have?
I enrolled to the two-year Corporate and Treasury BOI graduate programme in September 2016. As part of the programme, you rotate on three eight-month placements. My rotations were property, corporate lending support and global markets. This was a major selling point to me, offering interesting experience to cut my teeth in finance and Bank of Ireland – the spectrum of work carried out by the bank was huge in helping my decision.
The trading group is certainly different from engineering but it’s a fantastic atmosphere with a strong learning environment and everyone is very welcoming. The people and culture make it a great place to work, markets are constantly changing, creating an interesting dynamic – every day is different, from a Brexit headline to an economic data release, no day is the same.
What did you find most challenging about the working world?
The big challenge at first was adjusting from college but I think you settle in very quickly as there is a big social side also. More recently, as part of the grad programme, we completed QFA exams and I have also completed an agricultural green cert, so that was a juggling act at times.
Do you have any mentors and if so what is their value to you?
I think one has many mentors across various stages and I am lucky to have met different ones through all walks of life. My parents certainly instilled a hard work ethic. From a company perspective, the managers on each rotation were very important to me, offering advice and guidance, encouraging attention to detail, customer focus and commercial awareness – that is really overarching across the group. My first boss in property was very affable, great to work for and would talk on any topic big or small; that was of value to me.
What is the most valuable thing you have learned since you joined the workforce?
Your attitude is very important – give each job 110 per cent.
One piece of advice for graduates
My advice is if you are interested in something pursue it – go with your intuition!
