Gradlife Podcast

Aisling Byrne of KPMG tells us about her experience from Commerce in UCD (including 6 months in Singapore!) to being named the Gradireland Graduate of the year in 2020! She also talks everything from life in consulting to managing exams on top of an already busy schedule.

Ian talks us through his experience on the ESB Grad program as an engineer, moving to Bahrain the Middle East to work and live for 6 months on an ESB project, and how to get into these cool jobs in energy - probably the most important industry in the world right now!

Maeve Coll of ESB tells us about her journey from college to a great job in ESB's HR team; a journey that took to Melbourne and Cambodia along the way! Very informative and insightful into ESB's great Grad Program, which you can apply to between Sep 24 and Nov 02 2020.

Listen to Jessie O'Leary's story about how she turned a hard time into a wave of momentum that saw her start a business out of college, and what a business it is!

This is a seriously good episode. Jack Kennedy gives very thoughtful insight into: Moving from consulting to tech Moving from Tech Account Manager to Product Manager Being Employee Number 1 in a Start-up Founding his own Environmental Start-up Doing all this as an Introvert

Eoin talks about going from being confused in college to landing on his feet in Heineken where he has been promoted 3 times in 4 years!

Jane Mernagh talks about her journey from Global Business in DCU (Via Germany), to Salesforce Dublin and on to Yelp in NYC!

Jack Kavanagh is someone I have known for 15 years, and he is an inspiration to me. The toughness, the positivity, the spirit of this guy, never ceases to amaze me. We have said for 2 years that we must do a podcast, and now we have done it. Listen to this with a pen and paper, as you will learn more about life from Jack than you have in a long time!

Ollie chats to Polly Goss, ex-teacher, sales-person and start-up entrepreneur about the power of networking and much more!

A real estate agent talks about what the job is like, how to get in, and what the pros and cons are. To be a REA is a very good career that can pay very very well when done successfully. It's a form of high end sales and is heavily built on relationships, which suits a lot of people down to the ground!

Kev's story continues...

Everyone talks and hears about the <1% of great startup successes. We hear lots about the top 10%, who all work out reasonably well. But what about the other 90? Where do they go? Kevin Holler has the realest experience of startup life where things don't go to plan. He tells his story here and talks about the lessons learned and mindsets required throughout the founder journey. It's a fascinating story that is worth hearing regardless of your interest in starting a company.  Whether it will make you want to start one more, or put you off it, is completely up for interpretation! Enjoy :-)

A real treat to be joined by Taylor Brown, co-Founder and COO of Fivetran, one of the world's fastest growing and most exciting  Series B startups in existence. Taylor talks about his journey up to founding Fivetran, and how you often might be on a much more clear path than you yourself realise!

Fivetran was one of the fastest growing tech companies in the world in 2019, thanks in part to the success of it's EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Division that is run out of Dublin by Nate Spohn. Nate, who grew up in Canada, opens up about his experience searching for a career in Canada, Germany and the US, before finally coming across Fivetran. From a university called 'Chaos Pilots' to inventing board games, this is a story that will inspire any student or graduate to back themselves and meet their full inner potential!

Chloe Best tells us about her experience both as an entrepreneur and as a trainee buyer at Primark, a very prestigious role for many graduates out there and a great way of combining interest in both business and fashion!

What would you do if you were diagnosed with cancer out of the blue? It's a question people often ask themselves as a way of checking in, and seeing how far off their ideal lives they actually are. Well, for Elle Flood, this concept became a reality one day in 2018. In this interview, she talks about that very moment, the journey that ensued (and the incredible resilience she showed), and the impact it has had on her outlook on life. Elle is also doing really well in sales in Adroll, and has a lot of advice to offer there, which we focus on in the early stages of our conversation. This is one of the most moving conversations I've ever had, and I guarantee it will move you too.

While he was in college in Trinity College Dublin, Dan Hobbs and a friend embarked on a startup venture together; not with a novel idea, but with a vision for making an existing service, better. This is a great story in perseverance, commitment, and the ups and downs that life as a founder can present. Imperative listening for anyone who is interested in starting their own business some day.

Conor Leen, the CEO and founder of Stampify (a fantastic Social Enterprise in Dublin which uses a loyalty card system to feed the homeless) talks about his journey of setting up a social enterprise while also working full time (at Google), the sacrifices and rewards involved, and how he selected his team. Really, really inspirational for anyone who feels like they have more to offer than their 9-5 allows them to.

Stephen Keenan is a business graduate from UCD who, having run a startup throughout his undergrad, returned to do a masters in Computer Science, just to round out his business education and skillset. He talks us through this decision and who he would recommend it to, why it was beneficial etc. Stephen also talks to us about Microfinancing, which is an incredibly powerful agent for social change in developing country. Steve is part of the Neem Fund (www.neemfund.com) which is doing some great work in this area in Ghana. Feel free to reach out him on LinkedIn if you would like to get involved!

Dan Hinds, UCC International Business graduate, Accenture Management Consultant, and Founder of the Millennial of the Year, which raised €175,000 for Down Syndrome Ireland in 2018, talks about his graduate and professional journey so far, why everyone should be thinking more about China, and how he turned an idea into €175,000 raised for charity in 6 weeks!