Documenting the lives of Irish graduates.
I have been able to hold onto my journalistic side despite moving towards a career in social media by joining some clubs and societies and writing pieces for DCU’s college newspaper, The College View and Her Campus, DCU.
The period that you finish college can be a very tough one. You are so eager to launch into your career. The harsh reality for some is that you don’t always just fall into a job as soon as you get your degree.
Irish Women Abroad was initially an online community of Irish women supporting each other while living away from home.
I didn’t want to spend the rest of my working life being pushed around to whatever job the bank had for me - I needed to do something I enjoyed. To come to that decision so quickly, I must have known it’s what I wanted to do deep down, but I needed a good reason to follow through.
I was nervous at the beginning as I wasn’t sure whether the content and the course structure would work with remote learning. Thankfully everything was adapted to ensure it was possible to complete the Masters from home without too much struggle.
I was also leaving my boyfriend, friends and family in Ireland, which made the goodbyes unimaginably difficult. But as is always the case, hindsight taught me that all the sacrifices were worth it in the long run, and 18 months later, I would do it all over again if I could.
For me, my Masters course has given me the opportunity to pursue a field adjacent to Finance that I was really interested in, to broaden my learning and understanding.
I’m the type of person who lives to work rather than works to live so I decided to come home to work and get more experience as living at home could provide me with that flexibility.
As a graduate and being in my early twenties, I have felt like I was in some sort of race to get my life on track and work a big corporate job in order to be successful. Since doing the graduate program in LA, I realise we are all on different paths and your twenties are a time to try and to not be scared of failing.
I got through my leaving cert with minimal effort and still had no clue what path I wanted to follow. I thought I would give myself another year to decide so I did a PLC course in Business and Information Technology. I would highly recommend a PLC course to anyone who is still unsure of what they want to do, I learned much on the course.
