A recent graduate is currently working in Hospitality Tech.
What 3 words best describe your experience as a student of Shannon College?
Family, amazing, special.
What college memory still makes you smile?
I wish I could just pick one. But everything from the first week to the day of graduation makes me smile. The uniform checks, being sent to shave, last minute study sessions, dress dance, nights at Shannon nights, pints at durty nellys and of course the lectures haha!
If you had to re-live your time in Shannon College, would you do anything differently?
I don’t know what I would have done differently, but maybe just make different mistakes. Learn from those mistakes. Grasp every opportunity that comes your way and don’t forget to have fun.
What advice would you give to your 20 year old self?
To stop looking at everybody around me. Their success or speed of success should not be compared. At Shannon, everybody does so well that often it’s easy to get disappointed or feel a bit low when your job or career isn’t progressing as quickly as somebody else. But be patient and take it one step at a time. Your time to be a manager or gain a promotion will come. Just keep working hard.
In your life, what achievement are you most proud of?
I could talk about the end of year awards or the graduation awards or winning the IHI business games. All of which I’m extremely proud of. But the honest truth is that the most proud feeling of mine is the fact that all of Irish friends saw me as one of their own and not an outsider. I also took great pride when someone I taught accounting to, did well in their exams.
What qualities do you think are most important to have for a rewarding career?
Perseverance, patience, passion and desire.
What has been the biggest challenge you have faced during Covid-19?
To adapt to everything around me. To accept the fact that my career in hotels has taken a hit and that getting a job at my desired level of role was not easy. But I’ve got a new job at a tech startup that is designing a couple of interesting and useful products for the hospitality industry. Adapting to a desk job has been very hard.
Do you have words of wisdom that you try to live by?
We often get too carried away looking so far ahead in the future that we forget to live in the moment. I wish and hope to live more in the moment and hope more people would do the same too.
What advice do you have for current SCHM students who are looking for inspiration and hope?
Stay strong, stay together. While it seems hard for you, it’s important to understand that this situation is hard for everyone. You are definitely not alone and we will all come out of this better. When you do get back to campus, make the absolute most of it. Attend college, study hard, party harder. There is honestly no better place to be at, than Shannon. I would do it all again in a heartbeat.
