Whether in Ireland or abroad, embrace the challenge and try and get outside of your comfort zone. While working, try and get a sense of other areas in your organization and consider what interests you and how that might guide your studies and future career direction. Enjoy, it is a great opportunity and make the most of it.
Finbarr Murphy travelled to Japan for his co-op in 1990, for what he describes as a life-changing experience. He urges students to consider the opportunity of going on a global co-op.
Tell us a bit about yourself, what course did you study in UL, what has your career looked like to date?
I am the Executive Dean of the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick. I graduated in 1992 with a BSc in Computer Engineering. Following graduation, I moved to Japan where my first job was as a lathe operator in a factory in the south of Japan on Shikoku Island. After a year there, I moved to Tokyo and began working in investment banking as a software engineer. As my career progressed, I moved from software to trading and was transferred to London. I worked in Berlin and Hong Kong for some periods before moving back to Ireland in 2004, commencing my PhD and taking up an academic role in the KBS specializing in quantitative finance.
Tell us a bit about your co-op placement, what organisation did you work with and what year it took place?
Even in secondary school, I always knew I wanted to travel and work outside of Ireland. As an undergraduate, I took extra credits in Japanese just to balance my engineering studies. I wrote to the Japanese embassy (no email then!) and asked for any opportunity to undertake my co-op in Japan. They put me in contact with an international youth mobility group and, after much letter-writing, I got a job with Toshiba in Kawasaki. I arrived in March 1990 and worked there for nine months.
What impact did your co-op placement have on your future career?
Working in Japan and with a great company was a life-changing experience. The company and colleagues I worked with were very welcoming bearing in mind that there were relatively few foreigners in Japan at that time. I worked on software imaging for video displays outside of metro trains. You can see them in some countries now where you can watch a video outside of the speeding train underground. It was through my work experience that I came to appreciate the engineering principles I had studied at UL. Needless to say, it was a brilliant experience in Yokohama where I lived and Kawasaki/Tokyo.
What piece of advice would you give to students going on co-op now?
Working abroad is a little daunting but I really recommend that students think about that as an option. Whether in Ireland or abroad, embrace the challenge and try and get outside of your comfort zone. While working, try and get a sense of other areas in your organization and consider what interests you and how that might guide your studies and future career direction. Enjoy, it is a great opportunity and make the most of it.
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