50 Years of Co-op: Rían Murphy

Tell us a bit about yourself, what course did you study in UL, what has your career looked like to date?

My name is Rían Murphy and I’m currently working as a conference interpreter at the European Commission in Brussels. I started my career path by studying Applied Languages in UL between 2014 and 2018. I focused on three languages during my time in UL, Irish and French, both of which I had studied at secondary school, and German, which I began studying as a beginner. After completing my BA in Applied Language I went to the University of Galway where I spent a year studying for the MA in Conference Interpreting. Once again the languages that I studied were Irish, French and German, which I learned to interpret into English. Following completion of the Masters program I was selected to be one of three students from UG who would take part in a five month training program with the European Commission’s interpreting service, known as SCIC. This program was specifically run to train interpreters who could work from Irish and at least one other official language of the European Union. The five month program involved several interpreting practice sessions every week, shadowing interpreters in day-to-day meetings and some language enhancement classes. At the end of the program I was tested on interpreting from Irish and French into English. Upon passing these tests I was given a three year temporary contract with SCIC. Towards the end of that contract I added German as a third working language and sat an internal competition for a permanent position, which I took up in January 2022.

Tell us a bit about your co-op placement, what organisation did you work with and what year it took place?

I went on co-op placement during the spring semester of 2016 to Munich, Germany. I worked for a manufacturing company called Rheonik Messtechnik GmBH, which was based just outside Munich. Rheonik manufactures mass flow metres, specialised devices for measuring liquid and gas to a highly accurate level. While there I jumped between a number of departments, including sales, purchasing, HR, engineering and testing. Naturally, I didn’t have any technical skills but by moving around between the different departments and working with so many different people I developed a deep understanding of how the company worked, and, most importantly, I was exposed to a lot of German. I built up my vocabulary bit by bit, covering a broad range of topics, while also being exposed to different dialects and registers of language. During my placement I lived in Munich itself and commuted to work every day. Living in Munich allowed me to make the most of my six months in Germany and I had some fantastic experiences and made good friends during my time in the city.

What impact did your co-op placement have on your future career?

My co-op placement had two major impacts on me. Firstly, my German, both spoken and otherwise, improved quite a lot. My level beforehand had been quite low, having only studied it for three semesters, so the improvement was noticeable. Secondly, my time in Germany reinforced in me a desire to live and work abroad for a longer stint once I had graduated. I really enjoyed living and working in a different culture, making friends from all over Europe and the world, not just Germany, and living on continental Europe gave me the opportunity to travel extensively, an opportunity I made the most of by interrailing for several weeks once my co-op placement came to an end. I also joined a rowing club in Munich and made some great friends through that which also helped me practise and improve my German. Finally, my co-op placement had a direct impact on my career path later on. The training program that I took part in directly after my Masters had been conditional on participants to have a sufficient level of aptitude in two working languages of the Eu so as to be able to interpret from them into English by the end of the program and that they would have a sufficient level of aptitude in a third official language of the EU to be able to add that as a working language within one year. So having a good level of German helped me to get my job in the first place.

What piece of advice would you give to students going on co-op now?

I would tell any student going on their co-op placement that the best thing they can do while there is to immerse themselves as much as possible in the language and culture of wherever they are going. Don’t be afraid to speak the language to native speakers and try as much as possible to avoid speaking English. It can be daunting but if you can get over the first few hurdles you’ll find it becomes much easier and eventually even second nature. Other than that, I would encourage students to enjoy themselves. Travel around the country, go out to bars and restaurants, join clubs and organisations where you can meet people and have fun. Six months goes by very quickly so you have to make the most of it. Ideally you won’t want to leave at the end of it.