IT journalist Paul Hearns

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

As I was mostly interested in doing things that weren’t on standard careers lists, I found school guidance counsellors, recruiters and most so-called experts uniformly useless in my career thus far. But a chance encounter while I was at college changed that.

I hitched a lift with a very successful stockbroker from just down the road. He started as a brickie in London, went for an open interview, on the insistence of his workmates, and the rest was history.

He imparted to me a very simple programme that I have only modified slightly for my own experience. There are four steps, I having added the last one. He said:

1. Figure out what you want to do (the hard bit)
2. Figure out how to do it.
3. Do it! It really is that simple. The modification to the steps I made was thus:
4. Repeat as necessary.

Having achieved ambitions in certain areas, those areas may no longer engage you fully. So be prepared to have new ambitions that might require a change in your career, your education and your life in general.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I am currently working as an IT journalist and had been freelancing while working in the IT industry for several years.

In the manner of many of my jobs, an opportunity arose and because I had voiced my ambitions to almost anyone who would listen, a person I had worked with rang me up and asked me to have a chat with the people involved and the rest is history.

Not only right place andright time, but the right person knew of me, of my capabilities and so it all came together.

Describe a typical day

It involves writing, editing, commissioning other writers, dealing with commercial concerns (from both clients and sales people), planning for future topics of coverage, answering a lot of email and engaging with a wider group of people via email, instant messaging, social networks, forums and more.

I have to research new topics, keep up with industry developments, and sometimes call up an expert and ask them for five minutes on whatever I can’t get my head around. This informal group of experts are as valuable to me as any industry source or analyst.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

My main day to day tasks are to create a schedule of articles, sometimes a year in advance, that will address the main concerns of enterprise IT, schedule these articles into a plan for publication, then commission, edit and present them in print and repeat that 12 times a year.

I must also be available for business development, where I engage with clients or potential clients to understand their businesses and how our publications serve to get their message out to end users in the industry.

We have a dual client base, where each has very different needs. We have our readers and our advertisers. Neither is more important and neither can be ignored in favour of the other. It is a tough balancing act, but an enjoyable challenge.

What are the main challenges?

One of the main challenges in industry journalism is to ensure that you serve the needs of the readers without bowing to the needs of the commercial organisations, whether your own or those of advertisers.

If you lose the trust of your readers then you do not have an audience. Without an audience you will not attract advertisers – it is a fine balance.

But one must also look after contributors, and see that they too are being treated well and heeded.

What’s cool?

To this day, I still get a little thrill when a technology company explains some new development and I have that “light bulb” moment! That sheer delight when I grasp the concept and my mind immediately races with implications for how it will change things is still a thrill of pure pleasure.

What’s not so cool?

Like everyone, we have been hit by the prevailing economic conditions and it is sad to see other great titles fall by the wayside. Competitors that push you hard do so because they are good and it makes you better. It is sad to see worthy competitors laid low.

It is also sad to see that people here are not taking up the challenge of the IT industry and the rewarding careers that it can provide.

The IT industry can also be a bit “me too”.  The current cloud computing buzz has led many an unscrupulous vendor to slap a cloud sticker on something and claim to be at the cutting edge of technology.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

Critical analysis is by far the most important faculty that can be developed into a focused skill. Being able to discern the import of a development, to put it into context for the readers or to present an opportunity for a potential advertiser, is essential.

Good communication skills are vital, especially being able to listen. Communication is two way, and as a journalist one must be better at listening than at presenting. If you don’t get the message in right, you can never present it properly, irrespective of how good a writer you are.

Creativity is essential. Being able to come up with new ways of doing things, new ways of presenting or designing is critical. Any media format only lasts a short while before it needs refreshing.

Being able to see different sides of things is central to what we do. The truth of the story, the concerns of all involved, the editorial constraints, the designer’s constraints, the commercial interests and simply making it readable and enjoyable for the reader, are all elements of what has to be done every day. Each one takes a skill and each element needs to be weighted correctly for how it affects the overall product.

All of these skills are what I practise on a daily basis, to a greater or lesser degree of success!

What is your education to date?

I always knew that it was the sciences that interested me, so I took all three science subjects at honours, as I did with English.

Languages were never my thing, despite the fact that I had ambitions for writing, and so I did pass level Irish and French. I had a great honours maths teacher for fifth year and then a terrible one for Leaving Cert year, so I dropped back to pass.

I did two very unsuccessful years of mechanical engineering which disillusioned me terribly and made me doubt my ability to study at all. I then became an aircraft mechanic where the academic levels were actually even higher and as I enjoyed what I was studying, I excelled.

I then did a degree in English and History to help my development as a writer and journalist. I did a course in web programming and that set me on my way into the world of IT. I have done various technical courses in programming and technology too.

Do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

As part of my current position I would like to develop a little further on the business management side of things. There are certain elements of good business management which are not common sense and I would like to understand more about the formal aspects of how to run a successful business to allow me to be of greater value in my role in developing new business.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Watching the first aircraft I was involved in maintaining taxi out and take off was a special experience. As was having a decision I made on maintenance questioned by the aircraft owner, who incidentally was also a childhood hero. When I explained my reasoning, he accepted the decision and commended my stance.

Just seeing your own words in print is always gratifying but having an opinion piece start a long and interesting discussion among technology professionals is immensely satisfying.

Developing areas of the business, such as websites or magazines and seeing successes as a result is very rewarding. Seeing ideas brought to fruition for the likes of live events, special features or supplements gives a great sense of satisfaction too.

What is your dream job?

This is a tough one, but ultimately, I’d like to be a novelist and a non-fiction writer. To make enough from one book to research and write another would be my dream job.

But a satisfying job is one where you enjoy what you do while getting paid for it, everything after that is a bonus!

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Technology journalism, like any journalism, benefits greatly from an affinity for the topic – it shines through in the writing. The skills and disciplines can be acquired, but a passion for the subject cannot be cultivated if it does not exist and this shows through in the writing.

Also, many people drift into journalism, and if this happens, do not neglect the need to hone your professional skills. Although practice makes perfect, give yourself a head start by ensuring you know the basics, as well as the nuances, of the craft.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Inquisitiveness, the ability to listen and a critical – even sceptical – faculty.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Technical writing can be a good preparation for technology journalism, as can other more mainstream types. Any writing can be a good preparation for journalism, even your English comprehension!

James M. Dailey, postdoctorate researcher at the Tyndall Institute in Cork

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

Even from a young age I knew I wanted to work as a scientist.  My “job of the week” varied from astrophysicist to molecular biologist but it was always in science.

When I was in high school (secondary school) I took all the science classes I could, as I still didn’t know what exactly I wanted to do yet.  This included two year-long courses each of physics, chemistry, and biology.

I also kept up with all the math courses, and I remember quite clearly in my senior year while taking calculus thinking to myself: “That’s why I had to take all that maths – it was so I could do this!”

Seeing how maths could be applied to real problems in a powerful way was eye opening.  Around the same time I was taking an electronic circuits class and really enjoyed it, so I settled on electrical engineering as a major and attended a university known for its engineering curriculum.

During my time as an undergraduate, I interned for two summers at a small company that designed radio frequency integrated circuits.  These are microchips found in things like mobile phones.

I think my time there confirmed that I enjoyed the challenge of engineering as a profession.  It was very satisfying to have a finished product at the end of a project.

Later on as an undergraduate, I had to start choosing electives and develop a specialty within electrical engineering.  I took some optics/photonics (photon + electronics) classes and was immediately interested.

I was fascinated by how much information you could transmit down a tiny optical fibre using light, as well as techniques for processing information using light.

At the end of my undergraduate years, I decided I needed a break from college and got a job at a medium-sized company working on optical communication technology.  This company had a large number of PhDs in its workforce and I began to see the importance of having a doctorate when working in research and development.

My colleagues encouraged me to go back to college, so two years later I ended up returning to my alma mater to pursue a PhD in photonics within the electrical engineering department.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes!  I think one of the biggest advantages to working in the academic world is flexibility and being allowed quite a bit of freedom to pursue what you think is interesting.  There is not someone telling you every day what you should be doing.

Outside work, I find myself frequently taking advantage of the flexibility of working hours as my wife (who also works as a researcher in biomedical engineering) and I attempt to balance our family life with our toddler.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I was nearing the end of my stay in graduate school and had to start seriously thinking about work.  I was originally leaning towards an industry job, and was having trouble gaining traction there (job searching is hard work!).

I remember I sat down at my computer and googled something like “photonics post-doc jobs” and got many hits for the Tyndall National Institute.

I followed the links and found a job posted within the Photonic Systems Group that nearly perfectly matched my expertise and interests.  I emailed the group leader indicating my interest in the position and included my CV with a couple of publications I had completed while in school.

A few days later we set up a phone interview which probably lasted half an hour or so.  This was a preliminary interview to establish whether or not we would be a good fit for each other.  This led to my first visit to Ireland where I spent the day at Tyndall meeting everyone, touring the lab facilities, and giving an hour long presentation to a small group of people (one to two dozen) on my work in graduate school.

This is typical of post-doc positions and usually includes some time for the audience to ask questions. This probably sounds scarier than it really is – when you’ve worked in an area for many years it’s not too hard to talk about it for an hour!

A week or two later I received the formal offer from the HR department.

Describe a typical day

In a typical day I can devote most of my time to a main task.  This main task will vary on timescales of a few weeks or so, and can include writing a research paper, setting up and executing an experiment in the lab, computer modelling, or analysing data.

It tends to work out nicely that when I start to be really tired of sitting in front of a computer for a few days I can go work in the lab for a change of pace.  The rest of my time is taken up by other things such as email, meetings, working with students, etc.

There are usually a few important events each year which drive my working calendar.  Examples are important technical conferences, where I will spend a significant amount of time preparing and performing experiments, analysing results, and writing a summary paper on the work.  The challenge is to keep the work at a high enough quality level that it is accepted into the peer-reviewed conference programme.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

I work in the Photonic Systems Group, which is funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI).  Our group specialises in coming up with new ways to make optical communication systems very fast.

This is something that SFI has decided is important, so they give us money to test out these ideas and see if they are any good.  My main job, along with the other post-docs and postgraduate students, is to carry out the experiments designed to test these ideas.

What are the main challenges?

Producing valuable and relevant information, which I suppose is the overall charge of any research organisation.  This means you have to stay up to date on what others are doing (outside Tyndall), anticipate interesting questions and problems, devise new and better solutions, and make smart decisions about which experiments to pursue.  This is ultimately what will make you and your organisation stand apart from everyone else.

What’s cool?

Coming up with a new idea and then seeing it actually work in the lab.  Getting to travel to new places for conferences and other meetings is also a great perk.

What’s not so cool?

Fire drills in the rain.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

In high school I took as many science classes as I could as I was still figuring out what I wanted to do.  I also kept up with all the maths classes; it’s worth it to make it to calculus!

I must admit that I rarely enjoyed English class, but learning to write is also quite important.  If you do great work, but then write a rubbish research paper on it, people may unfairly dismiss what you’ve done.  You want to be able to present your work in the clearest and best possible light.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

You should love to learn.  You must crave a thorough understanding of how things work.  Being patient, curious, and hard-working are very important.  Work hard at your classes to build up your basic knowledge, but don’t worry if you aren’t getting straight As or sitting in the top 1% of your class (I sure didn’t).  If you like science, then go for it!

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Attention to detail, perseverance, and imagination.

Maurice Coyle, Software developer

What have been your main “career decision” milestones so far?

At most points in my career to date, I haven’t actually been making decisions with a specific career in mind, but rather doing what I found interesting and trusting that this path would lead me to a rewarding career.

It’s worked so far: at each stage I’ve enjoyed what I’m doing, I didn’t worry overly that everything I was doing was relevant to where I wanted to go and I like where I’ve gotten to.

I chose science as a degree because it was a general enough degree that suited the kind of mind I have, which is analytical (my favourite question is “why”), quantitative (I like numbers) and stimulated by problem solving (everything from sudoku to working out why my dishwasher’s broken).

As part of my first year, I chose computer science because it allows you to explore problem solving and produce cool programs that actually do useful things, so it’s both challenging and rewarding.

When I finished my degree, my fourth-year project supervisor mentioned that he had funding for a PhD. Deciding whether to become a research student or go looking for a job was the biggest decision I ever made with respect to my career (at 22 years old, so there’s no huge rush while still in school). It turned out to be a really good decision and again it was based on me choosing to continue doing something that I had been getting great fulfilment out of for the past few years.

I certainly didn’t arrive in college with any kind of knowledge of computers or desire to pursue computer science. In fact, on my first day in a computer practical I couldn’t figure out how to log onto my computer because the slip of paper said “login” on it, while the computer screen said “user name”! I asked the girl sitting beside me if she knew what to do, she didn’t and we ended up asking the demonstrator.

The two of us went on to do PhDs in computer science – she’s now a lecturer in an English university and I’m the founder of a social web search company, so prior experience isn’t always necessary when picking a college course!

The decision to continue after my PhD. and convert the research we’d done in our group into a company was another tough decision because I chose a lower salary than I could earn in an existing company, in order to follow the dream of seeing our research project succeed. Again my decision was made by deciding to follow something I was passionate about and I’ve never regretted that decision (yet!).

What’s your current job?

I am Head of Product Development for the company we started, a social web search company called HeyStaks.

HeyStaks helps people to find interesting stuff on the web by allowing them to collaborate with people who share their interests. It does this without requiring people to use any search engine but Google, Yahoo! or Bing and it does it all anonymously so people needn’t worry about exposing their search habits to friends or strangers.

It’s a great company in an exciting industry and has the potential to change the way people find information using search engines.

Who most influenced your career direction?

My English teacher in school, Gerry O’Brien, told me not to be stupid when I said I was going to pursue an arts degree, not because he thoughts arts is a bad choice of degree (he did it himself) but because he knew I had a scientific mind, so he encouraged me to pick science if I wanted to do something general.

My fourth-year project supervisor Barry Smyth (later PhD supervisor, currently business partner) had an enormous influence on my career path because he introduced me to the world of research and has been a constant source of guidance and advice as we brought our research out of the lab and into the commercial world.

My parents were a great support, not because they advised me what I should do or gave their opinions, but because they gave me the freedom of choice and always simply supported whatever it was I chose to do.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Well we’re still not exactly earning what we’re worth with our qualifications, since starting a company requires some level of sacrifice both in terms of time and money. It also helps to have an understanding girlfriend/family!

The rewards for me far outweigh these sacrifices, though. I’m passionate about our company and love the feeling when we achieve a milestone, secure funding, or even get a new user to sign up. The fast cars and long holidays can wait a few years!

For me, work is fun and that’s something that is invaluable since you spend such a large portion of your week working.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I’m lucky in that I haven’t had to do a job interview since I was 21 (I didn’t get it, which turned out to be a stroke of luck because I don’t think I was cut out for the world of financial IT support). From the start of my PhD there was always a possibility of commercialising our research, so I always had my eye partly on that.

In my time, I’ve been turned down by McDonalds, Barclays Capital and Google for jobs, so I suppose on some level I decided I wasn’t good at interviews and that I’d make my own job instead!

Describe a typical day

It will involve some or all of programming of our product, talking to users to find out if anything’s wrong or needs improvement, writing a funding proposal, doing research on our competitors, making sure our employees aren’t stuck on anything and are going in the right direction, pitching HeyStaks to potential investors or business partners, writing job descriptions, holding interviews, selecting the right candidate for a job and maybe a spot of amateur accounting thrown in.

So, a little bit of everything really.

What are your main responsibilities?

To make sure all aspects of our product are working, both from a design and functionality perspective. We have employees working on different parts of it and I have to make sure their work all feeds into a single vision for the entire system.

I’m also responsible for interacting with our users and getting feedback from them on how the service is working and any changes they’d like to see or issues they have while using it.

What are the main challenges?

The “interaction design” of HeyStaks, which means analysing the ways in which our users interact with the system and making sure it’s intuitive and that they aren’t confused or frustrated while using our product.

It’s a very grey area, lying somewhere between psychology, software engineering and graphic design. It requires a lot of user testing to see how they react to the system and what changes are needed to fix any issues.

What’s cool?

Getting mentioned in the newspaper when we win awards or secure funding, meeting people that run companies like Google and Yahoo!, being the co-founder of a company.

What I like best about my job is that I get out exactly as much as I put into it, so if something needs to be fixed and I stay late one night to fix it, the reward is that HeyStaks will work better the next morning and our users will be happier. It’s very fulfilling to nurture a company like that.

What’s not so cool?

While there’s a real sense of satisfaction with spending a lot of time to solve a difficult problem, quite often that means I have to sacrifice a certain amount of freedom where my time is concerned so I don’t have as much free time to spend on my hobbies or with my friends and family.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

The research skills I learned during my PhD studies have been invaluable, it’s a discipline that becomes baked into your psyche and I feel would be useful in literally any job and in any field.

I’m good at ferreting out information and keeping up to date with developments in our industry and when you’re starting a company this is vital. I’m good with people and that helps when communicating specifications to employees, as you need to be able to drive people on but keep them happy in their job at the same time.

Above all, I’m energetic and passionate about my job, I think when you bring that to the workplace all kinds of good stuff happens, people feed off it and replicate it, there’s a positive buzz in the office and people are productive. That kind of energy can only come when you love what you’re doing, which is why for me the single most important thing to do in selecting a career is to pick something you enjoy.

What subjects did you take in school?

For the Leaving Certificate I took physics, geography, technical graphics, French, Irish, maths and English. I suppose these subjects influenced my career path because they led me to choose science, which resulted in me choosing computer science and so on at UCD.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

The most relevant / helpful part of my education was my Ph.D., since it was then that I learned the research and analytical skills that I still use every day and also the research that I did during that time is what our current product is based on.

On a slightly different note, some of the unrelated subjects I did in school still help me today, the one that springs to mind being technical graphics. It’s a subject that usually translates to careers like architecture and while I hadn’t ruled architecture out back in school, I only did the subject because it seemed interesting. Now I find the skills I learned in that subject useful when it comes to creating diagrams to describe our system setup and knowledge of things like perspective is useful when sketching designs as well.

I suppose the point here is that even if a subject seems unrelated to the career you think you’ll choose, you should do it if you’re interested, you’d be surprised when the skills can come in handy.

Have you undertaken any further training as part of your job?

Because we’re still attached to the research group in UCD and also the NovaUCD innovation centre, we got to participate in the Campus Company Development Programme and the Management Development Programme run by NovaUCD.

These two courses covered all areas of running a business, from accounting practices, to HR, accounting, PR and marketing and time management. They were invaluable in teaching us how to apply our existing skills to business tasks.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Prior to setting up HeyStaks I think the most rewarding achievement I had was getting my PhD. After long years of work and research it was extremely satisfying to complete the work and have my thesis to show for it.

To date, our company has won a number of awards (the Eircom Web Innovation Award, the UCD Sussed! Competition, the Europe-wide UNICA Entrepreneurship Competition, to name a few), and each of these has represented a significant step along the way from taking our research out of the lab and into the commercial world.

Most recently we had the biggest milestone to date, when we secured €1 million in funding from the NCB Group, to finance the company for around 18 months. It means we can move office, buy bean bags, hire people and build out the team to really take the company to the next level so it’s a hugely important and exciting step.

What is your dream job?

To be Head of Product Development for an exciting social Web search startup. Oh wait….

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

You need to have a mind that enjoys solving problems, that doesn’t get tired or discouraged when the first, second or third attempt doesn’t work out, to understand that failing at something is the best route ensure future success, to be energetic, to have an interest in how companies are run and deals are made.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Anything in an academic setting would be useful (e.g. internships in a research group), also working with a new company where processes and practices aren’t fully defined yet and people need to be able to do multiple jobs.

James McDermott, Research fellow at MIT

What were your main “career decision” milestones so far?

I was always good at science stuff, and I liked computers and maths, so choosing a computer science BSc was pretty natural. But I didn’t know exactly what I wanted afterwards, and there were good opportunities in industry at the time, so that’s the direction I went in.

I’d say the biggest milestone was when I decided industry wasn’t for me. A year or two later, after some travelling, I was back in academia, doing a masters in Limerick, and it’s been a strange, curvy path from there to here.

Who have most influenced your career direction?

My father is a lecturer in maths, and that’s a big influence. Even when I was in primary school I didn’t feel that the campus in UCG was a foreign place, “for other people”, so that made it easy to see myself going to college. In fact most of my brothers and sisters are academic too.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes, and that’s really important to me. I like being able to choose my own schedule. I get to travel a lot, to conferences for example, and I love that.

There are downsides to academic research as well, though: most postdocs have to move between jobs, often in different countries, every couple of years, which doesn’t suit everyone. And it’s hard to switch off at the end of the day when there’s a deadline coming up. I’m not money-oriented so that’s not a factor in my lifestyle choices.

How did you go about getting your current job?

Funding was available from IRCSET on a competitive basis for postdoctoral researchers. Most postdocs in my position would be aware of this type of funding just through gossip, email lists, etc.

I talked over the possibility of applying for it with my girlfriend (now wife), my then boss, and some colleagues. The first decision to make was where I would apply to go.

We had a good contact in MIT (the Massachusetts Institute of Technology): the institution is one of the best in the world, and our contact is one of the best-known names in our field. I wrote to her and asked if she’d be willing to serve as my mentor and she agreed immediately.

So I worked really hard on a research proposal, in conjunction with my then boss, and sent it to IRCSET. Lucky for me, they liked it.

Describe a typical day

A typical day starts with some coffee and reading email. Sometimes I have code to write, maybe to set up an experiment. Or maybe an experiment has just finished running from the previous day, and I’ll have to think about how to analyse it.

I’ll typically write code in Java, Python, and R to get the job done. I’ll usually meet my boss for a while, depending on what stage our projects are at, to talk things through. I also spend a lot of time writing, usually papers.

Some days I’ll go to a talk by a visiting researcher. These can be really interesting and often inspire me to have good ideas for my own projects.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

I’m a “postdoctoral researcher” in evolutionary computation, in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) in MIT. My work is basically measured by my publications, so I aim for several conference and journal papers per year.

Each one is based on some new ideas and some experiments. It has to be drafted and redrafted with colleagues’ comments, and then submitted, and then reworked to satisfy the reviewers’ comments (unless it’s been rejected outright).

When a conference paper is accepted, it’ll be my job to present it, so I have to make slides and think about how to make the ideas accessible. I also sometimes have the opportunity to supervise or mentor students, which I love doing.

That basically means talking about their project, suggesting improvements or new ideas, or telling them why their approach won’t work. I also review papers for some conferences.

What are the main challenges?

Ours is a pretty fast-moving field, so there is important new research happening all the time, and it’s my job to keep up with it. So, zillions of papers to read, all the time.

What’s cool?

I think my peers envy my opportunities for fun travel. I get to work on topics I’m interested in – including computational approaches to art, design, and music – and nearly everyone is interested in some of those.

The fact that my work is up against the best in the world, in my field, and that I’ve made it to the top technical university in the world – those are cool to me.

What’s not so cool?

I think the biggest thing I don’t boast about is just how specialised my work has to be. When I tell someone in the pub that I’m working on a project involving computational architectural design, they’ll want to see some cool pictures and hear about how I’m going to create the next Sydney Opera House. Unfortunately a paper of technical arguments and numerical results isn’t as impressive.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

A researcher in computer science needs to be able to program in multiple languages – but that can be trained. A harder skill is sometimes called “analytical thinking”.

You can get it by studying maths: it means understanding how to create an argument and how to criticise your own arguments. Good written English is essential too. It goes without saying that you need hard work and patience to achieve anything worthwhile.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I don’t think my subjects in school influenced my career path. The type of person I was influenced my subjects, and simultaneously influenced my career path, which is not the same thing.

Irish students have a great opportunity to take a broad range of subjects in secondary school (not every education system allows this). Take advantage of that: keep your options open and find out what appeals to you. Forget about points.

What is your education to date?

Secondary school was St Joseph’s College, Galway. Then a BSc in computing with mathematics in UCG. Then a masters in music technology in the University of Limerick, which morphed into a research masters’ and then a PhD.

Taking a taught masters is a good way to re-orient your career, if you decide you need to. Very few people (maybe vets, dentists, and similar) should regard themselves as bound by their undergraduate degree.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

Obviously computer programming is important. But most people don’t learn that in college: they learn it on their own time, whether before, during, or after college. It’s just not something that’s easy to teach. My maths courses in general taught me how to think analytically and independently.

Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

Yes: in research, if you’re not always training, you’re falling behind. During my PhD I took short courses in statistics and presentation. At the moment I’m sitting in on lectures in machine learning.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

I won a best paper award in the main conference in my sub-field this year, in conjunction with a student I was supervising. I would like to think that my papers are relatively original. In general I’m proud of all my papers, my PhD, and my success in getting funding.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I’m not particularly organised, I have to admit, and my motivation is pretty irregular. So I achieve things despite those factors: particularly during my PhD, I was just too stubborn to give up.

I get on well with people: I try to respect everyone’s ideas, otherwise it’s impossible to work in a group.

What is your dream job?

I would love to do exactly what I’m doing now, except to remove the requirement to publish things just for the sake of keeping count, and the requirement to apply for funding all the time. The subject matter of my work is fascinating to me, my colleagues are smart and fun, my location is inspiring.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

If you don’t like to geek out occasionally with computer programming and related topics, you already know that this job isn’t for you. Easily overlooked are things like ability in written English, and ability in public speaking (which you can pick up with practice).

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Patience, to the point of stubbornness. And independent thinking: if you never disagree with your friends, and tell them so, you’re probably not a scientist. And you must be able to listen to criticism of your ideas. It’s not personal!

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Look for a project that involves some research and some programming. In college this is easy: go talk to your most interesting lecturer. If you’re not in college, you can get experience in developing software and working in teams by joining an open-source project that interests you.

David Cahill, QA engineer

What were the main “career decision” milestones in your life so far?

When it came to choosing my subjects for the Leaving Certificate I had the same problem as most people in that I had no idea what I wanted to do after secondary school. So I tried to choose the broadest range of options and ended up in physics, applied maths, and accounting. I suppose this meant I avoided the “career decision” by preparing for science, engineering, or business courses in college.

By the time the CAO forms came around I had known for a while that I wanted to keep studying and that I was leaning very much in the direction of science, so I applied for Theoretical Physics in Trinity College Dublin. The course had a reputation for being tough but I was up for a challenge and wanted to move away from home so everything seemed to fit.

After my first year of college I got a bit of luck by landing a summer job in administration for a small technology company in Cork. My boss had no intention of giving me an easy time for three months and it turned out to be the best thing for me. I went back each summer and when I graduated they offered me a job as a quality assurance engineer.

Who influenced your career direction?

I’ve always been the one to make the final decision when it came to that kind of thing. I picked my secondary school, my Leaving Cert subjects, and my college course. I was advised to study engineering by friends and family, and our school guidance counsellor recommended staying close to home, but I moved away to study science.

That’s not to say that they didn’t have an influence, it would have been very difficult to make those decisions and to have them work out without support from teachers, lecturers, and friends.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

I’ve always seen my job and my social life as being two separate things. Evenings and weekends are my own to relax, watch a movie, read a book, go cycling or hiking, or just go out or go away for a few days.

While at work, I get to visit customers all over Ireland for training and demonstrations, so having that kind of experience in my early twenties is a great thing to have in my career.

How did you go about getting your current job?

I had met my current boss when I was younger so when I sent him my CV he was willing to read it at least, and that was how I got my foot in the door after a year of college.

Over three summers I had shown that I was able to be useful and adaptable, which I think are the two most important skills when starting any job. Then when I graduated I was lucky that there was a more full-time role available.

Describe a typical day

There is no such thing as a typical day, from what I can tell so far. We try to plan our week on Monday morning but in a company this size you need to be able to adjust quickly to whatever has appeared by Monday afternoon.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

My title is Quality Assurance Engineer, meaning that I mostly work behind the scenes making sure the company’s products do what we say they do and are developed in a clear and consistent way.

I test software and hardware, write manuals and reports, suggest ways to improve our products and process, and I train staff and customers on any new features.

Being such a small company, I also have a more direct role in dealing with anything that may arise. That might mean setting up lab equipment to try and understand what a customer’s problem is and find the best way to fix it, or maybe getting some new hardware in and making sure everything works as it’s supposed to.

What are the main challenges?

Things move very quickly in the technology sector and we always need to keep up with industry-wide changes like new regulations and standards, or more specific changes like when a customer decides to upgrade their whole PC network and we need to be sure our products keep working for them.

What’s cool?

Keeping up with the latest technology trends. Our lab has conveyors, lasers, printers, PCs, lights, lenses, cameras, more PCs… To do my job I need to be familiar with all of these and to be ready when new equipment arrives to put it together and learn how it works.

What’s not so cool?

The large amount of paperwork that I need to do. Part of my job is drafting release notes, manuals, technical reports, new procedures, training documents, and so on. It comes with the job, everything needs to be documented, but it can be hard to stay on top of it at times.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I’ve always thought of myself as hard working, and I’ve always been good at identifying and solving both hardware and software problems. I wouldn’t say that’s all you need to do this job, but that’s a good place to start.

Most importantly, being willing to constantly learn new things and apply them in diverse ways is essential to keeping on top of the work.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

The most relevant subjects at school for me were maths, applied maths, and physics. These subjects helped me decide what direction to take in college, and four years of theoretical physics taught me how best to approach new areas and challenges.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

I use what I learned in college every day, just not in the way it was taught to me. What I took from my degree course is that every task and every problem can be related to something you already know.

Have you undertaken, or do you plan to undertake any further training as part of your job?

Coming to this job straight out of college has meant that I’ve had to do a lot of on the job learning to make myself useful in the role. I’m constantly reading manuals and reports in order to keep up with what’s required for the job, as well as learning how to improve my own documents.

I’ve also taken courses in software testing and standards so that I can give training to other staff members on industry changes and new developments.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

My career has been quite short to date, but I consider the path I’ve taken to be an achievement in itself. I went from being “the student in the corner” working part time to being involved in purchasing, testing, office management, marketing, training…

Then I was lucky enough to get this QA job basically straight out of college, not an easy feat these days.

What advice would you give someone considering this job?

I’m a theoretical physicist working as a QA engineer. What’s most important to this job is a willingness to work hard and continue to learn new skills, more than the technical knowledge from four years of maths and physics.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

• Be patient – what is asked of you will change from one hour to the next so you might need to do the same things over again
• Be versatile – just because you have no idea how to approach a problem doesn’t mean you can’t do it. An hour spent researching will always give you ideas
• Work hard – it sounds simple but it’s true. If you are seen to be working hard and delivering what’s asked of you, especially when it’s something new, you’ll definitely be asked to do more work

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Experience with PCs and other hardware, especially in using them for more than just word processing. If you’re interested in science and engineering, try to get any experience you can using technology.

Try and get some time in a lab at college, offer to do some administration as a part-time job, take beginners’ programming courses, fix PCs for friends and family. Employers look for you to demonstrate that you have used your skills in a variety of ways, so just try everything and anything.

Dr Charles Nwankire with his son Chidiebabe

What have been your main ‘career decision’ milestones?

My dad significantly influenced my decision to become an engineer. One of his famous quotes was: “A scientist can discover a new star, but would need an engineer to make it.” From then, my love for engineering and science subjects grew. I went on to do science subjects in school.

My dad played a major role in my career decision, and my school guidance counsellor followed it up.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Yes – I am now an engineer and a research scientist. Although I do most of work in the lab, it’s quite flexible as I work at home as well. I travel to present at international conferences, and sometimes combine that with family holidays.

It also gives me the opportunity to meet a lot of new people and learn about their culture, ways of thinking and lifestyle.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

I am currently working on an industrial project. My responsibilities involve managing the project and ensuring that the project objectives are met at the specified deadlines.

What are the main challenges?

My major challenge in this job or in life generally is the “existence of the unknown”. I aspire every day to discover and learn something new. This is my major motivation.

What’s cool?

The fact that it’s not a nine to five job, where somebody will always be telling you to do this or that. For me, that would seem like working in a box.

What’s not so cool?

In this job there is virtually no break, because it’s brain work and in that sense you are seemingly always at work.

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

I think the fact that I did science subjects like Physics, Chemistry and Biology significantly influenced my decision. I did O-Level science, followed by a BSc and MSc at St Petersburg State Technical University in Russia, then studied for my PhD at University College Dublin.

What’s been the most rewarding event in your career so far?

Winning the first prize at the national Science Speak 2010 competition.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I’m somebody who loves exploration and discovering new things.

What is your dream job?

This is my dream job, being a research scientist – at the forefront of innovation. I can do this job for free!

What kind of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

An internship at a research institute or organisation, or at an engineering firm.

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

Self-motivation is the key. An inherent desire to explore and innovate is fundamental to life as an engineer and a scientist. It won’t give you all the millions, but it will change your perspective about little things that matter.

Learn more

Read more about Dr Nwankire’s winning presentation about nanotechnology at the 2010  Science Speak competition

Bob Lawlor, Digital signal processing

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

My subject choices for the Leaving Cert were important, e.g. doing Higher Level Maths, Physics and Applied Maths. When I finished college in 1984 there were no jobs in Ireland so I went to the UK and got a great job (R&D engineer with Sony). This was a big milestone. I would recommend overseas experience but try to get a good qualification before going!

What’s cool about your job?

Because electronic engineering can be applied to pretty much anything, I can get involved in research in anything which interests me. For example, I’m currently working with an outside company to develop an iPhone App.

What’s not so cool?

Correcting exams and assignments. Thankfully that’s not too often.

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

My PhD was in digital audio signal processing and this helped me develop the technical skills which I need for my current lecturing and research activities. Also, my work with Sony in the UK and Japan as an R&D engineer was a great learning experience in many ways.

What is your education to date?

• BSc in Electrical/Electronic engineering (DIT 1984)
• MSc in Electronic engineering (TCD 1994)
• PhD in Electronic engineering (UCD 2000)
• MSc in Applied eLearning (DIT 2010) –  I did this part-time over the past three years. It helps with my lecturing work as we do a lot of course delivery online

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

Seeing a product which I designed and developed actually being sold – for $30,000! Also, solving some difficult design problems in the process.

What is your dream job?

Something related to music signal processing. The nice thing about my current job is that I can run final-year and postgraduate projects related to music signal processing and also carry out research in this area myself.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Any project-based work experience. We regularly have Transition Year students in for short projects. These give a good idea of what’s involved in the job. I generally try to customise these projects to the interests of the student.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

Enthusiasm, good communication skills (written and verbal) and time-management skills.

What advice would you give someone considering this job?

The career which you’ll do best in is the one which you feel most enthusiastic about. It still takes a lot of hard work to do well, but hard work isn’t hard if you’re very enthusiastic about it.

Dr Sharon Davin - Research manager in solar energy conversion

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

Right from secondary school I knew I wanted to work in science and I chose subjects that would allow me to do this (with French and music for fun).

Looking back on it now, it would have been good to do a business subject too, but I really hated it in school.

I loved the lab work side of my degree in DCU, so it seemed like the perfect choice to do a PhD there, and I felt that working in the area of the environmental research was a worthwhile cause.

Outside of science, my main hobby is in musical theatre and I have been on the committee of the Glasnevin Musical Society for the last number of years.

Skills that I have honed there in marketing, publicity and dealing with people have been very useful in my current job.

Who are the people who most influenced your career direction?

My dad was a manager in our local brewery and had to wear a white lab coat to work. Perhaps this influenced me from an early age!

My older sister is also a scientist, and I think that a love of science was ingrained in both of us from our biology teacher, Mrs Cashin, in the Presentation Secondary School in Kilkenny.

My PhD supervisor, Dr Brid Quilty, really helped me in deciding what to do with my degrees.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

Choosing a PhD in biotechnology was very rewarding but one of the main drawbacks was growing cells!

Like us, they need time to grow and to be fed, so it can take a little bit of juggling to balance work/study and life.

It is also a tough choice to delay having some of life’s luxuries as you don’t earn the same wages as colleagues who go into industry after their degree. However, PhD student stipends are fairly good now, so you can still plan that holiday in the sun.

Having a PhD has allowed me to develop my career beyond the lab from lecturing to my current role in research management. Although my current job as a project manager for a SFI Research Cluster on solar energy conversion is busy, there is always a new challenge every day to keep my interest.

What are the main tasks and responsibilities?

My job encompasses a wide range of tasks within the project, from replying to general queries, setting up meetings and taking minutes, publicity and materials, fostering new industrial and academic links, education and outreach, financial management, new student recruitment, intellectual property rights, conference organisation and reporting.

What’s “cool” about your position?

I love being part of a new project that really has the potential to contribute hugely not only to life in Ireland, but to society as a whole.

Energy is such a fundamental concern in everybody’s life, and being able to utilise solar energy for everyday living, at a more competitive price than is currently available, will be awesome.

What is your education to date?

I loved science right from the start of school and really focused on it for my Leaving Cert by taking on biology, chemistry and applied mathematics.
National Certificate in Applied Science (Chemistry) from Waterford IT
BSc in Biotechnology and PhD in Biotechnology from DCU

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

Because biotechnology covers a wide berth of science and engineering, it has really given me the ability to see the bigger picture and potential in projects.

A PhD and research really focuses your talents in organisation, planning and being able to critically review your research. These are very important skills in my current role.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

I really enjoyed my PhD graduation and having all my family and friends with me on the day, which also coincided with my birthday!

It can be easy to forget that it is a big achievement not only for you, but for your family too.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I bring an inherent sense of calmness and organisation to the table, along with the ability to interact with all colleagues in a friendly manner.

What is your dream job?

Owning a bookshop-café and being in charge of making the desserts. I love to bake. Well I guess pastry is another type of science!

What advice would you give to someone considering this job?

A couple of years of post-doctoral research experience provides you with a good background to a research manager post.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

You need to be interested, organised and flexible – core skills for any managerial role.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

A background in research is essential and an understanding of research policy, commercialisation and funding avenues in Ireland is also helpful.

Dr Barbara Fogarty, Advanced marine technology research

What were the main ‘career decision’ milestones in your life so far?

In secondary school my career guidance counsellor helped me to identify environmental science and technology as an area I was interested in for future study. We found a relevant degree course in Sligo Institute of Technology and I applied through the CAO.

It was a very interesting degree, with field work and a summer work placement. I also worked in other non-science jobs while I was in college to help pay the rent as I lived away from home.

While I enjoyed my real-world work experience, it highlighted for me that qualifications can give you more career options in life and can also allow you to progress up the career ladder to interesting and well-paid jobs more quickly.

When I finished my degree I applied for a Masters in Environmental Analytical Chemistry in Limerick Institute of Technology.

The subject of the research project sounded very interesting to me and after two years researching the topic, I decided to apply to continue on to do a PhD which in total took four years to complete.

It involved a lot of hard work, many laughs, a few tears and many evenings and weekends working in the lab to get the project finished.

As part of my PhD studies I also got the opportunity to research in the Institute of Technology Tallaght in Dublin for a year and travelled to the University of Kansas for six months to collaborate with an American Group on my research topic.

What did you do after your PhD?

When I finished my PhD, I was invited by the Professor I had worked for in the US to return there to carry out postdoctoral research and was delighted to take up the opportunity.

I had always intended to return home to Ireland, so after three years in the US I started to look for a job in my area of expertise. I applied for a job in Tyndall National Institute in Cork on the development of integrated sensor systems, where I worked for four years.

More recently I was awarded the position of National Coordinator in Advanced Marine Technologies.  My position is funded by the Marine Institute and involves the creation of a multi-disciplinary and industry-orientated group working on information and communication technologies that will be used in marine related sectors.

Ireland has 220 million acres of land under the sea (nine times our land area) and this represents a huge opportunity for us to develop new technologies to manage and develop a wealth of chemical, mineral and biological resources in a sustainable way.

The combination of innovative technologies and our marine resources can be harnessed to help support the Irish economy and create a variety of new jobs across a range of sectors.

Who had the most influence on your career direction?

My parents always encouraged me to do my best and to pursue whatever course I was interested in.  They also encouraged me to make use of all the resources available to me before I made a decision regarding the next step in my career.

That started in school with talking to my teachers and career guidance counsellor, and continued with my lecturers and student career centre in college.

For my PhD, I was very lucky to find a research topic that I enjoyed, but most importantly I was very fortunate to have two supervisors who were always available to guide me and who gave me every opportunity to advance my career.

I have had several good mentors throughout my career who I now consider friends and I still go back to for advice every now and then.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

I work from 9 to 5.30pm but this can vary, depending on what project I am working on at the time. Sometimes I have to work late or work at weekends, so I have to be flexible.

I travel around Ireland a lot, meeting industry people and academic groups working on the development of new technologies.  I travel to Europe and the US every so often to conferences and network meetings and to identify new contacts for Irish researchers and companies to work with.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

I meet industrial and academic researchers on a regular basis to understand their technology capabilities and to support them in the development of new projects that will help develop their business and research goals.

Target applications of the technology under development include those in the areas of shipping transport, security and logistics, aquaculture, environmental monitoring, water/resource management, offshore installations and marine renewable energy.

I also monitor the progress of currently funded technology research projects and support researchers across Ireland in their efforts to fund their research ideas by submitting grant applications to national and international funding programmes.

What are the main challenges?

I work in a multi-disciplinary environment. This means that I work with a variety of scientists, engineers, business people and government agencies all working on different kinds of technologies.

The challenge is to understand their technology capabilities, expertise and needs and then to facilitate the development of new collaborative projects in the area of marine and environment related sectors.

Very often we find that we have been trying to explain similar things to each other but in a different way!

What subjects did you take in school and how have these influenced your career path?

When selecting my Leaving Cert subjects, I picked the ones I was most interested in. As I studied Physics for the Leaving Cert, I only had one science subject when I got to college.

I felt like I had more work to do in order to catch up with other students who had taken two subjects.  In hindsight I am happy with the choices I made, though, as they got me to where I am today. I think sticking to what you are interested in is generally the best way to go.

What is your education to date?

• Leaving and Junior Certificate
• Bachelor of Science in Environmental Science and Technology
• Doctorate of Philosophy in Environmental Analytical Chemistry

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

It takes a lot of dedication and commitment to get though a PhD but I really enjoyed it and got a lot from it. I received several awards at conferences for talking about my research, which I am very proud of.

I also applied for and was awarded travel grants to help me pay to attend conferences and present my research. I have some part-time lecturing and demonstration experience.

It is always very satisfying when students understand a new concept thanks to your explanation. I really enjoy helping younger scientists to achieve all they can in their career.

More recently I am working on the development of an innovation cluster, involving industry and academic researchers working on technology development for the marine environment.

The aim of the cluster is to help drive economic growth in the area of smart green technologies, and if successful it will help to create new job opportunities in Ireland across a range of sectors.

What advice would you give to someone considering your particular job?

You would need a degree in science and either a masters or preferably a PhD in science or engineering, with a focus on technology development.

You need to be a good communicator and be able to give technical presentations on a regular basis.  You need to be open to new ideas and be able to work on your own initiative and as part of a team.

Good writing skills are also important, as a key element of my current role includes report and strategy preparation.  You need to be able to multi-task and work on multiple projects at once.

A multi-disciplinary science qualification can open a lot of doors and gives you a wide range of career options.

I could work in industry, in academia, or for the government in a number of different roles. People I went to college with are now working in a wide variety of different jobs.

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

Many kinds of laboratories offer work placements over the summer including academic and government laboratories.  Transition Year students often visit labs and facilities for a week or so, and undergraduate students typically stay for the summer months to see what it would be like to work there.

Placement with a relevant industry would also be great experience to see what is involved.  It is a good way to get a feel for a job and whether or not you would be interested in it. It also shows employers that you have been thinking about what you want to do when you finish school.

With the Government’s recent strategy on the development of the “Smart Green Economy”, there are likely to be an increasing number of jobs for science and engineering graduates in Ireland and around the world.

There are already many successful Irish companies selling technology-enabled products and services all over the world today.

We are also lucky to have many of the top international technology companies based in Ireland who are currently employing thousands of science and engineering graduates.

A qualification in science will give you a variety of career options and open many doors – the rest is up to you!

Karl Stanley - Software engineer

I have been interested in computers since I was a child. When I was 13, I got a job delivering leaflets so I could buy a Sinclair Spectrum (an ancient home computer that would load programs from a cassette tape).

I learned some of the basics of programming on it, and have been playing with computers ever since.

For my Leaving Cert my favourite subjects were maths, applied maths, music, physics and chemistry. I went to TCD to study maths and philosophy but switched to pure maths after first year.

At the time, the maths department in TCD was a good place to be if you had an interest in computers, as there were lots of courses in mathematical computing and it was possible to take some courses from the Computer Science department.

The School of Mathematics also hosted the very first website in Ireland, so there was lots to learn if you were interested. As part of a course in machine vision and computer graphics, we were taken on a site visit to Machine Vision Technology (MVT) in Dublin.

It seemed like a really interesting place to work, so after my degree I went to work there for the summer before taking up a place to do a PhD in high performance computing.

At the end of the summer, MVT decided they wanted me to stay and I decided I preferred industry to academia, so I turned down my PhD position and took a job there.

As part of the deal they agreed to fund me in a part-time MSc researching colour vision algorithms. After three years in MVT, an opportunity arose to join a new startup called Xsil. As the team at Xsil grew, I became a team leader heading up the vision team.

After another three years or so, I decided to try something completely different and went back to college to study jazz guitar at Newpark Music Centre. While I was studying, I supported myself by teaching guitar and doing the occasional software contract.

During this time I learned more about the Web and started getting freelance work building websites. After I got married I decided to quit teaching music and go back to software engineering full time.

I spent 18 months working for a web startup called Ammado and then moved to ticket-text (www.ticket-text.com) where I am happily hacking away.

Who has most influenced your career direction?

My parents had very little influence in my choice of career – I think they were quite happy for me to trust my own judgment!

I went to Mount Temple School in Clontarf where my best friend was a fellow computer nerd.

He was a year ahead of me and studied theoretical physics in TCD. This is what gave me the idea to go to Trinity to study something in that general area.

We spent a fair bit of time trying to program computer games and were allowed use the school computers (such as they were at the time) outside of class time. At the time I never thought I would end up programming computers for a living, though with hindsight it seems inevitable.

Some of my schoolteachers also had a strong influence on my college choices and subsequent career development.

The chief technical officer of MVT was my first professional mentor. I think it was very important for me to have someone with decades of experience guiding me in the first few years of my career.

It took a long time to get it into my head, but his advice to “keep it simple” has proven to be the right course time and again.

Does your job allow you to have a lifestyle you are happy with?

From a lifestyle perspective, being a software engineer suits me. The hours can be long sometimes, but mostly it’s quite predictable which is important if you have a young family. It also pays reasonably well, which means I can afford to live close to where I work.

This is a very important quality of life issue for me: I cycle for 15-20 minutes to get to work, which means I have more leisure time. Ticket-text trusts me to make my own hours (within reason). Because I have a small baby, it suits me to go into work a little late and work slightly later.

I can also work from home now and then. We have an office in London so I get to travel over there occasionally which is good, especially if there is a gig on that I can’t catch in Dublin.

As software careers go, mine has been slightly left-field. I deliberately avoided working for banks / insurance firms / consultancy houses and have always chosen to work for small startups, some of which have grown substantially.

While this doesn’t offer all the security or financial reward of working for larger companies, it is made up for in having a more relaxed corporate culture and the chance to make a big contribution to a project. It’s also really exciting to be part of a growing team that is taking on the world and winning!

Describe a typical day

Work starts around 9.30. I check my email and try to get my correspondence out of the way in the first hour or so. My job mostly entails writing Python and JavaScript.

I typically spend some of the morning writing automated tests for the code I am about to write. I then spend the rest of the day trying to get the code I’m working on to pass the tests I have written.

I make sure I spend up to an hour every day reading articles on technology (usually blogs and mailing lists) to keep up with new developments. This is important, as software is a constantly changing field and web development in particular changes all the time.

Every few weeks the software team presents its work to date to the rest of the company in a “show and tell” session. This takes a couple of hours and involves demonstrating new features and then having a discussion to see what can be improved.

This makes sure the work we are doing is well aligned with the needs of our business. The working day usually finishes for me around 6.30pm.

What are your main tasks and responsibilities?

My main task is to write software that makes running the business simpler and more efficient. The purpose of technology is to automate the things that people are bad at, so they can spend more time doing things they are good at.

People are not so good at repetitive tasks involving attention to detail. Computers are great at this sort of work. For instance, in our business the operations team need to enter the details for lots of live performances, set up ticket pricing structures, upload media to the website etc.

This is quite error prone and tedious to do by hand, so the technology team helps by writing tools that take care of the details automatically. This allows the operations team to devote more of their time to developing relationships with promoters and venue owners, which adds value to the business.

What’s cool?

I don’t have to wear a suit, which is nice. We have an informal but focused culture – in many ways it feels more like being on a sports team than in a business in that everyone has different but equally important roles to play.

We are also quite democratic – everyone from the CEO to the receptionist gets a say in how things should be run (although of course the CEO gets the final word!).

As a music fan I really enjoy working in this industry. The way things are going, the recorded music industry is on the wane and the live music experience is becoming more prominent, so it’s great to be part of that. I can also get tickets to shows that might otherwise be sold out :)

What’s not so cool?

The complete lack of physical activity in work is something I’m not crazy about. The job is sedentary, which means I have to make more of an effort to get exercise outside work.

The hours can feel a bit long at times. Other than that I’m very happy in my current job!

What particular skills do you bring to your workplace?

I have been a software engineer for over a decade now and have worked in several industries, so I have quite wide experience. This is useful in a new company where there is a “blank slate”, as I can make recommendations as to which technologies are the best fit for a given problem.

I have technical skills in programming, web technologies, database schema design and a bit of Unix systems administration. Over the years I’ve programmed in C, C++, C#, Perl, PHP, Python and JavaScript. Just through putting in the hours I have a solid feel for how software problems should be approached.

What aspects of your education have proven most important for your job?

I haven’t taken any courses that are ‘directly’ relevant to my current job. However, as part of my maths degree I took courses in numerical analysis (i.e. computer programming as a tool for solving mathematical problems), operating systems design, computer graphics and machine vision.

All these courses involved lots of practical programming assignments which gave me some real-world software engineering experience.

What have been the most rewarding events in your career so far?

One of the most satisfying events happened very early in my career. I wrote some mathematical software to enable the MVT (Machine Vision Technology) inspection machines to process a circuit board approximately 10% faster than before, which was a big win for the company. That code still runs on over 1,000 machines worldwide a decade later. That gives me a little glow of pride.

I worked in Xsil for three years, in which time it went from 12 to 120 employees. When the firm started, we hadn’t yet designed or built the laser processing equipment that we went on to sell.

It was very exciting to be part of a small team building a product that competed on an international level and won.

What personal qualities do you have that helps you in your career?

I am quite good at strategic thinking, i.e. asking “is this what we should be doing now?” and coming up with ways of working to try to get the best results in the long term. I don’t know if this is something I was taught or just the way I think.

I know I’m unlikely to accept things at face value and am inclined to think things through before committing to a course of action. I am told I am pretty easy to get on with, which is important during times of stress.

In a small company it’s a bit like being on a submarine in that you’re with the same people in a constrained environment all the time, so it helps if you can all get along.

What are the three most important personal characteristics required for the job?

• Intellectual curiosity – wanting to know how things work is a big plus
• A certain kind of laziness – good software is all about finding things that are tedious and getting the computer to do them for you
• Patience – you’re going to be asked to do the impossible. Or you’re going to be asked to do something that’s hugely important, only to be told it’s no longer a priority once you’re finished. Don’t let it get to you!

What kinds of work experience would provide a good background for this position?

If you can get an internship with a software house, that is great work experience. The best way to learn to write software is to write software!

I spent the summer between second and third year in college as an intern in Broadcom, which at the time wrote research-level networking software. It was a great introduction to what my job would ultimately be like and it gave me some real experience I could talk about during interviews.

Some of the things that are different between programming in college and doing it for a living are the collaborative aspects, being part of a team, asking and answering questions.

An internship is a good way to get exposure to these things. When it came to getting my first job, having that practical experience (and a good reference) definitely gave me an edge over the other candidates.