‘Meet the Professionals’ – a unique take on the Day in the Life Session in Cork
8th March 2013
‘Meet the Professionals’ – is a new take on the ‘Day in the Life’ session by Bord Gáis Networks in Cork and TY students from Nagle Community College in Mahon. This is the second year that Bord Gáis has rolled out ‘Meet the Professionals’ and it’s one of the highlights of the programme.
Inspired by Speed Dating tactics (though no one will claim responsibility for the idea), 6 volunteers from Bord Gáis undertook rapid fire interviews with the students who were broken down into small groups.
Cork Regional Coordinator, Celine McGrath, was in charge of the stop watch and after ten minutes the volunteers moved on to the next group. The initial 10 minutes were slightly hesitant, the students had prepared questions and stuck to the script, however as everyone warmed up the conversations became more animated and the noise levels in the room increased considerably. After the third move the scripts had been abandoned and it was hard to get the volunteers to move along, such was the free flow of conversation and genuine interest in the professionals and their jobs.
The volunteers enjoyed the session as much as the students and for graduate trainees, Rachel Gill and Kevin O’Donoghue, it was an integral part of their development programme.
“Meet the Professionals is a great way to deliver ‘Day in the Life’ talks – everyone gets involved and it’s great fun. For those who might be tempted to go speed dating in the future – well they’ve had plenty of practice!”
The students took notes on what interested them most and will write up a report on their favorite career. Bord Gáis will showcase some of the reports in their next newsletter. It will be a difficult choice though as the professionals, all Cork natives, had very interesting stories to tell – Eddie Dillon is a business intelligence specialist with expertise in IT, Linda O’Brien is a Community Liaison officer, John O’Connor manages fibre optic projects in the west of the country, while John O’Shea manages the payroll.
Tags: education
