Changing jobs or going back to education as a mature student in your late twenties can be a huge challenge and worry for a lot of people contemplating it. In summer 2019 I did both of those things, joining the Bord Bia International Graduate Programme, undertaking an MSc in Global Business Practice in UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School alongside getting hands-on experience of working in the Irish food, drink and horticulture industry. In the following blog I have set out my experience so far – from money to work and education – and why I am delighted with my decision to take that step.
Hopefully my post can be informative for you if you’re looking to go down a similar path, as well as encourage you to apply for a really excellent opportunity!
How I got here
Being offered a role on the Bord Bia International Graduate Programme was a particularly important personal achievement. At 27, I had been working in Dublin for four years and felt like I had come to a crossroads; did I want to keep plugging away at the same thing, waiting for a promotion to maybe come along or did I want to try something new in an industry I was very interested in? The fact that I would also have the opportunity to get a Master's from the prestigious UCD Smurfit made my decision that much easier and I was ready to jump!
At the start of July 2019, I left a job I enjoyed in the Civil Service and set-off in a totally new direction. Although this wasn’t my first experience of changing paths – I studied neuroscience in college and somehow ended up working in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform – it was still daunting starting something completely different.
My apprehension was added to by the fact that I would be a few years older than most of the others on the course, who would be in their first jobs out of college. Along with having no previous experience of marketing or business, I was a little worried about what was to come and if I would be able for it.
However, from my first day in Bord Bia, these worries were replaced with genuine excitement about my new job, education and the energy and enthusiasm of everyone present – students, Bord Bia and UCD Smurfit staff, all the way up to CEO.
My first month was spent between the first two modules on the MSc course and getting up-to-speed with what Bord Bia is and what would be expected of me in my role in the Capability Development team. Jumping straight into the academic aspect was particularly exciting as everything was new to me, but I was already able to make connections between what we were learning and what I had seen in the Bord Bia inductions.
I will talk more about the education and work aspects later, but first…
The money question
Before I go on to explain what I do in my job and on the MSc, I have to address the monkey on the back for anyone considering changing careers and/or going back to education as a mature student: what will this mean financially? I won’t lie: I am not earning as much money a month as I used to. However, neither am I much worse-off.
When you initially look at how much money an International Graduate is on, you might not think that it is a lot, particularly if you have spent a number of years building up your career and any raises you may have gotten in that time. However, the first thing to note is that the figures quoted are Net: Bord Bia International Graduates are full-time students on work placement and, as such, we are paid a bursary by UCD. We do not pay tax on this bursary, so what you see in the literature is the actual amount you will receive per month/year. When accounting for income tax and any other deductions, I find that although I am bringing in less per month, I don’t notice it that much and it is very manageable.
The second thing to think about is that you are getting a scholarship for a Master’s degree from the country’s top business school, something others choose to pay a significant amount of money for. I see this very much as an investment; I am gaining a high-class, bespoke MSc degree for free, a qualification that I hope will considerably increase my employability and earning power in the long-run.
So, whilst there may be some immediate sacrifices to be made, they aren’t overly constraining and will be worth it in the not-too-distant future.
What I do in Bord Bia
My role in Bord Bia is in the Capability Development team in the Dublin office – one of 15 offices worldwide – and my day-to-day work is very varied. My team organises workshops and services across a number of different disciplines to help companies develop their own commercial marketing strategies.
For example, I have worked closely with my manager, other colleagues in Bord Bia and a renowned capability development consultancy in London to develop a Key Customer Management course. Working in this area has given me the opportunity to get to know companies and their senior staff from across the industry, not just from one particular sector. I have learned of the diverse challenges facing Irish companies, big and small and trading both at home and abroad. I have also gotten to work alongside subject experts and observe how they apply their experiences and learnings to this area.
As well as developing content and organising these workshops, I work alongside my team in dealing with companies on a one-to-one basis, in order to help them address specific issues. I provide analysis and insight based on research and market understanding to help them strategise and make the best decisions for their growth. So far, I have worked with beverage, snack, prepared consumer food (PCF) and meat companies, so I am getting to know the trends, tastes and opportunities across a wide array of sectors. I also use my research skills to produce Food Alerts for the information of people throughout the industry.
My job requires me to use my creative skills at times, providing briefs for and proofing the editing of our guidebooks and videos by creative agencies. This has been very useful for me in getting to know the content of all the material, as I have had to re-read and re-watch everything a lot in order to get things perfect!
I have been extremely lucky with my placement. I work with three permanent Bord Bia staff and couldn’t have asked for a better team; as well as clearly being experts in their areas and genuinely interested in helping Irish businesses to thrive, they also care about and are supportive of my development.
From being an experienced sounding board for my academic work to offering me opportunities for further professional growth, I feel like I am being given the best chance to improve my understanding of the industry and apply everything I am learning to real world issues facing Irish companies.
My manager also understands that I have more working experience than most other grads and, I feel, has been willing to push me on in terms of responsibility from the start, rather than taking a by-the-numbers approach and teaching me things I may already know. I believe that this has been especially important in my settling-in to the team, as well as in giving me the confidence to apply my skills from my previous job to my new role.
What’s involved in the MSc?
The academic aspect of the programme is just as important as the placement in Bord Bia. Every half year, the graduates convene on the UCD Smurfit campus from around the world for two weeks of intense teaching during our academic block releases. Here, Irish and international experts on marketing and the food, drink and horticulture industries provide us with high quality learning through tutorials, case study discussions and practical exercises. So far, we have had four modules in Smurfit: Marketing Strategy; Building and Using Customer and Market Insights; Delivering Customer Value Propositions; and Global Business in a Digital Environment.
In the months between our block releases, we are required to do assignment work. I have currently completed the work for the first two modules, which were both very different. One involved generating consumer insights for an Irish brand and using this to recommend the approach to a future marketing plan. The other involved calculating Customer Lifetime Values and using analytics to quantitatively identify trends in the industry and how producers and companies should react to these.
As the MSc is bespoke to the Bord Bia International Graduate Programme, what we are learning is tailored around us and is extremely relevant to what we do every day. As I said earlier, from the first day in Smurfit, I have been able to relate everything I am learning back to what I am doing in Bord Bia.
The courses and assignments are stimulating me to think about how issues facing the companies I work with could be solved based on previous experiences in case studies and evolving new thinking. I find myself critically evaluating the things I read and hear from the companies I work with and using what I have learned to suggest approaches to their issues.
I am also able to use the research and analysis I am doing for client companies in Bord Bia to inform my approach to assignments. This is true both for pointing me towards sources of information online or in-market, as well as through my conversations with staff in Bord Bia or the companies themselves. This is particularly the case for some of the modules, which require me to produce studies of Irish companies and analyse and evaluate how the module content can be seen in or applied to their real-life examples.
Finishing up
I hope that what I have written above has helped as you consider giving something new a try. It was a choice I thought a lot about and would advise you to do the same. However, eight months in, I am extremely happy with my decision and know that I am learning something new every day.
And, if you are contemplating a change, I highly recommend one of the Bord Bia-Smurfit programmes as being the best of both a different job and an education opportunity! Keep an eye out on the Bord Bia website for applications opening this spring for 2021 and best of luck!