Work Experience
VODAFONE
I completed my first week of work experience in the Vodafone Head Office in Central Park. My work experience started on the 4th of December and ended on the 8th. The experience was really enjoyable and developed my knowledge and defiantly was an eye-opener. Throughout the five days of work experience , I worked in the advertising, marketing, foundation, branding and retail sections of Vodafone’s. The facilities in Vodafone were amazing! The two canteens were huge and they also had a nail salon, hair salon, tan salon , gym and mindfulness centre! This was hugely appealing to myself and Steven on our first day! Myself and Steven arrived in Central Park on Monday at 9am and we were met by Dan and Dave. Dan and Dave work on the social media aspect of Vodafone. They spoke to us about their new package called VodafoneX which they are advertising to the teenage and student market. We were able to help them in this section as we told them which social media platforms we use most and which ads would be most effective. This was really fun to do and the men said we were the most impressive TY students they had ever worked with, which was pretty cool! In the afternoon , we met with Natalie and Rob. They work in foundation and charity. We sat in on their budget meeting as they discussed upcoming fundraisers and analyzed previous ones. This was super interesting as I never knew that Vodafone was so involved in charity’s such as Childline.
On Tuesday we met with Lucía and Michelle who work in Branding and Advertising , they gave us a presentation project to do, which we worked on throughout they day. We had to create a 360 communication plan, come up with ideas of advertisement and sponsorship and analyse the competitors for VodafoneX. On Wednesday, we presented our projects to the head of VodafoneX, Sara. She said she was really impressed. We then had a retail Elf workshop where we learnt what we would be doing in the shop the following day. In the afternoon , we met with a man who works with the Irish rugby sponsorship of Vodafone and we met with a tec guy named ... ; he showed us cool products he is working on. They were really cool products such as a Fitbit and GPS trackers for your pet!!
On Thursday , myself and Ste took the luas into dundrum. We worked in the Vodafone shop in Dundrum from 10-3 and got nandos for lunch! We could not help all of the customers but we helped people top up and helped with simplier problems! This was really fun and gave us a good idea of what working in retail is like! We finished at 3 and I was back in the school in time for hockey training. On Friday, our last day, we helped set up a kids Christmas party in the office and finished at 12. We took the luas into town to meet up with other friends doing work experience in town. The experience was amazing and so enlightening. Our supervisor, Amanda was super and gave us so many opportunities to talk to different people throughout the office. I am delighted and so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go into Vodafone for a week. I had a really good week and am definitely considering a job in advertisement or event management!!
I completed my first week of work experience in the Vodafone Head Office in Central Park. My work experience started on the 4th of December and ended on the 8th. The experience was really enjoyable and developed my knowledge and defiantly was an eye-opener. Throughout the five days of work experience , I worked in the advertising, marketing, foundation, branding and retail sections of Vodafone’s. The facilities in Vodafone were amazing! The two canteens were huge and they also had a nail salon, hair salon, tan salon , gym and mindfulness centre! This was hugely appealing to myself and Steven on our first day! Myself and Steven arrived in Central Park on Monday at 9am and we were met by Dan and Dave. Dan and Dave work on the social media aspect of Vodafone. They spoke to us about their new package called VodafoneX which they are advertising to the teenage and student market. We were able to help them in this section as we told them which social media platforms we use most and which ads would be most effective. This was really fun to do and the men said we were the most impressive TY students they had ever worked with, which was pretty cool! In the afternoon , we met with Natalie and Rob. They work in foundation and charity. We sat in on their budget meeting as they discussed upcoming fundraisers and analyzed previous ones. This was super interesting as I never knew that Vodafone was so involved in charity’s such as Childline.
On Tuesday we met with Lucía and Michelle who work in Branding and Advertising , they gave us a presentation project to do, which we worked on throughout they day. We had to create a 360 communication plan, come up with ideas of advertisement and sponsorship and analyse the competitors for VodafoneX. On Wednesday, we presented our projects to the head of VodafoneX, Sara. She said she was really impressed. We then had a retail Elf workshop where we learnt what we would be doing in the shop the following day. In the afternoon , we met with a man who works with the Irish rugby sponsorship of Vodafone and we met with a tec guy named ... ; he showed us cool products he is working on. They were really cool products such as a Fitbit and GPS trackers for your pet!!
On Thursday , myself and Ste took the luas into dundrum. We worked in the Vodafone shop in Dundrum from 10-3 and got nandos for lunch! We could not help all of the customers but we helped people top up and helped with simplier problems! This was really fun and gave us a good idea of what working in retail is like! We finished at 3 and I was back in the school in time for hockey training. On Friday, our last day, we helped set up a kids Christmas party in the office and finished at 12. We took the luas into town to meet up with other friends doing work experience in town. The experience was amazing and so enlightening. Our supervisor, Amanda was super and gave us so many opportunities to talk to different people throughout the office. I am delighted and so grateful to have gotten the opportunity to go into Vodafone for a week. I had a really good week and am definitely considering a job in advertisement or event management!!
Bray Lakers
For my community service, I decided to do a week with Lakers in Bray in order to have a direct link to my community through voluntary work and also to work with intellectually disabled people. I couldn't wait to get started and I knew from the beginning of the first day that the week was going to be a memorable, fulfilling and rewarding one.
Lakers Social & Recreational Club is a community-based sports, social and recreation club for children and adults with an intellectual disability. The club provides a wide range of sporting and educational services to local members from its centre in Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Their mission Statements is as follows:
Lakers exists to serve our members on a basis of respect and inclusion, to work with them in enhancing their unique talents, to enable them to participate in sport, social activities, recreation and development, and to work alongside them in promoting their full participation in the wider community. We are dedicated to building teamwork, self-esteem and confidence, and to ensuring the maximum participation and involvement of the families of our members.
Lakers Social & Recreational Club is a community-based sports, social and recreation club for children and adults with an intellectual disability. The club provides a wide range of sporting and educational services to local members from its centre in Bray, Co. Wicklow.
Their mission Statements is as follows:
Lakers exists to serve our members on a basis of respect and inclusion, to work with them in enhancing their unique talents, to enable them to participate in sport, social activities, recreation and development, and to work alongside them in promoting their full participation in the wider community. We are dedicated to building teamwork, self-esteem and confidence, and to ensuring the maximum participation and involvement of the families of our members.
Day one - Day one (Monday 26th of February) with Lakers was definitely a learning curve for me and an eventful busy day. Ella, Cillian and Jack were also volunteering, we arrived at 9.30am and met with Helen, the main co-ordinator. She went through some main guidelines and gave us each a timetable for the week. We learnt that most of the time there would be two activities going on so most of the time we were split into twos. The first activities of the day started at 10am and was gym. I was on my own for this activity. I met with Grahmn and Lisa and we hopped onto the Lakers bus. I immediately met two lovely women called Mandy and Rona as well as a very cheerful man named Mark who were going to be attending the gym class. I had met Mark before as he is often in my hockey club helping out and he instantly recognised me and greeted me with a huge smile and a hug which was really nice. They were just so happy and delighted to be going to the gym and immediately started chatting to me about various things like the upcoming Storm Emma. We travelled to Shoreline in Bray where we met another man named Jamie who was also attending the gym with us. We started a warm up on the treadmills. Myself and Lisa assisted the ladies in doing various different types of core exercises while Grahm helped the men to lift weights. I helped Jamie to walk on the treadmill without holding onto the bar for the first time. The joy and smile on his face was so fulfilling and really made my day. We then headed back to the Lakers centre dropping off each person to their destination on the way. By then, it was 12.30am and it was time for lunch.
We had lunch in Subway and arrived back at 2pm. Myself and Ella headed to cooking class and Jack and Cillian headed to table tennis. I was with different people and quickly got to know them all really well. Together we made chicken Maryland with chips and sweetcorn fritters. As well as, pineapple and banana fritters. The instructor went over the rules of the kitchen and read out the recipe and instructions. Everyone was given a job to do by themselves which they all did really well. The lakers ate their produce while myself and Ella started cleaning up! Soon it was time to go home. My first day was amazing as I got to know some fantastic people and get really involved with my community.
Day Two -
Day two with Lakers, another day full of smiling faces, vibrant atmospheres and fun activities. The activity I did in the morning was cooking again! But this time, i was paired up with Jack, and Cillian helped before going to his activity which wasn't until 10:30. It was a great start to the day. We made the same meal as the day before. This was great as i knew how to do everything and could really help out. The cookery class was really popular among the lakers community and they were all eager to get started. Cillian and I helped to make the sweetcorn fritters and Jack helped to prepare the chicken. Everyone worked really hard and the meal was delicious! We only did one activity this day as we were attending the JCT match in Donneybrook.
The Snow -
Unfortunately, this was the end to our community work in Bray Lakers. It snowed heavily on Tuesday night and Lakers was cancelled for the rest of the week. The centre is located at the bottom of a steep driveway which would be impossible and very dangerous for the bus to drive up and down.I was very disappointed to hear that my Lakers adventure was coming to an end because I was really enjoying myself. Being among people different to me yet so similar was an amazing experience and I honestly can say I have made some great friends from it. I just loved doing the activities and getting involved. Lakers has given me the opportunity to see the lives people with disabilities lead and how any little thing can brighten up their day completely. Lakers has taught me that even though someone can look or sound different they still can have things in common with you and become a great friend. I am so happy and grateful to have been given a glimpse into the lives these unique and lovely people and i really wish i could have spent the rest of the week with them.
St Gerards Primary School
From the 5th of March to the 9th of March I completed an extra week of work experience in St.Gerards Junior School! I started in St. Gerards when I was in junior infants and my memories from my Junior School days are nothing but fond. I was really looking forward to seeing all my old teachers again and I really like the idea of becoming a teacher so i was really excited.
I had the whole Junior school experience assisting in teaching various age groups from Montessori, senior infants, 2nd class and 4th class. I really enjoyed my day in all classes but my favourite by far was the Montessori class on Friday. I loved working with the little children and how they listened so attentively to everything I said. In the Montessori class I participated in many songs, dances, circle time and lots of arts and craft activities. I helped them to make flower arrangements for Mother’s Day , they all loved it and were amazed at the pretty coloured flowers.
On Monday I began my work experience with Julie in PE. Her first class was with Junior Infants I assisted Julie in playing the parachute with the kids as well as stuck in the mud as a warm up. They loved the colours of the parachute and squealed with excitement. In the afternoon, I was in senior infants with Ms McCabe. I had Ms mc cabe in second class and it was really interesting to watch her teaching younger kids. We did art and the children painted for an Easter egg competition.
On Tuesday I was with Julie in the morning in PE but this time with the Montessori class. It was so fascinating to see the difference between the Montessori students and the junior infants students as the kids tried to grasp the concept of catch! They were adorable as they ran around, bumping into each other and ending up on the floor, in fits of laughter. In the afternoon I was in Standard 4 with Ms Gleeson. The kids were working on their projects on China. I walked around and gave help where it was needed. They kids were really well behaved and worked independently and quietly on their projects.
On Wednesday I was in second class with Ms Byrne. I took a reading group and listened to each child as they read a paragraph each. I also cut out chalices for their communion and helped her correcting homework. It was really interesting to see the difference between the senior infants and the second class in behavior and ability.
On Thursday i went with Julie, Ms Murphy and the whole of 5th class to a special olympics event in Blanchardstown. This was amazing. First we helped to set up the games. There was games such as rolling the ball through the hoops and throwing bean bags into a bucket. The kids were divided into different groups and were all given a station to work at. The kids were really amazing and so confident and helpful with the participants. The enthusiasm and energy from the 5th class students were really encouraging to the athletes and created a fun atmosphere. Before going to the event, each student had made a poster for each athlete, they presented them to the athletes and they were over the moon with their posters. It was such a good day and it was really great to see the level of maturity and enthusiasm of the 5th class students. I’m so glad I got the opportunity to help out at the special olympics.
On Friday morning, I worked again with Ms McCabe in senior infants. We did arts and crafts and I helped to cut, stick and colour!
In the afternoon, I helped Ms Gleeson to correct Irish homework in her 5th class. I also helped her to design a new notice board.
I really enjoyed my work experience in St. Gerards Junior School. It gave me a great indication into life as a Junior School Teacher. I really enjoyed the week and could definitively see myself wanting to be a teacher when I grow up!
Sherry Fitzgerald
From the 9th of April to the 13th of April I participated in my fourth and final week of work experience in Sherry Fitzgerald. Sherry FitzGerald run an excellent work experience program for 50 transition year students three times a year. Sean claire and colm also completed this week of work experience and there was also a few people from other schools that I knew! My dad works in real estate and was delighted for me to be completing the week in Sherry Fitzgerald filling me in with key information!
Monday
On Monday we all met in the Sherry Fitzgerald office in Ballsbridge at 10am. For the first hour we had an introduction presented by Katherine McPhillips. She welcomed us to Sherry Fitzgerald and spoke of the programs objectives and the schedule for the week. She split us into four groups which would be our teams for the week.
At 11:00 until 11:50 we received an It talk from Brian Doyle, the Technology Director of Sherry Fitz. Brian Doyle spoke about his job and spoke about the past and future of technology in the company.
At 11:50 we had a 10 minute break.
At 12 we met together again for another talk on New Homes. Daniel Larkin and Kate Healy spoke about Sherry Fitzgerald’s New Homes development project. This was really interesting.
We had lunch from 1-2 which was really good as we got a chance to mix with the other schools as well as our own.
For our final hour of our first day, Simon Ensor, the Residential Director of Sherry Fitz talked to us about auctions and thought us how to conduct our own live auction. We had lots of fun performing mock auctions. At 3, it was time to go home and our first day was complete! I really enjoyed the first day and was excited for the rest of the week!
Tuesday
On Tuesday we were in the Sherry Fitzgerald Sandyford office. We were greeted by Ailison Roe at 10:15. Allison is the Operations Executive of the Countrywide sector of the company. We were introduced to the Franchise business and we learnt how franchising can work for you in a range of different business ventures. This was followed by a talk from Emily Torsney and Laura O’Carroll from the marketing department. They spoke about the different ways of marketing and advertising and made us come up with different ideas to advertise. After our 10 minute break we had two half an hour talks. The first talk we received was on CSS and was given by Laura Reddy the Customer insights manager. She said that she believes that customer feedback is essential and ensures that the company is providing an excellent service. Laura spoke about how to get customer feedback and what to do with it when u get it! Our second talk was on finance by James Dowling. This was the most boring talk in my opinion. He was a great speaker and was a very intelligent man but the topic of his talk had no interest to me! He spoke about accounting and his job as an accountant in the business! It’s safe to say that accounting is not the route I will be taking!
We had lunch from 1-2 and I had a delicious burrito from across the road! After lunch we were greeted by Barry Ensor and Samuel Agar from the Residential sector. They talked about measuring the value of a property and showed us various properties and we had to guess the value of each property. They then asked us to make a floor plan and brochure of our own property which we made up in our groups. This was really fun as we added facilities such as a cinema, pool and indoor tennis courts to our property! This was the end of day two and we got the luas Home!
Wednesday
Everyone was assigned to spend both Wednesday and Thursday in one of Sherry Fitzgerald’s Residential branches for our practical work placement. Over the course of the two days we will experience the daily routine, and will be working with the administrators, negotiators and surveyors of Sherry Fitz. Our working hours for the two days were 11-3. I was assigned to the branch in Greystones. I was delighted to discover that Colm was also assigned to the Greystones branch. We were firstly introduced to everyone in the office , it is a small office with only 6 people working there. Megan Greene showed us the computer system they use and her diary. Later on, Ciara brought myself and Colm to a house viewing in Rathdown Park. A woman came to view the house and we helped Ciara to make the place look as appealing as possible. Unfortunately the woman said the house was not suitable for her and was too big. We had lunch from 12:30-2. After lunch, we were taken to an empty house. I drew a floor plan of the house and colm took the measurements of each room. We also took notes on each room in the house and the garden which will help us to write up the brochure for the property on Thursday. This was probably my favourite day. Being in the branch was a great experience because we got to see first hand what it is really like to work in one of the branches. I found these days in the branches much more exciting and interesting then the tedious long talks we received in Sandyford and Ballsbridge on Monday and Tuesday.
Thursday
Thursday was my second and final day in the Greystones branch. In the morning myself and Colm continued and finished our floor plans and brochures from the previous day. In the afternoon, we went to two house viewings with Pippy Piper. Neither of the houses were sold but it was good experience to see how Pippy presented the property to her customers! I was delighted that we got to spend the two days in the greystones branch because it was great to truly experience what it is like to work in real estate. The two days of placement defiently changed my perspective and opinion on a career in property.
Friday
Graduation 🎓
Friday was my final day of work experience in Sherry Fitzgerald. We all attended a graduation ceremony.Our parents were shown a slideshow of the activities we completed throughout the week. Micheal Grehan, the chief executive of Sherry FitzGerald came in to talk to us and also presented us with graduation certificates! Each team had to prepare a song for graduation describing our week in Sherry Fitz. We al had a lot of fun practicing and singing our songs. My group used the Bob the Builder theme song and changed the words to suit our week of work experience. The was great fun and we got a lot of laughs. This was our song -
“Sherry fitz, can we sell it
Sherry fitz, yes we can
Foxrock bray and Dundrum too
Dalkey and greystones and Sutton too
Working together they get the job done
Selling together they make the job fun
Sherry fitz can we sell it
Sherry fitz yes we can”
I really enjoyed my week in Sherry Fitz and could defiantly see myself working with property when I grow up.
Monday
On Monday we all met in the Sherry Fitzgerald office in Ballsbridge at 10am. For the first hour we had an introduction presented by Katherine McPhillips. She welcomed us to Sherry Fitzgerald and spoke of the programs objectives and the schedule for the week. She split us into four groups which would be our teams for the week.
At 11:00 until 11:50 we received an It talk from Brian Doyle, the Technology Director of Sherry Fitz. Brian Doyle spoke about his job and spoke about the past and future of technology in the company.
At 11:50 we had a 10 minute break.
At 12 we met together again for another talk on New Homes. Daniel Larkin and Kate Healy spoke about Sherry Fitzgerald’s New Homes development project. This was really interesting.
We had lunch from 1-2 which was really good as we got a chance to mix with the other schools as well as our own.
For our final hour of our first day, Simon Ensor, the Residential Director of Sherry Fitz talked to us about auctions and thought us how to conduct our own live auction. We had lots of fun performing mock auctions. At 3, it was time to go home and our first day was complete! I really enjoyed the first day and was excited for the rest of the week!
Tuesday
On Tuesday we were in the Sherry Fitzgerald Sandyford office. We were greeted by Ailison Roe at 10:15. Allison is the Operations Executive of the Countrywide sector of the company. We were introduced to the Franchise business and we learnt how franchising can work for you in a range of different business ventures. This was followed by a talk from Emily Torsney and Laura O’Carroll from the marketing department. They spoke about the different ways of marketing and advertising and made us come up with different ideas to advertise. After our 10 minute break we had two half an hour talks. The first talk we received was on CSS and was given by Laura Reddy the Customer insights manager. She said that she believes that customer feedback is essential and ensures that the company is providing an excellent service. Laura spoke about how to get customer feedback and what to do with it when u get it! Our second talk was on finance by James Dowling. This was the most boring talk in my opinion. He was a great speaker and was a very intelligent man but the topic of his talk had no interest to me! He spoke about accounting and his job as an accountant in the business! It’s safe to say that accounting is not the route I will be taking!
We had lunch from 1-2 and I had a delicious burrito from across the road! After lunch we were greeted by Barry Ensor and Samuel Agar from the Residential sector. They talked about measuring the value of a property and showed us various properties and we had to guess the value of each property. They then asked us to make a floor plan and brochure of our own property which we made up in our groups. This was really fun as we added facilities such as a cinema, pool and indoor tennis courts to our property! This was the end of day two and we got the luas Home!
Wednesday
Everyone was assigned to spend both Wednesday and Thursday in one of Sherry Fitzgerald’s Residential branches for our practical work placement. Over the course of the two days we will experience the daily routine, and will be working with the administrators, negotiators and surveyors of Sherry Fitz. Our working hours for the two days were 11-3. I was assigned to the branch in Greystones. I was delighted to discover that Colm was also assigned to the Greystones branch. We were firstly introduced to everyone in the office , it is a small office with only 6 people working there. Megan Greene showed us the computer system they use and her diary. Later on, Ciara brought myself and Colm to a house viewing in Rathdown Park. A woman came to view the house and we helped Ciara to make the place look as appealing as possible. Unfortunately the woman said the house was not suitable for her and was too big. We had lunch from 12:30-2. After lunch, we were taken to an empty house. I drew a floor plan of the house and colm took the measurements of each room. We also took notes on each room in the house and the garden which will help us to write up the brochure for the property on Thursday. This was probably my favourite day. Being in the branch was a great experience because we got to see first hand what it is really like to work in one of the branches. I found these days in the branches much more exciting and interesting then the tedious long talks we received in Sandyford and Ballsbridge on Monday and Tuesday.
Thursday
Thursday was my second and final day in the Greystones branch. In the morning myself and Colm continued and finished our floor plans and brochures from the previous day. In the afternoon, we went to two house viewings with Pippy Piper. Neither of the houses were sold but it was good experience to see how Pippy presented the property to her customers! I was delighted that we got to spend the two days in the greystones branch because it was great to truly experience what it is like to work in real estate. The two days of placement defiently changed my perspective and opinion on a career in property.
Friday
Graduation 🎓
Friday was my final day of work experience in Sherry Fitzgerald. We all attended a graduation ceremony.Our parents were shown a slideshow of the activities we completed throughout the week. Micheal Grehan, the chief executive of Sherry FitzGerald came in to talk to us and also presented us with graduation certificates! Each team had to prepare a song for graduation describing our week in Sherry Fitz. We al had a lot of fun practicing and singing our songs. My group used the Bob the Builder theme song and changed the words to suit our week of work experience. The was great fun and we got a lot of laughs. This was our song -
“Sherry fitz, can we sell it
Sherry fitz, yes we can
Foxrock bray and Dundrum too
Dalkey and greystones and Sutton too
Working together they get the job done
Selling together they make the job fun
Sherry fitz can we sell it
Sherry fitz yes we can”
I really enjoyed my week in Sherry Fitz and could defiantly see myself working with property when I grow up.
3Rock Eco
On the 24th and 25th of April I completed an extra two days of work experience in 3rock Eco. 3Rock are a branding and signage company based in Clondalkin. I completed these days of work experience with Adele because her dad is the ceo of the company. On Tuesday morning John gave us a tour of the office and their three huge factories. There was lots of different machines and lots of people working there. We arrived each morning at 8:30am and left at 4:30 pm, with lunch from 1-2. After our tour, we met with Donal Smith. He is helping run an exhibition for TechConnect in the Rds on the 30th of May. Myself and Adele rang up all the exhibitors and asked to speak to their exhibition stand manager. We told them that 3rock are an exhibition stand contractor for TechConnect and we took their emails. This was defiently a learning curve to speak to clients on the phone and try to explain to difficult clients who you are and what you do. There was ___ exhibitors. After this, John gave us leaflets and pictures which we had to make into boxes for different clients. In the afternoon, Noel gave us a huge list of companies in alphabetical order. Myself and adele had to ring each company and ask for their signage manager. We asked for the email of the signage manager and updated the 3rock files. On Wednesday, we continued on doing our jobs for Noel and Donal. Donal was very happy with the email responses he received from the exhibitors and our completion of the task. We only got to the start of the C section of companies for Noel but he was delighted as it is easy but very time consuming work. We worked in the reception for both days so we also dealt with customers coming in , delieveries , incoming phone calls and the very important job of opening and closing the gate! I really enjoyed the two days in 3rock , it was defiently a good experience to have to constantly talk to clients on the phone.