It’s amazing how we spent two full weeks in Dublin and I still feel like I didn’t even discover half of what it had to offer. This trip was an amazing experience that not only allowed me to explore the country but also learn more about the growing technology business landscape of the country. It was very cool to learn how Ireland’s innovative mindset and business layout has allowed the technology industry to flourish within the city.
The technology industry has impacted Ireland in multiple ways. More people are now immigrating into Ireland to work in these massive tech companies, many of which are the European Union Headquarters for those specific companies, such as that of Google and Microsoft. In fact, at most of the companies we visited, our presenters were not Irish, but from countries located within the EU. Every single presenter from our Microsoft site visit was from a different country, which I found to be very interesting watching all of those different cultures and ideas come together right in the heart of Dublin. As we learned from Doctor Kelley, many people emigrated from Ireland due to multiple factors such as the famine, political turbulence, and a lack of work opportunities, so this new influx of immigration into the country is really interesting to see from an outside perspective.
Prior to arriving in Ireland, I only thought that there were a few larger companies located in Ireland, and it was mainly smaller technology startups, as that was what we would be focusing on in our group site visits. I was very surprised to see the headquarters of Facebook, SalesForce, and other major U.S. companies that set up headquarters in the city of Dublin due to its strong workforce and the tax breaks offered. We learned how the unique innovative mindset was developed through rigorous academics, creating a workforce that was able to think outside of the box rather than just following a rubric or set standard of going about completing tasks. Through Doctor Kelley’s tour, I was able to learn a lot more about why and how the business layout came to be what we know it as today, and not just a surface-level explanation of what that layout was.
By visiting different companies in Ireland and getting to interact with them in-person, I was able to learn more about the business culture. We were only able to learn so much about the different companies through our initial research online, so by having the chance to sit down and listen to the presenters and ask more questions face-to-face, we were able to fill in some gaps in our initial learning. For example, the Guinness Enterprise Center’s website tells us that they offer multiple different programs to help the startup companies that reside in their offices, which made us believe that the GEC only offered this small selection of programs and the opportunity to rent their office spaces as their only products/services. By listening to our presenter Madison, we were able to learn that they offer these on top of multiple other services, both tangible and intangible, one of the largest of these being the network between angel investors, the government, and other former startup companies that have succeeded. These networking opportunities are crucial for potential startups, and they are all brought together under one roof in the GEC, something we were only able to learn through the in-person presentation.
This trip helped me develop both as a business professional and as a person. As a business professional, I not only learned about a new business culture, but also how to interact within that culture. It is vital to have a wide knowledge about multiple different business cultures when we enter the workforce, so this unique opportunity to personally interact within the Irish business culture was a great opportunity for me to get a hands-on experience with their business practices and how they interact in the workplace. I believe this trip has been a great chance for me to expand my worldview on different business cultures, especially with one that is as unique as Dublin’s. This trip gave me the opportunity to also learn about my interests in the technology industry. Everyone is always interested in working for companies like Google and Microsoft due to their stature in the U.S., but by having the opportunity to talk to their employees and learn what they do not only from a business standpoint but also to help society around them, a new spark of passion for the industry formed. It was a very insightful experience that I will carry with me forever. I enjoyed every second of this trip, and I can’t wait to return in the future to continue exploring if I get the opportunity.
