Today Dr. Darren took us back to the docklands to discuss the housing crisis they are dealing with now, and the differences in education in Ireland and America. With new companies and people migrating to Ireland, there was a housing shortage. Because of this decline in available housing, there was a high demand with low supply, which caused rent to skyrocket. In the past few years the country has had to deal with Brexit and its implications, and now the influx of refugees due to the war in Ukraine. Ireland has accepted the responsibility of housing these refugees, and some citizens feel betrayed that this option hasn’t been made available to them. Learning about this has given me a greater appreciation for my Oakland apartment, even if it doesn’t have laundry, I am lucky to have a place to live at a reasonable rate.

All throughout my life, there have been guidelines and rules for each assignment, although I don’t always like to be micro-managed, it gives me a sense of direction in my work. When I have gone outside the guidelines, it has been discouraged heavily. In 8th grade, we had to write a paper on what we wanted to be when we grew up, and I had no idea. My teacher had told anyone who didn’t know to write about being a doctor or dentist. To me, this felt insincere and like a waste of time. I instead chose to write about why we shouldn’t have to know what we want to be at such a young age and received an F. Dr. Darren shared that in the European schooling system, there is lots of ambiguity and room to be creative. To some, this would be nerve-racking, and I can admit it would be stressful at first for me too. I know deep down though, I thrive when I am encouraged to look outside of the box and come up with new ideas.

Our second speaker, Michael, gave us some background on his career path, and how Docusign has grown throughout the years. If you have signed a document electronically, it was most likely through Docusign. This was especially important during the pandemic because of the inability to be face-to-face. In most businesses, there was at least a small decline in their growth rate during the pandemic, but Docusign saw a 60% growth rate. Google also saw a rise during the pandemic, but it was not as large as Docusigns.

With Google, we saw a community that failed together and had a blameless culture. Comparatively, Docusign focuses on efficiency, and they have an “every man for themselves” culture. Google is also very passionate about its international centers and diversity within the company. Michael mentioned some issues he has when working with other countries and seemed to have a different approach than Google. Michael worked several different jobs during his career, and his biggest advice to us was to find something we like and give it our all. It was refreshing to know we don’t have to have it all figured out now, and in most cases, everything will work out in the end.