Education

Graduate profile: ‘There’s never a silly question’

As part of Irish Times Grad Week we spoke to Sanjena Bhutani who studied marketing in Trinity. She currently works as a Corporate Brand and Reputation Graduate, with the ESB.

Sanjena Bhutani

Fri Sep 23 2022 - 00:55

Tell me about yourself and what you studied in college

I am on the brand reputation team as part of the ESB graduate programme. I’m originally from India and I came to Ireland in 2019 to pursue my masters in marketing from Trinity.

How did you find out about the grad programme?

I saw ESB at one of the Trinity graduate fairs and I found them really interesting, which pushed me to apply for the grad programme.

Tell me about the graduate programme

I joined the grad programme virtually in 2020, and I’ve been living in Dublin ever since. They recently opened a new head office that is very close to where I live, so it’s great to be back in the office and meet people, form those relationships that you wouldn’t have normally.

ESB has allowed all of us to work very flexibly as well. We’re not asked to go into the office every day. We can go in on the days that suit us and we can stay at home when it suits us as well.

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What is the work like?

It’s a three-year programme, which is split across three different rotations. I’m currently on my second year rotation, and my first year was in Electric Ireland’s residential team, which dealt with customer acquirisiton and retention. A graduate role mainly consists of supporting all of the goals and all of the objectives. I would support my managers in coming up with marketing campaigns for customer acquisition and retention.

And as part of my brand reputation team, I support my mamagers with corporate sponsorships, liaising with stakeholders and making sure the brand is communicated to the audience well.

What do you want to work as?

I’ll be moving on to my third rotation in September. After that, I’d definitely like to stay on with ESB, but I’m also hoping to find a fitting role. I would like to work in the marketing team, if a fitting role becomes available.

The opportunities that they present to people and the culture, makes it a very lovely place to work. There’s never a silly question. They have always been open to taking me onto new projects. It’s really great that I can branch out into different fields and streams.

What advice would you have for prospective applicants?

I would say to have a genuine interest in sustainability, the energy industry and to see if they align with the ESB values. I would definitely recommend it to anyone starting out in their career because you get a flavour of a lot of different opportunities, and you get to work with some really experienced people.

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