A New Life: Meadbh Ruane tells Brian O'Connell she loves the flexibility of her latest job.
The availability of a well-educated and highly skilled workforce is often cited as a major factor in Ireland's current prosperity. In particular, when the IT boom hit, many graduates were well placed to capitalise on the shortage of labour and, for the best part of a decade, lucrative contracts and swift career advancement became the norm for capable technology graduates.
Meadbh Ruane was one such graduate, having completed a Bachelor of Commerce (BComm) in NUIG before pursuing a Business Masters in the early 1990s. Her path to IT consultancy was less than orthodox though, taking in a couple of years teaching in Zimbabwe along the way.
"The BComm wasn't a major choice really, my sister had studied business so I had a liking for the subject from her. When I graduated, IT was the booming industry, so I trained people in IT packages for a year before the travel bug bit and I headed for Germany first and then Zimbabwe. I spent two-and-a-half years there, teaching what would have been the equivalent of their A levels. Historically, it was probably the best time to be there. A major drought had ended and much of the tensions present there now weren't apparent.
"I lived in the bush, about 120km from the nearest town, and the great thing about the work was that we had three months off every year when we could travel around the region, so I got to see a lot of Africa during my time there."
When the time came to return, Ruane found no shortage of employment in the IT support sector. Within a short space of time she found herself in a highly demanding, yet rewarding role with Fyffes in Dublin.
"Pretty soon after I came back I was offered a role with Fyffes. This mainly involved project management. At the time, Fyffes was getting ready to launch its product worldoffruit.com and I became the chief information officer for the project. It started out as a small inhouse project, but by the time I left there were upwards of 35 people working on it and the funding was in terms of millions."
The work was fast paced and demanding, requiring long hours and frequent travel, typical of many an IT job at the time.
"I was working between 50 and 60 hours a week and it was a very fast-moving environment. Dublin was an exciting place to be. I was also travelling a lot. Once a week I had to go to Holland to meet a software company we were dealing with. The mainstay of the work was managing people and projects, and also allocating the right people to various tasks. Once that was done, it was just a matter of being able to sell the product to clients. Towards the end, one of the biggest difficulties was finding qualified people in Ireland."
There was a time limit to life at such a pace, and several years in, Ruane began to consider the prospect of travel once again, albeit with the option to return if things didn't work out.
"I had worked very hard over a long period of time, so felt I needed to take a break. At the time, my sister was in New Zealand, so I decided to head over to her for a bit. I left Fyffes with the option to come back, so I never really closed the door on the work, it was more a lifestyle choice."
Ruane worked as a project manager in an IT company in New Zealand for 18 months before deciding to move home.
"I came back to Ireland and decided I didn't want to return to Dublin, so I started looking to the northwest to live. There weren't a lot of jobs suitable in that area for me. I was specialising in IT business analysis, and all the work seemed to be in Dublin still."
With work in the private sector difficult to locate, Ruane responded to an advertisement for a lecturer in Letterkenny Institute of Technology - more out of curiosity than conviction and prompting an unexpected career change.
"I guess my earlier experience in teaching stood to me, and I got the post as a lecturer in the business studies department. So far, I haven't regretted swapping the private for the public sector, I'm delighted with the change. Admittedly, the first day was quite daunting, standing in a tiered lecture theatre in front of 100 students. But I had a lot of experience with presentations in my past role, which helped. Our week is divided into 18 hours' contact time with students, and the rest of the time is course preparation and development. It's a challenging job, but very rewarding."
It's not just Ruane's working life that's changed; gone are the 60-hour weeks and gruelling work schedule, and she now has time to pursue her other interests. She's attracted to the flexibility that comes with working in the public sector, yet hasn't entirely ruled out a return to the private sector.
"The quality of life is fantastic. I'm quite an outdoors type and I love surfing. Some of the best places in the country are just 45 minutes away. It's a great place to live - there are no congestion problems in Letterkenny.
"The great thing about this work also is that you have the opportunity of taking career breaks, so I have it in mind to do something like that and maybe return to the private sector for a time. It's important to keep up to date with what's happening. I'm heading to Guatemala in the morning for eight weeks' travel. In most jobs it's rare to be able to take more than three weeks off at a time, so this role does give you the opportunity to pursue your personal interests. What can I say - I love my job."