Trinity Business School is located right beside the Silicon Docks, the nickname for the area in Dublin city centre that is home to a concentration of European headquarters for high-tech companies such as Google, HubSpot, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Indeed, and more.
Over 40,000 workers are employed in the environs of the Silicon Docks area. One of these highly-skilled people is MBA Alumnus Siddharth Patel from India who now works as an EMEA Finance Consultant at Facebook’s European Office, which is only a ten minute walk from Trinity Business School’s front doors.
My Background
My name is Siddharth Patel, and I'm a qualified Chartered Accountant and Trinity MBA graduate (Class of 2018). A short while after graduating from the MBA, I started working with Facebook EMEA in their Dublin Silicon Docks office.
There are many finance and accounting opportunities here in Dublin which are a good fit for accountants with an MBA degree. This was the case for me with my background in finance and accounting, having worked previously for EY in India. Becoming one of the users of Facebook back in 2009, I never imagined that one day I would be working at this tech giant.
Choosing Trinity
The Trinity MBA is one of the very few business schools in the world that offers live company project-based modules in the programme. The company projects provide a great opportunity to network with Irish and global companies and increase the likelihood of working with these companies. In my case, I worked with three different companies via the company projects in the span of one year. It was a great opportunity!
I chose Trinity also as The Trinity MBA has a global reputation, while Trinity College Dublin itself is one of the oldest universities in the world, having been founded in 1592. The Full-Time MBA programme is ranked 1st in Ireland in the latest 2021 QS Global MBA Rankings, and is amongst the top MBA programmes in Europe.
One of the key takeaways from the Trinity MBA was working with various teams which involved people from different cultural and work backgrounds. The Trinity MBA provides a platform to learn from other classmates as well as the experienced international faculty. The MBA has helped me succeed in my personal development and has changed my personal and professional profile. It has also given me an edge over other candidates without such a degree.
Graduation with my parents
Working at Facebook
My role in Facebook is a combined role which is focused on the areas of finance and treasury. My role is to look after Facebook EMEA's funding required for employee’s payroll, vendor payment and expense reimbursements. I work closely with different vendors of Facebook's EMEA entities and ensure that the payroll is processed timely and accurately.
It is a very challenging role. Many projects are time sensitive with three to four deadlines due in a short time frame. I have managed this time pressure well due to my experience during the MBA programme where we also had three to four assignment deadlines approaching in the space of one week. This made me improve my time management skills and learn to prioritise my work, lessons I have since applied to my job at Facebook.
The MBA also involves a lot of teamwork due to the difference of opinion. This made me more assertive in order to have an input during team discussions, which is another area of development that I am applying regularly in my current role.
Advice
For students looking to study and work in Ireland, there are a number of tips I can share. Networking with the right people and keeping good relationships will help you get a desired job in Ireland, as Dublin is a very small place. The good word will spread quickly about you if you are a reliable worker.
Most of the employers and recruiters in Ireland first scan a candidate on LinkedIn straight after the review of your CV or sometimes before that. It is very important to have a professional looking LinkedIn profile page.
I had a couple of working sessions with Trinity Business School's dedicated MBA Careers team (1-on-1 session). As many Trinity business alumni are working at all the big company names in the market I wanted to apply to for a job, the careers team helped me to get in touch with these alumni who were working in the companies I was looking to get into.
Advice I would look to give to the prospective students coming to Ireland is; do your detailed research about Ireland, its work culture, the job market, the sector demand etc. If you think your experience and skills are in demand, then Ireland is the place to be.
Everyone wants to work with the big tech companies straight after graduating from the MBA. The only advice I would give here is that it is completely alright to not have your dream job after completing your MBA. I would suggest to enter the job market and keep working towards the role in your dream company.
