Niall Donnelly, Mechanical engineer, ESB

What does your job involve?

My current role is as a project engineer on a large scale international project in Saudi Arabia.

What skills are important?

We’re working with a lot of different nationalities, so communication is important in order to work effectively and efficiently. The scale of the work also means organisation is vital as you really need to stay on top of the workload, which is sizeable.

What student experiences have helped your career?

Having the opportunity to go abroad and complete an Erasmus internship was a huge benefit. It gave me great focus exposure to working internationally and learning how to be flexible and settling into different environments.

What do you love about your job?

I love the variety of my work. I’m not confined to just one aspect of power generation; I’m exposed to so many other elements which feed into it on an international basis. You can get great exposure to the wider, strategic picture.

What advice would you have for students?

My advice would be to remain open minded and explore other avenues when it comes to your career. I know this from my own experience. Originally I wanted to be a civil engineer but when I became aware of the opportunities in mechanical engineering I realised that was the area which would most complement my skills.