Niall McCabe, Business Improvement Coordinator, Lakeland Dairies

What's your name, job and employer?

My name is Niall McCabe and I am the Business Improvement Coordinator at Lakeland Dairies.

What does your job involve?

In simple terms, my job is to improve the efficiency of the entire site, not just one specific plant. I go to production meetings pretty much every morning and try to get teams to improve for each operator so I can make their day easier. A happier worker is a worker who potentially produces more.

What skills are important to be successful?

What makes me good at my job is my ability to talk to people and get along with them, because I don't have anybody who works for me. A lot of people who work with me, I'm asking them to do extra work. It's not an easy task to ask them to do more work. If I'm making people's lives easier they look at me and respect me and see that I'm trying to get the place working a lot easier and make everyone more cohesive. Influence skills would be a big factor, and being able to get along and communicate with people.

What do you love about your job?

The thing I really love about my job is that I don't do the same thing every day. The thing I did last week isn't going to be the same as the thing I do next week. I really enjoy helping people and that's the main thing for me.

What advice would you give a first year student?

My advice to give to a student would be to make sure you work hard in college. It will give you the same work ethic when you move into a company. By having that same work ethic, people will start to look at you and see that you aren't a waster. They'll start to take you seriously and you'll feel more comfortable in your job.

How did you get into your job?

A lot of jobs come through a portal in DCU. The Lakeland Dairies one popped up and I applied. I liked that it involved engineering and potentially working on a big site. I went through the process and was eventually offered a job, but it wasn't as an engineer but as a procurement graduate. As a procurement graduate I really enjoyed the role. It gave me a lot of extra skills and helped me build my foundation in Lakeland Dairies. Then a job came up on the board in January for the position of Business Improvement Coordinator. I was in pole position with my engineering background and got the role.