#GradStories Jane Goldrick, Assistant Brand Manager, Jameson

What is your name, job title and employer?

My name is Jane Goldrick and I work on the Jameson global communications team in Irish distillers.

What are the main tasks you do in your job in a normal week?

I work with Irish distillers on the Jameson brand on the global communications team. Global communications is basically advertising so I get to work on big out-of-home billboards, t sides on busses, bus shelters, but then I also get to work on TVC campaigns which is really exciting and I got to work on my first one last year. I also get to work with creative agencies which is really interesting. Basically, we will give them a proposal or an idea, they'll come back with really cool creative ideas and then we work collaboratively to create some of the out-of-home campaigns or TVC's that you might have seen and what I like about that is I'm a real people person. I love getting to work and with different clients and this role really gives me an opportunity to do that.

How did you get into your job?

I'm a natural science student from Trinity College Dublin so I don't come from a marketing background. After college I really wanted to just travel and see the world so I moved to Abu Dhabi and when I was there I travelled to 16 countries in 24 months and realized that I really wanted to do something where I got to learn a little bit more about cultures and when I was over there I actually went home for Christmas and I was fed and add from the Jameson graduate program and I was thinking that this seems interesting. I applied and you have to do an online video application which is really fun but a bit nerve-wracking and I was lucky enough to get the job. Then I came back to Dublin and I started on the international marketing team where I worked on Latin America, Asia and Africa which are really interesting countries. Then in my second year I moved to the global communications team where I could really bring all of the different learnings I learned from those countries to my new role and now I've just started a permanent position on the global communications team as an assistant brand manager which I'm so excited about.

What advice would you give to a college student?

There are loads of skills obviously that you can learn (when in college) but I think that one that I would bring to Jameson or to another FMCG brand is probably just being a social butterfly. Jameson is a really social brand and you have an amazing opportunity when in college. Obviously, you have to study hard but, on the side, you can get involved in everything and get involved in loads of different societies and maybe join a charity organisation and try and get involved in students’ unions or to be a class rep. It's important to get that experience of meeting new people. just Events organization is really important so if I was back in college I would definitely try and up-skill there.

What skills do you need to be successful in your role?

I think obviously you need a variety of skills for global communications such as communication, presenting, you need to be really creative, but there's three key skills that I think that you can really use in my current role such as project management. It's a really important skill to have. If you can imagine I work with countries all over the world and everyone wants to go live at the same time, they want to run cool out of home advertising and I need to make sure that everything is happening at the one time so that no one misses their go-live dates. Also, time management is so important. If you can imagine someone misses their deadlines it'll be a blank billboard and that definitely is not very interesting and then as well, I work in advertising, so budgets are big. We need to make sure that we don't go over budget.

What do you love about your job?

I love working for Jameson because the culture is amazing. It's such a positive environment and I love working on the team. Working in the FMCG no two days are the same and there is an F at the start say it is fast so it's really dynamic and I just love that aspect of it. I think what's great about the International Jameson graduate program is that you get the opportunity to go away. What I really love about my job though is getting to work obviously with different countries all over the world and learning about their different cultures and as well Jameson is a global brand, we're present in over 130 markets all over the world and so it's just really exciting that no two days are the same. Obviously we all work hard but then there's still a really good atmosphere in the office and we always have good craic and that's what I love about working for Jameson