#GradStories Kerri Murphy, International Graduate, Bord Bia

Last updated: 22 Jun 2023, 13:17

Kerri Murphy, International Graduate, Bord Bia

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

The role of Board Bia is to help the Irish food and drinks industry grow at home and abroad. My job's based in London and our role is to help Irish food and drink companies grow in Britain. I work across four different categories: dairy, seafood, alcohol and meat. I help different suppliers with different things in the UK. This includes insights, understanding the market and customer understanding.

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

Communication skills are probably the most important skills in this role purely because you work with different teams and different stakeholder groups. You could be working with a supplier, an agency or a client and you need to learn how to communicate effectively across those different groups.

What do you love about your job?

I love the variety, I get to work on so many different projects from getting trade buyers to come to Ireland for trade shows to working on marketing briefs with agencies for our Irish beef comms in the UK to insights projects where you need to develop a market understanding to give back to clients. You're always working on something different and you learn something from all of those projects that you can bring across the board.

How did you get into your job?

I started looking at different programmes and considering whether I wanted to do a master's or go into work. When I came across this role it was the perfect blend of both for me.

What is the one skill first year students should develop if they want to go into this career?

People skills! I'd start building my network early and start learning about the industry from day one. Use your spare time wisely. If I were to go into a part time job again, I'd go to a retailer. There you can learn about the different products in the market. the trends and the Irish suppliers, then you're one step ahead of everyone else.

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