My current role is centred around IT Operations for Kingspan. My responsibilities include maintaining and improving the company’s IT infrastructure, managing hardware and software used by other employees, resolving security issues raised by our cybersecurity team, along with managing the IT helpdesk and completing any assigned projects.
What is the most interesting project you have been involved in since you joined?
The most interesting project to date has been a deployment I had to configure, which aimed to get all Windows devices upgraded to eliminate security risks. The project gave me a great opportunity to gain deep insight into the configuration of company devices and services, while also helping me gain technical knowledge around Windows and the logic needed to upgrade it within restricted environments.
What prompted you to apply to Kingspan?
I had known who Kingspan were from an early age and had often heard they were a great company to work for. When I started my job search towards the end of my degree, a few family members informed me they knew many former Kingspan graduates and had nothing but praise for the Yours to Shape program. I always knew the company was fast growing and ambitious, which I knew were the qualities I wanted in an employer, but after seeing the various initiatives such as People Passionate and Planet Passionate side by side with the company’s reputation for success, I knew this was where I wanted to work.
What was your experience of the Kingspan graduate recruitment process?
There were a lot of different stages to the recruitment process, as is the case with most large companies now, but I think the team behind it do a great job at spreading out the process so that it doesn’t become a stressful experience. What really stood out for me was how personable the entire experience was. Even though there were long periods of time between each stage of the recruitment process, Mary was always responsive to emails and always kept in touch. Any interactions I had over the process were positive, to the extent it seemed too good to be true at times! Thankfully, working here for the past year has been just as positive an experience.
Have you any tips for someone else thinking of applying to Kingspan?
The best advice I could give to anyone thinking of applying, is to be completely open to throwing yourself into whichever role you apply for and to have a desire to learn. The Yours to Shape program is a graduate program at the end of the day, so nobody is expecting you to start on day one with all the technical knowledge/experience of your colleagues, but each role comes with a lot of exposure and infinite opportunities to learn, even after finishing the YTS program. It is an exciting business to be a part of, and my advice to anyone applying would be to come into the recruitment process wanting to seize those opportunities to learn and to make the most of it.
Looking back, what qualities and behaviours do you think you displayed during the recruitment process which made you a good fit for Kingspan?
I would think my overall attitude towards work and the job probably went a long way. Since it was the grad program I was applying for, everybody else applying was in a similar position to myself in terms of education, so I think my ambition, my desire to immerse myself in the role, along with my desire to learn from those around me made me a good fit. Other than that, I think the fact I’m a calm and relaxed individual helped. Being calm while under pressure can be a desirable quality to have in a person when working in a fast-paced environment, so I think that also made me a good fit.
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