Saoirse Molloy has recently finished her final year university exams and is due to graduate in August with a Bachelor's degree in Marketing from Maynooth University. After completing an internship with Veolia Water Technologies Ireland as part of her studies during the 2020 / 2021 academic year, Saoirse continued working with us throughout the summer before starting her final year in September 2021. Having completed her final year, Saoirse has returned to Veolia, starting in a permanent position as Account Manager in June of 2022.
Describe your current role at Veolia Water Technologies?
My current position is Account Manager. I am responsible for managing customer accounts including processing orders and generating quotes for our clients. Previously during my internship, I gained a lot of experience in the sales department and was also exposed to the Finance and HR department. I also helped out in reception answering calls and customer queries. I am very thankful for my colleagues and management to give me the opportunity to show my strengths in Sales during my internship as I have realised this is an area of expertise I want to explore further. I will soon be working on marketing projects too which I'm really looking forward to.
How did your internship at Veolia help benefit you, your studies or your career?
I was 17 leaving school so I was still really young sitting my Leaving Cert. I struggled picking choices for my CAO because I didn't know what I wanted to do after school. Thankfully, I got accepted into one of my first choices which was Marketing but I wasn't sure exactly what career path I wanted to take. I hoped the few years in college would buy me time to think of what route I wanted to go down. Heading into my third year of college we had the option to do an internship, erasmus or go straight into final year. At the beginning of 2020 it was a no-brainer to go and do an internship. Covid-19 hit soon afterwards however, so it was really difficult to get any interviews for programmes as most companies were withdrawing their positions for students. I went out solo and handed in my CV to companies I felt would be a right fit for me. I then was lucky enough to get accepted into the internship here at Veolia Water Technonologies.
The internship helped me both personally and professionally. I believe I developed more over the year and a half in my internship over the years prior in college. At the beginning, answering calls and talking to clients was a struggle as I was really nervous and lacked confidence in this. However as the time went on, I found it to be second nature and I quite enjoyed talking to clients and building relationships with them. I learned that my preferred learning style is through practise rather than theory. This benefited me a lot as I had a very clear understanding of what I was doing and was able to refer back to the material I learned throughout college.
Describe any challenges you had to overcome during your first year with Veolia?
I began my internship in June 2020 so it was in the height of Covid with all restrictions in place. Towards the end of the year we all had to work from home. I suppose Covid wasn't a huge concern or challenge for me, as I was lucky enough to still get the exposure and training in different departments by my colleagues whether it was working from home or in the office. I can't pinpoint a struggle I had during the year as I had great support from my colleagues. Anything I needed help with there was always someone around to help. Jumping from study into working was at the start nerve wrecking as I have never been exposed to an office environment but I then learned that I'm well suited to it and really enjoy working over studying.
What was your biggest takeaway from your internship year?
I got more from my internship than I expected, I learned where my strengths & weaknesses were in each department which then allowed me to narrow down what I liked and didn't like. The internship year gave me a year to gain confidence in myself when it comes to talking to people professionally and to decide what I want to do as a career.
What was the biggest reason for you to decide to return to Veolia after your studies?
In my final year, I knew the path I wanted to go down was in Sales/Marketing. I returned to Veolia to go back into the sales department which I really enjoyed during my internship year. Not only that, I made some great friends amongst the team and it was such a positive work environment to be in.
What does a typical day look like in your current role?
My day in the office is different each day. I usually check my emails in the morning and make a note of my to dos for the day. I check all my logs and smartsheets to go over any work I've to do. From there on, I contact clients in relation to their accounts and orders. This would involve cross checking with internal departments following up on suppliers or passing material over to service for work to be done.
What is your favourite part about working with Veolia Water Technologies?
My favourite part about working with Veolia is the people. Everyone in each department is so friendly and helpful. It's an enjoyable place to work because I'm amongst a team of people that are there to help each other if needed. A brand new office helps too!!
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