#GradStories Niamh Hanafey, ICT Business Analyst at Kerry Group

What tasks do you do in your job in a normal week?

I'm on the Salesforce team the main part of my job is understanding the business context and working with key stakeholders to implement solutions that make the system more efficient for them. I work mainly with customer service and sales. I understand their role and act as a translator between the business and the developers. I gather their requirements and then I come back to the development team. Other parts of my job will involve testing in our sandboxes to ensure that the solutions aren't going to break anything else. We have a recorded history of all the past changes that we've made.

What skills do you need to be successful at your job?

I think one of the most important skills you need to be successful in my role is efficient communication because we're working with these key stakeholders and we need to be able to build strong relationships with them.

My role also involves an eye for detail. So we need to be able to see where changes are needed in our system so that the user experience can be improved.

What do you love about your job?

The thing I love most about my job is the opportunity to build global relationships with teams across the world. I love to travel and being able to do that within my role suits me. I also love to go from start to finish on a project and see how the changes improve our user experience which in turn improves the customer experience.

How did you get into your job?

I studied law and business in Maynooth and when I was in college I figured out that law wasn't suited to me as I wanted to do something with an international view. I fell in love with the with the business side of things. I loved anything got to do with information systems, strategic growth and international business. Seeing the Global Technology Innovation Centre being built to really spurred my interest to go into the food industry.

I also really enjoy the sustainability goals that Kerry have. I feel like they really align with my own personal values.

What skill should first-year students develop if they are considering a career in this sector?

I feel a first year student should learn how business information systems work within a global organization and understand how cross-functioning teams can use them.

Another skill that I feel like first year students should learn is teamwork. During your college career we do a lot of teamwork and we don't realise how beneficial it is to take it into your professional career.

How have you adjusted to working from home?

I had a lot of experience with the hybrid model from college because I did a good bit of my degree at home. Working in Kerry within the hybrid policy, I use the days that I'm in the office to connect with people on a personal level and the days I'm working from home to get all my work done and work on personal development.