Yours Personally Sofa Factory
For my last work experience placement I worked two days from the 9th to the 10th in Yours Personally, a sofa factory in Dun Laoghaoire. Steven and I were given several jobs to do on the first day. We measured and rolled hundreds of meters of fabric. It was really interesting to see the process they used to make the sofas. Firstly they made the frames from wood, then attached all the cushioning. Lastly it was covered in fabric and distributed to the buyer. On the second day we were taught how to make the buttons that held the fabric in place this was really satisfying as we saw where all our hard work had gone when the sofa was finished. I really enjoyed these two days and now appreciate the skill and craft that goes into making the couches that we sit on everyday.
Cantor Fitzgerald
For my first week of assigned work experience I had arranged to go into Cantor Fitzgerald in town. This is a stock broker on St Stephens Green. I arranged this as I have an interest in shares, the stock market and investment. I started on Tuesday the 5th of December as my flight had only landed from America on Monday morning. I had to be in work for 7:30. This was an earlier start than usual. I got the the Luas at around 6:50 each day. For my first two days I learnt about shares and how the brokers buy and sell them and why. For my third day I was put with the Portfolio management group. They taught me how the create portfolios for clients based on their age and a couple of other things. For example if they were to build one for me it would be high risk which are shares that pay big dividends but the company's could go bust. They would do this as I have a working life ahead of me and can make up for the money I would lose if they were to crash. After lunch I was put with the people who fix the problems with the trade deals. So if one figure is different to what the buyer has with the seller or the quantity is wrong they will sort this out. On the final day I was put on the bond desk. I learnt about bonds from what they are, to why people buy them and how they work. I really enjoyed the week and learnt a lot about money investment. Hopefully I can utilise what I learnt to aid me in the future.
Thatching in Connemara
I did 3 days of work experience from the 18th of December to the 20th of December in Connemara. I was repairing a thatched roof just outside Clifden with my Dad. We set off from Wicklow at six in the morning and arrived at the house at around 11. There were 3 separate roofs on the house that were in need of repair. I scraped two of these roofs clean. Every time I went up the ladder I had to remove all the muck and rotten grass from the roof. Every time I had cleaned a small part of the roof I picked up all the waste and disposed of it. By day 3 we had cleaned and repaired all 3 roofs. We set off around 3 o'clock after cleaning up everything and arrived home at around 9 after looking at a few houses in the area and then hitting the road. This was a great experience for me and now I fully understand and appreciate how much work and maintenance must go in to thatched roofs.
Dell
For my first week of work experience I did a Ty course in Dell Limerick. I stayed with my aunty during the week. My two other cousins also did the course. It started on Monday the 23rd of October. We went in at nine on the first morning and I didn't know what to expect as it was going to be a TY course. There were around thirty of us that gathered in a large open area. We were brought on a tour that morning to see all the servers, the Internet of things base and of course the virtual reality development room. That afternoon we were told we would be presenting a project at the end of the week in groups of five. The title for the project my group was assigned was “How will we play in the future”. The course finished at four each day and we took the bus home. Each day we developed our projects and I got to know the people in my group better and better as they made sure you were with people you didn't know. We received many talks and did several workshops that were really interesting. The topics ranged from Robotics workshops, Cv skills and presentation ti assembling a computer and many more brilliant talks and workshops. We presented our project at noon on Friday in front of a crowd of fifty people. I had to leave directly after this to catch a bus to Dublin for a GAA match that night but I was informed we had won best team. I really enjoyed my week in Dell and found it very informative. I will use the skills that I learnt in years to come for example when preparing for an interview or when giving a presentation. The highlight of my week was probably meeting Enda Kenny in Matt The Thrashers while having dinner.