As part of our TY experience in mid-February, we were given the opportunity to do a week's worth of work experience at a place of our choosing. There were many different work placements such as Funky Monkey, a car garage, accounts office, music station, building sites and many more.
For my work experience I had the amazing opportunity to work in the head offices of big makeup companies such as Armani, Lancome, Urban Decay and YSL. During my time there I had the chance to meet many different make-up artists from all over Ireland. I was even able to attend the annual Lancome event where all the Lancome ladies meet up to discuss the new products, while awards are handed out. I also attended Xpose shoots, launches for new products, a fashion show and many more exciting events.
I found this a really helpful and enjoyable experience due to having a love and interest for make-up artistry. However the woman who was in charge of guiding me during the week was head of the public relations (PR) side of the company. This gave me an amazing insight to the world of PR and I have discovered that I am very interested in this area and would like to look into pursuing something in this area in the future.
Gina Cohen (TY)
In my working experience I was in Greystones. I was staying with the woman we were working with. She was very nice to us. We were working in a factory where we were making products like bath bombs, soaps, creams and aromatic candles. It was difficult and the work was okay; but why I enjoyed my working experience was because the people were really nice and kind to us.
Alex Tortosa Sanche-Alcon (TY)
For my work experience I was in the Reconnaissance group in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Reconnaissance provide security in Haiti and aother countries. While there I was introduced to the heads of each department of Reconnaissance and they explained their jobs as well as the challenges provided by working in an environment such as Haiti. I was also brought out to sites that Reconnaissance were responsible for. They taught me the problems faced trying to provide security for sites all across the country. I was also told about options they are researching to help guard these sites better as well as problems faced dealing with the client who owns the sites.
I was introduced to a Haitian senator who told me about problems faced by the Haitian government, the root of most of these problems is a lack of money. He explained to me the challenges of trying to bring foreign investment into the country as well as developing domestic industries. Their exports are mainly crops which include banana and coffee.
I went to an orphanage run by a lady from Mayo with a small support staff. I was shown the grounds and I went into the special needs section of the orphanage. I was told that most of the kids in the orphanage had living parents, but they didn't have the money to look after them so they were abandoned.
I was also brought to a police station and prison. The police station had no computers and all records were written. The police are badly funded and can go a year without getting paid. The prison was all-female and there was no prison service, leaving that job to the police. The prisoners were fed out of big vats of food. The judicial system is very inefficient and people can be waiting up to 6 years before they go to trial.
My time in Haiti was interesting and a good learning experience. I think I had a good placement and I think it helps to get a placement that is unusual. I learnt a lot about business as well as business in countries such as Haiti.
Jake Henry (TY)
