Martin McKenna
The highlight of my time in Maynooth was meeting a wide variety of people from different backgrounds in my lectures and tutorial groups.
I played Gaelic Football with the Fresher's team and won an All-Ireland Division 2 league and championship title in 2009/10
The unique thing about studying in Maynooth is the diversity of courses you are able to pick from. It's also excellent to be able to have such a modern campus next to another with such a unique history.
The key skills I picked up whilst studying in geography in Maynooth were as follows: appreciating different cultures, being adaptable, being disciplined, being able to spot patterns and trends in data, being able to interpret events from multiple points of view and also formulating a coherent position on things.
It is one of the best degrees around in that the skills you learn are applicable to nearly every career field. It helps an individual to take themselves out of their own shoes and to appreciate the challenges that are faced by other populations and societies across the globe.
Since leaving Maynooth I completed a Masters in Film and Television studies in DCU. This complimented the human geography elements of my bachelor's degree. After entry level positions with VHI and what was then TV3, I moved to Germany to work and write for a travel blog called Holidayguru. I took over as manager of the blog after six months due to us being a small team, and I found that my geography degree helped me massively when it came to writing articles on other areas of the world. Our business model depended on affiliate marketing for profit and I got to learn on the job. Again, my experience of interpreting data and spotting trends as part of my geography degree helped me to excel in this element of my role.
I moved home in the summer of 2018. I took up an affiliate marketing role with NortonLifeLock and after three and a half years with the company, I am now head of International affiliate marketing for Norton and Avira cybersecurity brands. This requires me to work with people from all over the world and again I would say my geography degree has greatly prepared me for this.
My career highlight to date would have been managing the Holidayguru travel blog during my time in Germany. As a part of my role I created a travel podcast where we got to interview a variety of people about topics relating to travel. These people included Evanna Lynch and Damien Browne. The podcast was nominated for a people's choice podcast award.
My current role involves managing our international affiliate programmes for the Norton and Avira brands. We pay commission to online third parties who send us website traffic that leads to a purchase of one of our products. I am responsbile for management of a team of very talented affiliate marketers and I also manage a media budget which is used to book articles, email placements and other forms of advertising to help us promote our brands.
No two days are the same. One day you can be talking to a tech blogger from Hong Kong and the next dealing with a Cashback site in the UK. The job requires a great level of adaptability and open-mindedness.
Rewarding
The vast majority of people studying geography will not go on to be a 'geographer'. This course exposes people to a whole range of experiences that will help to create a relevant skillset that's applicable to many different fields. This course helps people to create a skillset and to learn the value of interacting with people from different perspectives. Your experiences in geography will help you for years to come in ways you won't realise until it happens.