Denis Michen
Degree show at the end of 4th year was definitely the highlight of my whole time at Maynooth! I was the academic representative which made me be part of the organisation of the degree show and seeing it come live was an amazing feeling. It was a great celebration of everyone's hard work.
HSE Spark Innovation scholarship 2023 Student of the Year
Culture, authenticity and supportive lecturers.
Presentational skills, Adobe suite, Microsoft suite, problem solving and collaborative skills just to name a few.
You don't have to be amazing at sketching, or CAD once you have a passion for thinking outside of the box, solving problems some people think are unsolvable then Product Design is the course for you!
Details of your career path to date
Upon graduating I spend 3 months applying for jobs, going through multiple stages of recruitment and relieving a couple of offers... none of them felt like the right step until I stumbled across Robus. I joined Robus on a graduate contract and I got stuck in. Of course this was difficult as Robus is a Lighting company and I had no previous knowledge of the lighting industry, but with my stubbornness and passion for becoming the best version of myself, I put the head down and learnt everything I needed to know and more. I did learning courses for both lighting industry and project management, this quickly made me become a valuable member of the team. On the side, I started coming up with new ideas/product improvements and started pitching them to the head engineer and my manager. Some got implemented and some discarded. As the weeks went on, I started getting assigned with more major projects, I started leading meeting and I put myself forward to take over focus groups after the lead engineer left. Taking over the focus groups was not easy as my manager and ceo were unsure of my capabilities. But after a couple weeks in, all they were receiving was positive feedback from our employees and customers on how well I present and manage big groups. Delivering many successful projects and taking on big responsibilities during my graduate programme led me to be invited to go visit our office in China and travel to Hong Kong. This was an amazing opportunity as I got to meet my international colleagues and build bonds with our suppliers. As we speak, I'm becoming the lead designer in Robus so I'm over seeing all of the design aspects of our products. I'm managing over 20 projects, and I'm pushing my team to be user centric as we go into a new era of product development.
Can you tell us of any career highlight to date?
Work trip to China and Hong Kong.
What does your current role involve?
Project management, Product design, Delivering updates to stakeholders, Negotiations, and UX design.
What do you find most interesting/challenging about your job?
Commercial side of product development.
What advice would you give to Maynooth University students entering the job market, either generally speaking or in regard to your specific career sector?
Have patience - looking for a job is a full time job in it's own, and don't be afraid to try a sector you never thought you like. I never thought is enjoy working with LED lights and here we are.