Mark McGuigan
My experience at the Department of Design Innovation was nothing but amazing. A particular highlight was finding myself in such a fascinating group of students. My classmates came from a diverse range of industries which made the insights and discussions during classes incredibly interesting. Having not come from a design background myself, any notions I had of suffering impostor syndrome were dispelled both by my classmates themselves and by the lecturers who made clear ANYBODY could be a designer - you just had to embrace a growth mindset. This openness and the fresh perspectives and industry knowledge they injected into the course work made my time at Maynooth a unique and thoroughly enjoyable experience. Don't get me wrong, there were hard times, when the work was challenging but the same can be said for any course. The challenge is what makes the journey worthwhile. That and having a crazily interesting bunch of characters to share the journey with you.
Despite my not having much previous design experience, I ended up winning several awards from various organizations for my design concepts. These included the ESB and the Maynooth Green Campus team. As I was studying part-time, I couldn't avail of the clubs and societies unfortunately due to time constraints.
A unique aspect of Maynooth is the campus itself which is pretty stunning. This particularly goes for South Campus with its airy quad and imposing church. The campus grounds are welcoming and it's no wonder that students like to spend time roaming around and sitting outside under 200 year old beech trees.
The use of Design Thinking strategies have hugely influenced my career. When I arrived in Maynooth I was working for a company designing customer success workshops and collateral remotely. By the time I finished my course I had found a job as a Service Designer using all the very same techniques, tools and processes taught to me during my course. These included design frameworks, presentation skills, design tools such as Miro and Figma and research techniques for planning a project.
Arrive with an open mind and a willingness to embrace all the challenges and fun your course throws at you. All the lecturers are very approachable so never feel you can't ask for clarification or direction throughout your time there. In Maynooth, we're all on the education journey together.
Details of your career path to date
I have had something of a squiggly career which I advise anyone to pursue if in any way possible. Do this by saying yes to whatever comes your way and sort of working things out as you go along. Back yourself to do the job. I started with a primary degree in Computer Science and Physics from Queens University in Belfast. I studied during the Troubles when soldiers were on the streets and bombs went off on a fairly regular basis. When I left, the jobs were scarce so I remained in Belfast working as a waiter in Pizza Hut. It was a strange yet rewarding experience as most of the staff at the time had degrees in science, English and engineering. It was the most well qualified collection of serving and catering staff I ever worked alongside. When work remained elusive I followed the greyest, wettest cloud I could find and headed to Aberdeen, Scotland to complete a M.Sc. in Artificial Intelligence. This was years before ChatGPT and Claude were answering your college homework. But that Masters opened door and I ended up as a software engineer working in customer support for a software company in Santa Monica, California. I had a front-row seat for the Dot.com crash in the early noughties and like many thousands inside and outside of Silicon Valley, I ended up an unemployed Presales Engineer. So rather than being bored, I took a course in journalism at Santa Monica College and ended up working as a journalist for a digital newspaper called Surf Santa Monica for 18 months. Some of my articles can still be found online believe it or not. When my California Dream ended with the end of my visa, I arrived home with a job as a Services Manager in the Asia Pacific region, spending time in Jakarta and Singapore trying to establish business networks on behalf of the company I worked for while battling crazy humidity. Gin and tonic are a very good solution to any humidity problem, I might add. From there I worked with Microsoft for over 8 years as part of the first Customer Success team in Ireland. We were like a start-up within a multi-billion dollar company and the early days were make-it-up-as-we-went-along fun times. Again, it was the willingness to say yes and just try on the various hats needed to do the job. From Microsoft I moved to an indigenous Irish company, Storm Technology as part of their project management team and later, as partnet manager, taking care of a little organization called Microsoft from the other side of the table. And then I did something a little odd. I stepped away from technology and became a Forest School Leader. What on earth is that? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/where-wired-things-arent-mark-mcguigan/ Have a read and understand. Covid put a stop to Forest School and I had to find a real world job to pay the mortgage and put kids through school. From Fenergo, a fintech unicorn with razor sharp teeth I moved to OpenText and started designing workshops modelled on those I attempted in Microsoft. But I knew nothing about design and I really felt I needed to learn the language and techniques if I was to make it work. So I applied to a course in Maynooth called M.Sc. in Design Innovation which just so happened to offer the very content I needed to make this whole design concept work. And here I am in eBay on the basis of the Masters programme in Maynooth. That's one teeth-rattling, winding and twisty career path overview at ultra-high speed.
Can you tell us of any career highlight to date?
I loved my time living and working in Los Angeles. I feel it's my city in some ways. I learned to love its beaches and laid-back attitude while hating its lack of soul and the resounding car culture (everywhere in Los Angeles is an hour away by car. You need a litre of milk? The local store is an hour away. Off to Disney? An hour away. That new restuarant in Hollywood? An hour away. It's bonkers how big the place is). Also, becoming a designer within a design team has been amazing.
What does your current role involve?
I work with the Studio Design team within eBay to ensure that any new process, website or offering is designed in such a way that it can be properly and effectively supported by our Global Customer Experience (GCX) team. So I design through their eyes, ensuring that the experience works for them.
What do you find most interesting/challenging about your job?
eBay is such a huge company with many, many different departments servicing every aspect of the Buyer and Seller experience. There is a huge amount of information to take in and this is all back by TLA's (Three Letter Acronyms) that are used as their own language within the company. We have a glossary so that people can look the acronyms up. So the challenge is to do the job while learning all about the moving parts of a vast machine.
How did you find your current job?
I applied on the basis of the Masters programme. I already had a job that I genuinely enjoyed but it was full-time remote and my team were based in Canada so I never got to meet them nor was I ever going to get a chance to meet them. So it was a lonely furrow to plough and design is such a collaborative endeavour. I wanted to work as part of a team and the role in eBay came up sounding like it had been created by the Design Innovation department in Maynooth.
What advice would you give to Maynooth University students entering the job market, either generally speaking or in regard to your specific career sector?
Believe in yourself and understand that no-one ever matches a job description 100% of the time. Jobs are posted with a the perfect human for that job in mind and they rarely exist. So if you see a job that sounds interesting and you only match 70% of the requirements, go for it. That's close enough and you can learn the other 30%. Also make the most of who you know in the industry. Having someone refer you for a role is so much more powerful than approaching a job posting cold.