While people often leave Ireland to gain experience elsewhere, many choose to return home.
Sometimes you need to spread your wings and fly further afield in order to gain a more well-rounded experience in the world.
That’s exactly what Alan O’Grady did back in 2003. He moved to London to gain international experience and to settle a desire to live in a different country. But, ultimately, Ireland called him home.
O’Grady is the product marketing manager at Kemp Technologies. He spoke to Siliconrepublic.com about his decision to return to Ireland after several years abroad.
Where are you from?
Mayo, Ireland.
When did you decide to emigrate?
I emigrated in 2003 to gain international experience in larger markets; also just for the experience of living in a different country.
Where did you emigrate to and for how long were you gone?
I moved to London in 2003 and lived there for 14 years, moving back to Ireland in April 2017.
What made you decide to come back?
I knew my family would have a better life in Ireland. We wanted to bring up our son here and have access to better housing, education and a clean environment.
We like living and working with open, friendly people, and even though I’m from here, people still regularly surprise me.
How did your current role come about?
Thomas Hogan at CPL Recruitment in Limerick contacted me and arranged interviews.
What work do you do?
I’m a product marketing manager at Kemp Technologies so I communicate the ‘why’, ‘what’ and ‘when’ of our load-balancer services to the marketplace.
I communicate the value that our load-balancing services deliver to organisations and why this is important for them. I bring application delivery controller services to market and drive adoption.
What do you like most about your job?
It’s exciting to be part of a product management team at Kemp that delivers service experience that goes way beyond what customers are expecting.
Every minute of the day, the world wants goods, services, skills and expertise, and we are delivering applications so organisations can provide these.
I love learning how future technologies will improve lives, and being part of company that has vision for what will be happening over the next 10 years.
How did this company make it easier for you to move back?
Kemp was flexible and communicated well during discussions.
Informal chats and advice from colleagues gave me insight into different places to live, and a relocation package helped a lot.
How did your time working abroad make you better suited for your job, if at all?
I see the world differently to how I would have if I stayed. I constantly interacted with people from diverse cultures and I loved learning from them.
People have more similarities and things in common than differences. I think this helps me to communicate ideas.
Working for German, Singaporean, US and British technology companies gave me broad experience in a wide range of technologies and constant interaction with customers all over the world.
What is the best thing about being back in Ireland?
The people. Family, friends, colleagues, neighbours, people we meet in our daily lives.
Seeing our five-year-old coming into the house exhausted because he’s been outside playing with his friends every day. We’re so happy we made the move.
