Conor Sweeney
I really enjoyed the interaction between my classmates in Politics and Sociology. A lot of divergent views!
Maynooth is a fantastic and forward thinking university located within a beautiful campus. It marries the old campus with the new campus quite easily and this rings true in the sense of being a student there. I returned to Maynooth as a mature student and the seamless integration between mature students who have a bit of life experience and the new eager 18 and 19 years olds who are leaving home for the first time and entering a new world is excellent. There is a very welcoming atmosphere in Maynooth.
When I was in Maynooth I think the greatest skill I learned was the ability to interact. During class we were always pushed to challenge each other on our thoughts and ideas and learnings - that facilitated a great forum for debate and allowed us as students to interact with each other. This rings through into my professional life as my job involves interacting with people on a daily basis.
I would not hesitate in recommending a BA in Politics in Maynooth. The varied modules pushes you out of your comfort soon and forces you to think about how politics affects the way we live our lives. I would advise anyone to embrace the various learnings in the course and explore each topic further. My most interesting experiences were in the classroom engaging with my classmates and the many hours spent reading up on the various political theories helped with that debate.
I have worked as Parliamentary Assistant for Minister Charlie Flanagan and I then moved to a Parliamentary Liaison role with Minister Flanagan at both the Department of Children and the Department of Foreign Affairs. I left that role in April 2015 and moved to Janssen Ireland to take up the position of Government Affairs Manager
The promotion to the Department of Children was particularly exciting given that it was Minister Flanagan's first elevation to Ministerial office.
I am currently involved in positioning Janssen as a key stakeholder in healthcare in Ireland by building strong networks with political and policy stakeholders, patient organisations, industry organisations and the media.
The fact that I am completely new to the pharmaceutical industry presents a great challenge but one that I am finding very interesting.