‘The Google campus feels like a university’

So you’ve got your degree. Now what? Many students will try to find a job close to home, but some will apply for overseas jobs, as well. In this recurring series, EUR graduates who looked for a job abroad (and found one, too!) tell us what it is like to work in hip and happening places such as Dublin and Berlin.

Other EUR-alumni abroad:

• ‘For every position advertised in Vienna, there were roughly fifty vacancies in Berlin’
• ‘You won’t find a regular office job in Dublin’

Marc Oldenburger, 25, studied Business Administration and Business Information Management (2010-2015) and has been an Account Strategist with Google in Dublin since 2016.

What were your plans after graduating?

“Like many people, I spent a few months travelling after getting my Master’s. Thanks to my work placements with AB Inbev and Unilever I knew that I wanted to do something in marketing, but technology appealed to me, as well. I wanted to get a job with a multi-national corporation, because the kind of expertise and experience you gain there will always help you find a job with a smaller company.”

Where do you currently work?

“I started working at Google in Dublin in early 2016. My team and I help marketing agencies in the Netherlands and Belgium establish major marketing campaigns. It involves a lot of e-mails and phone calls, and once in a while I’ll teach training courses in the Netherlands.”

How did you land this job?

“My travels after getting my Master’s allowed me to ask my fellow students about their experiences with the companies where they’d already started working. One fellow student who was working at Google was very keen on her job. When Google embarked on a new recruitment drive, she put in a good word for me, and after a job application process that involved five interviews, I was offered a job.”

Why Dublin and Ireland?

“I’d never considered Dublin and came here purely for the job, but I’ve grown to like the place. There are many high-tech companies here, and they attract a lot of young people. And it’s quite doable, distance-wise – a flight to Dublin is like taking a train to Groningen.”

Do you regard working abroad as a challenge, or is it more of an extension of your student days?

“Walking through the Google campus is like walking through a university campus. There are many young people here, and the cheerful and open-minded mood is reminiscent of the time I spent in Rotterdam. And because I’d already been on exchange in Canada, living abroad wasn’t much of a challenge anymore.”

Is this something you’d recommend to anyone or are some people better suited to this than others?

“I think the start of your career is the perfect time to go and work abroad. Make no mistake, though – a young professional’s life in Dublin may seem very studenty, but young people are very ambitious in these parts. They are competitive and fully focused on the careers they will have after Dublin. So it helps if you’ve already gained some overseas experience elsewhere. It will help you acclimatise to your new environment faster, meaning you will be better able to focus on your career.”

Do you think you will ever return to the Netherlands?

“I’m not in a great rush to do so, but I can see myself returning to the Netherlands in a distant future. It is a great country, and Rotterdam is a beautiful city. Many young professionals in these parts hope to move on to offices in New York or London. I like the thought of that, as well.”