The crowd included a marketer from Vodafone, an analyst from Google, a solicitor from Arthur Cox and a biomedical engineer from Enable Ireland. We were also joined by three ex-presidents of the MBA Association of Ireland, a 2000-strong representative body for MBA graduates living and working in Ireland.
Several potential applicants to business school were weighing up different course options and considering remote courses to enable them to continue working in their current job whilst studying. MBA alumni Andy Evans from Open University and Pavel Gusev from Warwick Business School both advocated distance learning and the advantages of combining study with work, although it can take longer to complete your MBA this way.
Dan Feaheny, who has an EMBA from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management, was interested in finding out about business opportunities in China and whether any Hong Kong business schools offered programmes that could help him build connections with the Chinese financial sector.
Richard Lawler, who has an MSc in Business & Entrepreneurship, had just sent his new book "Innovation Demystified" to the printers before joining us for drinks. The book provides practical steps for organisations to generate ideas and for individuals to make their own 'creativity plan'.
Richard took the ballsy approach of directly emailing Seth Godin (marketing guru and author of the infamous 'Purple Cow') to ask for a quote to put on the book cover - and was amazed when Seth emailed back from a holiday in Africa to say he'd be happy to help. One of Richard's top tips is to drink a pint of hand-squeezed oranges in the morning to help your creative juices flow for the rest of the day.
Tara Tracey and Maggie McPartlin, joined us from the Facebook EMEA graduate recruitment team. Facebook's European headquarters, like several other big tech companies, are based in Dublin. Tara and Maggie shared some insights into what it's like to work for one of the most popular, and fast-growing, brands in the world. They said Facebook staff are encouraged to make decisions without too many layers of bureaucracy.
As you can imagine Facebook is inundated with job applicants, but their graduate intake is still relatively small. About 20 graduates (including some MBAs) are taken on to the summer internship programme in Dublin.
Previous MBA drinks events have taken place in Bangkok, London and Paris. The next event will be on Wednesday 17 August in the London offices of BusinessBecause
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