Michelle O’Beirne is midway through the Jameson Graduate Programme, probably one of the best first jobs in the world.
How was your first job out of college? Did it involve repeated use of the word ‘fries’? Ours did and to be honest our first four of five jobs out of college were zero craic. But if you happen to get yourself into the Jameson Graduate Programme, then your first job out of college will be a very different experience indeed.
Applications for the latest batch of graduates closes on January 20 2014 so to find out a bit more, Jameson invited JOE along to the Jameson Training Facility in Dublin’s city centre to meet Michelle O’Beirne, who is in the second year of the three-year programme.
Michelle is Jameson’s brand ambassador for Ireland, the only one on the country. She is one of 77 brand ambassadors located in 42 countries all over the globe. Her job is as varied as any we have ever heard of, especially for a graduate, and it comes with the sort of perks most new folks to the jobs marketplace can only dream of.
For her first year, Michelle was based in Barcelona, which allowed her to take her Spanish up to a serious level, and over there she got to work in a smaller market for Jameson and learn a huge amount about clients, running events and the brand itself.
But after one year she transferred back to one of the biggest markets, Ireland, which is the heart and home of Jameson and where the chance to have even more hands-on experience followed.
We got to sit in on a bartender training session, where every Monday, Michelle broadens the knowledge of the city’s bar staff on Jameson, how it is made and how it compares to drinks like Scotch and American whiskey. It’s an entertaining, and very enjoyable education, especially with an abundance of samples to try, with a few cocktails thrown in too.
Once her work was done, we asked Michelle about the programme, and what she had gotten from it so far.
Michelle explained that the amount of experience you get in the role is the biggest bonus. “You get to help out on events, so you get some PR experience. You get to help out sales staff too, so you see that side of business. You go down to the manufacturing facility in Midleton in Cork and get to learn how the drinks are actually made. You get to work with the brand managers in each country so you get to see what representing a huge brand like Jameson is like in a market where it may not be as well known as it is here.”
So while working in her home country is something Michelle wanted to do, what about those in other places, how do they fare?
Michelle regaled me with tales of an ambassador who went to Poland for a year, learning the language there before moving onto Thailand and learning the lingo there too. There aren’t many jobs where you get to do that, especially straight from college.
The 2013 Jameson ambassadors
Michelle also told me staff are well supported wherever they are, home or abroad. Every member of the team gets their own mobile, laptop, iPad and some of them even get their own car, so they have all the tools to do their jobs and help out in any way they can. They also have access to special apps, so they can keep in touch with other ambassadors and learn from each other but they are also given a level of independence to try new things and use their initiative to help the brand in their specific markets.
While wondering if we could somehow wheedle my way onto next year’s intake, we asked Michelle if she had any advice for any likely entrants.
“It is all about that vital ingredient,” she tells me. “They even have a site for it called thevitalingredient.ie. It doesn’t matter too much what your degree is, they are hiring the person, not the qualification. The application requires a two-minute video as part of it and that is a real chance to showcase your personality and I would advise candidates to think outside the box for that aspect… within reason,” she adds with a laugh.
Having language skills is a help, but Jameson will give every ambassador a month of training before they start so they won’t be just dropped into an unfamiliar setting and when all the ambassadors meet up for the annual ‘Bartenders Ball’ in the summer, Michelle likened it to a ‘hipster United nations’ which sounds pretty good to us.
If you are young, ambitious, like travel, up for a challenge and prepared to enlist for one of the best jobs any graduate can imagine, then you have until January 20 2014 to get your application in. Details can be found here and based on our brief glimpse of the life of a Jameson brand ambassador, you’d be mad not to give it try.
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