UCD Smurfit MBA Blog

Archive for the ‘Christopher Kitchin’ Category

I’m a big fan of cities – the buzz, culture, restaurants, pubs, clubs and people.  Spending some time in Dublin was one of the deciding factors in coming to Smurfit, and I’m really conscious that Dublin had loads to offer students.

What people forget sometimes is that there is so much to do around Dublin, and with this in mind I took it upon myself to organise a walking trip for the class in the Dublin Mountains (mountains are a bit of an exaggeration – more like hillocks!). Click here for maps.

The jagged peaks of the Dublin 'Mountains'

Persuading a group of colleagues from some of the sunnier climes of the world to head off into the hills on a cold February morning was one of the greatest challenges faced by me at Smurfit.  The carrot that I dangled in front of them was a pint at the end of the walk in Ireland’s famous hilltop pub – Johnnie Fox’s.

So with packed lunches in our bags and some alarmingly chic attire (purple patent leather ballet flats, Louis Vuitton bags for hillwalking???!!) and an invaluable map, we set off.  The clouds parted, the sun came out and we spent a great three hours hiking along the Dublin Mountain Way… Read the rest of this entry »

When I did my undergraduate degree a few years ago, I remember the dread, panic, cramming, sleepless nights and energy drinks that became the norm in the week approaching the end of term exams.  The difference with the MBA is that this state of feverish work prevails throughout each and every term.

I reckon that there are two primary reasons for this.  The first is that the equivalent volume of information encountered over four years of an undergraduate degree is condensed into a year at Smurfit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello! I’m Christopher and I’m on the Full Time MBA programme at the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. I’m 27 and come from a farming background in Sligo (in the west of Ireland).

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In subsequent blogs, I hope to discuss in more detail both why I decided to do the MBA at Smurfit and what my application experience was. For the moment, I’ll just give you a quick background of where I’m coming from.

I finished my undergraduate degree in engineering in Trinity College Dublin (UCD’s arch rival here in Ireland!). Having become somewhat bored with the excesses of ‘Celtic Tiger Dublin’, I took a year out and headed to Australia for a year, and then to Scotland for four years. When the Irish economy went downhill, I figured it was time to spend some time in Dublin again!

My previous jobs have involved working in hierarchical companies where older colleagues tend to be in more senior positions and treated with more reverence. It took me a while to get used to this idea and I have some classmates now that are old enough to be my parents!

The following will hopefully give you an insight into our class diversity, while at the same time winding my group up. We have been doing quite an amount of data interpretation on the course, and I’m getting a reputation with my group for being chart-mad.

It’s been a big transition coming to Dublin and jumping straight into the middle of such a demanding programme as the MBA – some days I’m just not sure where on earth I am or what I’m doing. However, I can say that my class has been very good at helping each other out and giving direction freely.

When we all arrived on August 30th, seeing 44 strange faces was a little daunting but we spent about a week ‘bonding’ doing Team Building exercises, etc. Now I know that sounds pretty corny, and many of us were skeptical and reluctant at first, but it was a great way to break down initial barriers between classmates.

Check out some Team Building photos here.

-Christopher Kitchin