As a student in marketing management, there are endless possibilities for what type of position you can end up with: sales, consulting, branding, product management, corporate communications, business development, the list goes on and on. But what if you could work in these types of positions for some of the biggest tech companies in the world? And who would have guessed that Dublin is the place to make it happen?

That’s exactly what the M3 class discovered was possible during our International Study Trip to Dublin last week. We not only got to explore a beautiful city (and, of course, enjoy a pint or two), but we also visited some of the world’s most innovative companies.

Day 1

Right after landing in Dublin, the M3 class was taken to Enterprise Ireland, the government organization responsible for the development and growth of Irish enterprises in world markets. We were given the task to pitch our ideas to two different marketing agencies to solve real challenges that they are currently working on with their clients. Once the pitches were done, we had a free evening to explore some traditional Irish pubs and check out Dublin nightlife!

Day 2

Our first visit of the day was to Oracle, where we talked about social selling in a B2B context. The presentations were interesting and insightful, and we were even given a delicious spread of fruits and pastries during our break. At the end, we had a “speed dating” session with some Oracle employees who talked about their experiences with the company and some of the potential employment opportunities in sales.

Probably the highlight of the trip, however, was the company visit to Google’s EMEA headquarters. Not only did we see amazing presentations on branding and some of the projects Google is currently working on, but we also got to tour the incredible offices. We weren’t allowed to take photos inside the office, but here’s a look at the gorgeous view from one of the higher floors of the office:

Amazing, right?

Day 3

On our last day of company visits, we went to a presentation at Microsoft. We had some fun brainstorming exercises and, much like at Oracle, we had “speed dating” sessions with different people on different subjects regarding life at Microsoft and life in Dublin.

Here’s an M3 group photo in front of the Microsoft offices (it looks like some of us weren’t quite ready):

In the afternoon, we had a brief session at LinkedIn about how to make our profiles stand out during our job search and we got to check out their cool office space. After some interesting presentations about LinkedIn’s future plans, we headed over to the last company visit of the trip: AdRoll.

AdRoll is a retargeting and performance marketing platform, and they had a fantastic set of presentations and discussions prepared for M3. Afterwards, we were treated to pizza and beer in the office and had the chance to network with some of the AdRoll team. Even better, they invited us out to a pub nearby and we continued the evening with them and discussed life in Dublin and what it’s like to work at the company.

Overall, the trip was eye-opening and we made so many memories as a class! On top of that, it looks like many members of M3 are thinking about potentially starting careers in Dublin, something I think none of us had really considered before. Now that classes for M3 have concluded, it’s on to the L’Oreal Brandstorm, Bootcamps and In-Company Projects. It feels like the program is winding down, but we certainly have so much more to look forward to!

Until Next Time,

Ali Colwell, M3 student