Ex-MP consultants » Alannah (Ireland)

Alannah (Ireland)

Media Plus was an experience of a lifetime during which I gained international experience, project management skills, developed great sales skills, met interesting movers and shakers and basically got paid to live and work abroad. We worked hard during the weekdays and played hard at weekends … every day was an adventure. Weekends were spent discovering the sights and culture of the countries we were based in. Unlike my friends back home who spent Saturdays shopping and going to the local bar/club, my weekends were spent on two-day trips to Victoria Falls when working in South Africa, sunrise and sunset safaris in Kenya, day trips to Greenland from Iceland and sightseeing tours of Berlin while working in Germany.

To have these experiences at so young an age, living in some of the world’s best hotels, meeting high profile people, saving money and having responsibility for the successful outcome of my project was a very rewarding experience.

You work independently with a colleague so you have to work on your own initiative, solve day-to-day problems as they arise and adapt to local culture and habits … this helped me greatly to develop myself personally and professionally.

The highs were high and the lows were low … closing deals were a burst of adrenaline while cancelled contracts called for a stiff drink. My MP days helped me develop a matter-of-fact approach to life and to take things as they came, living in the moment.

I don’t think I would be where I am today without having worked for MP. Not only did it provide a stepping stone to leaving Ireland (I always wanted to emigrate and the international experience with MP opened new doors for me, I now live in Sweden, where I did two successful projects and set up a strong business network) but it also gave me a certain self-confidence that I could work on my own and be successful in my career.

Since leaving MP I set up my own freelance business, and am now a successful business and travel journalist for a number of world-class Swedish companies. Most “real” journalists do not have sales skills so even though they may be good writers, they often cannot win writing contracts or sell themselves and their talents. My sales background definitely proved a plus when I went out on my own. Also, managing your own projects in different countries is, in many respects, like running your own mini-business. Even though you have back office support and a sales manager, they are often many miles away in Belgium so it’s up to you and your colleague to do a good job. This experience helped me to believe in myself and give me the confidence to work for myself.

The job also gave me a broad insight into international business and for sure, having worked in so many different countries has helped me to understand different cultures … now when I interview a factory manager in Poland, a senior CEO in Sweden, a designer in Italy or a sales manager in South Africa, I can relate to them – either by breaking the ice with some chit chat about their country or by understanding how they think and why they act the way they do. Studying international business and reading about it doesn’t come close to getting first-hand experience in an international environment with leading executives.

One of my most memorable experiences was a trip to the Statoil gas platform in the North Sea. The day we interviewed the CEO of Statoil, my dog had died two days before. I was quite upset about this and had lost my appetite for several days. In the CEO’s office, I got dizzy and passed out halfway through the meeting, after signing him up for a quarter-page ad. He rushed me to the in-house doctor for a blood test and commented that “a journalist had never passed out in his office before,” and that he wasn’t used to having that effect on the media.

My colleague and I then asked him if we could visit one of the gas/oil platforms off the Norwegian coast – we chanced our luck as insurance for visitors is very high and very few people have the privilege of making such a trip. One week later we were in a helicopter in Bergen Airport bound for the Troll gas platform. Landing on the helicopter pad, going down in the shaft to the seabed to see how they drill for the gas, spending the day on the platform with the workers and feeling the platform rock with the stormy North Sea winds was truly an experience I will never forget.

Current position: Freelance journalist & editor. Clients include Electrolux, Volvo, SAS, IBX, Intrum Justitia and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.