A Day In The Life Of An OBW Co-Op Student

Brooke Flynn

Background

I started co-op with OBW Technologies in January 2022. I am currently heading into my final year of studying business with marketing & management at the Technological University of the Shannon and I am looking forward to graduating with a level 8 bachelor’s degree. As part of my third year at TUS, I have had to complete a full semester of experience in the workplace. When OBW reached out to the university looking for students and after seeing an advertisement in the career’s office, I knew it was an opportunity not to be missed.

Working at OBW

Thanks to OBW I have had the chance to work firsthand in many different departments throughout the business. From accounts to purchasing, marketing and projects it is now in service where I spend most of my days. On a day-to-day basis, I am responsible for many different tasks including the scheduling of our engineers for site and service visits, following up on purchase orders, sending off quotations, and imputing service modules into our ERP system. Another huge aspect of my job role is ensuring that customers are sent reminders when their gas detection units are due for calibration, once the units are calibrated in-house by our specialist team it is then up to me to ensure that calibration certificates are sent back to the customer alongside the units. I would consider scheduling the most important task in my service role. As some of our customers are located in various locations across the county it is crucial that our engineers are sent to the correct site location when needs be in order to improve overall efficiency.

Why OBW

I love the idea of a family-run business and JJ & Sharon are fantastic role models when it comes to this. There is an excellent team spirit between all the colleagues, everyone helps everyone whether it be a task big or small. It most certainly helps to make our jobs easier. The working environment inside the office is great, every Friday we all gather and get lunch delivered in, we constantly have events to look forward to and small competitions such as walkathons to keep the competitive side up. I would most definitely recommend for anyone to look into a career at OBW Technologies. Co-op at OBW has given me that extra skillset of knowing how to deal with people and know the processes involved in the day-to-day running of a business. Thanks to them I have gained invaluable knowledge and experiences.

The training and constant support that’s been offered to me has been second to none. After recently completing the full duration of my co-op I have been enjoying working full time for the summer. I now look forward to continuing part-time as I finish out my studies and was more than delighted when OBW asked me to stay!

Future Goals

I am now eagerly awaiting my fourth and final year in September. After graduating from TUS, I would like to continue progressing forward in my service role. The aim down the line and what I would ideally love to see myself doing is moving towards a more managerial role. With adequate experience and upskilling, I know it is more than possible. For now, I will continue working with OBW Technologies and developing my career further.

If you would like to join our growing team check out our Jobs page now!