Life at Auxilion - Conor McCarthy

Life at Auxilion is a new interview series focusing on employees from across the company. We begin with Conor McCarthy, Auxilion’s Senior Marketing Executive.

Background

Conor McCarthy is Auxilion’s Senior Marketing Executive. He joined the company in 2017, having completed a degree in Business & Management with DIT. After finishing his degree, Conor focused on opportunities in marketing. He was accepted into Enterprise Ireland’s Graduates 4 International Growth programme and subsequently joined Auxilion on an 18-month contract as a marketing graduate.

This role involved getting to know the company and industry and gaining some experience in marketing in practice. “After studying, it was great to immediately start developing practical experience in marketing. I was really involved in projects right from the start and Auxilion was a very encouraging and exciting environment to work in.”

“I did six months in the Dublin office and six months in the Sheffield office, which gave me a lot of insight into the company and the tech industry more generally. I finished the programme with another six months back in Dublin, and then I was offered a permanent contract. So that’s how it all kicked off.”

Day-to-Day

What does a day’s work look like for a Senior Marketing Executive?

“My day-to-day can vary quite a lot. We have a fairly small marketing team and we work closely with all of the other departments. There are always different projects going on. We start each week with a planning session to lay out the objectives for the week and to see which team members can help where.” This provides regular opportunities to share ideas and to draw on the diverse expertise of team members.

“An average week would involve work on campaigns, whether that’s planning future campaigns, working on ongoing ones, or reporting on ones that have been completed. We do a lot of work with the sales team, helping with presentations and sales collateral and things like that. We also do a lot of work on the website. That often involves working with designers and with our PR agency. It’s always really interesting to see their work up close.”

Evolution of the Role

How has Conor’s role changed during his time with Auxilion?

“The role has always been evolving as I’ve learned more and done more. I’ve developed experience in a lot of different areas and I’ve done some courses to improve specific skills.”

“The first eighteen months as a graduate, I was really learning the ropes of marketing in practice. That gave me a really strong foundation to build on. The marketing team has always been small, so I’ve had a wide view of what’s going on in our department and across the company. I’ve always had opportunities to work on a pretty broad variety of projects and campaigns.”

The transition from a graduate role to a permanent one was significant. “When I started off, my work would generally be set out by my manager and I’d fulfil the execution phase. When I became permanent, I got more involved in the planning and strategy phase. I started bringing more ideas to the table in terms of campaigns and strategy. That was a really rewarding transition to make. It gave me a real sense of ownership of the projects I was working on. I’ve since become Senior Marketing Executive, so I think that progress has continued the whole way through my time here.”

Challenges

Working with a growing, ambitious business naturally brings certain challenges.

“You’re always given a lot of responsibility on projects. We all work closely as a team and everyone across the company is very approachable. But you’re expected to take ownership of the work you do. That can be challenging, but it’s also exciting, and it means that getting that work done to a high standard is really satisfying.”

“As we’re all working on various projects at any given time, you also have to be quite organised and strategic in terms of making time to collaborate with others and make sure that you get input consistently from everyone involved.”

Working for Auxilion means working in an industry that is always evolving rapidly. “You have to put the work in to keep up. That means marking out time to focus on upskilling and researching the industry and our competitors. That’s a challenge, but it’s also really exciting to see things evolve in real time.”

Memorable Projects

Conor’s role has involved working on a wide range of projects and campaigns. Are there any that stand out?

“Two memorable projects come to mind, the first being one of the first campaigns I worked on at Auxilion which was a customer event we ran with Microsoft in the Guinness Storehouse. It really gave me an insight into what was involved in a campaign from start to finish. The second project was the first integrated campaign we ran in the middle of lockdown which I took full ownership of from start to finish. We ran a very successful webinar as part of it. We had to adapt quickly to everyone working from home and using new technologies and we managed that really well.