During Seetec’s eight years offering employability support services in Ireland, Fintan Murray has been here for most of that time. He has progressed through a variety of roles, working to improve service delivery for both our clients and our colleagues.

In his latest role, our Director of Service Support takes us through his career journey to date and tells us why Seetec offers him a meaningful career at an organisation he believes plays a vital role in improving people’s lives.

After completing his Bachelor of Business, Fintan’s first post-graduate role was with the Bank of Ireland (BOI) as a Costing Analyst.

“The role involved interviewing people across the entire retail banking division to assess what all their roles entailed, ultimately identifying the cost and profitability of all BOIs retail banking products. It was great exposure to a cross-section of colleagues and good experience in interviewing, analysing, and reporting.”

Fintan decided to leave Bank of Ireland and explore his career options overseas.

“I went to Australia for the Rugby World Cup in 2003 and I loved the place. I felt like I needed a new challenge and a bit of adventure, so I stayed on with the one-year working holiday visa.”

Roles at Australian bank Westpac and telecommunications service provider Optus gave Fintan a taste of working life in Australia. However, working holiday visa rules prevented him from staying longer than three months unless an employer would sponsor him to remain working in Australia. This opportunity arose after a stint working at De Lage Landen (DLL), a global commercial asset vendor finance company.

Fintan went from Team Leader to Head of Customer Service for Australia and New Zealand as they grew into DLL’s most profitable division during the international financial crisis.

“My purpose in those roles was transformation: changing systems, digitising, improving turnaround times and process reorganisation while ensuring top-quality customer service. I generally ask; how can we do things better? If you ask your team about their processes and they say, I hate the way we do this, chances are, that process could be done better.”

In 2012, after nine years at DLL, Fintan moved on and turned his growing interest in investing in stocks and shares into a full-time self-employment.

“In 2015 I came home for family reasons and realised Australia was a bit far from home so decided I would stay. After working alone while self-employed, I missed working with others. Scoping out the job market here, I came across Seetec and was interested in the work they provided in employability services. I could see their services really helped people and I saw it as a more fulfilling career than working in financial services.”

Fintan began at Seetec as Customer Service Manager in 2016.

“My focus was on figuring out the best way we can do what we need to do, fine-tuning and implementing best-in-class service. It was exciting not only to be back in a team dynamic but to be working with people who wanted to help other people.”

Since then, he has moved from Head of Operations Support through to Director of Service Support.

“In all these roles my driving objective was improving the support services for our colleagues and facilitating our Employment Advisors to spend more of their time supporting their clients. We recently commenced delivering the Intreo Partner National Employment Service. With each iteration of a new employability service contract, you’re learning from the past to become a better service provider. I’m passionate about what our colleagues achieve and the employment support they deliver within their communities.”

Touching on what keeps him motivated, Fintan says it is hearing the life-changing stories of our clients as they personally develop towards and into full-time employment.

“Our colleagues are all here for the same reason. Sometimes when your focus is on improving support systems you can lose sight of the people benefitting but when I hear our colleagues talk about their clients with such grace and care, the positive effect of the service really hits home.”