Moving somewhere new is hard. Take a look inside the life we’re creating in Dublin.
In previous posts, I have shared a bit about our move, recent travels, and some early Irish experiences. This time, I’ll be sharing more about the main facets of our life since moving to Europe.
Work
Career opportunities were not our primary motivation for moving to Ireland. However, it was work that sponsored our relocation, and work is how we spend a large proportion of our waking hours, even if the working week is 36.5 hours rather than the American 40 (or 50 or 60 or 83) and public holidays seem to occur every other week. We both work for the same companies that we did in the US, but there have been a few notable changes in our working lives.
Arrangement: Like many “knowledge workers”, we both began working fully remote with the Pandemic in 2020. Due to changes in our respective roles and teams, we continued to work almost entirely remote until our move to Ireland. With our move to Ireland, I began working hybrid (~3 days per week in office) while Marisa continued to work remote, as Intel’s campus near Dublin is primarily a fabrication plant. I have really enjoyed the opportunity to return to the office, especially due to the concentration of PwC Ireland in the Dublin office, with the vast majority of all Irish staff based in the capital. It has been a great opportunity to meet co-workers, build relationships and develop a healthy separation between home and work. Marisa has continued to prefer the flexibility of a fully remote role, but does miss the company and comraderie of working most days from home together.
Projects: While PwC Ireland is not one of the larger firms in the global network, Dublin is a hub for major companies in technology and other industries. It took a few months to get on a proper client project due to the weak economy and cost cuts across many companies, but it gave me an opportunity to connect with the team and support interesting internal projects I may share in future posts. Once the new year hit, I was up and running with an interesting project to streamline and automate finance processes for an E-commerce company, and have since been able to sell additional projects to an exciting new technology client for the Ireland consulting practice.
Culture: The work culture in many ways reflects Irish society and culture at large. Compared to the US, there is less pressure to work extra hours and meet crazy deadlines, and a much stronger emphasis on relationships. The alternative side of this focus is that things often take longer to be completed, and the quality of work produced can suffer. Given the lower level of pay in Ireland despite a similar cost of living, I can certainly relate to a lower level of motivation and an expectation that proper work-life balance is afforded.
Church
Since shortly after graduating from university, I have been involved in church, community groups and other faith-based activities. This has been a very important part of my life and something I wanted to continue after moving to Dublin.
Ireland has a deep history of religion (primarily Catholic) but participation and cultural influence has decreased significantly in the last couple of decades. Thankfully, on our first Sunday in Dublin, we found a lovely Church that we have come to call our own. Within the first few weeks, we joined a community group that has introduced us to some of our closest Dublin friends.
Through the church I have also learned about PwC’s own Christian network, which I hadn’t known of during my time in the US. While Irish participation is limited, I have had the chance to join a few virtual events hosted by staff in the UK and hope to become more involved during my time in Ireland and upon return the US.
Sport(s)
One thing we’ve appreciated about Ireland is their love of sport. Not only do they enjoy supporting their regional and national teams, but many Irish of all ages participate in sport recreationally themselves.
We decided it would be great to join in ourselves, and signed up for a social tag (flag) rugby league. We are still sorting out the nuances of the rules, but we have already become regular contributors to the team. Marisa’s years of flag football are a great translation and has made her unstoppable on defence, and I managed to sneak in a try last match to make our loss a bit less painful. Most importantly, we have met some lovely people on the team and had a chance to bond after the match at the pub nearby.
In addition to taking the field ourselves, we’ve continued to attend sporting events live. In the last month we attended a women’s 6 nations match and 2 Leinster rugby matches in the Champion’s Cup, a mostly European league that includes some of the best teams in global rugby. With those 2 wins, Leinster will play the semi-finals in Dublin at Croke park, a stadium that is typically reserved for traditional Irish (Gaelic) sports like Gaelic Football and Hurling.
Next Up
In the next post I will share a bit about our latest travels, the visitors we have hosted and whatever else we have going on!