From Sport to Sustainability - Out of this world thinking, down to earth people

Conor Bradley has striven for success from an early age. Well known for his skills as a Gaelic footballer and his down to earth attitude, he’s also ambitious and a committed environmentalist. He has a First Class Honours Masters in Aerospace management, is a fluent French speaker and is now studying for his accountancy exams.  

He tells us why he chose EY above all other firms, joining as part of the Enterprise Risk team in Consulting. 

"For me, it’s all about the work/life balance. I did an internship at EY and experienced first-hand that there’s a really good culture there. It’s not just a PR stunt - they really promote a good balance.

 The reputation that EY has in the marketplace for young graduates is really strong and people are really friendly and supportive. I’ve come across a lot of people since I started that have a genuine interest in me and my career and that has really stood out for me.

I studied International Business Studies (Business and French) and did my Master’s in France and worked in Airbus before moving back to Ireland. I think working in another country and another language as well as with people from all over the world was a good experience to bring into my working life. This variety is one of the key features for consulting as the role I’m in now has a real mix in terms of the industries we work with and the different types of clients, public and private. 

At EY they have a genuine interest in you as a person and in your career and make sure that they know and understand what your interests are. Take my background in the aerospace sector - as soon as I came into EY, there were senior people saying 'we have clients in this field - it would be great for you to get that experience if that’s something you’d like to do'. 

When I first joined EY in September 2019, I was working with a multinational plastics company and I got the opportunity to use my French at work as the Canadian office was French-speaking. I would also have had the opportunity to do a lot of travel to the UK and US pre-Covid. In the Enterprise Risk team, there’s a lot of variety and you get to interact a lot with senior stakeholders so that keeps it interesting. 

I’m working with a government client at the moment on internal audit work and I’ve worked with semi-state companies and US tech companies and some government clients. I like the change of scene and working with different teams and cultures and industries. It keeps it very exciting and interesting.

EY is very good when it comes to work/life balance. Gaelic football has been a big part of my life and they've always been very, very supportive of me anytime I have to get off for club training or a match. At the same time, there’s so much more going on that you can get involved in. There are different sports teams including a GAA team and loads of different social events that go on and there’s also an annual soccer match every year between the graduates and senior staff!

On a personal level, I’m waiting for the results of one of my accountancy exams and I hope to do another later in the year all going well. I expressed an interest in doing the exams and EY was very supportive and were happy to give me time off to study. There's a lot of growth within consulting, especially at the moment in EY. With that growth, there’s always opportunity and I’d love to see where that could take me. 

But at EY there’s much more. You’ve got your day job but there are so many other projects you can get involved with. For me, that’s the Eco innovators group and it's actually quite exciting because it's something that I'm quite passionate about. I think if you’re passionate about anything it just comes naturally to want to make the most of it. It started at EY London but I expressed an interest and now we’re starting a Dublin hub and I’m already involved in organising events for it. My level of seniority wasn’t taken into account when I said I was interested and I was empowered to take it on and they were very supportive as EY is committed to sustainability. 

EY also runs the Entrepreneur Of The Year programme and I would have been involved in different entrepreneur programmes in university, so again I expressed an interest and some of the people on the team met me for coffee and it ended up with me mentoring different businesses on their application process to the programme. That’s what’s great about EY.

If somebody wanted to join consulting, I’d highly recommend it. If you’re curious and creative or want to get a broad experience in different industries, it’s definitely the place to be. Coming out of university can be daunting in terms of where you go but here at EY, the great thing is that there’s a defined period you’re going to be working on a project and once that finishes you move on to something new or if you love it you can request to stay on something similar. I also feel like you get quite a lot of supported responsibility quite quickly that you might not get in other companies. So, I think all of that combined is a good reason to join!"