Team Tuesday: Meet our Group Financial Controller, Paul Walshe

Where did you begin your career?

“I began my working life at age 16 at the local newsagent, only working Wednesday and Saturday to coincide with the Irish Lotto peak hours, a manic time of the week in the newsagent world.

My first real job was in the local credit union working as a teller, before I moved to Irish Permanent Finance (Yes, I am that old!).”

What is the best career advice you’ve ever been given?

“Dragons take on many forms – the hardest task of the day, a new responsibility, an impending deadline, or even dealing with conflict – and the trick is to just slay the dragon and move on.

Don’t overthink it - copied off google, sounds good though.

I think it’s really important to mentor some folk early in their career and they will pay you back later in your career by being a sounding board, a source of intel and even buy you a glass of wine or two.”

What tips would you give to someone starting in your profession?

“You will need a calculator, don’t go for the scientific one, just a cheap Casio one and try to hold onto it for 20 years, it wont let you down.

On a serious note, working at a Big 4 firm is the goal for a lot of finance graduates. The exposure you receive to all aspects of the industry is hard to come by and allows you to develop a wide range of hard and soft skills which make you highly coveted by the majority of other companies...

If you don’t make it there, I would also seek as much varied experience early in your career as possible and you can do the relevant academics at a later date, seek out a start-up or some companies early in their journey and they could offer you greater opportunities.”

What is your greatest professional achievement to date?

“All my achievements have been as part of a collective including hiring trainees, giving them a solid grounding and watching them flourish and then fly the nest and become very successful in their own right.

Joining Onate in its rapid growth phase has been a great challenge and building new processes each and every day makes it very interesting, coupled with new funders to keep you on your toes.”

Tell us something people may not know about you

“I regularly tour around the world after a particular music band who will remain nameless, having seen them 63 times so far, it’s my kind of religion.”