peter
“I came to Ireland through the Science Without Borders Programme from Brazil. It was supposed to be one year studying at Trinity but then a friend and I came up with an idea for a navigation app for people with disabilities. During the development of the app, I began attending start-up events and got very involved with the start-up community in Ireland. I saw that there weren’t many migrants attending these events, even though I knew many of them starting new businesses. It appeared that they were more likely to be the staff working there, rather than attending them as entrepreneurs. I began to chat about this with some friends who were organising Start-Up Weekend Dublin back in 2018. We realised that there was a lack of specialised events for the migrant community. So, I created a workshop. It was supposed to be a once-off where migrants could come in, ask questions and seek advice from three mentors in 20 minutes sessions. I didn’t really promote it as it was a test but over 60 people of all different nationalities showed up. The feedback after the event was amazing! I already knew that this wasn’t a once-off. I also met a lot of people who came to seek support with job-seeking. Most often their story went that they came to Ireland without much English, so they took a career break but then they got stuck and found it impossible to return to their original profession. Listening to so many of these stories made me open it up to any migrant professional who was looking for help in their careers. We gave it a structure with specific goals like mentorships, workshops and networking events. We recruited a team together and I registered it as a non-profit under the name GoingFar. After working in this space on a voluntary basis, I decided I wanted to work full time on this. I’ve recently joined an incredible organisation called the Open Doors Initiative. I am running their Pathways to Progress programme. We offer free support to migrants, refugees and asylum seekers, such as 1:1 career mentorship, workshops facilitated by amazing professionals, and links to more than 100 companies. Now I work a dream job to find dream jobs for others.