A week in the life - Niall McGeorge

Occupation:
Technical Services Engineer, Poolbeg Power Station

What is your typical week?
A lot of what I do is planning and organisation for various projects in the station. This typically involves sitting down to discuss potential improvements or problems that we are having with our plant and working out solutions with the help of various people in the station. When parts or work are to be outsourced we also have to negotiate and agree the contracts with outside companies. Other typical activities for me are attending the morning meeting or carrying out safety or environmental audits. My main preoccupation at the moment is as Overhaul Manager for a major outage on one of our units.

How do you chill out?
I try to go for a run a few times a week, preferably along the sea when the weather permits; otherwise it's on the treadmill in Sportsco. I like to head home to West Clare for long weekends when possible, especially in the summer when there is always a crowd around and a bit of craic. Outside of that I try to get away on some sort of activity holiday at least once a year.

If you could change something in your week what would it be?
Like most people, I'd probably add another day to the weekend. If not that then I'd settle for an oncall Italian chef that would come to my house and cook dinner each day. I enjoy food but can't cook for the life of me.

What is your biggest personal ambition?
I'm eager that I make good use of my time and experience as much as I can. I guess you could say that my ambition is to be able to look back in 30 and 40 years' time and say that I made the most of every opportunity and lived as full a life as possible.

If you had the opportunity to pursue another career, what would you like to do?
I met a person recently who was a sailing instructor in Portugal for the summer and a ski instructor in Austria for the winter. I think that has got to be an ideal career! Unfortunately my skill level in both those areas is going to mean that I won't be handing in my notice any time soon.