News & Insights
From India to Ireland: Deblina Bhaumik, Recruitment Administrator
We recently launched a new series of interviews with our staff who have gotten a visa to come and work with Mercury. Our third interviewee is Deblina Bhaumik, an Indian Recruitment Professional working in our Dublin Head Office.
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
“I’m from Kolkata, India. I studied a BA (Hons) in English at the University of Calcutta, and in February 2017 I moved to Ireland to study an MA in Human Resource Management in the National College of Ireland (NCI) in Dublin. Prior to moving to Ireland, I had worked as a HR Assistant for a motor services company in Kolkata for two years, and between finishing my Master’s and joining Mercury, I spent few months doing a recruitment internship with a healthcare company and a part-time HR Administrator fixed term role with a retail company.
How did you first hear about Mercury? What made you want to work here?
“To be honest, I had not heard of Mercury initially, but was told about them through a job agency. After finishing my Master’s, I decided that I wanted to stay in Ireland and work, so I signed up with an agency, who gave my CV to Mercury. I received two job offers at once but chose Mercury as I thought they would be the better fit for me. I began working with Mercury in 2019, initially on a three-month contract but after just over a month, I was made permanent. This is my first experience of working in the construction industry, which is very different to what I’d done previously, and so far I’m really enjoying it.
“My initial project was as a recruiter for Mercury’s Graduate Programme, and then later I took over additional roles as both a Recruitment Administrator and coordinating the graduate programme. At the time I joined, I’d estimate that there were around 10 people on the team. It’s almost tripled in the last year and a half, and it’s still growing. It’s wonderful to have such a big team, and see this growth in such a short space of time, not just in HR, but across the entire company. The projects that we’re involved in now as a team are wide ranging and pretty incredible. This year a lot of what we do is different of course. Recruitment fairs have gone virtual, so we’re keeping busy organising that!
What’s working in Ireland like compared with working in India?
“Globally, the HR structure and processes tend to be largely the same all over the world, but it’s the cultural elements where you can see the most difference. Things are very structured in Ireland, compared with India. The attitude towards Human Resources is also quite different. People don’t like the HR department as much at home. Work culture and the way that people interact with each other in Ireland is different. Everyone is very close. When I first moved to Ireland, I definitely experienced some ‘culture shock’, although not in a bad way. I had a year of living in Ireland prior to joining Mercury, so I had gotten used to the lingo and the culture, so by the time I joined Mercury, I’d gotten a good idea of the way things work here.
How was your experience getting a visa?
“Because I had completed a Master’s in Ireland, I was entitled to a two-year graduate visa afterwards. This gives you two years to find a job and work, and then after that you must become sponsored by a company, if you want to stay further. This year, my graduate visa was up, so I had to transfer to a standard Stamp 1 work visa. Mercury works with Newland Chase, a global provider of immigration and visa services. Rachel Murphy, in the HR team worked with me and our service provider to complete my visa application. There’s a couple of different options available for those in HR roles, you can apply for a standard visa via company sponsorship or you can try and apply for a Critical Skills visa.
“In early April, the beginning of the Covid Lockdown, we made a decision to to apply for the general permit, which lasts an initial 5 years and then allows you to become eligible for citizenship. Because of the pandemic restrictions of movement, the whole visa process became more complicated than normal, but with the help of Mercury and their service provider, the whole process was completed in a month. I was delighted to get my visa in May, which I especially appreciated. As we’re currently in a global crisis, with job losses happening everywhere, I can’t imagine that there’s many companies sponsoring their staff to get work visas, so I was especially grateful.
Would you recommend other people from India to work with Mercury in Ireland?
“Absolutely. Mercury’s got a dedicated Global Mobility Specialist, and a great HR team who look after visa applications. They’re able to get visa applications processed very quickly. I would recommend Mercury to anyone abroad. In the last year, I’ve seen some other people from India who have now started with us here in Dublin, who unlike me who was already in Ireland, have actually come directly from there. It’s great to see that companies like Mercury are now hiring talented people from all over the world”.
Mercury Visa Interview Series
Tom McKelvey is an Australian Senior Quantity Surveyor works on a large Hyperscale Data Centre in the Netherlands. Click here to read the interview.
Fabio Iseki is an Brazillian Quality Assurance Manager working on a Data Centre project in Germany. Click here to read the interview.
