CONOR McGUIRE is a software engineer at Amdahl in Swords, Co Dublin. He works in the ordered environment of a multinational corporation where the microchip is king.
The grounds outside the Amdahl offices are beautifully landscaped; inside there is an air of calm. A leafy atrium on the ground floor creates a peaceful setting. A beige carpet surrounds this island of greenery, softening the sound of passing colleagues.
Upstairs, heads are bent over silent computer screens, engrossed in work that involves testing and problem solving.
This is the world of the software engineer. Is this an ivory tower of sorts, where people never have to deal with chaos or flux or disruption?
McGuire dismisses the idea that his work is part of a dry, clinical process where creativity and passion have no place. "There's a lot of creativity. Someone has to think of a solution - someone has to sit down and come up with a solution that is different.
"It's structured, but if it was that structured we would not have to test it," he says. "The technology is always changing - you get to see new operating systems and new technology coming down the pipeline. I enjoy looking at things that are new or developing.
"It isn't really dry or clinical," he emphasises. "And there's still a lot of human interaction."
McGuire always wanted to discover "why things work the way they do", he says. His favourite subject at school in Oatlands College, Mount Merrion, Dublin, was physics - he remembers getting especially engrossed in the subject in fifth year when things nuclear physics was introduced. He also liked maths, chemistry and economics.
After his exams were completed at school he went on to UCD to study science - physics specifically. In first year he studied maths, experimental physics, computer science and maths physics. As time went on, computers became his main area of interest and by third year he had focussed in on computer science as his major subject, with maths and physics as his minor subjects.
He graduated in 1994 with a honours degree in computer science - one of 38 (including six Germans) who graduated from UCD that year with this qualification. He applied straight to Amdahl, went for an interview and was offered a job.
His work as a team leader at Amdahl involves co ordinating and heading up a group of five people who test software products before they go to the customer. Each engineer works with a database, which forms part of the application. They also work with "goo-ee", he continues, with a straight face.
Pardon? McGuire explains the meaning of "goo-ee". This is GUI - a graphic user interface. Of course.
The everyday language of computer scientists can be difficult to understand sometimes, he agrees; this often results in the uninitiated consumer being perplexed and confused when it comes to using software products.
"The more knowledge you get about something, the harder it is to convert it to the real world," he concedes. However, he adds reassuringly, software engineers spend a lot of time making sure that today's products can not be damaged or broken.
His advice to those who are thinking of studying computer science at college is to be prepared for lots of reading, writing up practicals and project work. "You have to be able to learn quickly. You have to have an ability to pick up things."
