Hurler of the Year in waiting Shane O'Donnell has offered advice to young people who are unsure of their career path.
The Clare hurler was speaking on the Podgecast recently when he discussed college and career paths.
O'Donnell studied genetics at UCC before going to Harvard University as a Fullbright scholar in 2018.
He completed a PHD in microbiology at UCC when he returned home, focusing on gut bacteria and non-digestible carbohydrates.
He has spoken as recently as this year about his ambitions to one day travel into space.
"It ties in with my studies as well.
“They do look for researchers to go to space and microbiome research is what I did my PhD on. They do actually do quite a lot of microbiome research on the ISS (International Space Station), to try and understand how microbiomes survive in zero gravity."
“So that’s something that ties very nicely with research that I did. I’d be basically going to complete the research up there.”
O'Donnell advised teenagers that it's 'totally fine' to take a while to find the right career path, timely advice with CAO offers for Leaving cert students having been made in recent weeks.
"Ostensibly, you're picking your career at 18, which is just not going to work that way," he says.
"You're going to get it wrong, the vast majority of people are going to get it wrong.
"And that's totally okay. If you don't end up in the one career from your twenties to the end of your life, so what.
"You're going to be working until you're retired, probably 70.
"So that's fine. If it takes you five or ten years to find your career, don't worry about it too much, you'll be in it for another forty years. You'll end up where you want to be.
Shane O Donnell
With some amazing words here for all kids who are just finishing school pic.twitter.com/GavbKwBk4O— Timmy Crowe (@timmy400h) September 4, 2024
He said young people should realise there will be opportunities for them them to pivot and restart again if the first path doesn't work out for them.
"It is a very stressful period.
"People feel it is this one shot to get what you want and if you miss it then that's it. But that's just not the case.
"Time and time again, any person who has gone through it will realise there are so many opportunities to pivot and change or restart and go somewhere else."
The Éire Óg Ennis hurler used the example of his friends' group, where it's rarely a 'straight trajectory' from the leaving cert on.
"It happens all the time in all of our friends group, it's not a straight trajectory, from leaving cert to college through to work, you'll figure out where you want to get to eventually.
"The job for life is an artefact of the past and that's a good thing. It's a lot more flexible, just figuring out these connections where they actually want to go to."
