A look back at those who relocated to Ireland

Last year, Silicon Republic met many interesting characters who have chosen Ireland as a place to live and work. Here we revisit the talent at some of the top tech companies in the country.

From Argentina to Australia, New Jersey to New Zealand, 2014 brought a whole host of features on immigrants who left their home to come to the Emerald Isle to work in the tech industry.

The topics we covered with these individuals in our Trading Places series included their reasons for coming to Ireland, their struggles to adapt to a new country, and what their companies did to help them settle in.

Amid these reports, Ireland was as criticised for its dark winter evenings as it was praised for its jovial citizenry. People raved about its social scene as much as they rued the lack of heat. Our knowledge of Simpsons quotes shocked some, while Ireland’s green scenery attracted many others, with everybody happy by the efforts made by their new employers.

We met QA analysts, software developers, team leads, consultants, planners and engineers, to name but a few. Below is just a selection of some of the top talent Silicon Republic’s Featured Employers were only too happy to snap up.

	Making the move from Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Accenture, Dublin Roxana Repecka, finance senior manager at Accenture, tells us how she has acclimatised to the Irish ‘summer’.
	How a Spaniard selling fish in Norway ended up at AOL Dublin Enrique Mora Parraga, senior software engineer at AOL, disclosed how he truly values duvets.
	EMC’s Romanian recruiter swaps Bucharest for Cork Florenta Fugasin, candidate development recruiter at EMC Cork, tells us how her job has taught her diplomacy and flexibility.
	Fidelity Investments’ diversity makes New Zealander feel at home Christina Tuataga, business data analyst at Fidelity Investments, reveals how snow still amazes her.
	How an Italy-born Ethiopian from LA ended up in Dropbox Dublin Joel Theodros, part of the EMEA sales team at Dropbox, has made friends for life.
	A Slovak’s seamless transition into Limerick life Michal Crkon, QA engineer at KEMP Technologies, tells us how dealing with State authorities is a dream.
	How an opportune bridesmaid switched Brisbane for Donegal Trisha Jordin, team lead at Pramerica, says traffic is never a problem.
	Information Mosaic’s Argentine who loves the Irish countryside Juan Marcos Bruno, software engineer at Information Mosaic, tells us how the open-minded people he meets are helping him settle in.
	Version 1 consultant gives up Barcelona’s Metro for Dublin’s walkable streets Pablo Murillo Barrionuevo, senior applications consultant at Version 1, has learned to appreciate rare sunny days.
	From Amsterdam to Dublin for a job at Twitter Cedric Brunings, account executive for The Netherlands at Twitter, tells us how an opportunity with an international tech company made Ireland his first-choice destination in his plans to live and work abroad.
	TripAdvisor software engineer travels from Argentina to Dublin Federico Trilnik, senior software engineer at TripAdvisor, tells us why, out of everywhere he has been, he believes Ireland provides the best work-life balance.
	Leaving the Middle East for change and challenge at Storm Malek Al-Shayeb, project server consultant at Storm Technology, reveals how a friendly work environment made the transition easy.
	A Turkish man’s move from Ankara to Dublin Ekrem Hacioglu, principal software engineer at FireEye, declares how welcoming the Irish are.
	Family ties make Dublin home for Quantcast’s Portuguese planner Cris Santos, senior sales planner for EMEA at Quantcast, says Ireland is now her home away from home.
	Italian engineer comes to Dublin to put Intel inside the internet of things Massimo Orsini, physical implementation engineer at Intel, has found a lot to love about his adopted home.
	Fenergo QA traded a quiet Indian village for Dublin’s tech hub Arpit Khurana, graduate QA engineer at Fenergo, followed opportunity to Dublin’s tech cluster.
	Marco’s move from sunny Portugal to dark Dublin Marco Leitão, QA lead at Aon, found these dark evenings take some getting used to.

Changing job image via Shutterstock