In telecoms, it’s easy to lead with the tech stack — Kubernetes, RCS, AI-driven fraud prevention. But ask the people who actually build these systems how they’d describe Openmind, and they don’t start with code. They start with people.
By Cathal Lyons, Openmind Networks
Five team members — Philip Giles, Padraig Corcoran, Adrian Maguire, Jeff Lim, and Ulisses Alves — all came through Openmind’s graduate programme. Their stories aren’t identical, but they share a thread: this is a place that bets on people and then actually follows through.
An Odyssey Eight Years in the Making
Ulisses Alves joined before the graduate programme even had a name — hired two months before the first official cohort arrived. Nearly eight years later, he’s a Senior QA Engineer, and his path involved learning Linux, Docker, Jenkins, and Ansible almost entirely from scratch.
“I would say my problem-solving skills have increased significantly because I am surrounded by clever and helpful people who are always open to assisting.”
But the moment that defines Openmind for Ulisses happened in 2018. Going through a difficult period, he was struggling how to balance this with his work at Openmind. His manager’s response surprised him: “We’ll find a way, we don’t give up on people .” His manager involved senior management and HR to ensure Ulisses had the flexibility and time he needed to navigate the situation. Today, those challenges are in the past and the outcome from a career perspective has been a great one for Ulisses.
From Graduate to Engineering Manager
Padraig Corcoran joined as a graduate in 2019 straight out of a computer science degree. By 2026, he’s Engineering Manager for the OpenProtectAI team — a progression from Junior QA to Senior QA to lead that took seven years of deliberately expanding his comfort zone.
The thing that surprised him most? The lack of ego.
“Whether you’re a graduate on your first day or a Senior Lead, your ideas are judged on their merit, not your job title. It’s a culture where you’re encouraged to speak up — and more importantly, people actually listen.”
Padraig’s advice to new graduates is simple: Openmind won’t just slot you into a vacancy. It’ll give you the rotation, the visibility, and the trust to find where you actually excel.
The Boomerang
Philip Giles took a road less travelled. After joining as a graduate in 2019 and building his QA and development skills at Openmind, he left for Australia with his then-girlfriend (now wife) — landing a developer role on the Melbourne Tram system using the C programming experience he’d built here. Three years later, in 2025, he came back.
“Part of what I loved about Openmind when I started, and part of what made me want to come back, is that there were always people to aspire to.”
He returned to a technical landscape that had shifted — C to TypeScript, new Kubernetes infrastructure, agile scrum — but the culture was instantly familiar. Now he’s paying it forward, mentoring the next wave of graduates coming through.
Learning to Back Yourself
For Adrian Maguire, the biggest growth wasn’t technical — it was learning to back himself. Now a Senior QA Engineer running meetings and leading QA for OpenCore, Adrian credits manager Larry O’Shea for consistently pushing him to challenge himself rather than play it safe.
His advice to anyone starting out: ask questions, lean into the support around you, and don’t expect to have all the answers on day one. At Openmind, nobody does — and nobody expects you to.
A Leap of Faith That Paid Off
Jeff Lim’s path into Openmind was arguably the steepest. Coming from a mechatronics engineering background in Malaysia with no prior IT or telecoms experience, he had to rebuild his entire technical toolkit from the ground up. What made it possible was a culture where questions are never a sign of weakness.
“From day one, I was working on real customer issues rather than just shadowing. That level of responsibility can feel challenging initially, but it accelerates your learning significantly.”
Today Jeff is a confident, independent operator in Service Operations — handling complex customer issues end-to-end, identifying root causes, and communicating solutions directly to clients. The leap of faith paid off.
What You Can’t See From the Outside
Five people. Five different starting points. One consistent theme: Openmind invests in people first, and the performance follows.
If you’re weighing up your options, Padraig puts it plainly — from the outside, you can evaluate the product and the tech stack. What you can’t see is what it feels like to have your ideas taken seriously on day one, to have a manager who coaches rather than directs, and to work somewhere that genuinely invests in its people for the long haul.
Ready to find out for yourself? Email hr@openmindnetworks.com
