In this careers series, Martina Mulhall, Gold Star Careers, speaks with high-profile figures across a range of industries to explore the stories behind their success.
From early career choices to pivotal moments, challenges overcome, and advice for the next generation, every interview offers a personal insight into the many different paths a career can take.
As the irrepressible Damien Bowe gets ready to take the Timahoe Male Choir onto Electric Picnic’s main stage this Sunday at 1pm, it’s the perfect time to take a look at his phenomenal career journey.
From chart success in London to the boardroom of one of Ireland’s fastest-growing recruitment companies, the Shanahoe native’s career has been nothing short of extraordinary.
Today, as dynamic Chief Operating Officer of Unijobs, a subsidiary company of University of Limerick (UL), which acts as a shared service across the public sector for temporary recruitment, he oversees a €37 million operation supporting universities, the HSE and more.
Yet, Damien’s story goes far beyond business. From his boyband days with D-SIDE to fronting The Vows wedding band, and today leading the Timahoe Male Choir, he has always brought passion, energy, and heart to everything he does.
A proud husband and father of four, Damien is deeply rooted in his community, proving that success is as much about giving back as it is about moving forward.
In this interview, he reflects on the highs and lows of his journey, the lessons learned, and the values that continue to shape his life.
1 – What was your very first job, and what did it teach you?
My very first job would have been working with my father who was a self-employed mechanic.
I always said trucks and tractors was the main thing, and I often joke that we were the only kids that hated getting our summer holidays, because we had to work for the summer.
We never had the story going back in September about being away in the South of France. But it did teach me. It taught me about hard work, about long hours. When you live in a household where you see what comes in, what gets paid for fixing a tractor, and that is the only income that comes in.
And you see the value of that. And you see the value of that when it’s not there. And it was a very industrious home. We were always doing something.
My father had a crazy work ethic, and he would have really instilled that in us, to the point where there’s no downtime. And you’d feel guilty for having downtime. But what it did teach me was about hard work, and it just never stopped.
It kept on all the time. But our parents gave us their time and encouraged us in whatever we did, my late sister Lorraine and I were heavily involved in music, so my poor mother spent a lot of time on the road with us.
2 – Did you always know you wanted to work in this field of recruitment, or did your career path evolve over time?
I didn’t know that I wanted to work in this field. My career path has evolved. I started working with my father first, and then I went to work for the O’Loughlins in Roscrea.
The late Tom O’Loughlin had a meat factory and I was a fitter there for a while. Then I worked as a mechanic with O’Dwyer transport in Littleton, Thurles.
I did an apprenticeship in motor mechanics. And then music swooped in out of nowhere. I heard an advertisement on the radio, and I said, ‘Okay, I’ll give that a go’. And that went another direction altogether.
Passed an audition, moved to the London, obtained a record deal. We had limited success, 3 top 10 singles in the Uk, 5 top 5’s in Ireland and a number 1 single in Japan. Recorded the album in Los Angeles, Miami, London, and Copenhagen.
TV shows, Movie premiers, private jets – the works! in some ways, I regret that I did all that very young. It happened at a really young stage of my life, and I didn’t really appreciate what was going on.
And then I came back here and I went, to work for Mark Sheeran, of CJ Sheeran Ltd.
I was at a loose end, having come home from the band thing, and my brother was after passing away, and I didn’t know where I was going.
We were touring in Japan at the time. And I just had this feeling that this was coming to an end. Our album, didn’t sell in the UK, and we were shipped out there for them to recoup their losses.
And I thought, okay, I don’t need to be 14 hours or more away from home. And then it was September, and it was coming to Christmas, and I felt bad my parents were on their own.
My brother Fintan was only 12 at the time. So I came back. Limited qualifications, no plan, but a good voice and an ability to push. And I went to work then for Mark Sheeran, a brilliant role in sales.
And that company, of course, has grown so much in the last number of years. And I went from there to work for Unijobs, a six-month contract, took a punt, applied for the job, interviewed, and I was part of something that was very new, and luckily, their objectives have been realized and have been reached.
I was only the second person into the company. It was a concept they had to start an internal recruitment company to save costs.
And we had a turnover in the first year of €400,000 euro. And we’re now in year 14, and our turnover is 37 million euro, which is extraordinary. And I’ve been there from the very beginning.
3 – Was there a turning point or moment that shaped your career most significantly?
I wanted something new. And I did a bit of sales marketing for a company as a stop gap. And then the Unijobs thing came up.
Joining that organization was the turning point, absolutely. Then, after about four or five months, I realized how massive it was to work with an institution like a University and how much there was to learn.
4 – What’s one challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?
One personal challenge is that I’m dyslexic, never diagnosed, but I know what dyslexia is and I am.
And in school back in the 80s when there were no supports I came up with my own coping mechanisms, long before spell check or anything like that existed. That would have been a challenge early in my career.
That was a huge thing for me, affecting my confidence, but then later on it became okay, you weren’t regarded as being stupid, or a bit thick, that it was normal, that other people had the same problem.
In 1984 in national school, if you couldn’t spell, you were a bit, just a bit stupid. By 1994 you have this thing called dyslexia. So there was something there, you know.
And I suppose when that became normalized, and I knew other people with it, when I was 18/19/20, I realized I’m not stupid actually.
But music does that, gives you self-belief, because, when you’re in entertainment, you are putting yourself out there all the time.
You’re one person, and you have an audience of 200. For most people, they would drop dead at the thought of it, but for me it was fine. And I took confidence from that. And it helped me to accept it and overcome it.
5 – How important were education and qualifications in getting to where you are today?
I got no more than 200 points, if I even got that, in my Leaving Cert. I was too busy to be in school. I didn’t take it seriously.
I took it seriously way too late. But I remember, I was recruiting for a job in one of the universities in Dublin, and I got a call to say, ‘would you be interested in applying for that job?’
He really pushed me to apply for it, but I couldn’t bring myself to tell him that I didn’t have a Degree. So I went to my boss at the time, who was incredibly supportive, and within UL there was a four year Degree programme for Human Resource Management.
And the fantastic thing about it was that you could do a year, and get your certificate, then get your higher diploma, so you could stop and start. That has just changed my life.
On a personal level, I did something I thought I would never, ever, ever have the ability to do. And then in terms of my confidence, it was the one thing I always had this hang up about, I never went to university. However, I would say it is important.
But any form of education is important, and the build up to it and understanding how it can help. I went back at 38 years of age, four years, two nights a week, one Saturday a month, and it was the greatest achievement of my life. When I finished it, I couldn’t believe it. But you learn every day, though, as well.
6 – What does a typical day look like in your role, or is there no such thing?
I’m the most senior person within our division, with 36 staff working internally. We’ve two and a half thousand people working across the country.
So there are different challenges every day. We’ve an open-plan office. I sit on the floor once a week. That’s so important. My door is always open. Day to day – I don’t have a real day to day. I do the usual.
We have structural meetings during the week. We have with lots of agency temps working for us, and lots of time is spent dealing with issues around that.
We’ve recently rolled out our new five-year strategic plan. That was a big part of my job. I report to a board four times a year. Anything can pop up, and that makes it really interesting.
7 – Who inspired or mentored you along the way, and what did you learn from them?
Mentors and people who’ve inspired you can be two different things I think. I look back at those who crossed my path, Mark Sheeran, set up a company, with absolutely nothing, and look at what he’s become.
And one thing about Mark was he was always really fair. And one thing I learned from Mark is the rule of fairness.
Respect is earned, and you have to earn respect from those who are the most junior in an organization as much as from those who are at the top.
And then my current boss, Bobby O’Connor, who I’ve worked with in Unijobs for years. His empathy was the big thing for me.
I would have been ‘get in, work hard, come on’ but I realized it’s actually more productive when you don’t do that.
I would be in at nine o’clock on the dot. But he taught me about culture. He’s the director of HR at UL.
And my parents, Pat and Breda. They lost two of their two children in their lifetime, and they are the strongest people, in terms of overcoming, when something goes wrong, you just plough on through.
And they really are incredible. My wife Anne Marie has supported me in everything I have done, music, college, and now this bloody choir, as if we hadn’t enough going on!
8 – What advice would you give to Leaving Cert students who aren’t sure what they want to do yet? Or to adults seeking a career change?
For leaving Cert students – investigate all the possibilities. I’m a great believer in the year out piece. Even in life. If you’re stressed, go for a walk.
Take a breath. That’s a year out. And take advice, but take it from the right people. Take advice from people who have nothing to gain from where you’re going to go in life, because they have no agenda behind them.
For those seeking a career change – I always think you should try to work up to these things. If you have a direction in which to want to go, investigate and see if it will work for you.
It depends on your stage in life. A career change isn’t always possible, and we have to be practical. Build-up in terms of any qualifications you need to gain.
Maybe start the process a year out. We all need money, but sometimes it can be the wrong motivator.
Research, talk, network. That is so important. Networking is so important.
9 – If you could go back and give your younger self one piece of career advice, what would it be?
Study harder. Be more positive. Speak slower. But really believe in yourself. Self-awareness is so important. And self-belief. Be confident. I would, actually be a shy person by nature.
I know you probably don’t believe that, but in certain situations I am. So, just have confidence in yourself and believe in yourself, and know that you’re enough.
It’s so important. Sometimes in life you have to be happy in what you have, and don’t be always wanting more and more.
10 – What’s next for you? Any goals, projects or new challenges on the horizon?
With Unijobs we have just rolled out a five year strategic plan. We’re working with all the major universities across the country now, and we have a massive project on the horizon, where we’re hoping to double our numbers.
Our aim is to become a national shared service, temporary recruitment across the higher education sector, primarily first. And that’s my job over the next five years, to investigate rolling out Unijobs across the whole country.
And we’re working now on a very large project with UCD, which is very significant for us. So, that’s the plan, career wise, for the coming years. I’ve no plans of going anywhere or moving or anything.
Anything else you’d like to add?
*Speaking broadly, I suppose, never judge a book by its cover. Again, going back to the 80s in Ireland, we were a very different society.
I’m thinking of people I know people who were not academic in school who found traditional style of learning hard, discovered their own path and are now millionaires. Work on your strengths, the journey is not the same for everyone.
**And you asked about volunteering and fundraising. Yeah, we do a lot of fundraising.
The choir itself has done a lot of fundraising for lots of different charities. One is the school. We are also involved in the Tractor Run. We raised nearly €10,000 at that.
So we’re paying for a walking track around the school at the moment. I do the school choir as well.
I’m a great believer in this – if everybody gives back something. I can’t build a wall. I can’t plaster a wall.
I’ll never be called to the school to put up a shelf. But if those who can do that do that, if everybody gave back what they’re good at, their energy, their skills, to their community, we’d have everything we need.
***And finally, about the music. Music has always been a part of my life, and I love it, and my love for this has changed.
Take the Timahoe Male Choir – honestly, for the first time in a long time, I’m doing something in music that I really love doing because it isn’t a job.
I do love music. I love singing. And I’ve turned from doing it for monetary value to doing it for fun. I get paid for what I do with the band (The Vows) and that’s fine.
But that’s a lot of organization, a band of five people, you’re engaged in the biggest day of somebody’s life. You cannot let them down. You have to be on time.
Your diary has to be correct and so on. The communication has to be good, you have to contact with people in advance, whereas the Timahoe Male Choir stuff is just fun. I guess I am the leader of the choir, I came up with the concept.
In my wildest dreams I didn’t think that would take off the way it has. I had this thing, not even intentionally, about the positive impact of music and singing.
I think it’s really good for people. And I’ve lived in Timahoe for over 20 years. I have some great friends there. Some people I went to school with were actually from Timahoe.
And we get together and sing, just good fun, because there’s an energy about it.
It just snowballed. Just went crazy. We had a rehearsal last night and the positivity, The energy, it’s s absolutely amazing. Pockets of lads sitting together having a chat. Everybody can see the benefits of it.
Not only from a personal level but from a community level too. There’s an atmosphere out there now that is really great.
When I was in school guys in music and arts was really frowned on. You would get slagged, you would get literally verbally abused, and that has all changed massively.
With the choir a huge piece of that for me maybe was to break that taboo of men getting together to sing. A lot of lads said to me ‘ A choir? Join a choir?’
And now they are doing that thing, the thing that they thought they would never do. Because when they actually explored it, it brought something completely different to singing to their lives.
This coming weekend the Electric picnic is going to be amazing. The Timahoe Male Choir are heading for the main stage at 1pm on Sunday. We are the first ever Laois act to perform on the main stage. It really is a big deal….the all-Ireland final!
SEE ALSO – In Pictures: First look around Electric Picnic 2025 ahead of Friday start
