From Bangalore to Dublin to London: How Trinity College Prepared Sathwik Ramaprasad for a Career at Henkel

Sathwik Ramaprasad's journey from a master's student in Dublin to working as a Product Manager at Henkel in the UK took him through a career path he hadn't originally planned. After leaving Bangalore in 2021, he pursued a one-year Master's in Operations and Supply Chain Management at Trinity College Dublin, choosing Ireland over the UK because of the uncertainty around Brexit and post-study opportunities. He had also compared the cost of studying in Ireland with pursuing an MBA in India and found the overall numbers to be nearly the same. After graduation, his job search in Ireland proved challenging, but a leadership program helped him rethink the direction he wanted to take. His early roles in supply chain eventually introduced him to project and product management, an area he realized suited his skills better than the career path he had initially planned. That eventually led to an internal move to the UK, where he now works as a Product Manager at Henkel.

For Sathwik, studying abroad didn't lead him to the career he had originally mapped out. Instead, his experiences in Ireland helped him identify where his strengths actually lay and eventually move from supply chain into product management. Today, he is focused on building his career in the UK while working towards clearing the education loan he took for his studies.

Sathwik's Journey at a Glance

• From: Bangalore, India
• Course: Master's in Operations and Supply Chain Management, Trinity College Dublin
• Decision: Chose Ireland over the UK due to Brexit-related uncertainty
• Career Shift: Moved from supply chain operations into project and product management
• Move: Built his early career in Ireland before moving to the UK
• Now: Product Manager at Henkel, UK
• Goal: Clearing his education loan before returning to India

Here's Sathwik, in his own words.

Q. What was the moment that made you seriously consider studying abroad?

A couple of things converged around the same time. After my internship at Cult.fit, formerly Cure.fit, I wasn't converted into a full-time role, partly because of COVID, and I'd already turned down another offer through my college placements, so I had to find a job entirely on my own. I landed a role as a supply chain consultant, but within about five months I realized it wasn't what I'd envisioned. It ended up being far more analytics and coding, SQL and Python, I genuinely didn't have a background in actual supply chain or logistics management work. On top of that, COVID had taken away my final year of college entirely, no graduation ceremony, nothing. Between the job frustration and missing that milestone, I started seriously exploring a master's abroad.

Q. Why did you choose Europe over the US?

A few reasons. I ran the numbers, and back in 2021, a two-year MBA-equivalent program in India, something like ISB, would have cost roughly the same as a one-year master's in the UK or Ireland once you factored in living expenses. I've also always been drawn to the travel opportunities within Europe and the work-life balance and culture I'd heard so much about. And practically, both the UK and Ireland offered one-year master's programs compared to the two years typical elsewhere, which made the decision easier.

Q. You got into all six universities you applied to. How did you finally choose Trinity?

That's right, I applied to six, two in Ireland, Trinity College and UCD, and several in the UK, with Manchester as my top UK choice. In the end, geopolitics tipped the decision. The UK had just left the EU, and I was concerned Brexit could affect job opportunities for international graduates down the line. I chose Ireland instead, and looking back, I was part of one of the last batches before Indian student numbers in Ireland exploded. My cohort had 28 students; the same course now has close to 100.

Q. Why operations and supply chain specifically for your master's?

It traced directly back to my internship at Cult.fit and my final-year thesis, both of which had me genuinely enjoying project management and supply chain work, even before I fully understood where that interest would lead. That's what pointed me toward the course I ultimately chose.

Q. What was the application process itself like?

I worked with an education consultancy that also offered GRE prep, which in hindsight I didn't actually need, since most of the programs I applied to didn't require it. They did help significantly with the actual applications, though, building out my statement of purpose based on a detailed questionnaire, which I then reviewed and adjusted. They handled applications to universities they had existing tie-ups with, but Trinity wasn't one of them, so I applied there myself directly. Honestly, doing it myself wasn't particularly difficult; it was mostly about attaching the SOP and recommendation letters I'd already prepared. The real effort was in the preparation, not the application forms themselves.

Q. How did the finances work out?

I did a fairly detailed cost analysis, both at the time and again more recently, looking back. Trinity's tuition for the one-year program was around 21 lakh rupees, and with living expenses, rent, groceries, everything, it came to close to 30 lakh in total. That was nearly identical to what a program like ISB's young MBA would have cost just in tuition alone. I funded the entire degree through an education loan, and because I was earning in a stronger currency, I was able to pay it off fully within about three years of working abroad.

Q. How did your career actually take shape after graduating?

It didn't go exactly as I had planned, which I think is fairly common. My first role after the master's was as a Supply Chain and Operations Associate, but the responsibilities pulled me into project managing improvements across different business units. That's where I realized project management was something I was genuinely good at, not a departure from my original path, just a natural extension of it. When I later came across a Product Manager opening, the job description read almost identically to what I'd already been doing, getting the right people to execute the right actions at the right time. I moved into that role, and the company later offered to relocate me to the UK for my next step, which I took in 2024.

Q. How do India, Ireland, and the UK actually compare, having lived and worked across all three?

India's convenience is genuinely unbeatable: groceries, affordable private healthcare, the comfort of being home, and a strong sense of community. That's the downside of living in Europe; the sense of community here isn't as strong unless you've built real relationships over time. What I do love here is the work-life balance and the freedom, clean neighborhoods, and honestly, access to what people call "third spaces," parks, and riverbanks, places you can spend a whole evening without spending money. I don't think we have enough of that back home, and it's something I only really noticed once I didn't have it as a default anymore.

Q. What about healthcare specifically?

Mixed, honestly. The UK's system feels genuinely strained at the moment. Ireland, on the other hand, handled a real medical emergency I had back in 2022 really well. I've also traveled through the Nordic countries, where healthcare is excellent, if fairly bureaucratic. India's private healthcare, for anyone who can afford it, is genuinely fantastic, but that affordability question for the average person is real too.

Q. Do you think you'd have the same lifestyle if you'd built this career in India instead?

No, and I say that clearly. My quality of life in India, for an equivalent salary, would actually be noticeably higher than what I have here; the UK is expensive, and a salary that would afford a genuinely comfortable life in Bangalore or Mumbai doesn't stretch nearly as far here. That said, the travel, the exposure, and the version of life I specifically wanted wouldn't have existed for me if I'd stayed.

Q. Do you see yourself moving back to India?

Yes, and that was actually the plan from the very start. I was clear before I even left that this chapter was about travelling, earning in a strong currency, clearing my education loan, and then I will be heading home in a few years. I'm on that second leg now, essentially, working toward clearing the loan and preparing for the move back.