My Career: ‘Each role helped bring me to the job that I enjoy today’

Name: Maeve McCluskey

Age: The over-30s club

Lives: Cork! Am I allowed to say the Real Capital?

Job title: Customer service and sales agent at Agria Petinsure Ireland. Agria is Ireland’s specialist pet insurer and draws on 130 years of international experience and decades of claims data to understand how animals’ health needs change throughout their lives.

Education background: Third level.

Hobbies: I enjoy attending the gym to do personal training sessions and occasionally cardio. I do a lot of activities with my dogs, such as trick training, man trailing, scent detection, and hiking; sometimes I believe they have a better social life than I do.

Describe your job in five words: Support, advice, sales, relationship building, and company representative.

Describe yourself in five words: Compassionate, witty, curious, practical, and resilient

Personality needed for this kind of work? A mix of confidence and empathy, as we are working with an insurance that affects people’s pets.

How long are you doing this job? About a year and a half; I’m relatively new to the insurance industry.

How did you get this job?

After leaving school, I continued my education by studying Animal Sciences at St John’s Central College, Cork, in 2007. This course helped me develop my knowledge of animal care, welfare, and behaviour, which supported my future career working with animals.

After college, I began my career with Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind as a Dog Care & Welfare Assistant in 2007. I spent many years caring for guide dogs in training and supporting their health, welfare, and development. Over time, I progressed into more senior roles, becoming a Dog Care & Welfare Assistant Supervisor and later a Breeding Department Supervisor. These roles helped me build strong skills in leadership, communication, organisation, and working with both people and animals.

During my time at Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind, I gained experience managing teams, training staff and volunteers, maintaining records, and working towards organisational goals. I also continued to develop my interest in canine behaviour and training by completing further courses in areas such as dog behaviour and mantrailing.

From 2023 to 2025, I worked as a Mantrailing Global Instructor, where I taught people how to work with their dogs and helped create a positive and enjoyable learning environment.

In 2025, I moved into my current role with Agria Petinsure Ireland as a Customer Service, Sales and Pet Care Specialist. My previous experience working with animals and helping people made this a natural move for me. My knowledge of pets, along with my customer service and communication skills, helps me support customers with their pet insurance needs.

Since joining Agria, I have completed my APA (Accredited Product Adviser) qualification, which allows me to advise customers and sell insurance products.

I also get the opportunity to represent the company through pet care articles, journalist interviews, and occasional radio appearances, sharing advice about responsible pet ownership.

My career path has followed my passion for animals and helping people. Each role I have had has helped me develop new skills and brought me to the job I enjoy today.

Do you need particular qualifications or experience? You don’t usually need any specific qualifications to start this job; customer service or sales experience is a bonus, but a lot of the job is learned through training. Once you start, you will need to complete an APA (Accredited Product Adviser) qualification, which allows you to give advice and sell insurance products.

Describe a day at work:

A typical day at work starts at 8.30am by checking my emails and seeing if there are any new customer enquiries. Throughout the day, I answer phone calls and emails from Agria customers, help them with questions about their pet insurance, give quotes, and help them choose the right policy. I also make changes to existing policies and update customer information if requested.

A lot of my job is selling pet insurance, so I explain the benefits of different policies and help customers find the best option for their pet.

Sometimes, I also speak to journalists or do radio interviews about pet care and pet insurance. I answer questions and share advice to help educate pet owners.

I also make sure that any postal documents, such as policy paperwork and customer letters, are sent out each day.

At the end of the day, I make sure all my work is up to date, customer enquiries have been dealt with, and all post has been sent. My main job is to provide good customer service, sell Agria pet insurance, and help people take better care of their pets.

How many hours do you work a week? 39.5

Is your industry male- or female-dominated? Male.

Does this affect you in any particular way?

No, it does not affect me. Everyone at Agria is treated equally, and I have the same opportunities to do my job, develop my skills, and progress regardless of gender.

Is your job stressful? How? Rate it on a scale of 1-10: I would rate my job a 4 out of 10 for stress. Most days are not very stressful, but there can be busy periods when there are lots of customer calls and emails to deal with. Sometimes, customers can be upset or worried about their pet, so it’s important to stay calm, listen carefully, and help them as best as I can. Overall, I enjoy my job at Agria and don’t find it overly stressful.

Do you work with others or on your own?

I work as part of a team of six customer service and sales agents at Agria. We spend our day helping customers, answering calls and emails, and working together to solve any tricky questions that come our way. If one of us gets stuck, there’s always someone ready to help.

When do you plan to retire or give up working?

Hopefully when I win the lottery! But if that doesn’t happen, I’d probably retire around the age of 67.

Best bits: The best part of my job is helping people and their pets. It’s rewarding to know I’ve helped someone choose the right insurance or answered a question that puts their mind at ease. I also enjoy working with my team, as we have a good laugh throughout the day. Another highlight is getting the chance to write pet care articles or occasionally speak to journalists and on the radio about pets, which makes every day a little different.

Worst bits: The busiest days can be a little challenging when there are lots of calls and emails to manage at the same time. Another downside is the commute. The traffic in Cork can be frustrating, especially on the drive home, so I always make sure I have a good audiobook or podcast to listen to. It makes the journey much more enjoyable!

Advice to those who want your job? Be friendly, patient, and always willing to learn. Good communication skills are important because you’ll be talking to lots of different people every day. It also helps if you enjoy helping both people and pets!

Any other comments? It’s a rewarding job, and it’s nice knowing that the work I do can make a difference to pets and their owners.