After success in the pool Grant Irvine excelling in the next chapter of his career
After swimming his way to the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, Grant Irvine now finds himself on the podium at Fortescue Metals Group, as a Senior Business Analyst.
“I sit in the finance improvement area, where we are integrating systems into finance and looking into where we can improve our current practices.”
It comes with little surprise that Grant, knows how to multitask and keep multiple aspects of his life on track, but how?
“The balance between work and training worked fairly well. I found myself people that understood, especially at work. So, if I needed to take a day off or switch a day of work from a Wednesday to a Thursday, it wasn’t an issue.
“I had to build a good relationship with my employer ‚Äì I found this was key. There were obviously expectations with what I had to do while at work, but because I had established what needed to be done, moving a day around wasn’t too hard.”
To paint the picture of Grant’s training load while at WAIS, a normal week would range from around 24-30 hours of swimming.
“There was a double session on Monday with gym, double on Tuesday with core, single session on Wednesday morning (so I’d go to work from 9:30am to 5:30pm this day), double on Thursday (I’d never work on this day as it was a really hard day), single in the morning (so I’d work on this day), then sometimes comps on the weekend.
“This is when I started working at Fortescue, one of the managers at the company was an ex Olympic swimmer, Jim Piper, so I had a coffee with him when I first moved to Perth and was seeing if there were any opportunities.
“I was always the kind of person who didn’t like doing nothing during the days, I had to keep my mind busy, so when the job offer came about I had to take it.”
While swimming at WAIS, Grant was working roughly 16-20 hours a week, however swimming remained his priority.
“Sport comes first in the end, so don’t over commit to work. But I do think it’s really important that you set yourself up for life after sport, whether that’s through education or work, it is equally important as sport isn’t forever.
“It’s good to be involved with something while you’re still competing, as it makes the transition so much easier.”
With a transition from togs and goggles to suit and tie, Grant has settled into working life, following a momentous career in the pool.
“Working is way more stressful, swimming was a lot easier. No, it’s been good! I’ve been at Fortescue for three years now and I’ve really enjoyed it.
“I knew it was my time when I finished swimming, I was ready to retire. I had a little taste for working life, so I kind of knew what to expect, just a much higher workload to come!”