In recognition of International Men’s Day, we’re highlighting some of the outstanding men who contribute to shaping National College of Ireland. Learn what this day represents for them.
Conor Sisk, Website & Digital Marketing Officer at NCI
International Men's Day, November 19th, 2025
Shining a light on the men of NCI.
My name is Conor Sisk, and I am the Website & Digital Marketing Officer at NCI. My role involves managing and developing the College's website and supporting various digital marketing initiatives. I started with NCI in July 2022.
My path to NCI
I completed my undergraduate studies in Commerce at UCD. Since then, I’ve worked in several digital marketing roles across a wide range of industries, including large organisations like Bank of Ireland and the Dublin Airport Authority. During this time, I also completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing from the Digital Marketing Institute.
I am currently pursuing a part-time master's in Digital Marketing Strategy from Munster Technological University and hope to graduate in September 2026.
Aspirations and motivations
Honestly, I've never had clear, concrete aspirations like "I want to be a CEO" or "I want to have achieved X, Y, and Z by the time I’m in my 20s or 30s.” Instead, I've always adopted an approach where I prioritise enjoying what I'm doing and constantly seeking new ways to improve and innovate in my work and life.
I believe if you adopt a positive mindset, work hard, and treat those around you with respect and decency, you will be rewarded with what you deserve.
My motivation is rooted in seeing tangible results from my hard work and embracing constant challenge, both professionally and personally.
I find it incredibly rewarding to see a positive outcome that results purely from the effort I invest. Within my role at NCI, this translates to enjoying the process of finding new ways to improve the user journey and effectively showcase what the College has to offer prospective students.
I also thrive on the challenge of continuous professional development. I'm currently focused on my master's programme, and while it represents a massive investment of time and effort, I genuinely enjoy the challenge of learning new skills and discovering practical ways to introduce them directly into my work.
Outside of the office, this drive powers my passion for running. I am a keen runner who truly enjoys the challenge of regular training and racing. There's immense satisfaction in seeing that hard work rewarded with new personal bests, which serves as a powerful reminder of what I am capable of, both physically and mentally.
What does International Men’s Day mean to you?
In a time where conversations around what it means to "be a man" can be negatively influenced by prominent figures like Andrew Tate and Conor McGregor promoting toxic masculinity, I believe International Men’s Day is a great opportunity to highlight positive male role models in the world, especially to the younger generation.
Individuals like Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal promote a positive conversation about masculinity, showing the world that there is no one way to be a man. It’s about celebrating and promoting diversity in what positive masculinity looks like.
Working in marketing, which is traditionally a very female-led industry, I have been extremely fortunate to have regularly worked in teams where women were the majority. I've never felt that I've earned an unfair advantage based purely on my gender.
However, I recently had an eye-opening experience that highlighted the sexist bias that exists in technology. In a class exercise for my master’s, two female classmates and I were given a task of using ChatGPT to create customer personas with the exact same prompts. My result came back as a "Male, CEO, salary of 6 figures," whereas my classmates both received a "Female, Assistant/Executive, salary of €50k." This result was alarming and clearly displayed the sexist bias that is still embedded online and in AI systems.