The Post: Business Development Director, Bright Young Things
The Post Holder: Aisling Bremner
Aisling Bremner uses her business experience of the corporate world to help children and young people build their soft skills
HOW I BECAME A BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
I completed a degree in Communications, Advertising and Marketing in University of Ulster as it was then. My first career job was with the HJ Heinz company in London as an assistant brand manager. My marketing career started there and continued with roles in Scotland and Belfast for over 15 years. Most recently I was the Head of Marketing and Student Recruitment at Queen’s University.
What was your favourite subject at school?
Economics and Business Studies. I was always fascinated by how the economy and businesses work and lapped up all the knowledge I could.
Did you go on to further/higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I studied Communications, Advertising and Marketing at University of Ulster, Jordanstown for four years including a one year placement. I was struck by the breadth of the degree, how integrated it was with industry and the fact that it was really interesting.
How did you get into your area of work?
Since becoming a mum, my career objectives have completely changed and I have found that my passion involves helping children and young people develop. I have gained brilliant experience throughout my career working with global companies, across different sectors. When I worked at Queen’s we often got feedback from employers that graduates today were often lacking in social and interpersonal skills, the soft skills that help someone to make an impact in an interview, to think differently and more creatively to solve big problems. That time in Queen’s really ignited a love for education again and in helping to make a difference in young people’s lives.
I was lucky to work with the late Professor Paddy Johnson who had a profound impact on me. His outlook on education was so forward thinking and he talked a lot about developing young people to think differently, more critically for tomorrow’s unknown world. It made me look at my sister’s organisation, Bright Young Things (BYT), in a completely different light. What was happening there was having a great effect on children from an early age by helping to build confidence, develop core social skills and encourage big questions and debate and it struck me that we need to start much younger to help children develop these skills before it is too late, because at graduate level the person is almost fully developed.
Taking all this into consideration, I made the decision to give up my corporate role and join my sister Lisa in developing Bright Young Things as I could see the huge potential for the organisation to impact more children, more schools and more futures across Northern Ireland.
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
I do believe that my broad strategic business background, my education experience from somewhere as revered as Queen’s where I learned so much from such bright minds and also personally as a mum of a four and three year-old in knowing what they need at this point in their life.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
Predominantly a creative mind and a deep care and passion for children and their development are the most important factors and obviously those are traits that can come from any background.
What does a typical day entail?
There really is no typical day as my role is very varied. Predominantly my role in Bright Young Things is to develop the business, both expanding where we are now in terms of locations, improving process and customer experiences, marketing, as well as looking to what’s next.
A typical day could be a morning meeting with my sister Lisa who is the founder of BYT and co-director to review operations, new campaigns, for example our summer camps which are expanding for 2018, looking at new business enquiries as we do a lot with community groups and schools as well as our core After Schools workshops. From there I could be meeting our web developer or liaising with schools or creches to book in workshops.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
For me having left a corporate world the changes have been immense. The challenges are that I used to work with a much wider team working with me including video, website, copywriting experts. Now it’s just me and often I feel that I have had to start again to learn all the practicalities of business and marketing. But to be honest the learning curve is character building and very rewarding once you learn it for yourself. I also find it a challenge to get soft skills on the agenda and get society at large to realise how dangerous it is for our children to only focus on being brilliant academically. We suffer from a huge misconception because we use drama as the vehicle to unlock social skills and confidence, so some people think what we do is not for them, and yet the value of our classes can have such a profound effect on all children, no matter what their goals are in life.
The best part is most definitely when I am talking to parents, or reading an email from a parent, thanking bright young things for making such a difference to their child. We recently conducted focus groups with some parents and some of our bright young things, and we honestly got emotional when we heard people talk about BYT, the impact it has had on their or their child’s life and how it is so much more than drama.
That is what makes all the hard work and attention to every detail worthwhile and encourages us to bring BYT to even more children and schools across Northern Ireland.
Why is what you do important?
I have met so many adults who have been held back in their life and their careers by a lack of confidence, some brilliantly bright, but who are crippled by the lack of soft skills. For us it’s about every child reaching their full potential, to be able to do things and be someone they weren’t able to be before.
No matter what your goal in life, we all need confidence, strong communication and presentation skills and a creative mind to be the best we can be. I am so passionate about this as I have seen children believe they are not good enough because they are not a straight A student, and yet the brilliant minds in this world are the ones who had confidence, a personality, a creative mind, and a passion and love for what they do.
Describe your ideal day off.
My ideal day off is spending it with my family, my husband Robbie and our two children, Paddy who is four and Katie who is three.
And finally, what’s the key to any successful job search?
Being clear on what you want from a company and a job. Often people feel that their only focus is on trying to sell themselves but you must not forget that you also are interviewing the company and that it will only work for all parties if you have shared values and goals. I have interviewed so many times over the years and true passion for a role comes across. Don’t over rehearse, be yourself, body language is key, and remember it’s a conversation.