00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.293
You have to be pretty resilient.
00:00:02.293 --> 00:00:04.878
Probably now more than ever with everything.
00:00:04.878 --> 00:00:11.510
You're on your own career growth journey as well, and you kind of just develop these kind of resilience skills along the way.
00:00:11.510 --> 00:00:18.600
I'm quite creative and my real noy it's real highs and lows as far as you could have a full schedule of events.
00:00:18.643 --> 00:00:21.603
You have meetings back to back and then you're just waiting to hear.
00:00:21.603 --> 00:00:25.399
So you have to be quite creative in how you can kind of fill up the diary again.
00:00:25.399 --> 00:00:30.030
You just sort of develop as you go, probably learn new skills along the way. Yeah.
00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:30.946
Welcome to work.
00:00:30.946 --> 00:00:36.243
Plus the podcast that shines a light on the people doing good work across Northern Ireland.
00:00:36.243 --> 00:00:39.246
I'm your host, Richard Kirk, founder of Work Plus.
00:00:39.496 --> 00:00:48.213
I've spent years working with employers, schools, colleges and universities, helping young people and career changers to make better informed career decisions.
00:00:48.213 --> 00:00:55.472
Each week I sat down with real people doing real jobs to explore how they got there, what they've learned, and why their work matters.
00:00:55.472 --> 00:01:03.188
If you're a parent, teacher, carer, or just curious about what good work looks like today, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.
00:01:05.689 --> 00:01:08.108
So delighted to have joined us on the podcast today.
00:01:08.108 --> 00:01:09.277
Thank you for having me.
00:01:09.277 --> 00:01:15.158
You're probably really sure what to expect first podcast, so go easy on me.
00:01:12.322 --> 00:01:15.158
Let's see what could come.
00:01:15.158 --> 00:01:17.117
Those out of the comfort zone here.
00:01:17.117 --> 00:01:17.493
I know.
00:01:17.493 --> 00:01:20.329
Well, listen to tell us a bit about the work you're currently doing.
00:01:20.329 --> 00:01:23.082
So, I work for a company called scaffold.
00:01:23.082 --> 00:01:29.004
Digital scaffold are a software company headquartered here in Northern Ireland.
00:01:29.004 --> 00:01:32.091
And I lead up the business development side of things.
00:01:32.382 --> 00:01:46.814
So really, what I'm trying to do is go out, establish that long term partnerships with local companies here and, and I across the water in the UK and also in southern, our ROI as well.
00:01:46.814 --> 00:01:53.362
And just really try and go and see where they kind of maybe need a software solution.
00:01:53.737 --> 00:01:57.909
There's a lot of technical debt in our companies here.
00:01:58.159 --> 00:02:06.417
So how we can kind of go in and, streamline their processes through software and let them scale and grow.
00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:07.918
Brilliant.
00:02:06.459 --> 00:02:07.918
That's kind of my role.
00:02:07.918 --> 00:02:10.796
So building up the pipeline.
00:02:07.918 --> 00:02:10.796
So business development.
00:02:10.796 --> 00:02:12.257
So like you're. Yeah.
00:02:12.257 --> 00:02:16.218
So you're you're trying to scaffold builds like this is a bespoke.
00:02:16.426 --> 00:02:19.389
So so far it's not like you've got all these products on your shelf.
00:02:19.389 --> 00:02:21.890
No, no we're very much a service provider.
00:02:21.890 --> 00:02:24.102
So we don't have any products.
00:02:24.102 --> 00:02:27.396
Anything that we do build the client owns outright.
00:02:27.396 --> 00:02:28.480
They own the IP.
00:02:29.439 --> 00:02:31.276
So we don't have any products.
00:02:31.276 --> 00:02:33.694
We build software from the ground up.
00:02:33.694 --> 00:02:35.864
So it's very much in the bespoke space.
00:02:35.864 --> 00:02:37.365
Brilliant for companies.
00:02:37.365 --> 00:02:47.709
How how does that conflict conversation start with with a business that you're like, how do you identify those businesses that you might work with and you might have a solution for.
00:02:47.709 --> 00:02:49.711
So it's an interesting one.
00:02:49.711 --> 00:02:52.004
So as opposed just to take you back a little step.
00:02:52.004 --> 00:02:54.132
So my background's marketing.
00:02:54.132 --> 00:02:58.051
So I've only been in the tech sector for the last three years.
00:02:58.760 --> 00:03:02.056
And I started off and a project management rolled with scaffold.
00:03:02.056 --> 00:03:08.604
And then over the last year, just over a year and I, I've been, leading the business development side of things.
00:03:08.979 --> 00:03:15.319
So it's really about having those conversations like it really does.
00:03:12.901 --> 00:03:15.319
It just goes back to the basics.
00:03:15.319 --> 00:03:21.533
So understanding what a company does, are they trying to grow.
00:03:21.533 --> 00:03:26.288
Are they trying to scale worse their pain points worse their challenges.
00:03:26.288 --> 00:03:30.126
The cold call inside of it, I don't think works particularly well.
00:03:30.126 --> 00:03:39.092
You really just have to get out there, get it to be as many events as possible, speak to as many people as possible, and just really try and understand their business.
00:03:39.092 --> 00:03:44.389
And then kind of the conversations go from there, okay.
00:03:41.512 --> 00:03:44.389
And that sort of thing.
00:03:44.389 --> 00:03:46.225
You'd always thought you'd be doing.
00:03:46.225 --> 00:03:49.979
I gave one of you a younger at school and things like yours.
00:03:50.229 --> 00:03:52.481
It's not just to make a jump to even think about that.
00:03:52.481 --> 00:04:09.790
I think in your job, I was asked to write a piece recently, for the Northern Ireland Chamber, and it took me, I think the nice thing about writing that piece and kind of going through that process, was you really got time to sit back and reflect, or your career has started to where you are now.
00:04:10.332 --> 00:04:26.807
And I think that I've almost kind of like married everything up through my experience, which has been pretty nice to kind of see how that has actually evolved. So, as I said, I started out in marketing and then moved into project management.
00:04:26.807 --> 00:04:32.980
And then really, I suppose through the marketing aspect, you're kind of spotting opportunities.
00:04:32.980 --> 00:04:38.860
You are, you know, developing, long term relationships with your clients as well.
00:04:38.860 --> 00:04:41.072
And now you have kind of like brought it all back.
00:04:41.072 --> 00:04:51.206
And I'm in this BD role, and there's so much of the experience that I've gained from the early stages that has just naturally evolved into what I'm doing day to day.
00:04:51.374 --> 00:04:51.915
Okay.
00:04:51.915 --> 00:05:00.132
Now what sort of like what sort of skills would you say are needed for someone to be in that sort of marketing business development role?
00:05:00.216 --> 00:05:05.262
So I think you have to be, pretty resilient.
00:05:05.262 --> 00:05:12.394
I think you have to be clear, no, a lot of you are like, oh, every day, every day.
00:05:12.394 --> 00:05:12.644
Yeah.
00:05:12.644 --> 00:05:15.605
So I've definitely learned to be really, really resilient.
00:05:15.648 --> 00:05:17.774
Probably now more than ever.
00:05:17.774 --> 00:05:23.947
But I've probably like with everything, you're on your own kind of like career growth journey as well.
00:05:24.240 --> 00:05:30.245
And you kind of just like develop these kind of like resilience skills along the way.
00:05:30.454 --> 00:05:33.833
I think that if you can I'm quite creative.
00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:42.632
So that's been a real, and my real my it's real highs and lows as far as you can have a full schedule of events.
00:05:42.632 --> 00:05:48.055
You have meetings back to back, and then you've done all of the follow ups and then you're just waiting to hear.
00:05:48.055 --> 00:05:52.185
So you have to be quite creative and how you can kind of fill up the diary again.
00:05:52.185 --> 00:05:58.565
So, yeah, I think that just, I don't know, I think you just sort of develop as you go.
00:05:58.940 --> 00:05:59.317
Yeah.
00:05:59.317 --> 00:06:01.651
You know, probably learn new skills along the way.
00:06:01.651 --> 00:06:03.403
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's it.
00:06:03.403 --> 00:06:05.781
Take us back to when you're at school.
00:06:05.781 --> 00:06:11.495
So I work plus were involved and we're involved in things I work experience. Yes.
00:06:11.495 --> 00:06:14.415
So what did you do for work experience when you were at school.
00:06:14.415 --> 00:06:17.418
Gosh I actually thought I wanted to be a teacher.
00:06:17.502 --> 00:06:17.834
Okay.
00:06:17.834 --> 00:06:21.463
So I did, and I actually thought I wanted to be a special needs teacher.
00:06:21.463 --> 00:06:25.050
So my work experience was and more special needs skills.
00:06:25.550 --> 00:06:29.596
So Fleming Felton, that's where I kind of did my work experience.
00:06:29.596 --> 00:06:39.399
And then, I suppose whenever I was at school, it was if you weren't going to be a lawyer or a doctor or a solicitor, you're almost pushed away to the side a little bit.
00:06:39.399 --> 00:06:44.821
So I kind of was out there just trying to work out what I wanted to try and do by myself.
00:06:44.821 --> 00:06:58.875
Obviously with the support and guidance of mum and dad and all of out there, but, really, then I went in and did a communications and PR degree, so I kind of moved away from the whole teaching aspect altogether.
00:06:58.875 --> 00:07:06.341
And I think that probably like the marketing has been probably more of a natural for me.
00:07:06.425 --> 00:07:09.387
I'm really interested in those transition points.
00:07:09.387 --> 00:07:09.720
Yeah.
00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:21.649
Like how did you so whenever you were applying for your PR marketing qualification, like what was it that that nudged you over the edge, or is it just a amount, a distant memory?
00:07:21.649 --> 00:07:34.745
Now, I probably truthfully would be the fact that I was going to go away over to England Uni and look at that kind of life experience, rather than really thinking about the actual career choice that I had made.
00:07:34.745 --> 00:07:48.968
I think that there's just such, you know, whatever you're 16, 17 in your or even earlier on whenever you're making your A-level choices after GCSE, you know, you kind of don't really know what you want to do.
00:07:49.009 --> 00:07:49.927
I think that's it.
00:07:49.927 --> 00:08:00.146
Unless you, you know, as I said, like if you don't want to be a doctor, if you don't, you kind of like are a bit more, it's a bit more sort of fluid and you kind of just go with the flow a little bit more.
00:08:01.230 --> 00:08:15.786
I've always had like a natural flair for putting on events and charity work, and I suppose the marketing communication PR side of things was maybe something that I had been around more.
00:08:16.120 --> 00:08:21.375
So therefore potentially, you know, in the subconscious, that's maybe what led me down that route.
00:08:21.375 --> 00:08:22.752
Yeah, very hard to say.
00:08:22.752 --> 00:08:40.727
But yeah, we we probably didn't have a huge amount of steer whenever I was at school, you know, so it was kind of, kind of going, I didn't really go where my friends were going either, but, university over in Newcastle was great fun.
00:08:42.062 --> 00:08:44.815
Well, it's just that I was just talking to someone.
00:08:44.815 --> 00:08:47.777
We had, work experience this week. Okay.
00:08:47.777 --> 00:08:50.321
And she is 17.
00:08:50.321 --> 00:08:53.740
She is thinking along similar lines. Yes.
00:08:54.033 --> 00:08:58.120
And also is thinking about I'm not sure if I want to want to go where my friends are going.
00:08:56.869 --> 00:08:58.120
Yeah.
00:08:58.120 --> 00:09:04.751
And and Newcastle is one of the ones on her list and the going away for, for uni.
00:09:04.751 --> 00:09:16.264
What were the real benefits of of of doing that really probably going away and kind of growing up and you know, being independent and you're away from home.
00:09:16.264 --> 00:09:19.475
So you, you got really good kind of life experience.
00:09:19.475 --> 00:09:23.312
You I became I think I've always been quite independent.
00:09:23.729 --> 00:09:29.860
But you, you, you became a, you know, that's where really you learned, you know, how to be independent.
00:09:29.860 --> 00:09:40.453
And I think as well, like, you know, you had to make sure that it was on you to get up in the morning and get to your, your class and yeah, probably as well.
00:09:40.453 --> 00:09:51.131
That has naturally helped even my role today, because you really have to be self-motivated and a self-starter to kind of like write what's next in the agenda.
00:09:51.131 --> 00:09:53.134
And, you know, meetings.
00:09:53.134 --> 00:09:59.514
If you're waiting to hear back from someone, you have to kind of be creative and kind of be a bit of a go getter.
00:09:59.514 --> 00:10:01.392
So yeah, it's a lot of growing up. Yes.
00:10:01.392 --> 00:10:01.725
You do.
00:10:01.725 --> 00:10:02.143
Yeah.
00:10:02.143 --> 00:10:03.184
Yeah, definitely.
00:10:03.184 --> 00:10:05.605
No, I'm not here. Yeah.
00:10:05.605 --> 00:10:10.150
And you've talked a bit in the past when we've been in conversation about your different holidays and things like that.
00:10:10.150 --> 00:10:16.115
Like tell us a bit about when you're not, when you're not, chestnut blades with scaffold.
00:10:16.115 --> 00:10:18.491
What are the sorts of things that Martin gets up to.
00:10:18.491 --> 00:10:26.125
So I've recently, just come off a six week golf program, which I done with Sean the golf club.
00:10:26.167 --> 00:10:28.753
Okay. So that was that was good.
00:10:28.753 --> 00:10:32.048
It was, every Wednesday night for the last six weeks.
00:10:32.380 --> 00:10:39.346
So I thoroughly enjoyed that, whether I will take it up or not, I am not sure, but, really enjoyed it.
00:10:39.346 --> 00:10:47.937
Anyway, and I'm in my gardening era, so I, loving the garden.
00:10:48.355 --> 00:10:54.445
I bought a new house just before Christmas, so kind of renovations, DIY, but a garden.
00:10:54.445 --> 00:10:57.990
I never had very much on the agenda and keeping me busy for sure.
00:10:58.198 --> 00:10:59.283
And so brilliant.
00:10:59.283 --> 00:10:59.741
Yeah.
00:10:59.741 --> 00:11:02.662
Did you tell me you're sailing as well, like last year?
00:11:02.662 --> 00:11:05.206
Yeah. We're doing better sailing as well.
00:11:05.206 --> 00:11:10.251
Yeah, we've we've done quite a lot of, sailing holidays as a family.
00:11:10.251 --> 00:11:10.836
Oh, wow. So.
00:11:10.836 --> 00:11:17.842
And then I did a bit of a women and water course last year and got our, our YA1 certificate.
00:11:17.842 --> 00:11:21.013
So, men's, weather.
00:11:21.013 --> 00:11:23.432
We'll do it again this year. Not. I'm not sure.
00:11:23.432 --> 00:11:29.397
I sort of feel like I'm a bit of a take them off and then maybe don't continue on fasts.
00:11:29.397 --> 00:11:30.815
It's just find them the time.
00:11:30.815 --> 00:11:33.192
You know yourself, you know, just trying to get the time.
00:11:33.192 --> 00:11:38.114
And it's nice whenever you kind of have a few people as well that you can do these things with.
00:11:38.114 --> 00:11:39.990
So, yeah. Yeah.
00:11:39.990 --> 00:11:43.660
So being with others is something that you, you really value big time.
00:11:43.660 --> 00:11:44.620
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:11:44.620 --> 00:11:49.332
And it's funny because we actually out of the company are a remote company.
00:11:49.708 --> 00:11:59.217
So, you know, with being in the omnibus here, there's, you know, the like, see yourselves in the team at work plus and so many others, like, it's just great.
00:11:59.592 --> 00:12:02.596
It's a great place to come and and be a bike people for sure.
00:12:02.596 --> 00:12:08.601
So I do kind of miss that kind of, you know, team environment at times.
00:12:08.601 --> 00:12:11.563
But then sometimes you're just so busy you don't even realize.
00:12:11.563 --> 00:12:19.154
And then it's nice to come in here and kind of feel like you guys are all my teammates and say, well, we really appreciate that as well.
00:12:19.154 --> 00:12:25.452
When I, when I started in here in 2019, it was just me.
00:12:25.870 --> 00:12:31.000
But it was someone said to me after a few months, they said, oh yeah, yeah, we see we see what's happening here.
00:12:31.000 --> 00:12:33.461
You came for the task on your stand for the community.
00:12:33.461 --> 00:12:34.211
Exactly.
00:12:34.211 --> 00:12:36.880
Which, which is, is a really good way to look at it.
00:12:36.880 --> 00:12:38.548
You know, you're so focused on.
00:12:38.548 --> 00:12:41.552
Yeah, I need to pay for a task so I can have somewhere to go to work every day.
00:12:41.552 --> 00:12:55.399
But actually, it's then those, those watercooler conversations or just the random people that you bump into and yeah, you know, we've done work with people and or mobiles as well because they've got skills and specialism that we, we don't have.
00:12:55.399 --> 00:12:57.735
So, so it's a, it's a great space.
00:12:57.735 --> 00:13:13.125
But I think whenever you can get into the kitchen you're kind of making a cup of tea or whatever and you're just chatting about what you've been up to and then suddenly somebody introduced you to, introduces you to somebody else who can maybe help you in an aspect of your work, like it is a really lovely community to be in.
00:13:13.125 --> 00:13:14.083
So yeah.
00:13:14.083 --> 00:13:22.717
Yeah, no, there is one guy though, and we only meet each other and in the kitchen, and that makes us just like, like for always having, having a bit of a break.
00:13:22.717 --> 00:13:29.015
So always having a sort of knowing smile to each other once again.
00:13:29.015 --> 00:13:34.230
So let's jump back into, to what you were saying about scaffold.
00:13:34.312 --> 00:13:38.192
As a, as a, as a digital software services company soon.
00:13:39.400 --> 00:13:46.408
So can you give us an example and probably can't share too much about individually what you're doing with clients, but what sort of things are the software team building?
00:13:46.408 --> 00:13:49.119
Like what are they actually what are the products that they're building.
00:13:49.119 --> 00:13:53.123
So basically scaffold are very much a service provider.
00:13:53.123 --> 00:13:59.129
So, what we will do is we will take a client through discovery and strategy.
00:13:59.504 --> 00:14:10.014
Then through that, we will, develop a tactical roadmap of what the software solution will provide them and the value that they will gain from it.
00:14:10.265 --> 00:14:10.557
Yeah.
00:14:10.557 --> 00:14:15.812
Right through to build and then ongoing maintenance around as support as required.
00:14:15.812 --> 00:14:18.566
Plus cloud our infrastructure as well.
00:14:18.566 --> 00:14:23.988
So the types of systems that we would be built would be very much bespoke to businesses.
00:14:24.613 --> 00:14:33.246
So are they kind of platforms management systems, ERP system is very much bespoke and tailored to that business.
00:14:33.288 --> 00:14:35.707
Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of things that we're up to.
00:14:35.707 --> 00:14:37.125
Okay. Good, good.
00:14:37.125 --> 00:14:40.879
Lots of AI exciting projects coming out of the woodworks at the moment.
00:14:40.879 --> 00:14:41.171
Okay.
00:14:41.171 --> 00:14:49.178
Well, which is really interesting to see how this is going to be used as well to deliver real value.
00:14:50.221 --> 00:14:56.562
So, yeah, like, I think the good thing about the bespoke world as well is that no two projects are the same.
00:14:56.562 --> 00:15:01.191
So it's a real, real variety of projects that we will be set across.
00:15:02.192 --> 00:15:11.826
I think from a teams perspective as well, that kind of makes it quite exciting, you know, that you're not kind of building the same systems all the time.
00:15:11.910 --> 00:15:12.870
Yeah.
00:15:12.870 --> 00:15:18.125
And every business has their own unique challenges, their own unique pain points.
00:15:18.125 --> 00:15:24.965
So and I think that that's what we do really well as a business as well as we really get in and have the conversations.
00:15:25.298 --> 00:15:44.317
Do you understand what exactly it is that they're trying to build to deliver the value, to let them then, you know, let their staff upskill in other areas because you have this like, tech solution handle and something that was pretty, mundane tasks, for example.
00:15:44.735 --> 00:15:54.035
But, yeah, it's really good to see, see how that the tech that we're building is having such an impact on these, these businesses.
00:15:54.035 --> 00:15:54.535
Yeah.
00:15:54.535 --> 00:16:04.587
Are those businesses themselves be like really, really technical people, or would they be just people that are running businesses and are just thinking, this is such a headache for us.
00:16:04.587 --> 00:16:06.130
Surely there has to be a better way.
00:16:06.130 --> 00:16:07.091
We don't know how to do it.
00:16:07.091 --> 00:16:19.979
Yeah, I think there is sort of, there's businesses who are have like an awful lot of off the shelf solutions that are maybe only providing 7,080% of the work as well.
00:16:19.979 --> 00:16:27.945
I know, know that they need to do something to deliver that extra, you know, to actually get the value back that, that they need.
00:16:27.986 --> 00:16:31.240
But, it's it's not technical companies.
00:16:31.240 --> 00:16:36.787
It's just like, it's like your manufacturing companies that your transport and it just sticks companies.
00:16:36.787 --> 00:16:38.621
It's your local councils.
00:16:38.621 --> 00:16:38.788
Yeah.
00:16:38.788 --> 00:16:41.833
It's it's and it's very much so.
00:16:41.833 --> 00:16:44.003
You could be dealing with managing directors.
00:16:44.003 --> 00:16:50.174
She could be dealing with their chief financial officers, or you could be dealing with head of technology and ICT.
00:16:50.384 --> 00:16:56.389
So it really it's a real, real mix of, of projects and people that you're dealing directly.
00:16:56.557 --> 00:16:57.099
Yeah.
00:16:57.099 --> 00:16:59.475
Which mixes things up for sure.
00:16:59.475 --> 00:17:01.937
Yeah. Well it's it sounds really varied.
00:17:01.937 --> 00:17:05.106
Like, do you really seem like you enjoy your work?
00:17:05.106 --> 00:17:06.650
I do, yeah, absolutely.
00:17:06.650 --> 00:17:13.574
I mean, like, why are we kind of really set is very much in fairly regulated, compliant, driven industries as well.
00:17:13.906 --> 00:17:26.170
So your builds and solutions that, are having big impact, you know, not just to the business, but the industry challenges as well, that they might be, you know, up against.
00:17:26.170 --> 00:17:26.502
Yeah.
00:17:26.502 --> 00:17:33.760
So, I think that where I get excited is kind of like spot on the opportunities, having the conversations.
00:17:34.219 --> 00:17:49.567
And then I really enjoy a discovery session because I think probably from my marketing days and even to where I am now, you can really you have to map out the full user journey.
00:17:49.567 --> 00:17:56.032
So you have to really go from and think about all aspects, all touchpoints, all layers.
00:17:56.407 --> 00:18:04.333
And I think that that's always kind of seeing what the the bigger vision, the end goal is going to be, and then working backwards.
00:18:04.333 --> 00:18:18.555
And so the discovery sessions for me are definitely of a, a real kind of like, so that's something you would do quite early and a process for the client to try and exactly discover, I suppose, what, what what you're going to build.
00:18:15.844 --> 00:18:18.555
Yeah. For them. Yeah, yeah.
00:18:18.555 --> 00:18:22.601
And you know, the value that that's going to deliver.
00:18:22.601 --> 00:18:32.236
And then what we would do is we would split it up and we would make sure that we were delivering the, highest value items first.
00:18:32.236 --> 00:18:37.907
They're going to be deployed and then kind of moving up and features on as you go.
00:18:37.907 --> 00:18:38.616
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:38.616 --> 00:18:43.747
So very much an agile approach, but a technical jargon for you.
00:18:45.374 --> 00:18:47.709
Well, it makes it makes good sense.
00:18:47.709 --> 00:18:53.257
And you think about software and you know young people, people have like a mood changing careers.
00:18:53.257 --> 00:19:04.559
Think of software industry like how would you describe it as it's all very technical, you know, is it people selling laptops coding away or like what would you know?
00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:16.445
I think that that is, definitely something that's it couldn't be any more opposite, you know, like it's fun, it's fast paced.
00:19:16.445 --> 00:19:24.163
It's there's a real mix of young to, you know, more experienced people in the industry.
00:19:24.163 --> 00:19:28.500
It's, you know, there's a real teamwork ethos.
00:19:28.500 --> 00:19:31.211
Yeah. About the, the sector as well.
00:19:31.211 --> 00:19:33.547
It's anything but.
00:19:33.547 --> 00:19:41.054
It's kind of like your the, the myth of your people, you know, guys in a dark room.
00:19:41.054 --> 00:19:41.430
Yeah.
00:19:41.430 --> 00:19:44.724
Kind of wired in and coding away, you know.
00:19:44.724 --> 00:20:04.452
And I think as well that the industry has so many opportunities from everything from the likes of a business development sales role to then your your engineers to marketing to data analytics, you know, like it's just such there's so much opportunity within the industry.
00:20:04.452 --> 00:20:11.375
And I think more than anywhere you can kind of, you know, for example, you can pivot once you're in it, you know.
00:20:11.375 --> 00:20:21.845
So tick me, I went in as a project manager because that was more of a direct fit to the client management, account management that I would have experienced in marketing.
00:20:21.845 --> 00:20:24.056
Yes. And I I've moved completely away from that.
00:20:24.056 --> 00:20:26.807
And I'm in the business development side of things.
00:20:26.807 --> 00:20:33.481
So I mean, there's just so much opportunity and it's especially in Northern Ireland as well.
00:20:33.481 --> 00:20:34.191
Okay.
00:20:34.191 --> 00:20:36.276
That's good, exciting, good there.
00:20:36.276 --> 00:20:36.984
Yeah. Good to hear.
00:20:36.984 --> 00:20:40.154
I think it's really important to get that get that message across.
00:20:40.154 --> 00:20:46.536
And I say read an article about AI and software development last week.
00:20:46.536 --> 00:20:52.041
And it was saying that as this developer was said, I don't do any manual code anymore.
00:20:52.041 --> 00:21:01.093
I'm using AI and it's increased my job satisfaction and productivity because I'm doing more of the the human work.
00:21:01.343 --> 00:21:03.636
I'm doing more thinking about what the client needs.
00:21:03.636 --> 00:21:09.226
Coming back to that discovery session, working with the people who are designing the user interfaces.
00:21:09.726 --> 00:21:12.729
So you mentioned about AI, and I know that it has it.
00:21:12.938 --> 00:21:21.821
You know, you're probably delivering it on your projects, but yeah, in terms of the way you deliver, do you see AI shipping that as well? Definitely.
00:21:21.821 --> 00:21:26.159
I mean, I certainly use AI pretty much most days.
00:21:27.286 --> 00:21:30.247
You know, it's almost like a bit of a team member for me.
00:21:30.329 --> 00:21:31.914
You know, if I take this off.
00:21:31.914 --> 00:21:32.708
Yeah.
00:21:32.708 --> 00:21:35.836
Especially kind of because we are remote first company.
00:21:35.836 --> 00:21:39.131
So I kind of just have an idea, and you want to get a bit of feedback on it.
00:21:39.131 --> 00:21:41.924
I would use AI to do that.
00:21:41.924 --> 00:21:46.512
And then of course, if there's something that I need to discuss, film attainment, do do that too. Yes.
00:21:46.512 --> 00:21:46.930
All right.
00:21:46.930 --> 00:21:54.145
But yeah, I think, you know how much the guys use AI and know that that's very much part of their processes.
00:21:54.145 --> 00:22:00.568
You know, we can do a lot of fast prototype and AI as well with the use of AI tools.
00:22:00.568 --> 00:22:06.782
You know, to kind of like develop by the product not developed by the product, but kind of like create the vision.
00:22:06.782 --> 00:22:11.788
So that's a really interesting one whenever you are even dinner discovery session.
00:22:11.788 --> 00:22:19.086
So you could, you know, you could kind of bounce a few ideas and kind of see something a little bit more 3D.
00:22:19.128 --> 00:22:21.006
Yeah, prototyping, click through it.
00:22:21.006 --> 00:22:24.593
And then so that's kind of a cool use of AI.
00:22:25.469 --> 00:22:37.897
Another way that the guys would maybe use AI would be to just check kind of the quality of the code as well, but it would be mainly written by themselves because of the, the nature of the work that we would do.
00:22:37.897 --> 00:22:43.236
But, there's, there's definitely more and more use for it, in the day to day.
00:22:43.236 --> 00:22:44.403
Yeah. Yeah.
00:22:44.403 --> 00:22:47.406
So it certainly speeds things up.
00:22:47.531 --> 00:22:49.326
Yeah. No question about it.
00:22:49.326 --> 00:22:53.204
You know, and I know that with what we do in the bespoke right.
00:22:53.622 --> 00:22:57.250
That could be sort of a bit of a lengthy process. Yes.
00:22:57.250 --> 00:23:00.045
So it's how I can quicken that process.
00:23:00.045 --> 00:23:07.301
UPS is where you can get, you know, products out quicker for our clients to yeah, provide more value and impact and all that.
00:23:07.301 --> 00:23:08.428
Yeah yeah yeah.
00:23:08.428 --> 00:23:16.478
Last question okay. So work work plus is named so because we believe work is a positive thing.
00:23:16.478 --> 00:23:19.689
It's something which is good for us and our society.
00:23:20.315 --> 00:23:22.275
For you.
00:23:20.315 --> 00:23:22.275
What's so good about work?
00:23:22.275 --> 00:23:37.332
I think it's about taking a conversation, understanding a business and their processes and their ways and how they're currently working and showing.
00:23:37.540 --> 00:23:46.508
And you know that tech on a bespoke solution for them can add so much more value.
00:23:46.508 --> 00:23:52.431
I think we're really, really always hammer home on delivering the value.
00:23:52.806 --> 00:24:19.415
And I think that for me, it's whenever you have spotted that opportunity and you know that you can deliver value for a business, I think that that there's the real win because that's whenever they, as a company and an organization can scale, can grow, becoming and I, you know, success story in their own right as well.
00:24:20.625 --> 00:24:28.174
And for me it's just about as, as and an element of helping people and help them to do that.
00:24:28.258 --> 00:24:28.633
Yeah.
00:24:28.633 --> 00:24:31.635
You know, and that's probably a big part of my role.
00:24:32.261 --> 00:24:33.555
I'm a real people person.
00:24:33.555 --> 00:24:47.152
So, you know, a good day for me is making some money and striking up a bit of a relationship that you can kind of, you know, add into your network or, you know, help someone out along the way.
00:24:47.152 --> 00:24:50.321
And so I think that's what's good about what I do.
00:24:50.739 --> 00:24:51.530
Violence. Yeah.
00:24:51.530 --> 00:24:54.534
I mean, thanks for taking the time to join us today.
00:24:54.534 --> 00:24:56.577
So good.
00:24:56.577 --> 00:24:58.538
Thank you, chair, for the invited back.
00:24:58.538 --> 00:25:00.373
Thank you.
00:25:00.373 --> 00:25:01.665
Thanks for tuning in to work.
00:25:01.665 --> 00:25:10.008
Plus, if today's story gave you fresh perspective or helped you rethink what's possible, leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform or hit like and subscribe.
00:25:10.008 --> 00:25:12.009
It really does make a big difference.
00:25:12.009 --> 00:25:17.557
For more stories, resources and tools to help guide the next generation, visit workplace Dot. Up.
00:25:17.598 --> 00:25:18.349
Until next time.