What drew you to a career in marketing?
My first two years studying business at Waterford Institute of Technology were more around general business: economics, accounting, law and marketing. This gave me a flavour of the business industry as a whole. In the third year we were encouraged to pick a stream to specialise in and I chose marketing. This involved an internship placement, and I was lucky to get one with a software development company based in Waterford. I loved it and continued working there even after my internship period had ended. That is where I met Ailbhe (Duffy). We kept in touch after and then she told me about this incredible opportunity to come and work with Accelerated Payments. I joined in October and I have loved every minute so far.
What is your role within Accelerated Payments?
I am the Marketing Executive at Accelerated Payments, so there are a few different responsibilities that I have within my role. I love the variety of planning, developing and implementing effective marketing communication campaigns. The nature of the role means that I get to work with people in different departments outside of the marketing team. This is also one of the key appeals about Accelerated Payments. You’re not just limited by one person in one location. Day-to-day you could talk to someone in Ireland, the UK, Canada and South Africa. Accelerated Payments is a key advocate of diversity. I also love working with our clients. For example, our broker network. We provide marketing support to them when needed. This might include helping them with lead generation – an email campaign, website landing pages or enquiry forms.
I also really enjoy working on the marketing collateral, which could be anything from a newsletter, an email, a brochure, an infographic or even a slide deck. The marketing department is there to be a support to all other teams and also the market – in terms of educational pieces to build awareness of the brand which means research to make sure that the articles we’re putting out are directed at the right industry, right vertical and the right audience. Each time we write something, I learn more and it’s brilliant!
How have you found working remotely?
Due to lockdown restrictions, apart from Ailbhe, the only other team member that I have met in person is Mark Murray. He only lives 30 minutes away from me and was able to help me set up the systems and IT on my PC when I first joined. Saying that, I don’t actually feel like I haven’t met the team. Everyone in the team is so friendly and made me feel so welcome from day one. Video conferencing also helps in building the virtual relationships.
Working remotely was not new to me. My last role was predominantly remote as I was studying full time in college at the same time. One difference is that in college, I didn’t feel a remote side of it as much because I was seeing my friends on a daily basis. I am really looking forward to being in the same room as everyone! The coffee mornings at 11am in person will be life changing. It’s one of my favourite times as it gives everyone a chance to talk things other than work, learning more about one another. The other great social element is the “family” calls every Friday as it wraps up the week on a high note, bringing the fun side out of the team.
What do you like doing in your spare time?
I love interior design and decorating. A lot of what I like and do in my professional life also ties in with my personal life. I like the organisation and project management element of taking a room as a blank canvas, then choosing the colours first, then sourcing the right things to put in it. The same with my role in marketing, it is all about planning and choosing the right elements that tie in with the brand you are working with.
Apart from that, I have just started an online remote learning course, it is a Diploma in Social Media Marketing. It’s a 10 week course with classes every Thursday from 6.30-9.30pm. Hopefully I will be able to put it towards doing a further degree, through continued learning. Adding strings to my bow and bringing everything that I learn to my role at Accelerated Payments.
