Bonkers @ Brightcove?
Charly Copeman, Customer Solutions Specialist and skydiving Wonder Woman tells us what it is like to work at Brightcove in the UK. Her main role is Global Customer Support, but she also takes a lead on writing internal documentation and delivering the Brightcove Essentials Training to Customers, both online and in person.
Name: Charlotte Copeman Role: Customer Solutions Specialist
Where are you from and where did you attend school?
I'm originally from Hartlepool in the north of England but I grew up in Wokingham in the South and now live very happily in Brighton on the South Coast of East Sussex in England. I live 5 minutes walk from the beach, have the countryside on my doorstep and Brighton & Hove is also a City so i'm incredibly lucky.
I studied nursing and law at university but I couldn't suppress my inner geek and ended up working my way through a series of web designer, web manager, search engine provider and mobile project manager roles before I came to work in the Customer Support Team at Brightcove over 4 years ago.
Why did you join Brightcove?
I joined Brightcove because I loved their forward-thinking evangelism on constant product development and investment. I could see that they were going places and I wouldn't be working in a stagnant environment. I like to be in an environment that keeps me on my toes and keeps me interested. No two days at Brightcove are the same - sometimes because of the range of Customers that we work with and sometimes it's due to the monthly feature releases. Both make it a really exciting place to be.
What is the typical day of a Customer Solutions Specialist?
I work in a fast-paced team as we answer all Customers within a specified time period. This means that there are no late starts and no lazy days where you don't achieve anything. This is great as we see questions ranging from how to reset your password, how to upload, how to customise a Video Player for Mobile, how to add in custom interfaces, closed captioning and pay buttons and now, with the launch of Brightcove App Cloud, we'll be working with Customers to develop their killer apps! As i've said before, no two days are ever the same!
How did you end up in London?
I am incredibly lucky to work from home for Brightcove with an office based in London too. Six months after I started working for Brightcove in their London office, I developed epilepsy at the age of 30. Obviously this was pretty life changing and frightening, but both the HR team, the Customer Support Team that I work in and the entire Brightcove Global Team supported me through diagnosis and in developing a working environment that enabled me to control my epilepsy and continue working to my full potential. As a result, I've never had to take medication for my epilepsy and it's never impacted my day-to-day work. I don't know another company in the World that could or would offer this level of support and the colleagues and friends that I have at Brightcove probably don't realise how incredible and supportive this has been for me.
What is your favourite memory or experience at Brightcove?
I have a stack of great memories and experiences from working at Brightcove. On my first visit to the US office, Jeremy hired an island and we had a lobster BBQ as the sun went down. I felt incredibly privileged to be working at such an amazing place. I was also pretty excited to see the kitchen - I have never seen so many bagels, M&M's, Pop Tarts, Pretzels, Cereals, Teas, Coffees and Fruit in all of my life. There's never a day when you are sad to have forgotten your lunch at Brightcove!!!
Other highlights included the launch of the new Brightcove Studio because it was light years ahead of our competitors and the buzz was incredible. The launch of Brightcove Express was incredibly exciting as it opened the power of high-class video up to everyone, and now, with the launch of the Brightcove App Cloud, it feels like we've just lit a stack of fireworks under the office! The atmosphere and excitement is palpable as we enable Customers to use HTML5 to build amazing iOS and Android apps and touch web experiences. I know it probably sounds like i'm towing the company line at times, but I don't know anyone at Brightcove who doesn't feel this way about our Company and our software solutions.
Who is your favourite comic book character?
My favourite comic book character is Wonder Woman and I did a bungee jump dressed as her two years ago and a skydive dressed as her last year - both for charity!
What is the most important thing you have learned in the last five years?
The most important thing that I have learned in the last five years is not to take anything for granted. Before I had epilepsy, as everyone sometimes does, I woke up and didn't want to go to work on a Monday, I was sometimes lazy about catching up with old friends and I didn't always appreciate everything in my life. Now, I make a huge amount of time and effort with all of my friends and my Mam and I grasp every opportunity at work to learn something new, to empower our Publishers and to enjoy every day. I'm lucky that Brightcove offers such a broad range of activities to all staff, whether that's blogging, tweeting, writing help articles, getting involved in development teams, improving the way we work - it's a vibrant environment that allows you to explore and develop both inside your position and outside of it.
What type of person should work at Brightcove?
Brightcove isn't the type of place where you sit and and work through a stack of mundane tasks each day. We're all encouraged and expected to share our knowledge, views and experiences both internally and externally. If you're full of bright ideas, excited about business and process improvement and think you can roll your personality and skill set into driving forward the future of online media, if you're passionate about content experiences and publishing and distributing the world's professional media, then Brightcove is the place to be.
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