Brett Ince, class of 1994 – Executive Director, Tourism Greater Geelong & The Bellarine.
Visit to year 10 & 11 Business Management and legal Studies classes.
Brett returned to school on an icy wintery day and provided warmth, happiness, and plenty of heart-warming learnings about 20 year professional life in Geelong. Brett spoke with approximately 60 students from year 10 and 11 Business Management and Legal Studies about his life during school and his journey since graduating in 2002. He spoke with this audience because he mainly studied humanities subjects (& Indonesian) and it provided him with a strong platform to launch his career from.
One of the best stories he told us was the moment when he was working as a medical receptionist at 19yo, as a casual job while starting university and one day a woman passed him a handwritten note that said “if you ever want a job in tourism, call me…”. This person had been in the waiting room for 1.5hrs observing Brett at work and obviously he’d impressed her. She later became his professional mentor and helped him navigate up the ranks at Tourism, including a few roles in other organizations which helped him develop and become more experienced.
Brett shared his learnings of strong work ethic, slowing down and enjoying where you are at work/school on any one day while making the most of the opportunity. These learnings have become skills that he exercises most days and suggested to our students they’re good skills when you’re feeling challenged.
As a young man he demonstrated a mature approach to work & study, an ability think through change and do a risk analysis and decide for his future. He cites this as a critical success point that was different to the route most of his friends took.
The key messages for students were:
- There are multiple pathways to take along the journey towards getting a great job that you love.
- Humanities as a subject area offers a wide range of career opportunities.
- Get involved in a variety of things and make the most of them – enjoy your time and then you’ll shine.
- If an opportunity presents itself, take a moment to calculate the risk and talk to your key people as it might be worth taking the leap and grabbing the opportunity.
We’re grateful for Brett’s decision to carve out some time from his extremely busy schedule. This decision demonstrates an ongoing commitment to Belmont High School and public education, as well as the young people in our region. #pridepublieducation
