My Path: Brett Sanderson

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role at Keypath?

I’m originally from Sheffield, in England, and I was in teaching prior to coming to Keypath. I started off as a Student Success Advisor (SSA). After 18 months, I worked my way up to be a Senior Student Success Advisor, and, 12 months after that, I got offered the Team Lead role.

What aspirations did you have when you joined Keypath?

I’d got to a point where I was a bit disillusioned with my previous career and needed a change. I wanted to help and support people within the education space but without that thing of having to go home and mark and plan schoolwork. I wanted to be able to do something in that space but know that once my day was done - my day was done. And that’s one thing Keypath offered me.

To be honest, I wasn’t the most career-focused person. It was working with the amazing people here that led me to develop that ambition to progress and keep going. I was just hoping for a quieter life than teaching, but working here led to natural progression because of the support I’ve had.

How has Keypath helped your career progression?

I won the SSA of the Year Award for 2020, which was definitely a big deal. I was very proud of that. Also, I was offered the opportunity to do a Future Leaders Program: that was really a turning point. I’d just got into the Senior SSA role and I probably had a bit of impostor syndrome. I didn’t necessarily see myself as a leader despite being one, and getting into that program made me realize the value I could bring to Keypath in a leadership role.

What is the Future Leaders Program?

You get paired with someone in a senior role, so a lot of people get paired with account directors and managers, and you have monthly meetings with them to go over journal articles or get tips on progression and just have a chat, really. With my mentor, I ended up having more regular chats than was expected, so I got quite a lot out of that.

You also have monthly sessions in a group, where you go through communication skills or motivation skills or delivering feedback. And you have pre-and post-reading around those, to get you studying.

What do you love most about working at Keypath?

I really like that it’s a snapshot of how the world should work: I love that there’s a diverse team and that everyone is welcome. It’s this little snapshot of everyone, from different parts of the world, with different viewpoints, all working towards the same goal. I can’t recall any conflict I’ve ever encountered working here, despite the varied mix of people we have working together, which is awesome.

Which of Keypath’s four values resonates with you most?

I think it’s got to be lifelong learning. One thing I’d acknowledge is that, even before leaving the SSA role, there were still things I could learn and improve on. There’s always something that can be learned, in any space, and it’s so important to acknowledge and develop that learning.

What would you say to someone who’s thinking about joining Keypath in the Student Success team?

Coming in with an open mind, and wanting to work with as many different people as possible, is always an amazing thing. Get that wide perspective of what people have done, how people have progressed, and what they’ve learned.

Look at the different opportunities like the Global Collaboration Club, which is an amazing way of getting different perspectives across the globe. You get paired with someone in the American, UK, or Canadian offices, and you have fortnightly or monthly catch-ups where you’ll have a half-hour chat on monthly topics. I’m the Lead Global Ambassador for Australia for this project, and it’s a really good opportunity for people.

Basically, just get involved in as much as you can while you’re here.

How has your path helped you develop at Keypath?

There are always going to be transferable skills from previous study and work. I’ve been involved in delivering some of the training sessions and doing some of the planning stuff, which was the nice part about teaching. And I’ve been involved in coaching. It’s similar to how I would have supported the students who I worked with back in the day. I studied psychology, and there’s never a job where understanding people isn’t relevant.

Where do you see your role at Keypath going?

I definitely see that there is room for growth. My manager has already started talking to me about the next steps, and I’ve been frank with him: I’m not exactly sure what that next step is because it’s the early days of being a Team Lead. I don’t want to get to a point where I’m not willing to grow and learn, but, to the same extent, I’m also not going to be pushing to get to that next stage until it’s the right time.

If you're interested in joining our team, you can review our open roles here.