Hello, welcome to the careers for kids podcast where kids learn careers.
This is Maxwell Valencia.
And this is Henry Morrison.
And today we have Brett Bernsen, a training and exercise program administrator.
Hello, Mr. Bernsen.
Hey, how's it going?
Thank you for spending your time to be on careers for kids.
We hope you have a great interview now.
Let's get started.
So tell us what you currently do right now.
Yeah, so I'm the training and exercise administrator for Bellevue Office of Emergency Management.
My role can kind of be broken into a few different key components.
I would say the first is focusing on Bellevue staff.
So this is kind of where the majority of my time is spent here at Bellevue.
Developing trainings, drills, exercises, things to educate, test and train Bellevue staff on our plans and processes for responding to emergencies.
The second piece, I would say, would be working in coordination with the emergency manager for Bellevue,
with local stakeholders and businesses to try to help them build some capacity and capabilities
through information sharing and in some instances, also providing or including them in our trainings and exercises as well in various capacities.
Some of these, depending on what they're bringing them in for, like the school district,
sometimes will allow them to participate in our exercises.
In other instances, maybe they're just observers.
And then the third piece, I would say, would be for the Bellevue residents.
And so this is providing some of that preparedness training to residents and getting them signed up for alerts and things like that so they can be informed if a disaster, an incident occurs in Bellevue.
Those would be kind of those three different pieces of the pie of what it is I do day to day.
Yeah, it's nice that you're protecting the school district and Henry has a question.
Yeah. So give us some more personal insight on your career and how you got to this position in the first place.
Yeah, so I'm I'm fairly new to Bellevue. I've only been here about three years.
And so I was introduced to emergency management, actually working for my previous employer,
and it kind of was one of those like other duties as assigned category.
And so over time, kind of working through that field, I kind of found myself becoming more interested in the field.
And I enjoyed the challenges that emergency management presented to me.
And so this kind of led to me pursuing more opportunities and more training so that I can engage more with emergency management and then ultimately kind of switching career paths.
Into emergency management at the beginning of 2022.
So what part of your job do you enjoy the most and dislike the most?
So I think I like the collaborative environment the most.
Kind of where I was working previously, a lot of that was designed around like self-management.
And so you worked by yourself a lot.
And so in kind of the environment that we're working with now, even though I'm the training and exercise administrator, we all kind of play a part.
The whole team, there's a team of four of us here. We all play a part in each other's roles and responsibilities.
And I really enjoy sharing what I've learned and what I know with others,
whether that's from my personal life experiences or my knowledge of emergency management.
One of the mottos that I try to apply any time I'm providing the sort of training is what's in it for me.
And I feel like being able to provide people with tools and knowledge that can either be applied in an emergency situation,
but also be applied in their day to day lives or potentially give them skills or training and credentials for that next promotion.
I think that's kind of one of the most rewarding pieces of my job.
What I dislike the most, if we're being honest, I'm not the best at public speaking, especially if it's with strangers.
And so I typically try to avoid that at all costs, even if that is a piece of my role here.
Our emergency manager and the public information officer at Bellevue are really great at public speaking,
and they're great at answering questions and things like that on the spot.
And this is something that I struggle with, but also something I'm working on trying to get better at.
And I don't think there's a career out there in which you're going to love all of the aspects of what it is that you do or are asked to do.
But I think there's benefits to me as a person and to the challenge of getting better and succeeding at things that I'm not great at,
because it's going to help me out in other aspects and other areas as well.
That's really cool.
Hopefully you don't feel like I don't want you to get that feeling kind of speaking to us here.
Yeah, just like we're talking to us.
Yeah, thank you.
So was this a dream job you imagined yourself doing when you were a kid or just when you were an adult?
Is this a dream job you imagined yourself doing as a kid?
No. Growing up, I always wanted to own my own high performance automotive shop.
And I want to say this is something I thought about since I was like 10.
I've always been into cars. And I actually that was my previous career.
I did pursue a career path down down this road.
And interestingly, I kind of felt like it took my passion away from being creative with cars and like working on my own stuff and building cars.
And so that's kind of why I started to lean away from that, start to lean into emergency management.
So when you were younger, who were like your main idols?
Like who inspired you the most?
My main idols?
I would say growing up, it would probably be my dad and my grandpa on my dad's side.
I think what set them apart or what kind of made them stand out to me was I really thought one,
I thought they were one of the coolest people I knew.
But they're also the ones that were always in my corner and always showed up no matter what I wanted to try or pursue,
whether it be sports or academics or music or anything, anything I tried, they were always there with me, supporting me.
And I think just seeing that growing up made me idolize them even more.
So why did you pick this job out of like all of the jobs you could have had?
Because, you know, you're by Seattle, you got a bunch of opportunities.
Why did you pick this one?
So you're talking like the career, like emergency management or the job at Bellevue?
The job at Bellevue.
Like, what, like, I mean, there's got to be a bunch of opportunities out there.
But like, why did you pick this specific one?
So for the career path at Bellevue, what I was really looking at was the team that I was going to be joining.
I really wanted to look at something that was going to be a like something long term that I could see myself in.
But I'd already started to kind of get my feet wet with emergency management and I had started building a network within the industry.
And so it was chatting with the different contacts and people that I've met over the years on if they had to do it over again,
where they would go and where they would start.
And Bellevue was one of those and Carl Lunak was one of those individuals,
our emergency manager, in which a lot of them spoke highly about.
And so when the opportunity presented itself, I knew I wanted to try to pursue that career path here.
But if we're talking kind of switching from an automotive career and then picking a career in emergency management,
I think I tried to think of it in like the simplest terms of what it is that I'm passionate about.
And that was finding a solution or finding solutions to complex problems while also being able to help people.
And I think once I kind of simplified it down to that level, what it was that makes me feel fulfilled,
then it was an easy step to be able to step out of the previous career path and move into emergency management,
because that's now something I get to work on and provide every day.
So what was your career before this and what made you move on?
Yeah, so my career prior to this was I started out as an automotive technician and then ended up working my way
into being the emergency vehicle technician for the city of Issaquah.
And so I was designing and building all of the emergency vehicles for the city and then maintaining those.
And I did that for about 10 years. Issaquah is a lot smaller city than Bellevue.
And so with that comes kind of those other duties as assigned.
And so that's how I kind of got my start in emergency management.
The city of Bellevue has over 1500 employees.
The city of Issaquah had 177 employees at the time, citywide.
And so when you had an incident or an emergency, even if it wasn't a major disaster,
it was still one of those like all hands on deck type situations with a smaller city.
And so that's how I got started with the exposure with emergency management,
because I got to get involved in other aspects outside of just doing working on cars.
And so that's kind of where that started. And it just kind of snowballed from there.
That's nice. So out of your entire career, what was like the main moment, like the biggest highlight of it?
For emergency management so far, I think the biggest highlight so far,
I think would be developing the emergency shelter training program for Bellevue.
This is something that's been in the work since since actually before I hired on,
but it was the kind of first major project I stepped into.
And now that we have this program built and on the ground and staff are trained in,
it's up and running. It allows us to help the community when they're at their worst
or if the worst has happened to the specific individuals and we can kind of get them sheltered
and get them housed and kind of provide some light at the end of that tunnel for them.
So what are the biggest challenges that you think can be solved by our generation that we'd want to solve for you?
Let's see here. I think one of the biggest challenges, especially with the individuals that are in my career field currently,
is leveraging technology. I think people get used to how they've always done things
and that repetition becomes habit. And so if something new or innovative comes along like AI,
they could potentially make things more efficient or effective.
There's hesitancy to be the first to attempt or adapt at all.
There's a lot of people in the emergency management field that also have risk aversion,
rightfully so, because of the career path that we're in.
However, there's something to be said for those that are also willing to explore different ways to accomplish a task.
Because you have the same end goal in mind. And so I think those that are willing to think slightly outside the box
of what has been standard is going to be the future of this career field.
So if someone wants to follow in your footsteps in your careers, what will you tell him or her?
For someone in my specific role, in my current role, I think you need both a passion for continuing to learn,
like continuing education, and you also need a passion for sharing that knowledge onto and with others.
I think I feel like my life experiences prior to this role have been paramount in my success in it.
But compared to most in the field, I feel like I kind of took an awkward path into emergency management,
especially coming from an automotive background, because the two really aren't that similar.
However, I think that those diverse experiences have kind of helped me to be able to look at things from a different perspective.
And I think that's made me better at what I do today as a result.
And I feel like it kind of changes the way that I listen, actively listen and adapt and contribute.
I think if I were to do it all over again, though, I would probably start with volunteering,
volunteering with first responder networks or within the community.
There's great programs like community emergency response training and teams.
And police and fire have their junior programs that are really great to kind of get your feet in the field.
And there's a lot of other organizations to kind of do community outreach and things to support the community,
like not for profits and things like that.
I think those are all great avenues to kind of build those relationships and build those experiences that you can carry on into a career.
And I think one of the key things, though, is finding your individual unique value,
that thing that sets you apart from others and really leaning into that.
And I think this is going to help you stand out and it will also it's going to help you make a more meaningful impact.
Wow. Sorry, that was a lot.
That was like taking it all in. That was kind of wow.
Yeah. Wow. What is your main life advice for kids listening to this podcast?
My main advice, I think I'm going to carry on from the last point and kind of just stay to stay true to yourself and embrace and lean into what makes you unique.
I think that one of the number one things I've learned so far in emergency management is not to be afraid to make mistakes.
A lot of our trainings and a lot of our exercises are designed to be like simulated environments.
And the intent is that we are going to make mistakes and we're going to try to make mistakes so that we can correct those for a real world incident.
And we do that when there's not an emergency.
And so I think it's really important to kind of not be afraid to make mistakes and really lean into what makes you unique.
I also think surrounding yourself with people that are going to support you and bring you up.
If there's one thing that's been the most value to me in my personal life as well as professional,
I think it's the friendships and relationships that I've made and kind of carried on throughout all my experiences of challenges and having those people in your corner supporting you when you make a career change or you're pursuing something new or trying something new.
I think that's that helps you take that next step.
So thank you so much, Mr. Brinson, for a long list interview.
I'm sure many more kids will be inspired by this interview.
To whoever is listening, thanks for listening to the careers for kids podcast.
We hope you enjoyed the episode and we'll see you in the next one.
Bye.