Staff Profile - Aisling Coyle

Every month, we plan to catch up with one of our FirstPoint USA staff members, and give you a little insight into what brought them to FirstPoint USA and what keeps them here! This months featured profile is Aisling Coyle.  Aisling is  fairly new to FirstPoint USA but has quickly established herself as a valuable member of our team. Aisling began her career at FirstPoint USA working in an administrative role, manning the front desk, handing customer enquiries and processing applications amongst other duties.  Aisling has since moved on to our Client Services team with Nicole Montoya.  The girls in this department really work hard to help our clients with the transition from the assessment stage with our Sports Consultants, to our promotions team in the Clearing Department. Aisling is forever on a personal and professional quest to reduce the size of her email inbox, and has become very knowledgeable very quickly about the in's and out's of SAT exams, the visa application process and the best ways to build our clients profiles to showcase their skills and abilities to US coaches. Another important lesson Aisling has learned (the hard way) since joining the company.... is to avoid wine when having dinner with the other FirstPoint USA staff, and U.S coaches.....but that's another story! Before joining the company, Aisling has enjoyed great success in her sport, Field Hockey, in Scotland, and at Ohio State University.  As a former client, Buckeye, Aisling is even a FirstPoint USA Hall of Famer! Aisling has a multitude of accolades she has aquired throughout her time in the U.S, most notably perhaps is becoming a 1st team All-American! We caught up with Aisling for a bit of insight into what she's about, where she's been and what she gets up to in our Client Services Department :

What did you do before coming to FPUSA?

Before joining the Firstpoint team I was in the USA finishing my degree at The Ohio State University. I graduated in June 2011, moved home and started in Firstpoint in September 2011.

What’s your sporting background?

My sporting background is hockey or field hockey in the USA. I started playing when I was about 7 years old for my local team Kelburne.

Describe what your job involves

In client services we do a lot of different jobs. We are the main point of communication for our clients as we assist them through the preparation phase before the Clearing/Marketing Department. Myself and Nicole identify their initial eligibility for different leagues in the US and assist in getting a whole checklist of items and footage online. It can be a frustrating time for clients as understandably they wish to go “live” on the website ASAP, so we try to help them through the process as promptly and efficiently as possible.

What might you do in a day?

For the most part I’m in the office all day. In the morning I work through emails and calls from clients. To someone who hasn’t been through the recruiting process or the college experience before there are always questions that arise that maybe they hadn’t thought about in their initial interview. With the consultants travelling a lot it is nice for clients to have someone they can contact at all times. In the afternoon I work through the endless pile of items that have been sent to us from clients and see if anyone is ready to be passed to the next stage in the process; the Clearing Department.

What do you like most about your job?

I like passing clients over! I don’t mean that in a bad way, we have a great relationship with the clients in our department. However, what they really want is to start communicating with US coaches. I know how excited they are to finally start negotiating scholarships and see where they are going to be studying for the next 4 years.

What are your ambitions?

In the longterm I would love to live in Australia. My mum’s sister lives in Melbourne and it’s such a cool city. I love the UK but I HATE the weather! I can’t make long terms goals because I don’t look that far ahead. So for right now I want learn to play the guitar.

What’s your claim to fame?

Ehhh I don’t really have one! I feel like following on from Allen’s “related to Lithuanian royalty” is hard. I guess that I represented Scotland at hockey at U16/U18/U21 level. We went to the U21 World Cup in Chile which was a highlight.

What do you do in your free time/ what are your hobbies?

Right now I’m taking a break from hockey but I’m sure I will get back to it sometime. I enjoy traveling a lot and going to new places. I also love music so I try to get to as many gigs and festivals as possible.

How does it feel to be Tommy "the ref's" Pin-Up Girl?

no comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Testimonial about Aisling Coyle, from Client Services colleague, Nicole Montoya :

"Aisling has a passion for music and festivals, and she's always teaching me about bands and new songs.  She finds comfort in knowing she has broadened my horizons culturally.  She frequently educates me on Scottish-lingo (-Nicole is from Long Beach, California) and we enjoy a good debate every once in a while about American English versus British English.  I would say the score is about 50/50.

Aisling is an absolute joy to work with, and I am very, very lucky to have her in Client Services.  I truly do not know how I would cope with the workload without her, so thank you Aisling!  She knows how to roll with the punches when the boys are attacking her for her preference for coffee every day instead of tea, when she always claims, "It's much easier to make coffee than tea!".

When I first met Aisling Coyle, I must say she was quite reserved and kept to herself for the most part.  But, now that she is comfortable with all of us, she can't stop talking about how she's an All-American and how she could kick all of our butts, as long as she had her Field Hockey stick.  She goes on and on about the amazing Ohio Buckeyes football games, and continually name-drops left and right!

No, but Aisling is honestly a very humble gal, and tries to downplay her successful Field Hockey career not only in Scotland, but also in the States.  I think it's absolutely amazing that she proved to compete at the highest level in her sport and represented her country...not many people can say that!

I think I speak on behalf of all of the office when I say that we all wish we could have seen her play when representing the Ohio State Buckeyes, maybe one day she'll pick up that stick again!"