As I’m writing this, it is coming up to my one-year anniversary working at Red Tiger (November 15th). I received a LinkedIn notification a few days ago letting me know that I had been connected to Steve and Paul for a year now, and it took a moment to sink in how quickly these past 12 months have gone.
Stepping into Work Life as a University Graduate
This time last year I was a few months into officially being a university graduate with the world at my fingertips. I remember feeling excited, but at the same time I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to do with my career. I had no set plan or ‘dream job’. I was looking at the publishing industry for a while, considering a job in editorial, but with publishing being so competitive I was having little luck there.
I then, through university contacts, ended up in touch with Steve and Paul and quickly found myself hired as a Research and Marketing Assistant for Red Tiger Talent. It was the perfect timing, and exactly what I was looking for in terms of remote working and being able to challenge myself by learning new skills in marketing and recruitment.
12 months on now, I feel like I have grown and learnt so much despite the time seeming to fly by. I was able to learn more about the world of recruitment, assisting in the research process that goes on behind the scenes to get candidates placed and clients’ roles filled. This then turned into more of a managerial position for me because in June 2022 we took on our apprentice Grace, and I became her line manager.
My Experience as a Research and Marketing Manager
I passed on my learnings of recruitment research to Grace and she is now excelling in this field, and I’ve been able to build up my managerial skills these last few months which has been invaluable experience. I remember feeling a little bit of the all-too-popular ‘imposter syndrome’, being a 22-year-old (relatively) fresh graduate already managing someone else, but this has pushed me to learn more about myself and my own skills in how I work with someone else. It’s a challenge I have been grateful for as I have grown in confidence and understanding of the different ways people work.
Perhaps what has become my most favourite part of my role is the digital marketing side, handling Red Tiger Talent’s and Red Tiger Coaching’s social media, promoting our Excel Training courses, the newsletters, the blog, website, and any other related content. I have to pause and thank Ruth and Simon, part of the Red Tiger family, for their knowledge and guidance in getting to grips with digital marketing, content creation, and website design, as these were areas I naturally had an interest in but had very little official training in before.
In the past few months I have been working hard on redesigning our entire website (which is now live!) and producing this has been a great achievement for me. Now as Red Tiger’s Research and Marketing Manager, I get to let my creativity flow and experiment with content design whilst promoting all the incredible work that is done on the Talent and Coaching sides.
I feel very lucky to be working for a company that allows me to express my creativity and trust me to try out new things, rather than having to always stick to a set template of what needs to be done. This ties in to the wider company value of raising the bar, committing to continuous improvement and growth. Not only does our content shift and change in response to the direction of the company, but I myself am able to push myself to develop new ways of thinking and creating.
Remote Working and Future Plans
Being a remote worker isn’t always easy since it can sometimes feel isolating, but I have to admit this is the kind of role that I thrive in (perhaps due to the year and a half of university I spent working from home thanks to a particular pandemic easing me into the routine of it). I like being able to go to the gym before work without rushing, take a peaceful walk at lunch, and avoid the nightmare of commuter traffic after work. This definitely helps me with setting a better work/life balance, which ultimately makes me feel even more productive and motivated when I am working.
I also think this has made the times we do meet up to work together or attend events more enjoyable; I’ve worked over at Paul’s office in Southport, been to the University of Leeds with Steve and Paul, met up with Ruth and Steve in Frodsham, attended the GISRUK event at the University of Liverpool, worked with Grace in Keighley, and had an away day in Manchester! The next meeting I’m looking forward to is our training day/early Christmas meal in Chester at the start of December!
Looking ahead, I’m feeling really motivated to push myself even further in the realm of digital marketing, in both the creative and analytical sides of it. I’m even surprising myself in that I’d be keen to grow more in the managerial side if we do decide to take on a second apprentice, something that I wouldn’t have been as confident in a year ago. It’s almost strange to look back and see how much myself and my life has changed in these past 12 months, and I’m excited to see what’s to come for me in my second year working at Red Tiger.
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