Tasha Barber's Blog

March 24th - April  24th 2020 This month marks my work Anniversary at RedEye! I can't believe that I have been at RedEye for a year already, it has gone so fast. I have learnt so much over the past year, many things of which I thought I would never learn. I have become very comfortable with code and can complete large tasks independently. I have built great relationships with my team members and also my clients. I feel confident when emailing and phoning my clients, which I wasn't at the start. I even answer the phone now, even if the call isn't directly for me. In addition to this, I have become part of the deliverability team and I have begum my ILM course. Furthermore, I will soon be taking part in an IDM online course in Social Media marketing. I am proud of myself for my work this past year and despite being unhappy and confused at times, I worked through it. My Furlough period has been extended until the end of July, but I am still trying to remain positive. I w...

April 24th - May  24th 2020 This was my first month of Furlough and so far it has been average. I miss work and interacting with my peers, but Chris still rings me to check how I'm getting on. This is nice, as he gives me company updates. I have been trying to keep myself occupied during this time.  I have been uploading a lot of work to SkillSure. I have found it easy to get much more work done for my Apprenticeship, since being on Furlough - which is a positive. I keep in contact with Emma and she is always quick to respond to any questions or worries I may have.  Emma also delivered another seminar this month, but it wasn't for training purposes.This was my Citizenship project week, however only four of us were able to attend. We spoke about the structure of the report and how we can write up a presentation. However, I am unsure when we will be able to give our presentation.  City and Guilds are yet to give us an update regarding my exam for the Online a...

March 24th - April  24th 2020 Up until the 20th April, I continued to work remotely. I followed the same protocols as I had the previous month. I had to complete my ILM workshops online and this was done via a Slack call. It is strange to do everything over video calls ad online seminars, but it works out fine.  I had the second half of my Online and Offline marketing training this month, which Emma held online. I found it really informative and interesting. I think Emma did really well to teach us, despite the circumstances. I still got to take part in the Kahoot! quizzes, which is always a favourite for me and my fellow Apprentices. During one of my seminars, I received a message to say I was going to be Furloughed. The Furlough scheme means that I am no longer able to work. This meant I had to quickly rush to get everything sorted, before I went on Furlough leave. I spoke on the phone with Chris and the team leader Paul. We discussed about my handover and what Furlo...

February 24th - March  24th 2020 This month at RedEye was very eventful. I had booked some time off and expected to return to normality when I returned. However this wasn't the case. Due to the recent Covid19 outbreak I had to self isolate when I returned. I thought this may have only been for a week or two, however a few days after returning all RedEye employees had to begin remote working. I had to bring all of my work equipment home and set up a make-shift office in my bedroom.  Prior to this I worked very hard on complementing projects, so that I didn't have to hand over much to my team members. I stayed late to ensure everything had been completed. I was thankful that my team was able to manage some of my work whilst I was away.  When remote working began I had a phone call with Chris to discuss Health and Safety when working from home. I also had to fill out a product loan form, so that the tech team knew what equipment I had with me.  This was a...

January 24th - February  24th 2020 This month at RedEye involved me working really hard on one of my clients. My biggest client was very busy, therefore I spent a lot of time this month answering emails and completing projects for them. I worked a lot on a platform called LiveClicker. LiveClicker generates code that I put into emails. It allows me to add assets into emails, to make them more interesting. For example I can add videos, pictures with the customers name on, calendars, weather forecasts and slideshows. I also attended Escalla this month, where I learnt about the Principles of Coding. This was taught by Amanda, who teaches the IT based parts to my Apprenticeship. I completed my exam in this and passed first time! I am going to return and complete the Microsoft MTA exam, which will further my knowledge.  I was also introduced to another new client this month, who I am the lead contact on. They have weekly work that is briefed in to me and I complete it f...

December 24th 2019 - January  24th 2020 This month has been a bit unorganised for me, due to Christmas and then being off sick (again). Chris really helped me this month, as I hadn't been well. He allowed me to take the necessary time off and spoke to me about what was going on at work, when I got back. Chris helped me to be introduced back into the work environment slowly. On a more positive note, I attended a week of training at Escalla at the start of January. I finished off my module on Business Principles and was able to upload my final report to SkillSure. I have been slow with uploading reports to SkillSure, but want to make more effort with it this year! I also have only five months left of my Apprenticeship, therefore I want to do the best I can to product quality work.  The start of the year was very quite, so I spent some time working on my reports and attending more training with Chris. This has helped me to add some hours to my off the job t...

November 24th - December 24th 2019 This month my fellow team member Lewis has been teaching me about filtering unsubscribes. For one of my clients I have to send unsubscribe and bounce files, so Lewis has been teaching me how to extract and filter the files (which are then sent to the data briefs team). Lewis has been teaching me many things about this client, as he is coming off the client and I am taking over.  This month I have been doing miscellaneous tasks for clients that don't have a CS representative. Any member of the CS team can pick up these tasks and they're usually easy to complete. Taking these tasks on have allowed me to become more independent. I also had my probation this month, as I have been at RedEye for six months. I am very thankful as I passed my probation and received amazing feedback from Chris. Chris has set me some new tasks to work on, mainly surrounding my Apprenticeship work. I have found that I have been slightly neglectful...

October 24th - November 24th 2019 At the beginning of this month, I fell ill and had to take some time off. Whilst I was recovering I worked form home for the first time. This was slightly difficult, as I don't have VPN access yet. Chris was very supportive through my time off and handled some projects for me. I also had my first period of time off for Annual Leave, which meant I had to write my first handover. Handovers are essential as it lets the team know what work needs to be picked up and what projects are outgoing. I assigned my tasks to the relevant team members and write the email is sections (this makes it easier for the team to see what work applies to them). Due to being ill, I had to miss my week at Escalla. However Emma was very helpful and reassured me that I would be able to catch up with the work I missed at a later date. This month I worked on deliverability with Chris. I am also part of the deliverability team, which means I advise the Account Mangers o...

September 24th - October 24th 2019 At the beginning of this month, I had a more serious 121 with Chris. This was due to the issues I faced when he was on Annual Leave. I was able to freely express my feelings and Chris was able to help me get these sorted. Chris explained to me what could've been done to make that week better and expressed that things would be different next time. Also, Chris is a first time manager, so he is learning whilst I am. I have been working on more day-to-day tasks this month, without needing help from Chris. As well as working on more email builds. I definitely feel as though I am becoming more confident within my role. I attended Escalla this month and we began working on our Citizenship project. I was chosen to be the team leader. We also learnt about Online and Offline marketing which was really interesting and Emma made it fun. This topic allowed me to learn more about marketing in general and attending Escalla will help me have better k...

August 24th - September 24th 2019 Throughout this month I have been working on my Apprenticeship projects. The main project for this month is my first Report that I am writing about a client of mine. Emma gave me a report structure to use, which has been a great help. I just have to ensure that I link everything to the relevant criteria.  Alongside my report work, I attended my first training week at Escalla. I met some really nice people, some of which are studying Digital Marketing with me. This was my induction week, so I learnt about Health and Safety, academy standards and diversity. I also completed many ACT E-Learning tasks, which I have been able to upload to SkillSure.  Prior to attending Escalla, I had a 121 with Chris. These are usually very informal and we usually go on a walk or play a game of pool.  Also, I have been attending regular team meetings, in which we discuss what projects are in progress. These meetings are essential, as it allows everyo...

July 24th - August 24th 2019 Throughout my second month at RedEye, I began working on the RedEye's internal programme called 'Contour'. My manager Chris taught me how to set up an email campaign and how we use Contour to segment customers and send them relevant emails. I learnt that there are many factors to be considered before setting an email live (setting up the campaign, segmentation, testing and peer reviews). Before I can do this for an actual client, Chris set me some practice email set ups to complete. Alongside this, I have also spent this month practising my coding skills. I have been coding some emails (with the help of Chris). I have been using Code Academy to support this. I have found this part to my job interesting and look forward to progressing with my coding. I have even worked independently on email builds for clients - which is interesting. Chris will then sit with me and talk through what I need to do next.  I have begun communication with my c...