Our latest addition to the Celebrating Women in Tech and Marketing content series explores what TLA’s female stars are passionate about regarding their work and where they go to get inspired and learn.

The tech and marketing industry is well-known for being fast-paced and that’s certainly true of life at TLA. When hiring, we look for people who embrace the changes and opportunities that come with the territory, regardless of the role they’re in.

Work passions

When we asked what our group was most passionate about, senior quality and compliance executive Abigail Hanson was first to comment on “the constant growth in the company,” highlighting that the role she’s been promoted into didn’t exist two months ago and that she’s excited about what “opportunities could present themselves in the future”.

Kathy Fleming, who heads up the quality and compliance team, elaborated on that growth, adding: “I’m excited about the development of systems to enhance what we already do – in particular the way in which we can evolve to become more diverse and provide a service that clients want and that add value.”

While it’s great to hear that the company’s growth matters to them, we decided to dig deeper into things they love about their respective roles. “I’m most passionate about ad analysis,” said Amara Molloy, who joined TLA earlier this summer as a graduate PPC executive.

“I enjoy comparing ad types and determining which ads worked and which didn’t,” she added. “I find it extremely interesting to look and try to understand how the audiences mind works allowing our department to produce more effective campaigns.”

Miki Parr, another recent arrival at TLA, this time in the data insights team, said: “I love reporting. I know that sounds sad, but I get a kick out of seeing the numbers line up. It’s interesting to spot trends and patterns within the data that you may not have spotted if it hadn’t been investigated. The other aspect of my job that I am passionate about is investigative analysis. Having spotted something in the data that doesn’t look quite right, and then delving into the root cause of this.

“Data is the currency of the world now,” she added. “Everyone uses it and uses it differently. Within my profession no two days are ever the same.”

For our placement student Shania Corbishley, who is part of our technical development team, passion comes with “learning new things every day due to the fact that tech is always changing”. She added: “I enjoy problem-solving and pushing myself to improve.”

Fellow developer Danielle Smith, who joined TLA in 2014, said: “I enjoy helping people. It’s rewarding when someone has an issue, or you make a change to a system, that is going to benefit and help their job easier.”

Shannon Miller, another of our long-serving technical developers cited that her passion comes in the form of “contributing to the design and development of new systems, learning how to use new skills and technologies, and creating something that is useful to other people and the company.”

Sources of inspiration and learning

Learning and growth are a big part of our culture. So, where do our group go to seek inspiration and fuel their passions?

For Shania, it’s “seeing other people in the tech industry create amazing things. When I see something mind-blowing it inspires me!”

Amy Smith, one of TLA’s account managers, looks closer to home: “Within the TLA there are people with a wealth of knowledge and amazing skill sets.  If I have a question or need help, I have always found people willing to take the time to share their knowledge.” And that sentiment is echoed by Danielle: “I always like speaking to the other devs in our team. There’s a lot of knowledge within the team and I can learn a lot from them.”

For developers, there are a wide variety of online sources that provide information to help you develop your knowledge and solve a multitude of challenges. For example, Danielle uses Feedly to follow .net blogs and other professional blogs.

Another great source of inspiration and learning are events – including but not limited to Dot Net Liverpool, which was formed by Joshua Duxbury, a member of the TLA technical development team.

Outside of tech, Emily Abbey finds inspiration in a women’s networking group called AllBright. “Being able to connect with other women who ‘get it’ in terms of balancing the many demands on us between work and home life, and who are also brilliant role models and can offer pearls of wisdom has been a lifesaver!”

Kathy, meanwhile, said: “I attend a quarterly data protection networking meetings which is a great forum for sharing good practice with people in similar roles across different sectors.”

If you have a question about anything that’s been discussed as part of our Celebrating Women in Tech and Marketing series, including the events our team attend, please get in touch. We’d love to hear from you.