Marketing Assistant, Wynand (Vinnie) Barnard, joined Astute in 2022 as a Recruitment Partner in the Power Team before transitioning to the Marketing department.
He spoke with Astute’s Head of Marketing, James Leslie, about his journey, what he enjoys most about his marketing role, and the unique experiences he brings from his time in recruitment.
How did you get into your role at Astute?
When I moved over to the UK, I applied for loads of jobs and interviewed at quite a few companies.
Ultimately, I chose Astute based on their reputation and great benefits.
Having every other Friday off as part of Astute’s 9-Day Fortnight offering was a massive bonus and made my decision easy!
I started at Astute working as a Recruitment Partner on the Power team.
I worked in that role for just shy of a year; however, I had a huge interest and urge to work in marketing.
At the time, there wasn’t a position available to me at Astute in marketing.
However, Terry (CEO and founder), explained that he’d like to create a role in marketing for me.
Of course I jumped at the chance immediately! And that’s what I’ve been doing ever since.
What do you do for Astute?
I work for Astute as a Marketing Assistant along with James Leslie, Head of Marketing.
Because we’re essentially a two-man team, both of us are involved in every aspect of the marketing you’ve (hopefully) seen.
My role includes social media, filming and editing videos, writing blogs, updating our LinkedIn jobs, and designing proposals, salary surveys, job advert graphics, etc.
I love it!
What is your favourite thing about working at Astute?
Have I already mentioned having every 2nd Friday off?
Astute has tons of fantastic benefits, which I could list as my favourite thing (especially the private healthcare), but my favourite thing about working here is how well you get to know one another.
Obviously, spending every working day with someone else, you’re bound to get to know them well. But because most of the people that work at Astute tend to stay here for quite a while, you get to know them on a much deeper level.
What have you enjoyed most about your recent projects?
I’ve been dabbling a lot with various projects, and I always find myself getting most excited about either something that I can try and automate or create a process for.
Whenever something like that comes along, I immediately turn to AI and ChatGPT to see how I can streamline that process. That and Jon Berry, Head of IT, are two sure-fire ways to get my work completed as efficiently as humanly (or not humanly, I guess) possible.
AI has taken the world by storm, and while there a lot of people that don’t quite agree with it’s place within marketing, I’ve of the mind that you have to keep ahead of trends and tools. It’s sink or swim, stagnate or innovate.
Luckily for me, Astute always chooses to innovate.
What is the most exciting thing about your role?
As silly as it may sound, I love how much more there is to learn about marketing and the recruitment industry.
Both marketing and recruitment are constantly changing and developing.
The only way to ensure that the service you’re providing is still valuable and relevant to your customers, clients, and audience, is to stay up-to-date.
While that may seem daunting to some, I find it really interesting and fun.
Whether it be trying to figure out what Google’s latest core update is about, or why certain content performs better on social media (and which content that is!), to understanding what content resonates more with our audience, we have to constantly adapt.
What advice would you give someone who is looking to join Astute?
Don’t work at Astute if you’re looking for a role where you can fade into the background, clock in and out, and be just another cog in the system.
At Astute, you can’t just fade into the background, because while your role is important, who you are is of equal (if not more) importance.
