EPeeps Hannah Tarbotton | Inbound Team Manager

Hey everyone, I’m Hannah! The next thing one would usually say here is where they are from. Always a tricky question for me… I was born in the USA, moved to China when I was 18 months old where I proceeded to live (bouncing between Shanghai and Hong Kong) for the following five years. My family moved to Sydney in 2003 where I lived until completing high school in 2014. The following year, at the age of 17, I moved to Canada for three months to become a ski instructor, followed by a five month stint in New Zealand, before moving to the UK for a year in 2016. In 2017, I then moved to New Zealand to study full time. Both my parents are Kiwis, therefore New Zealand is a very familiar place.

I joined EP in January, 2021 after studying Education and Psychology at the University of Otago. At the time I was looking for any job that would get me out of the hospitality sector. I ended up landing a role at EP as a Customer Support Assistant in the night space working 4pm-1am and I haven’t looked back. Within a couple of months, I realised that there were great opportunities to further my career at EP and six months later, I was successful in becoming the Inbound Team Manager. 

Tell us a bit about yourself! 

Prior to Covid, I travelled extensively (and can’t wait until we can again)! I think it must be in my DNA – my parents travelled so much in their youth that they had to have additional pages added to their passports! My most spontaneous trip was in February 2020 when I searched for the cheapest international flights from Sydney, found a friend that was keen to come, and a week later boarded a plane to Malaysia for two weeks.

When I’m not at work, I love to hang out with friends, snow ski in winter, water ski in summer, spend time outdoors and try new cafes. I thrive on being busy, although I have also learnt to appreciate down time over the past few years. 

Why do you love working at EP?

The people and the culture! That’s what it comes down to in any job I think, and EP has nailed it. What stands out to me at EP, is that everyone chips in and helps out regardless of whether it is typically their job. 

I often reflect on the impact that the Inbound Team has on teachers worldwide. The various small things we do daily that only take a couple of minutes of our time such as resetting a student’s password which in turn saves teachers valuable time. In August 2021, the Inbound Team helped 6,425 customers!

Where is somewhere you’d like to visit?

I really want to go to Cappadocia in Turkey at some point. You’ll only need to do a quick Google image search to see why! 

Hannah in 3 words

I asked several of my friends for three words that describe me, the following were used by almost everyone … honest, reliable and hard-working. 

What does a typical day look like for you in your role?

As my team works around the clock (24 hours a day!), the first thing I do is catch up on what has happened whilst I was asleep. I read any Slack messages that have come in, as well as go through my to-do list and sort anything urgent. My day tends to revolve around the inbox and the incoming emails/queries we receive from teachers, students and parents. Also included in a day are various meetings and individual check-ins with my team. If there are lots of incoming emails, that’s my entire focus for the day (we all wish we had a crystal ball). However, I love that no two days are the same! I enjoy being kept on my toes and busy, and my current role most definitely fulfills that. 

What are your proudest moments?

In my personal life, I’d say my proudest moments were moving out of home at 17, exploring the world, making mistakes (learning from them!), making new friends and gaining valuable “life skills”. 

In my work life, my proudest moment would be having the opportunity to progress and further develop my career by becoming the Inbound Team Manager, just 6 months into my time at EP. 

Tell us about a time when you viewed an event or occurrence as a negative, though in hindsight it turned out to be a positive.

At the end of 2015 I applied for a two year visa for Canada, with the intention of becoming a ski instructor full time. Although a very FUN job, not something I necessarily saw myself doing forever. Unfortunately, my visa application fell through and I was left to consider what other options I had. I was fairly certain that university wasn’t calling my name so my new plan was to move to the UK and work as a teaching assistant. If it hadn’t been for that, I wouldn’t have decided to study Education/go to university, therefore I wouldn’t have moved to NZ or landed a role at EP. I am very grateful to be where I am today! 

Any last words you would like to share?

Thanks for taking the time to read a bit more about me. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn 🙂