Get to know Pradeep, Key Account Representative, a little closer
Tell us a bit about your past and how you arrived to Adpone?
I left India and moved to Brazil where I lived for 9 years. I used to work for the biggest Indian bank there, and I helped start their operations in Brazil.
But I felt something was not right, I always had this liking towards technology, and I knew I could do more in the tech field. This is when I started looking at tech hubs all over the world.
While researching for a good opportunity, I got enrolled in a Master of Digital Entrepreneurship in Barcelona.
That was when I found an opportunity to join Adpone. I had an interview with Ana Huz and I was hired. The hiring process was really smooth and fast.
About your role, what exactly do you do?
I started my job as a Media Buyer, in charge of the Business Development of Indian websites, and then I continued expanding operations into many other countries.
I did not have knowledge of advertising, but I used to work in an IT company in India, so I had few references but everything here was new information to me.
Just the fact that there was so much to learn was exciting. I wanted to know everything about everything. I started seeing things that I could improve on, to fix and it helped me stay really motivated.
How has your role changed since you joined?
So, this is the thing about me: I am a troubleshooter. I need to scratch my head to see how to optimize things further.
There is this saying “We spend 9 hours trying to figure out a problem that can be solved in 2 minutes”.
I always try to make small changes that can impact the maximum, and at Adpone I found there was plenty of space for me to test and learn.
I have worked on two projects so far.
As for the tech part, I created a tool to improve the onboarding of sites, together with the tech team. I also created a tool where Media Buyers, like me, can check their active websites and get useful information for their publishers.
I got a lot of support from Mili, my Director. I would send her Slack messages with my ideas and she would give me pointers to improve them. We always have great discussions.
Employee engagement is another passion of mine, so I started working on a plan to make onboarding even better at Adpone. Mili once set a meeting where I presented my ideas to the whole C-suite management directly and the new hire experience was born. This was very cool, I would not have done anything without having great managers.
As I came from the banking area to advertising I knew how complicated new terms could be to a person that came from a different world.
The goal of this project was to try to make the onboarding as frictionless as possible. There´s this concept of explaining complex things as if you were breaking them down for a 5-year-old, this is what I thought it should be like. And, I started working on simplifying the onboarding plan.
With this new onboarding plan, what can new people joining the team expect the onboarding to be like?
I will welcome the new team member and guide him or her through a 5-day plan where every day they will learn a few key topics and they will be able to put them into practice right away. This will make them feel comfortable and confident.
After the induction is over, we will meet again every 3 weeks for 3 months, to follow up on different topics.
Usually, in the 3rd month, the person is at their peak, they will have a certain level of knowledge and they can get through negotiation meetings easily.
What do you expect your future to be like here?
I would like to grow and have my own team, to lead a solution for Adpone someday. I will be open to that in the future. Now that Adpone is a bigger company, I think there will be more opportunities. I really enjoy employment engagement, I would like to be part of it.
I am right now the Indian point of contact for Adpone and I get to meet interesting people and I learn a lot.
I also speak Portuguese with a Sao Paulo accent and I use this to sometimes try to get into the Brazilian market. It is hilarious to see the Brazilians when I start meetings by directly speaking with my Paulista accent and they are like this Indian face doesn’t match the accent.
How do you help people integrate into the company and Adpone culture?
As soon as the new hire walks into the office, I explain the values and the mission of the company. I introduce them to their Mentor in the office who will be their buddy from the very beginning and then we go out for a coffee to let all the new information sink in.
And, on Fridays, we work until 3 PM. So at times, we play Settlers of Catan after work. Cami brings her board game and we conquer territories at our dining table.
What would you say to someone who wants to join our team?
They will have a great chance to learn. Not only about advertising, but about many areas. We learn how to maintain a relationship with clients, big ad tech, and media groups. You build really good connections with your business partners. Your Linkedin connections will go through the roof.
You learn account management and selling. You are pushed to become a better version of yourself. You feel the urge to improve.
I could say there is a healthy competitive environment in Adpone so you bring cool ideas to the table.
What will the first day of a new team member be like?
I’m gonna take them out for a coffee, and then start explaining a few terminologies. They will also get some Adpone goodies. They will meet their Assigned Mentor, who will be their first friend and who will also have some personality resemblance to ease their onboarding.
We have a mentor program, which is quite interesting.
The Mentorship program is designed so that the Mentor has first-hand experience being in charge of a new person. The mentor learns how to be responsible for the mentee. The new person can ask literally whatever they have in their mind and if the mentor doesn’t know then they have to figure out how to get to the answer. It works both ways. The Mentor learns more and the new hire has a buddy some day will become a mentor too.
