So funnily enough, I actually fell into ad tech accidentally. All my previous roles had been in education and I was looking for something completely different. I saw the role on LinkedIn and thought that it looked super interesting, but I had to do some digging to find out more about the company, as ad tech was super new to me! After reading up on Xandr and the industry it was kind of a no-brainer, I knew it would open up a whole new world and a brand new set of exciting opportunities. After nearly 4 years I haven’t looked back!

My current role is Manager, Client Operations. I support the global Go-To-Market teams with the end-to-end contract and client onboarding process to ensure that our clients are successfully onboarded onto our platform. I also work on loads of really cool projects, to identify growth opportunities, and automate and scale processes. I love this side of the job as I get the chance to collaborate with so many different teams, legal, product & finance to name just a few. Working with Commercial teams all over the world is so fun, the relationships I’ve built are really important and there is never a day that goes by where I haven’t learned something totally new!

Probably learning that it’s ok if you don’t have all the answers. I’ve always put pressure on myself to deliver, and with that, I’ve sometimes set unrealistic expectations for myself. Ad tech is so broad and there is so much to learn, no one would ever expect you to know everything. At first, I really struggled with that, because if I didn’t know something I felt like I’d failed. Over the years my stance has really changed, and I really love learning new things, and asking the questions when I don’t have the answers.

I’ve been blessed in my career with some amazing managers, but I do want to mention my most recent skip-level manager Allison Hayhurst. Allison is a phenomenal leader, and I learned so much from her. She invested time in my career, which no one had really previously done. She challenged me to think about what I wanted and helped me to build a path to get there. I will always be so grateful for her wisdom & leadership.

To advocate for yourself – because if you don’t, no one else is going to do it for you. In 2021 Xandr gave me the opportunity to take part in The Forem’s Level Up Programme, and it was one of the best things I’ve done. I met lots of incredible women that really empowered me to believe in myself and what I have to offer as an individual. They had a module on ‘self-advocacy’, the main takeaway being “If the people around you aren’t aware of your value, you’ll never be able to self-advocate effectively”

Find your passion and stick with it. It takes time to find what really interests you, but once you know what that is I think the motivation comes far more easily. It’s because I love the work that I do and I’m genuinely happy in my role that I keep on going when I hit a tricky patch, or I am having a difficult time.

Organised, positive, empathetic

Great question! On a personal level, I’d love to see more women and diverse groups in the industry – we have made huge strides, but have a long way to go. I think technology is the future, and over the last couple of years, we’ve proven that with the right tech, we can work from almost anywhere in the world. I think machine learning and AI will undoubtedly have a large role to play too, so it will be super interesting to see how that plays out and how ad tech evolves in that era.