What is the ideal Employee of a Digital Agency?

This question is asked by all candidates who sooner or later think about a career in digital because many of them have no idea how agencies work in the online advertising market.

Previously, professional skills and knowledge were decisive for a candidate for a job in a marketing agency, but as our experience showed, it is easier to teach a product than to infect with the companys values ​​and change character. As a result of the testing months, we formulated a list of requirements for potential employees within the agency - we developed a set of criteria for each position and grade. In addition to it, there is also a general set of characteristics that are suitable for any position in digital, that same “portrait of an employee of a digital-agency” http://redleos.com/

Interviewing " by criteria" simplified and automated the selection, and most importantly - made it better. The decision-making process has become easier, and the choice, supported by facts, is always more rational than subjective opinion. The final meeting with the CEO ceased to be long and painful - now the manager had a “candidate card” in front of his eyes, where all the criteria were analyzed and there were pros and cons. Go through the points on the portrait of the ideal:"
Yes, we ask candidates for an interview to calculate the percentage or add fractions. No, we are not meticulous and do not calculate the algorithms in our everyday work. “Why is this needed?” Asked many candidates.

First, the ability to operate with numbers and the simplest mathematical operations halves the time spent on processing elementary calculations and working in Excel. As practice has shown, many candidates do not know school mathematics.

For example, try folding 2/3 +? on a piece of paper, leading to a common denominator. The whole process will take about a minute, provided that you remember how to do it. More than two minutes - if you google. And the one who knows how to put in mind is able to cope in five seconds. An employee with mathematical knowledge will spend fewer man-hours on solving any task related to numbers, which means that the employer needs less time to train him, mentoring and basic calculations - this is a financial benefit for the company.

Secondly, an employee who is friendly with numbers usually evaluates his workload faster and more accurately and skillfully balances between tasks, immediately wondering in his mind how much time and effort each project will take.

There was a case when a candidate suitable for product knowledge came to us for an interview, but could not answer a single mathematical question. We took it on probation, as an exception. He worked with us for a very short time, because he had to recheck every task related to mathematics — count the bid for a key phrase or recalculate the budget. He also made serious mistakes that led to uneven consumption, and spent a lot of time on solving typical problems, so a month later he left of his own accord.

Attentiveness and pedantry Pedantry is not always expressed in a clean desktop, a smoothly ironed shirt and an acute reaction to pollution. Accurate attitude to the formation of tasks, the distribution of documents in folders, a systematic approach to files on a computer and meaningful feedback to colleagues - all this is characteristic of real professionals who do more such things on the machine and do not consider them to be anything special.

Thoughtfulness. Ability to immerse yourself in a question in any conditions

Failure to focus on the task in the office of the open space format can give the employee a lot of discomforts. If external factors interfere with productive thinking, the noise is distracting and annoying, and everything starts to get confused by extraneous sounds, then you can first work “with interference” at home (turn on the TV or radio) or, for example, at the food court in the shopping center, see , can you get used to this format. Use headphones or go into a conversation, if you can not concentrate at all, but these are temporary measures, as in general, you have to work with “noise effects”.

We have an employee who previously did not know how to work " with interference" - he could not even read the task in parallel and hear the phone ring. From the time he overcame this problem, starting with a small one - headphones and two monitors, after which he gave himself a stress test and worked for two days at the food court of one of the shopping and entertainment centers. On the second day, given the lack of choice, he had to pull himself together and simply disengage from what was happening around. After the noisy mall, the office seemed very nice and calm.

The ability to quickly learn new tools or knowledge
If an employee does not follow the innovations in the field of digital, which develops at the speed of light, then in due course begins to slip in the work due to the loss of relevance of previously acquired knowledge, plus time wasted. Our experts regularly attend specialized conferences and track innovations. We also have a group in chat rooms " lecture", where we share useful information on training.

Once, a specialist came to us at the Open Doors Day. He had no experience and specialized education at all, but there was an insane desire to develop in the field of Internet marketing. For all the other criteria, he approached. We took him first to one department, in which he actively merged for 3 months - he came early, studied new materials, asked his senior colleagues for advice. After that, it became clear that his competence would bring more benefits to another department. He enthusiastically joined in the study of a new product and after a couple of months showed himself from the best side, helping to solve serious problems. Now about him perfectly responds as his head and clients of the agency.

Ability to analyze
Imagine: the customer has a business that sells mens razors, and the advertising budget is only for two weeks a year. It is unlikely that he will be satisfied and will get the result if the specialist offers to launch RK in the summer, because it is much more logical to do this, for example, before February 23. You can take another case where men were chosen as the target audience a couple of weeks before February 23, although it is obvious that women buy razors as a gift, and “machine tools” are suggested as the keyword.

Initiative

Be proactive if you want to always stay abreast of the latest news and trends in digital. It is not necessary for this to be an extrovert, because even deep introverts show a craving for new knowledge and strive to develop, taking on complex projects and offering non-standard solutions. The lack of initiative in Internet marketing is directly proportional to the lack of self-development, and the stagnant employee is a ballast for the employer.

Our agency has an analyst who initially came to the position of an intern. Despite the fact that he is an introvert, and these types of people are characterized by increased concentration on the process and certain difficulties with communication in the team, his initiative and ability to always promptly join the task, plus the desire to do the maximum, helped to take the position of a senior analyst after a year and a half after the first day at the office.

Separation of company values
A year ago, a young man came to us for an interview, who practically said “I” through the word and clearly exaggerated his merits in the successes of the past employer, so I immediately had doubts whether he could work in a team. Several leading questions forced him to open up even more and show professional egoism in all its glory. With such individualists, we are not on the way, because our systems are built on group work. This is a priority and a key factor in the choice, no matter how cool the pros are in front of us at the interview.

The most important thing is the desire of a specialist to develop, especially a beginner. Employees who are primarily money-oriented are unable to look to the future and evaluate career prospects, so simple conditions are often chosen. Working at the agency requires complete dedication, but in return, you get interesting and diverse professional tasks, career growth, managerial experience, and useful contacts.

Summary
Constantly follow the innovations;

Search for non-standard problem solutions;

Love numbers in any form;

To be able to work in multitasking mode - fill 10,000 lines of Excel on one monitor, and choose pictures for ads on the other, or prepare a report for a client;

Analyze so that the questions “why a cat has 4 paws” and “how to measure a house with oranges” do not stump;

Have a good sense of humor, which helps to do all of the above quickly, easily and with pleasure.

Everyone has a different start, so you shouldnt get upset because of the lack of specialized education. First of all, you need to build on your basic skills, the desire to develop and the ability to be attentive to details, as well as show initiative and proactiveness, of course, if you really want to work in digital and succeed with a cool team.