How a talent reshuffle helped me break out of my comfort zone
Pedro Fidelis shares how he discovered a passion for online marketing after 7 years working in finance.
It was a regular workday, when my leader at the time and the Head of Marketing called me to the balcony. Back then, I was an analyst in the Financial Planning and Analysis (FP&A) team at SumUp. As I walked towards them, I thought they might want to discuss a financial model I had helped develop to calculate the payback of our online marketing campaigns, so I started to mentally recap the rationale behind the model.
As it turned out, they didn’t want to discuss my financial model. Instead, they wanted to offer me a new position in the Performance Marketing team. “One of our greatest challenges today is to keep on growing exponentially in customer acquisition,” said the Head of Marketing. He explained how the team could use my skills in both analytical work and finance to reach and convert more customers while hitting specific payback targets.
Until then, my professional background had been exclusively in finance. 7 years earlier, I had started my first internship in asset management, after which I moved on to investment analysis and trading, then finally FP&A. So yes, the invitation to join the Performance Marketing team sounded rather odd. Yet, after taking some time to consider it and talking to a few friends, I realized that this was a great opportunity to learn something new about business and become a more complete professional. Growth was one of the hottest topics at the time, and here I was being given an opportunity to learn about it, so I said yes to the new role.
It wasn’t easy to transition from FP&A to Marketing. I had to learn almost everything from scratch, including what the very basic technical terms meant — CPC, CPM, CTA, CPA and so on. It helped a lot to have the team there to support me, all accepting of my lack of experience in their field, and welcoming of my willingness to learn and support them. In the end, there was also some comfort for me in realising that other colleagues hadn’t come from a marketing background. Former consultants and metalwork engineers were among the people I met in my new role.
I realised I was making valuable contributions to the team when, a couple of months into the role, they started to seek my opinion before they made any major decisions. I began to feel more confident in the new position, as we managed to deliver the challenging acquisition targets for each quarter.
8 months after my reshuffle, I was promoted to a Specialist role, in which I was expected to not only support the team technically, but also develop them. As I learned about the promotion, I saw that my contributions to the team were rewarded and my desire to lead was recognised by SumUp. I discovered that I deliver high-quality results more frequently when working as part of a team, compared to when I worked alone. I was honoured to be trusted with the challenge of growing and developing people as a formal part of my job.
The story of my reshuffle began in early 2019. Looking back, I see how the Talent Reshuffle program helps SumUp adapt to a constantly changing environment. I also see, based on my own experience, how the reshuffle was a great opportunity to learn more about myself. As I thought about why my leaders wanted to reshuffle me, I learned about capabilities of mine that I hadn’t recognised before.
The way I see my career also changed a lot after I was reshuffled. I discovered how working in a new area can broaden my professional knowledge, experience, and network. A little over a year ago, I would’ve identified myself as a finance professional; now I see myself as a marketing professional who has the ability to adapt to virtually any scenario.
Perhaps that is why I am now open to any new roles SumUp presents to me. I see no reason to decline them, because they offer new learning opportunities and a chance to be meaningful anywhere. Talent reshuffle is a great catalyst for learning and career development. I am happy I got to be a part of it.
In the next story, you’ll meet Andreza — she started as a Sales Intern and moved on to several areas in Operations. Her different moves got her ready for her most important job yet: preparing SumUp’s Online Payments product to go live in Brazil during COVID-19, when our merchants needed it most.
