First Job in Adtech and what comes after…
In this edition of Jampper Stories, our 👑Queen of Feedback 😉, Maite Barreneche, shares her ever-changing journey at Jampp: from discovering a new industry landing her first job as an Account Manager to being the link between Business Ops and the Product Team, and everything that came after…
Even in the midst of change, there’s one thing that remains constant for her: learning is at the core of everything she does. If you want to know more about what it feels like to pave your own path at Jampp and take on new challenges, read away 👀
What drew you to Jampp in the first place?
After graduating from college with a BA in Business Economics, I thought the right path for me was joining a bank and working in finance… 🏦 it wasn’t — but I only realized it when I showed up for an interview at Jampp, purely out of curiosity.
Right from the start, I was captivated by this whole new industry and the product Jampp was developing (I didn’t even know what CPC was 😂). What struck me the most was the passion with which people told me about their (unconventional) day-to-day work and the company’s mission.
Even if I didn’t know much about the industry, I was instantly drawn to this BIG learning opportunity, and the fact that every jampper that crossed my path was willing to give me a hand and teach me something new.
So tell us a little about your journey at Jampp: What was you first job like?
I started working as a Campaign Manager at Jampp. That role allowed me to get an in-depth picture of how the operations side of things worked and the importance of our customer relationships. I learned how to run and optimize different campaigns to achieve even more success 📈.
During this time, I also started collaborating with other teams by giving feedback to improve some tools and reporting bugs while we tested new products such as our Creatives Lab. This experience made me realize how much I enjoy working with other teams enhancing our products . I joined a squad that was focused on the development of our User Acquisition product — and with that, I officially “moved” to the Product Team 💥.
We tested new products and helped to implement them with beta customers. It was a whole new learning experience for me: I had the chance to work with a new team and analyze data & results from a different perspective.
Being part of the squad meant working with a small group of jamppers from different teams. While we all pushed towards solving one particular challenge, each person could contribute different skills and ideas💡.
So are you still working with that squad?
Nowadays, the squad is called “UA Rangers” and is mainly focused on giving support to the account managers in the implementation of User Acquisition. This consists of having calls with clients, assisting trainings, giving support to Supply, meetings with AM’s and testing new platforms. As roles at Jampp are truly dynamic, I even get the chance to join other squads (like last year’s s Jampp Camp squad!)
Tell us about your current role… What does a “UA Ranger” do at Jampp?
I guess the obvious place to start is “managing and nurturing customer accounts through day to day analysis, communication and optimization with technical expertise.” But it’s not a tech support role, there are a lot of things we do along campaign management, such as:
- Building and testing features with our customers and then sharing results, insights and feedback with the product managers.
- Assisting and training other teammates when the most useful features are rolled out to other customers, to share our learnings and ensure they can tackle any issues that may arise.
- Identifying errors and working closely with our tech team to solve problems. (Basically giving lots of feedback 😉)
- Proposing different strategies and working alongside some of the world’s largest on-demand brands, to drive incremental growth for their campaigns.
Finally, I think a key aspect of the job is to continue developing your own knowledge (both technical and of the industry in general).
Ok, so how do you keep on learning everyday?
We are big fans of knowledge sharing 🤓, whether it’s suggesting interesting online courses or encouraging teammates to share their particular skills with internal learning sessions. Most of the times, when a new feature/product is rolled out, there are trainings for the team, and often exams too! So it doesn’t matter how much experience you had when you came into the team, you’ll be a specialist by the time you leave…For example, I’m currently taking a weekly Python Course that’s led by one of my teammates 💪.
What challenges do you face in this role?
Not to be repetitive, but I think the most challenging and motivating thing about my role is learning. We are constantly studying and developing new skills — not only because the industry is changing everyday, but also because we need to keep up to date with all the new developments our Tech and Product teams have in store for us (whether it’s implementing new metrics or testing new versions of our dashboard)
We don’t settle for a partial solution: for us, constant improvement is key and what drives us is passion. It’s the attitude behind everything we do that makes me love where I work and drives me to do a better job each day.
What made Jampp the right fit for you?
What I like the most about Jampp is that the future is just around the corner: we’re constantly thinking about new product developments or ways to improve our technology. It makes the job really dynamic💥. Also, knowing exactly how your team’s work will impact the overall company’s performance is really motivating.
Plus, I truly feel that we have the freedom and space to propose innovative ideas 💡regardless of our role or seniority (one of our core values is “No Egos”). There’s a sense of ownership with everything we do that has me showing up at Jampp’s door eager to get to work — and that’s both sometimes challenging but still highly motivational . ⚖️
Wrapping up…
- Random fact about yourself: Being a Campaign Manager, I had to test new products and give feedback to our Product Team; a task I took really seriously, so much so, a bunch of Jamppers created a custom Slack Emoji with my face on it that’s called :overwhelming_feedback: due to the amount of feature requests and bug reports I sent during that time 😅
- Favorite motivational quote: I’m a big fan of motivational quotes indeed. My Instagram feed is full of them and I always make sure to include one in my posts 😉 I am passionate about people who love what they do and that’s why I try to read one book per month about someone who inspires me… doing that I came across 2 of my all-time favorite quotes “No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else” by P. T Barnum and “Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” by Winston Churchill 💪
- Tip for people applying to Jampp: Don’t be afraid to try new things, be flexible and ready to learn new stuff every day! For me, it was really useful to start as an Account Manager as it helped me get familiarized with the industry and all its inner workings while figuring out what to do next in the company.
About Jampper Stories
We believe our team is our greatest asset and we are happy to share a few of their stories. If you want to learn more about what it’s like to work at Jampp, follow us on Instagram at @gojampp or visit jampp.com/hiring to find the right opportunity and see for yourself 😉
