With more than 300m active monthly users, Twitter is one of the most used social media platforms. But what is it like to work there?
Budding tech workers always want to know what it’s like working at some of the biggest names in tech. Apple, Facebook, LinkedIn – the list is endless.
Twitter’s latest quarterly report showed an increase in monthly users – up from 326m to 330m. But what’s it actually like to work at the social media giant?
A day in the life of an employee is sure to give jobseekers an insight into what it would really be like.
Laoise Scully is head of Twitter’s ad operations in the EMEA region, the headquarters for which is based in Dublin. She gave us an inside look into her working life.
What is your role within Twitter?
Associate manager, ad operations, EMEA.
If there is such a thing, can you describe a typical day in the job?
I oversee a team of specialists that provides support on all of Twitter’s advertising products to both internal sellers and external advertisers.
The team is there to answer any questions on product functionality and troubleshoot any issues on the ads platform that clients may have. I also work closely with our internal stakeholders to ensure that we are always providing high-quality support and understanding their needs.
What types of project do you work on?
The ad operations team always looks to identify opportunities for Twitter’s revenue team to run leaner and more efficiently.
Our projects look to optimise processes, create better tools for the platform and to provide the most positive user experience for our users. This could be anything from moving repetitive scalable workflows, to sales, to ad operations, to helping advertisers optimise their campaigns on Twitter.
What skills do you use on a daily basis?
Communication, problem-solving, decision-making, critical thinking and mentoring.
What is the hardest part of your working day?
The ad operations team provides support 24 hours a day – however, the majority of our engineers who are dedicated to the ads platform are based in the San Francisco office, which is eight hours behind Dublin.
Because of this, the Dublin team has to have self-starters and utilise every available resource to try and resolve issues before the San Francisco team come online in order to mitigate potential revenue loss.
Do you have any productivity tips that help you through the working day?
Meetings can be really time-consuming so, where possible, I try to make them 30 minutes max and always stick to an agenda.
Secondly, if you have multiple meetings in one morning, try to schedule them one after the other as it’s next to impossible to focus on a new task in the short window between two meetings.
When you first started this job, what were you most surprised to learn was important in the role?
Team culture and environment is hugely important. Twitter invests a lot of time and effort into ensuring its employees are happy.
It’s important that we encourage our teams to work hard, but to also avail of wellbeing activities that Twitter provides throughout their workday.
How has this role changed as this sector has grown and evolved?
The Twitter advertising suite has evolved considerably over the past few years, resulting in advertising products being more complex than ever.
Because of this, it is vital that the ad operations team is always looking to upskill its technical capacity and analytical capabilities, and is always learning.
What do you enjoy most about the job?
I can honestly say that the team I work with in Twitter is incredibly smart, kind and fun, which results in me having a smile plastered on my face for most of the day!
