The Hippo Pod: Max

In this podcast, Sr. Employer Brand and People Experience Manager, Tannum, talks about Golden Hippo’s exciting and unique company culture with the people who know it best. In this episode, we spoke with Max, who has been at Golden Hippo for 2 years and is currently a Sr. Manager, Facebook Ads. 

Here are some of the highlights of Tannum and Max’s conversation:

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I’m from Ukraine, and growing up I developed this American Dream of being a successful, self-made business owner. Early on in my career, I went into business development. In 2016, I moved to Silicon Valley to surround myself with entrepreneurs hoping that they’d inspire me with ideas for my own business. I quickly realized that B2B sales techniques were not as effective as they wanted it to be, so I started looking for more efficient ways for them to grow. I came across a meetup with a guy talking about Facebook Ads which I knew nothing about. I was completely mind blown and saw a lot of opportunity in it, so I decided that’s what I wanted to do. 

What’s your Golden Hippo story? How did you start your career here?

One of the Golden Hippo recruiters reached out to me on LinkedIn to see if I’d be interested in helping them develop their internal Facebook Media Buying team. I had never heard of Golden Hippo prior to that and I was pretty surprised that Golden Hippo is one of the biggest players in this industry, so that caught my attention. I think primary drivers were the scale at which Golden Hippo is operating, and the fact that I‘d be able to work side by side with some world class digital marketers.

You’re hiring remote Facebook Ads Specialists and Youtube Ads Specialists. Can you talk through the skills and qualifications you're looking for in an ideal candidate? 

One of the top things is experience working with higher budgets, something in the realm of $30,000+ in daily ad spend, and experience scaling products and offers from $0 to around that budget. We are requiring the person to have analytical skills, great communication skills or experience working across different teams. We are paying a lot of attention to the ability to understand what kind of creative converts on each platform, and helping creative teams to build it. A personal value we’re looking for is someone hungry for results. Golden Hippo is very performance-driven, and our team is not different.

What does a typical work day look like for you? 

Each day is different and probably half of my time I’m spending on calls for different initiatives. I’m starting my day by logging into my task managers and checking results. I do this on a daily basis, and probably an hourly basis to optimize campaigns. My main responsibility is supporting my team and making an environment for them to succeed. Based on that, my second responsibility is trying to drive different initiatives or different tests. The third thing right now would be hiring.

How do you stay motivated and inspired with your work?

I think it’s the way I was raised in eastern Europe - my parents gave me really high standards to strive for and I feel like I’m still pursuing that American Dream. I’m driven the most by seeing results, and seeing results accomplished by my team members.

How would you describe your management style?

My management style is adaptive. I’m trying to adjust to our specific Media Buyers’ needs. I feel that one of my responsibilities is creating an environment for them to succeed. I also believe that there is no reason behind hiring smart people and micromanaging them. Usually when we hire new Media Buyers, I’m making sure that the person understands the way the company operates as well as our media buying strategies and tactics. After that process, it’s almost a requirement for the person to try something new and bring something new to the team. As long as you're able to generate results, that’s what counts.

How would you describe our company culture to a candidate who’s interested in working at Golden Hippo?

We are somewhere in between a well-established big company and a startup. We are operating in an industry that is constantly changing with a need to adapt. This is the perfect environment for someone who is performance-driven and wants to see results. The company does a really good job taking care of employees with their benefits, work-life balance, and ability to work remotely.

If you’d like to listen to the full conversation, click here!

To apply for the remote Facebook and Youtube Ads Specialist positions Max is hiring for (or any other available positions), click here!