The average professional career will be made up of more than a colossal 90,000 working hours.
When it comes to selecting your profession and employer, the importance of making wise choices cannot be overstated. In fact, the amount of hours spent at work and with your coworkers is on par with the amount of time you will spend with your family, friends and children throughout your entire lifetime.
At Sharethrough, we understand that every employee has different career goals and interests, and we believe in creating an environment that not only recognizes these individual aspirations but also actively supports their constantly evolving career choices and interests.
In this blog post, we dive into three unique Sharethrougher journeys, and explore what advice they have to give. We touch on several topics, including: jumping from sales to coding expert, using your strengths to forge your own career path and how curiosity in itself can become the main purpose, no matter the role.
From Sales Expert to Coding Wizard
At first glance, the day-to-day lives of Sales Executives and Software Engineers tend to look drastically different. Sales professionals tend to serve at the front lines, growing the business and tending to client relationships. Software Engineers serve on the back-end of a product, dealing with minute details, and collaborating to test products frequently. Victor Petrescu, Senior Engineer at Sharethrough takes us behind the scenes to showcase how there are several major similarities that both sales roles and engineering roles hold in common.
A Senior Software Engineer’s Success Story
After serving for several years with Yellow Pages working in online marketing, Victor Petrescu joined Sharethrough’s sales team in the role of sales account executive.
Victor excelled in his role in sales, but gradually felt his true calling coming in a different type of work. “One year after joining Sharethrough, I wrote an email to the company founders to express my interest in transitioning into Software Engineering and explained how my direct experience with our customers is an asset that will help me become molded by our industry. Sharethrough agreed and paid for my Continued Education degree in Software Development at Concordia University. This allowed me to make my transition in about a year's time while still working full time in sales and maintaining my targets.”
It didn’t take long for Victor to feel right at home in his new role: “It was the best decision I ever made. I've always had an interest in tech. Throughout all my sales roles I was always "the technical guy.” Software Engineering allowed me to use my interests and strengths in a way that just wasn't possible in sales. I'm happier, I have a clear career path and I feel like I'm more valuable as an employee to the company in my current role.”
It’s so important for companies to buy into their employees, trusting and believing in them. Victor found this to be the case along the whole journey with Sharethrough: “I'd say the biggest surprise I had is being supported by Sharethrough throughout the whole process. No other company I've worked for in the past has ever invested in their employees the way Sharethrough does, and I'm living proof of that. The company took a risk in investing in my education with the belief that it would pay off, and it did.”
Career-Building Advice: What’s Scarier Than Not Making the Leap? Not Making the Leap
Change can be scary. Change can be frightening. Change is also necessary. Once you realize you’re in need of a shift, all that’s left for you to do is making that internal commitment and making the jump into the new and exciting.
For Victor, making the leap into his new professional passion was scary. But the alternative was scarier still: “Just do it. Changing career paths after such a long time might seem scary, and it is... but to me, continuing on a path that isn't fulfilling or that doesn't allow you to use your strengths properly is A LOT scarier.”
Prioritizing Leadership to Find Growth and Success
In the journey of finding fulfillment in your career, a major piece of the puzzle involves finding a role that resonates with you, and allows you to utilize your strengths as much as possible. Finding your perfect job often requires some trial and error, but knowing yourself and your various quirks makes the hunt for the perfect job much easier!
A Performance Marketing Specialist’s Success Story
Performance Marketing Specialist Vanessa Purchio’s journey at Sharethrough started in 2019. She joined after working in a Sales Coordinator position, transitioning over to the world of ad tech for the first time to assist with business development in her role as Partner Relations Coordinator. After a successful stint with the Business Development team, an opportunity presented itself in Marketing, and Vanessa leaped at the chance to get involved in her new position as Communications Specialist. She said: “I had good leaders who recognized my potential, and worked to find the best fit for me in the company where I could apply my strengths and flourish.”
After two years in Marketing was put in charge of Sharethrough’s SEO/SEM strategy, where she is now responsible for running paid & organic campaigns across multiple social media platforms and search engines, in addition to a wide variety of marketing tasks.
Career-Building Advice: Prioritize Finding the Right Fit for You
Vanessa’s advice to someone looking to change career paths? Don’t be hesitant to put yourself first. “Find the right fit for you, and not the other way around – assess your strengths and go for the role/career path where you believe you can really make an impact.”
As a tip, she mentioned that personality tests are one resource we can use to better understand our strengths and weaknesses, which in turn can help us better navigate the complex world of careers. “My personality type is INFJ, also known as advocates, meaning that I can apply my creativity and determination to adapt to various roles in different fields. Advocates crave opportunities to learn and grow alongside the people they are helping. Looking at my career through this lens, I'm not surprised to see how much that lines up!”
Curiosity and Career Growth: The Perfect Match
In the professional world, finding your north star is easier said than done. Some people chase innovation, while others chase job security and comfort, and some even chase dopamine-inducing, thrilling, dangerous careers. For some, a north star can even appear as searching out that curiosity itch, and chasing the “why”. Curiosity may not be the word that comes to mind when we think of success, but recent research suggests that a sense of curiosity can be just as important to achievement as intelligence or ambition. Unfortunately, recent research in the Harvard Business Review found that more than 75% of employees don’t feel curious whatsoever in their current roles.
“Chasing the why” has acted as Michael’s compass throughout life in his professional career, so let’s dive further into the value and importance of curiosity.
Michael Foster, one of our longest standing employees with more than 10 years under his belt, now serves as Sharethrough’s Director of Product. Michael is primarily focused on helping to expand the impact and careers of our product team members. After going to post-secondary school for business management and marketing, Michael joined Sharethrough immediately after graduating from college: “I studied business management and marketing, and had a handful of internships during that time at two ad agencies and a technology startup.”
A Director of Product’s Success Story
Joining Sharethrough in the summer of 2013, Michael worked on the Campaign Operations team and was responsible for ad operations, helping to enable Sharethrough to deliver Native campaigns to our advertiser clients. Michael eventually went on to transition from Campaign Ops into Solutions Engineering, and found his true passion while working in Sharethrough’s Product team. “My time at Sharethrough allowed me to discover my true professional passion: building technology that delights our customers. This really surprised me, because I was more interested in the marketing outcomes of advertisers before joining the product team. This career change allowed me to develop a skill set that can drive even stronger outcomes in a more impactful way.”
Michael credits his managers among those who helped him find his true passion: “My managers were great at discovering where my passions and skill set aligned, and encouraging me to further my learnings in those areas. They also encouraged me to explore other departments when they aligned more with my growth path, and advocated for my growth with those department heads.”
Career-Building Advice: Pay Homage to Your Past Work
When we asked Michael if he had any advice for those looking to switch career paths, the answer was simple: Acknowledge your past work! “Don't belittle your previous work experience, even if it doesn't directly apply to this new path. That experience is what gives you a unique experience that only you can bring into your new role. Think of ways that you can lean on those skills to make a big impact, and use those when advocating for your growth.”
In 2022, Michael won the ‘Curiosity Award’ at Sharethrough, further acknowledging his pursuit of the value and showcasing what makes him such an incredible employee.
If your employees aren’t truly happy and invigorated, then nothing else matters. At Sharethrough we prioritize employee growth on both a professional and a personal level, with frequent check-ins, open communication models, and an abundance of resources, constantly encouraging career growth and employee satisfaction as benchmarks we aim to achieve.
Sharethrougher Stories: Part 1 — Finding Success When Changing Roles
Want to learn more about Sharethrough’s company culture, or curious about our open job opportunities? Make sure to reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you!
The average professional career will be made up of more than a colossal 90,000 working hours.
When it comes to selecting your profession and employer, the importance of making wise choices cannot be overstated. In fact, the amount of hours spent at work and with your coworkers is on par with the amount of time you will spend with your family, friends and children throughout your entire lifetime.
At Sharethrough, we understand that every employee has different career goals and interests, and we believe in creating an environment that not only recognizes these individual aspirations but also actively supports their constantly evolving career choices and interests.
In this blog post, we dive into three unique Sharethrougher journeys, and explore what advice they have to give. We touch on several topics, including: jumping from sales to coding expert, using your strengths to forge your own career path and how curiosity in itself can become the main purpose, no matter the role.
From Sales Expert to Coding Wizard
At first glance, the day-to-day lives of Sales Executives and Software Engineers tend to look drastically different. Sales professionals tend to serve at the front lines, growing the business and tending to client relationships. Software Engineers serve on the back-end of a product, dealing with minute details, and collaborating to test products frequently. Victor Petrescu, Senior Engineer at Sharethrough takes us behind the scenes to showcase how there are several major similarities that both sales roles and engineering roles hold in common.
A Senior Software Engineer’s Success Story
After serving for several years with Yellow Pages working in online marketing, Victor Petrescu joined Sharethrough’s sales team in the role of sales account executive.
Victor excelled in his role in sales, but gradually felt his true calling coming in a different type of work. “One year after joining Sharethrough, I wrote an email to the company founders to express my interest in transitioning into Software Engineering and explained how my direct experience with our customers is an asset that will help me become molded by our industry. Sharethrough agreed and paid for my Continued Education degree in Software Development at Concordia University. This allowed me to make my transition in about a year's time while still working full time in sales and maintaining my targets.”
It didn’t take long for Victor to feel right at home in his new role: “It was the best decision I ever made. I've always had an interest in tech. Throughout all my sales roles I was always "the technical guy.” Software Engineering allowed me to use my interests and strengths in a way that just wasn't possible in sales. I'm happier, I have a clear career path and I feel like I'm more valuable as an employee to the company in my current role.”
It’s so important for companies to buy into their employees, trusting and believing in them. Victor found this to be the case along the whole journey with Sharethrough: “I'd say the biggest surprise I had is being supported by Sharethrough throughout the whole process. No other company I've worked for in the past has ever invested in their employees the way Sharethrough does, and I'm living proof of that. The company took a risk in investing in my education with the belief that it would pay off, and it did.”
Career-Building Advice: What’s Scarier Than Not Making the Leap? Not Making the Leap
Change can be scary. Change can be frightening. Change is also necessary. Once you realize you’re in need of a shift, all that’s left for you to do is making that internal commitment and making the jump into the new and exciting.
For Victor, making the leap into his new professional passion was scary. But the alternative was scarier still: “Just do it. Changing career paths after such a long time might seem scary, and it is... but to me, continuing on a path that isn't fulfilling or that doesn't allow you to use your strengths properly is A LOT scarier.”
Prioritizing Leadership to Find Growth and Success
In the journey of finding fulfillment in your career, a major piece of the puzzle involves finding a role that resonates with you, and allows you to utilize your strengths as much as possible. Finding your perfect job often requires some trial and error, but knowing yourself and your various quirks makes the hunt for the perfect job much easier!
A Performance Marketing Specialist’s Success Story
Performance Marketing Specialist Vanessa Purchio’s journey at Sharethrough started in 2019. She joined after working in a Sales Coordinator position, transitioning over to the world of ad tech for the first time to assist with business development in her role as Partner Relations Coordinator. After a successful stint with the Business Development team, an opportunity presented itself in Marketing, and Vanessa leaped at the chance to get involved in her new position as Communications Specialist. She said: “I had good leaders who recognized my potential, and worked to find the best fit for me in the company where I could apply my strengths and flourish.”
After two years in Marketing was put in charge of Sharethrough’s SEO/SEM strategy, where she is now responsible for running paid & organic campaigns across multiple social media platforms and search engines, in addition to a wide variety of marketing tasks.
Career-Building Advice: Prioritize Finding the Right Fit for You
Vanessa’s advice to someone looking to change career paths? Don’t be hesitant to put yourself first. “Find the right fit for you, and not the other way around – assess your strengths and go for the role/career path where you believe you can really make an impact.”
As a tip, she mentioned that personality tests are one resource we can use to better understand our strengths and weaknesses, which in turn can help us better navigate the complex world of careers. “My personality type is INFJ, also known as advocates, meaning that I can apply my creativity and determination to adapt to various roles in different fields. Advocates crave opportunities to learn and grow alongside the people they are helping. Looking at my career through this lens, I'm not surprised to see how much that lines up!”
Curiosity and Career Growth: The Perfect Match
In the professional world, finding your north star is easier said than done. Some people chase innovation, while others chase job security and comfort, and some even chase dopamine-inducing, thrilling, dangerous careers. For some, a north star can even appear as searching out that curiosity itch, and chasing the “why”. Curiosity may not be the word that comes to mind when we think of success, but recent research suggests that a sense of curiosity can be just as important to achievement as intelligence or ambition. Unfortunately, recent research in the Harvard Business Review found that more than 75% of employees don’t feel curious whatsoever in their current roles.
“Chasing the why” has acted as Michael’s compass throughout life in his professional career, so let’s dive further into the value and importance of curiosity.
Michael Foster, one of our longest standing employees with more than 10 years under his belt, now serves as Sharethrough’s Director of Product. Michael is primarily focused on helping to expand the impact and careers of our product team members. After going to post-secondary school for business management and marketing, Michael joined Sharethrough immediately after graduating from college: “I studied business management and marketing, and had a handful of internships during that time at two ad agencies and a technology startup.”
A Director of Product’s Success Story
Joining Sharethrough in the summer of 2013, Michael worked on the Campaign Operations team and was responsible for ad operations, helping to enable Sharethrough to deliver Native campaigns to our advertiser clients. Michael eventually went on to transition from Campaign Ops into Solutions Engineering, and found his true passion while working in Sharethrough’s Product team. “My time at Sharethrough allowed me to discover my true professional passion: building technology that delights our customers. This really surprised me, because I was more interested in the marketing outcomes of advertisers before joining the product team. This career change allowed me to develop a skill set that can drive even stronger outcomes in a more impactful way.”
Michael credits his managers among those who helped him find his true passion: “My managers were great at discovering where my passions and skill set aligned, and encouraging me to further my learnings in those areas. They also encouraged me to explore other departments when they aligned more with my growth path, and advocated for my growth with those department heads.”
Career-Building Advice: Pay Homage to Your Past Work
When we asked Michael if he had any advice for those looking to switch career paths, the answer was simple: Acknowledge your past work! “Don't belittle your previous work experience, even if it doesn't directly apply to this new path. That experience is what gives you a unique experience that only you can bring into your new role. Think of ways that you can lean on those skills to make a big impact, and use those when advocating for your growth.”
In 2022, Michael won the ‘Curiosity Award’ at Sharethrough, further acknowledging his pursuit of the value and showcasing what makes him such an incredible employee.
If your employees aren’t truly happy and invigorated, then nothing else matters. At Sharethrough we prioritize employee growth on both a professional and a personal level, with frequent check-ins, open communication models, and an abundance of resources, constantly encouraging career growth and employee satisfaction as benchmarks we aim to achieve.
Sharethrougher Stories: Part 1 — Finding Success When Changing Roles
Want to learn more about Sharethrough’s company culture, or curious about our open job opportunities? Make sure to reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you!
Behind Headlines: 180 Seconds in Ad Tech is a short 3-minute podcast exploring the news in the digital advertising industry. Ad tech is a fast-growing industry with many updates happening daily. As it can be hard for most to keep up with the latest news, the Sharethrough team wanted to create an audio series compiling notable mentions each week.
The average professional career will be made up of more than a colossal 90,000 working hours.
When it comes to selecting your profession and employer, the importance of making wise choices cannot be overstated. In fact, the amount of hours spent at work and with your coworkers is on par with the amount of time you will spend with your family, friends and children throughout your entire lifetime.
At Sharethrough, we understand that every employee has different career goals and interests, and we believe in creating an environment that not only recognizes these individual aspirations but also actively supports their constantly evolving career choices and interests.
In this blog post, we dive into three unique Sharethrougher journeys, and explore what advice they have to give. We touch on several topics, including: jumping from sales to coding expert, using your strengths to forge your own career path and how curiosity in itself can become the main purpose, no matter the role.
From Sales Expert to Coding Wizard
At first glance, the day-to-day lives of Sales Executives and Software Engineers tend to look drastically different. Sales professionals tend to serve at the front lines, growing the business and tending to client relationships. Software Engineers serve on the back-end of a product, dealing with minute details, and collaborating to test products frequently. Victor Petrescu, Senior Engineer at Sharethrough takes us behind the scenes to showcase how there are several major similarities that both sales roles and engineering roles hold in common.
A Senior Software Engineer’s Success Story
After serving for several years with Yellow Pages working in online marketing, Victor Petrescu joined Sharethrough’s sales team in the role of sales account executive.
Victor excelled in his role in sales, but gradually felt his true calling coming in a different type of work. “One year after joining Sharethrough, I wrote an email to the company founders to express my interest in transitioning into Software Engineering and explained how my direct experience with our customers is an asset that will help me become molded by our industry. Sharethrough agreed and paid for my Continued Education degree in Software Development at Concordia University. This allowed me to make my transition in about a year's time while still working full time in sales and maintaining my targets.”
It didn’t take long for Victor to feel right at home in his new role: “It was the best decision I ever made. I've always had an interest in tech. Throughout all my sales roles I was always "the technical guy.” Software Engineering allowed me to use my interests and strengths in a way that just wasn't possible in sales. I'm happier, I have a clear career path and I feel like I'm more valuable as an employee to the company in my current role.”
It’s so important for companies to buy into their employees, trusting and believing in them. Victor found this to be the case along the whole journey with Sharethrough: “I'd say the biggest surprise I had is being supported by Sharethrough throughout the whole process. No other company I've worked for in the past has ever invested in their employees the way Sharethrough does, and I'm living proof of that. The company took a risk in investing in my education with the belief that it would pay off, and it did.”
Career-Building Advice: What’s Scarier Than Not Making the Leap? Not Making the Leap
Change can be scary. Change can be frightening. Change is also necessary. Once you realize you’re in need of a shift, all that’s left for you to do is making that internal commitment and making the jump into the new and exciting.
For Victor, making the leap into his new professional passion was scary. But the alternative was scarier still: “Just do it. Changing career paths after such a long time might seem scary, and it is... but to me, continuing on a path that isn't fulfilling or that doesn't allow you to use your strengths properly is A LOT scarier.”
Prioritizing Leadership to Find Growth and Success
In the journey of finding fulfillment in your career, a major piece of the puzzle involves finding a role that resonates with you, and allows you to utilize your strengths as much as possible. Finding your perfect job often requires some trial and error, but knowing yourself and your various quirks makes the hunt for the perfect job much easier!
A Performance Marketing Specialist’s Success Story
Performance Marketing Specialist Vanessa Purchio’s journey at Sharethrough started in 2019. She joined after working in a Sales Coordinator position, transitioning over to the world of ad tech for the first time to assist with business development in her role as Partner Relations Coordinator. After a successful stint with the Business Development team, an opportunity presented itself in Marketing, and Vanessa leaped at the chance to get involved in her new position as Communications Specialist. She said: “I had good leaders who recognized my potential, and worked to find the best fit for me in the company where I could apply my strengths and flourish.”
After two years in Marketing was put in charge of Sharethrough’s SEO/SEM strategy, where she is now responsible for running paid & organic campaigns across multiple social media platforms and search engines, in addition to a wide variety of marketing tasks.
Career-Building Advice: Prioritize Finding the Right Fit for You
Vanessa’s advice to someone looking to change career paths? Don’t be hesitant to put yourself first. “Find the right fit for you, and not the other way around – assess your strengths and go for the role/career path where you believe you can really make an impact.”
As a tip, she mentioned that personality tests are one resource we can use to better understand our strengths and weaknesses, which in turn can help us better navigate the complex world of careers. “My personality type is INFJ, also known as advocates, meaning that I can apply my creativity and determination to adapt to various roles in different fields. Advocates crave opportunities to learn and grow alongside the people they are helping. Looking at my career through this lens, I'm not surprised to see how much that lines up!”
Curiosity and Career Growth: The Perfect Match
In the professional world, finding your north star is easier said than done. Some people chase innovation, while others chase job security and comfort, and some even chase dopamine-inducing, thrilling, dangerous careers. For some, a north star can even appear as searching out that curiosity itch, and chasing the “why”. Curiosity may not be the word that comes to mind when we think of success, but recent research suggests that a sense of curiosity can be just as important to achievement as intelligence or ambition. Unfortunately, recent research in the Harvard Business Review found that more than 75% of employees don’t feel curious whatsoever in their current roles.
“Chasing the why” has acted as Michael’s compass throughout life in his professional career, so let’s dive further into the value and importance of curiosity.
Michael Foster, one of our longest standing employees with more than 10 years under his belt, now serves as Sharethrough’s Director of Product. Michael is primarily focused on helping to expand the impact and careers of our product team members. After going to post-secondary school for business management and marketing, Michael joined Sharethrough immediately after graduating from college: “I studied business management and marketing, and had a handful of internships during that time at two ad agencies and a technology startup.”
A Director of Product’s Success Story
Joining Sharethrough in the summer of 2013, Michael worked on the Campaign Operations team and was responsible for ad operations, helping to enable Sharethrough to deliver Native campaigns to our advertiser clients. Michael eventually went on to transition from Campaign Ops into Solutions Engineering, and found his true passion while working in Sharethrough’s Product team. “My time at Sharethrough allowed me to discover my true professional passion: building technology that delights our customers. This really surprised me, because I was more interested in the marketing outcomes of advertisers before joining the product team. This career change allowed me to develop a skill set that can drive even stronger outcomes in a more impactful way.”
Michael credits his managers among those who helped him find his true passion: “My managers were great at discovering where my passions and skill set aligned, and encouraging me to further my learnings in those areas. They also encouraged me to explore other departments when they aligned more with my growth path, and advocated for my growth with those department heads.”
Career-Building Advice: Pay Homage to Your Past Work
When we asked Michael if he had any advice for those looking to switch career paths, the answer was simple: Acknowledge your past work! “Don't belittle your previous work experience, even if it doesn't directly apply to this new path. That experience is what gives you a unique experience that only you can bring into your new role. Think of ways that you can lean on those skills to make a big impact, and use those when advocating for your growth.”
In 2022, Michael won the ‘Curiosity Award’ at Sharethrough, further acknowledging his pursuit of the value and showcasing what makes him such an incredible employee.
If your employees aren’t truly happy and invigorated, then nothing else matters. At Sharethrough we prioritize employee growth on both a professional and a personal level, with frequent check-ins, open communication models, and an abundance of resources, constantly encouraging career growth and employee satisfaction as benchmarks we aim to achieve.
Sharethrougher Stories: Part 1 — Finding Success When Changing Roles
Want to learn more about Sharethrough’s company culture, or curious about our open job opportunities? Make sure to reach out to us, we’d love to hear from you!
Founded in 2015, Calibrate is a yearly conference for new engineering managers hosted by seasoned engineering managers. The experience level of the speakers ranges from newcomers all the way through senior engineering leaders with over twenty years of experience in the field. Each speaker is greatly concerned about the craft of engineering management. Organized and hosted by Sharethrough, it was conducted yearly in September, from 2015-2019 in San Francisco, California.
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