Building a Career at TikTok: A Glimpse Into Global Business Solutions

At TikTok, our Global Business Solutions (GBS) team plays a key role in generating revenue by promoting our advertising solutions, onboarding new clients, driving ad campaigns, and more. As the TikTok community grows at an unprecedented speed around the world, our GBS team leads groundbreaking projects that are changing the landscape of the advertising industry in real time.

Introducing Our GBS Team in Indonesia

Especially in new and dynamic markets like Indonesia, our GBS team members take on challenges each day that lead to significant professional growth. To learn more, we spoke with two employees who have grown along with the team since its early days in Indonesia.

Mega Balqizs joined the company in 2018 as a Sales Manager and was one of our first employees in Indonesia. After working in that role for two years and helping to establish the legal entity for TikTok, Mega transitioned to channel partnerships, where she has progressed into a leadership role. She now leads TikTok's partnerships with the most prominent agencies in Indonesia, helping to connect their clients with the TikTok audience on both a regional and global scale.

"I joined TikTok for the excitement and challenge of building something huge from square one," Mega explains. "Because we weren't established or trusted at the start, we had to knock down a lot of doors at local agencies. As we've gone from 'zero' to 'hero,' I've also had the chance to see our own team grow spectacularly."

Mia Louise came to TikTok in early 2020 with substantial experience in business development and marketing. At the time, she and Mega were the only members of the GBS team in Indonesia; now, the team has grown to more than 70 people.

"Like Mega, I was drawn to the challenges of a young and fast-growing company," Mia says. "Introducing TikTok for Business to advertisers was difficult, so we had to come up with innovative strategies to shift how the market viewed the platform."

Career Growth and Skill Development

As two of the earliest members of the GBS team in Indonesia, Mega and Mia have a lot to share about opportunities for career growth at TikTok. Mega, for example, started as an individual contributor before transitioning to a different business line and becoming team lead.

"It's not just me -- because we're growing quickly, there are so many opportunities for people to progress or move into new positions," she says. "I know numerous colleagues at TikTok who started on the Product Team and moved to the Creative Team, moved from User Acquisition to Marketing, and so on."

But how do employees learn the necessary skills when moving into a new role? In addition to our global mentorship program, there are many resources to lean on at TikTok. As Mega explains,

"When you join something that's growing so fast, there's a learning curve. Even as the oldest GBS member in Indonesia, I'm constantly asking questions and using our weekly training sessions, shared learning groups, and internal knowledge center for information."

Mia, too, has found ways to learn new skills and expand the scope of her role.

"My leader regularly checks in with me about my career goals and provides opportunities for me to explore new areas I'm interested in," she says. "Coming from a non-traditional sales background and working in diverse teams at TikTok, I've also learned to communicate with people of different backgrounds around the world."

Impact and Projects

Mega's team (Channel Partnerships) introduces our advertising solutions to agencies and presents the case for how TikTok can better serve their clients. The campaigns they execute roll out on an incredible scale, reaching billions of users both in the region and around the world. Last year, for example, they helped drive the #HandWashChallenge campaign with Dettol, which drew 153 million video views in Southeast Asia (125 billion globally) and earned Gold at the MMA Smarties APAC Awards for Purposeful Marketing.

"TikTok is a global company, so large campaigns like Dettol's involve teams in many different countries," Mega says. "In Indonesia, we learn some amazing things from our global teammates, then decide how to localize for our own market."

But for Mega, working in GBS is about more than just supporting the largest global brands.

"I love working on a smaller scale with local brands, too. The sense of accomplishment that comes with helping them grow into bigger success stories, and even take their business global, is incredible."

In her work as a Partnerships Manager, Mia also works with clients on campaigns that can impact mainstream culture. Her most memorable project was leading a campaign for a client in the banking industry to inspire young people to save money, which won the TikTok Trendsetter Award for its creativity.

"Although marketers in the financial industry didn't see TikTok as a fit, this campaign -- the first of its kind -- changed that perception," Mia says. "Building that trust has paved the way for many more clients in the industry and continues to fuel our growth in Indonesia."

Looking to the Future

Having seen the growth of TikTok in Indonesia from the start, Mega and Mia are excited for what the future holds.

"Several years ago, the first step for advertisers was to make a website or traditional social media account, but now the focus is shifting to TikTok," Mega says. "Our community isn't just Gen Z; there are people of all ages on the app, and their engagement with the content is unlike any other platform."

Mia agrees. "Audiences can't be sold with commercial ads anymore. The new generation of advertising is about being genuine and authentic, and there's no better place to do this than TikTok."

Thanks to our GBS team, our business and community in Indonesia are thriving! If you're excited to take your career to new heights and join Mega and Mia in shaping the future of advertising, make sure to browse openings on our jobs page and follow us on LinkedIn for the latest updates.