With an ever-growing list of clients, programs and tools, it's never been a more exciting time to join our Small to Medium-sized Business (SMB) team with great opportunities available for prospective candidates. We spoke to Claire Mulhern who heads up the SMB team for EMEA about what keeps her motivated, where the team is heading and advice for candidates thinking about joining.
With an ever-growing list of clients, programs and tools, it's never been a more exciting time to join our Small to Medium-sized Business (SMB) team with great opportunities available for prospective candidates. We spoke to Claire Mulhern who heads up the SMB team for EMEA about what keeps her motivated, where the team is heading and advice for candidates thinking about joining.
Can you tell us a bit about your career and your journey at TikTok?
Throughout my career I've been at the forefront of digital transformation and innovation. I have always sought out opportunities to be at the point of intersection between humanity and technology. My experience has spanned many tech revolutions from mobile, social, e-commerce, VR, and AI.TikTok is not just a technology platform, it's something that's continuing to evolve over time and for me, it's the most exciting place I could be right now. I joined a little over a year ago to head up our Scaled Business Sales team, and I'm now heading up the SMB team for EMEA, working with clients across the region - from Dublin, to Hamburg, to Riyadh.
What excites you most about the work the team does?
At the heart of SMBs are entrepreneurs and people who are deeply passionate about being successful. We get to work with these super smart people, reinventing the ways they connect with their audience and in turn showing them new ways to drive business success. Every single day, we see SMBs being extremely successful on the platform, and our team works hand in hand with them to support their success. A big part of our culture at TikTok is having an "Always Day 1" mindset. In other companies, we tend to repeat successes all the time. One thing that I think I'm most proud of is that every day somebody achieves a "first" milestone and there's something brand new to celebrate and get excited about.
What does the future hold for the team?
Being at TikTok is like nothing I've ever experienced in my life in terms of the trajectory we're on. TikTok as a platform continues to evolve over time, and with that, so does our business. I'm extremely optimistic about our future, but I also feel like we're just at the very beginning of releasing the platform's full potential for the SMBs we work with. We're also learning a lot together along the way. We're learning as teams, but we're also learning with our clients as we build together. People who join the team need to be comfortable carving out their own destiny and our future as we go.
What are some unique characteristics of the SMB team culture?
When I talk to anyone in the team about TikTok, their eyes light up. We're all deeply passionate about the platform itself. Together with the passion we have for the platform, the team is really dynamic, agile and resilient. One thing that I love about the evolution we're on is that it comes with resilience. Experiencing the rate of change together bonds you. The team is extremely kind, generous, and we have a lot of fun together. In TikTok you get to do things much earlier in your career, things that wouldn't be imaginable at that point in other companies. Here we actually allow people as soon as they're ready to take on much more responsibility and scope, with the right level of support, of course.
Where is the team based?
The SMB team is centered in Dublin. That's our main hub and we support 29 countries in 12 languages from here. It's amazing to walk the floor, because you feel like you're travelling the world; through France, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Poland, Romania and Morocco to name a few. It's amazing to see the melting pot of people who are all in this one space. We also have teams in Hamburg and Riyadh, who are really closely connected with us. I love that we make up a global community and all make the effort to create a sense of belonging and get to know each other personally.
What characteristics do you need to be successful within the SMB team?
At the center of it all is passion. It's about passion to be successful within a business, passion for our platform and passion for making our clients successful. We tend to hire really driven people who really want to be here and who have lots of energy. We hire people who are resilient and agile but who are also generous with their time and great collaborators. Anyone we look to bring into the fold needs to match that culture where we support each other, we lift each other up and we celebrate each other's successes throughout the entire journey.
What advice do you have for candidates applying, or for those going through the interview process?
We hire a lot of diverse thinkers. What we're looking for is people to come in and demonstrate their unique strengths and skill sets that are going to enhance our team and make us collaborate better. We're not looking to hire a certain type of person. So for anybody interviewing, my biggest advice would be to show up as you and demonstrate the things that make you brilliant. Demonstrate your passion for both the platform and for small businesses. And I think that leads you on a path to being really successful, in both the interview process, but also in your path to joining TikTok.
If you'd like to be part of the SMB team's journey, discover opportunities here.
