The job is interesting for me because finally I get to be as talkative and sociable as possible and not to my own detriment! Overall the project from start to finish is a roller coaster ride. There are ups that leave you feeling on top of world when you are selling. And there are downs when you have a low number of meetings and low sales. It is thrilling to be in the momentum of a project and be in charge of creating your own success. The amount of independence and autonomy I am able to have, of course within in set boundaries, allows me to truly understand and actualize my capabilities.

You have to love the job 150% or do not bother at all. This means you need to love every aspect of the position from accounting, to the meetings, to evaluating and re-evaluating your own performance and of course selling. This is a high-level sales position and I have understood it from the beginning. I find it most interesting to close deals and to accomplish the final end product which is an amazing publication.

Media Plus has provided an excellent platform for young professionals to realize their full potential and to understand various world economies, not to mention to adapt to the changing world.

I have learned to reach high level commercial sales. I have learned to adapt to a plethora of situations, find instant solutions and be proactively involved in making decisions. Overall I have learned to fully commit myself to a clear goal and strive to reach it by any means necessary. As well the job has afforded me the opportunity to advance my communication skills.

I wake up at 6:30am or 7:30am depending on the day, by 8:30am I am on my way to a meeting and make phone calls in the car.  Between the 3- 4 meetings in a day,  I make phone calls, send emails and go on PR visits. Then after the work day I wrap up the day by sending an update to my manager, I prepare the strategy for next day’s meeting together with my colleague. On other nights I work on  Q&As so articles can be written. I do research to find news articles and current events or information to support and enhance my project. There is also administrative work to be done, so after a very fully-packed day I go to bed and start it all over again the next day!

The impact of my experience with Media Plus in both my personal and professional life is so pervasive that it’s difficult to quantify.

The sink-or-swim, “anything’s possible” spirit of the company prepared me – a green young graduate fresh from the bubble and security of university life – to live the life which I had always imagined for myself. I learned to see opportunity in everything. I have always been a “glass is half full” kind of guy, but as a result of my experience with Media Plus, I quickly learned that opportunity is everywhere, and in the midst of adversity lies opportunity. Life, just like sales, is a series of peaks and troughs, and that bringing energy, enthusiasm, hard work and a positive attitude each day will ensure that you will always succeed.

Another major attribute which my experience at Media Plus helped me to develop is confidence and poise. I have interacted and “rubbed shoulders” with some of the world’s most intriguing and influential leaders in both the public and private sector. Being able to walk into any situation – personal or professional – armed with a smile and a quiet confidence has earned me more than just relationships or business deals; it has earned me respect, and that respect has enriched my life beyond description.

How I’m applying what I learned working at MP to my current tasks & functions at work, there’s really not a day that goes by in which I’m not applying skills I acquired during my time at Media Plus. Being in sales, your time is money, and I learned with Media Plus that every action and every minute you’re working should be progressing a deal towards its eventual closing. I see many young sales people “spinning their wheels”, in which you can see a lot of activity but no real results. I learned to never confuse activity with results. Secondly, I’ve learned the art of networking and finding out quickly from people what mutual benefits can be gained through a relationship. Another huge skill I learned at MP is listening. Selling is not about talking
features & benefits; it’s about listening, understanding client pain points, and proposing a consultative solution.

Currently, I oversee teams scattered across all of Asia Pacific and the Middle East. My experience at MP taught me a great deal about management and motivating people so to ensure their success. When I’m interviewing potential new hires, I like to find out how they react to adversity. When the going gets tough and people aren’t having success, I see many people start making excuses for their poor performance -
pointing the finger anywhere and everywhere else except at themselves.  Good people are able to evaluate their own performance, make the necessary adjustments and move on. When hiring, I try to stay far away from people who are not willing to accept responsibility for their own actions.

I worked in Russia for nearly 7 months – half the time in Moscow and half the time in St. Petersburg. Selling there was fun, but it was extremely challenging in that it required more of a forceful approach. Many of the executives we met had been installed prior to the fall of communism in the country, so naturally, finding selling points and subsequently closing our prospects often required that we teach a crash course on basic free market principles! Often, emotions were running high and the excitement in the room was thick. More often than not, we were successful and completed two profitable projects in Russia. We were pleased with our hard fought successes.

Fast forward a few months later to our next project in Seoul, South Korea…Russians and Koreans could not have been any more different! We tried to use the same approach in Korea as we did in Russia. Needless to say, that didn’t work so well. We had to re-group and re-evaluate our strategy. After a few frustrating weeks, we adapted, adjusted, and ultimately achieved. It was an incredible learning experience.

Current position:  Vice President at Sales APAC & Middle East TransPerfect, Hong Kong

The most important thing I have learned is to think on my feet. Every day was a different day and I couldn’t anticipate what was going to happen next. I had to make quick decisions based on limited information. I also had to be creative and learn to look a problem from many different angles and figure out ways to over come it. I am glad that MP provide me the environment to develop those skills set that are crucial to my current and furture career development.

I got lost ALL the time – trying to read road signs in another language was already a challenge but when companies used “the palm tree on the right” as their nearby landmark, that is another story.

Current position : Account Supervisor, Leo Burnett Canada

On the Professional note, the skill sets I learned through sales will take me very far. The confidence I gained through running an autonomous and entrepreneurial project at a young age has given me access to many more opportunities in my working career. I have excelled quickly in my current job (also a sales and management role — selling to Senior Executive level clients), both in my own sales and also in promotions to management.

When I was on a project in Qatar, we were invited to a local family’s farm for a weekend BBQ. This was an incredible cultural experience — after playing Volleyball with their family and friends, we then were asked to select our dinner — this meant that we choose the lamb from the fields! The dinner then was a whole lamb, served on a 5-foot platter of rice!! We proceeded sit on the floor with our hosts and dig into our feast! A wonderful experience of sharing one’s culture with a visitor.

From a work perspective, it would be from Dubai, when we met the Leader of Dubai – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. Meeting him and having his support with our project then opened doors to many Executives and a very successful project. It was wonderful to have been in Dubai in the early years of its success, and now to watch how strong Dubai is in the global marketplace.

During her career at Media Plus, Sarah was the number 2 saleswoman of the year at Media Plus
Graduate of University of Texas at Austin Currently lives in London, UK

Current position:  the Corporate Executive Board (London), Director: Sales and Management

Joining MP at such a young age gave me exposure to many different types of businesses in many different industries. It gave me the opportunity to interact with business people at the highest levels and gain a certain kind of confidence I find so valuable in my working life today. In terms of personal and professional development, this opportunity gave me the chance to grow and grow quickly. It exposed me to all kinds of situations, problems and even more opportunities from which I have been able to learn. MP gave me the courage and the know-how to be able to travel to any country and do business with anyone.

How I’m applying what I learned working at MP to my current tasks & functions

First of all I’m in sales. I sell products and services and I train others to sell products and services. I consult businesses and launch new initiatives. I learned how to be part of a team and to lead a team and I learned to apply what I’ve learned in one country to that of another country, so on and so forth. There are fundamental things I go over with my staff about sales techniques, people and tendencies that I picked up while working with MP, these are invaluable are make up some of the basic sales discussions I have with my team on a regular basis.

Include a memorable & interesting story (told in the first person)

I am not much of a vacationer or trip planner so most of my stories are of places I’ve been for work, people I’ve done business with or the opportunities that came from one of those two. Its been over 6 years since I’ve worked for MP so an example of a memorable and interesting story would be meeting heads of state in various countries.

Your current position, including company & title

Head of Sales for Siemens IT Services and Solutions (Thailand) (www.siemens.co.th)
Also responsible for building up the external market presence of the company in Thailand.

To have these experiences at so young an age, living in some of the world’s best hotels, meeting high profile people, saving money and having responsibility for the successful outcome of my project was a very rewarding experience.

You work independently with a colleague so you have to work on your own initiative, solve day-to-day problems as they arise and adapt to local culture and habits … this helped me greatly to develop myself personally and professionally.

The highs were high and the lows were low … closing deals were a burst of adrenaline while cancelled contracts called for a stiff drink. My MP days helped me develop a matter-of-fact approach to life and to take things as they came, living in the moment.

I don’t think I would be where I am today without having worked for MP. Not only did it provide a stepping stone to leaving Ireland (I always wanted to emigrate and the international experience with MP opened new doors for me, I now live in Sweden, where I did two successful projects and set up a strong business network) but it also gave me a certain self-confidence that I could work on my own and be successful in my career.

Since leaving MP I set up my own freelance business, and am now a successful business and travel journalist for a number of world-class Swedish companies. Most “real” journalists do not have sales skills so even though they may be good writers, they often cannot win writing contracts or sell themselves and their talents. My sales background definitely proved a plus when I went out on my own. Also, managing your own projects in different countries is, in many respects, like running your own mini-business. Even though you have back office support and a sales manager, they are often many miles away in Belgium so it’s up to you and your colleague to do a good job. This experience helped me to believe in myself and give me the confidence to work for myself.

The job also gave me a broad insight into international business and for sure, having worked in so many different countries has helped me to understand different cultures … now when I interview a factory manager in Poland, a senior CEO in Sweden, a designer in Italy or a sales manager in South Africa, I can relate to them – either by breaking the ice with some chit chat about their country or by understanding how they think and why they act the way they do. Studying international business and reading about it doesn’t come close to getting first-hand experience in an international environment with leading executives.

One of my most memorable experiences was a trip to the Statoil gas platform in the North Sea. The day we interviewed the CEO of Statoil, my dog had died two days before. I was quite upset about this and had lost my appetite for several days. In the CEO’s office, I got dizzy and passed out halfway through the meeting, after signing him up for a quarter-page ad. He rushed me to the in-house doctor for a blood test and commented that “a journalist had never passed out in his office before,” and that he wasn’t used to having that effect on the media.

My colleague and I then asked him if we could visit one of the gas/oil platforms off the Norwegian coast – we chanced our luck as insurance for visitors is very high and very few people have the privilege of making such a trip. One week later we were in a helicopter in Bergen Airport bound for the Troll gas platform. Landing on the helicopter pad, going down in the shaft to the seabed to see how they drill for the gas, spending the day on the platform with the workers and feeling the platform rock with the stormy North Sea winds was truly an experience I will never forget.

Current position: Freelance journalist & editor. Clients include Electrolux, Volvo, SAS, IBX, Intrum Justitia and Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

The job is interesting because you never know what will happen next, where you will be in a few months, and who will be sitting across from you tomorrow.  This is just exhilarating to me. Being able to meet and talk face-to-face with Ministers, CEO’s of major companies, and the most influential people within the country you are covering makes this job unique and enormously interesting. Also, I like being involved in every single step of the process. You have a great deal of control over your own project.  You learn how to deal with all the aspects of running a project independently, while still having the office and your manager to back you up.

The Media Plus atmosphere is ambitious, fast, entrepreneurial, competitive and a lot of fun!!!

What have I learned? To work in very different markets, I have learned to be flexible in both the presentation and strategy. You basically have to reinvent your communication style to fit the local business culture. Furthermore at Media Plus, I have worked in more countries, enjoyed more responsibility and gained more management experience than I would have at any other large multi-national corporations!

A typical day? There IS no typical day in the life of a sales consultant at Media Plus.

And that’s the best part about it! A common denominator is that the days are packed from morning to night with work and activities. You are always juggling emailing, phone calling, preparing meetings, keeping up with world news, evaluating your skills, organizing, going on meetings, conferences , business dinners, communicating with the office, following-up on clients. Needless to say you will never get bored and being motivated is key!

Being 100% responsible for your own success means the following:  meeting the cream of the crop in all types of business environments, working in challenging markets, finding solutions for their problems, and working hard + playing hard.

Media Plus offers a dynamic and flexible atmosphere with an open-minded multinational staff.

As I went through all the different stages of development – trainee, junior sales consultant, senior sales consultant, country director, junior field coach – my growth curve has been very steep and I learned not only about how to sell, stay successful and create great reports, but also to deal with people in an efficient way.

A typical day is planned carefully the day before and is never the way you expected it to be. Having a plan B helps you to stay really flexible  and to make the most of the day. From 9 to 5 is time for the field activities, and from 9 to 5 is time for planning, roleplays, administration and communication with the head office.

The amount of money you make, the people you meet and the whole experience is up to you. You build your own life the way you want it!

The traveling, living and working in different countries makes this job very interesting and exciting for me.

The atmosphere within Media Plus is energetic and dynamic. Media Plus is both experienced and young spirited. The people working for MP are driven individuals who seek international adventures while not being afraid of new challenges every day.

My experience within Media Plus has taught me to do business with government officials as well as executives of big international companies. You will learn how to quickly adapt to different and new situations on a regular basis. Change is good and change helps us to grow.

A typical day? There is no such thing as a typical day.  However if I would have to describe it, then it might look something like this: the day starts at 8.00am with a great breakfast at my beautiful 5star-hotel I am staying in, after that my driver picks me up to go to my 3 meetings of the day. The meetings are at 12om and 2pm.  When time allows it I will have lunch between my second and third meeting, otherwise just grab a sandwich on the road. After a successful day with at least one big sale, I arrive back at the hotel around 4.00 pm to do admin work and to reply emails and follow ups. I will also check tomorrow’s schedule to prepare next day’s meetings. Later I go to the gym annd then I’ll meet up with friends to celebrate today’s sale and go for dinner and drinks!