I never saw Facebook as a company to work at, even though I used the platform almost every day. But after seeing there were so many opportunities on their careers page I decided to dive a little deeper into working here. What struck me the most was the reason behind why Facebook is such a global community. Being a vital connection between so many people and businesses is exactly what I was looking for. I was searching for an international environment, with people from all over the world, in an international city with good connections, plenty of challenges still to solve and the autonomy to work on what you’d like to do. Facebook is all of these things and I couldn’t be happier with my choice of applying to become a part of Facebook.

The sales organization is not something you think about when using Facebook’s services. Only now I’ve realized it’s such an integral part of everything that Facebook’s family of apps is currently involved in. Especially making sure people have the opportunity to not only connect with friends and family, but also with businesses and brands that they are interested in. In the sales org we make sure businesses are representing themselves in a relevant way to their audience in people’s news feed. Something I think is incredibly important because nowadays nobody is interested in irrelevant ads showing up anywhere, whether it is online or offline. Focusing on Small Medium Businesses in particular is incredibly powerful. We are not ‘just another sales org’, we help entrepreneurs of all sizes to see the potential they have and help them grow their business. All by making sure they reach the right people, improve constantly and truly see an ROI on their investment. Businesses who started with a €10 investment and are now making millions of euros in revenue due to their Facebook investment is not an unheard of story! Something I definitely did not realize before joining the team here.

A typical day consists of a lot of responsibility and freedom to fill in your day the way you want to. Normally speaking you’ve got a couple of calls a day with businesses, some meetings, and time to work on your own/team’s initiatives. Everybody has their own schedule and since there’s an option to have breakfast, lunch and dinner here everyone has the flexibility to make their day work for them, it’s completely up to you and that’s a great feeling to have.

What is important to know is how to prioritize, you can have the busiest of days and not get anything done. If you work on 10 projects, but in no project there has been any significant impact, what was your time investment worth? This is something you’ve got to take into account every single day, focusing on impact is one of the core values of Facebook and is taken really seriously. Besides this, it’s amazing to just sit anywhere you’d like, play a game of pool from time to time and enjoy a sunny Irish day on the balcony outside.

It’s amazing to work for SMB and see how fast the team is growing. This opens up opportunities to mentor people, work together with people from all over Europe, Middle East and Africa and it’s not something I thought of being part of my career growth. The number of people with experience that walk in this building and the ability to just walk up to a VP, director or a peer, and get feedback from them or ask questions is amazing. I think this is the best thing of working in this team and a great learning opportunity for the rest of my career.

Furthermore, there are great ways of developing your career within your current role and outside of it. You can get promoted (there is no timeline restrictions on this unlike other companies) which means you’ll get more responsibilities and confirms you excel at what you’ve been doing so far. In addition to this there are plenty of opportunities in other parts of the Facebook organization, many of my teammates for example have moved to Austin, Texas or to our HQ in Menlo Park, California. Some of the team even went to Singapore.

I joined Facebook around 18 months ago and I’ve done so many things I could never have thought of doing! It starts with your first week, your on-boarding, it's a full week training on everything Facebook does, from how the company works, to the company culture and everything in between. It is incredibly inspiring to just look around the room and notice with who you're in training. These people are your fellow n00b group for the rest of your career, people with years of experience in their specific role or graduates just like yourself, resulting in connections all over EMEA.

This is followed by sales training in which you dive into your SMB role specifically, the cool thing is the training is given by your SMB colleagues who all went through the exact same thing as what you're doing now. Teaching you on about the role, what we do in SMB, what type of tools we use, what best practices are and just how to enjoy your time here in Dublin.

After your training in Dublin you get on a plane to San Francisco to visit Facebook's HQ in Menlo Park, California. Together with your fellow SMB n00bs from all over the world you meet and have a full week training there. A major highlight of the week is attending the Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg. Every single Friday he opens up to the company for a full hour to answer questions, even as somebody who recently joined the company you can ask him anything. It is truly amazing to get this opportunity, it shows how open the company really is.

Besides asking questions to Mark, you'll meet our VP of SMB Dan Levy, our global teams in analytics, marketing, communications, and many more. It just makes you realise how everything is connected and how you can have impact on the global team goals. The crazy thing is you go through all of these amazing experiences in your first 3 months!

Furthermore, I’ve presented to entrepreneurs and businesses in the UK, the Netherlands and Greece and had the opportunity to travel to San Francisco for training and a conference. However, a stand out moment was when I got to facilitate a roundtable in Amsterdam, our VP of EMEA, Nicola Mendelsohn went to meet with small and medium business owners and I got asked to facilitate the conversation with four businesses, two regional directors and Nicola at the table. Who would have thought I’d be responsible for a session with these people at the table coming straight out of university one year prior! It just proves how Facebook thinks about potential and gives everyone the power to have amazing impact.

Living in Dublin and Ireland is great! It’s a very vibrant city and all centers around a couple of areas which makes it easy to navigate. You’ve got the business district where our Facebook office is located (Grand Canal Dock), super modern and great architecture. Then you’ve got Temple Bar where a lot of tourists go, but you can also find some hidden gems for very local beers and amazing food. Third, you’ve got the area around Camden Street and Baggot Street, which are two of my favorites, Irish and internationals mingle in these areas where there are amazing brunch places, like Meet Me In The Morning, and good bars like The Jar and Against The Grain.

Besides eating brunch and going out, Dublin is a great place to live, everything is within walking/cycling distance and it’s very easy to get around the city and meet up with your friends who live all over. It’s also a great hub to begin your exploration of Ireland. It’s super cheap to rent a car and just go north, south or west. The Atlantic coast takes your breath away and being able to visit the Ring of Kerry, Dingle, Galway, and much more gives you plenty of opportunities to go out and explore the region, check out this video to get a taste. Did you also know Ryanair is Irish? A short weekend trip to anywhere in Europe is super cheap!