Greetings all! My full name is Thai Tien Trinh, or you can call me by my nickname, Mau. I started my journey at AnyMind Group in early 2018. I am now a Senior Executive for the Publisher Engagement team at AnyMind Group’s office in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Choose your dream, don’t chase after it
Prior to joining AnyMind Group, I dedicated most of my time to different organizations and projects to promote youth development. Ever since my first year at university, I have been a member of AIESEC, the world’s largest student-run organization. During my time with the organization, I was given the opportunity to hone my leadership skills and create many positive impacts upon society.
Three years later, I started to give some serious thought about my future career goals, and I came to the conclusion that I would like to develop myself in further areas besides just engagement with social projects. Since that time, my work experiences have become even more varied and I have ventured out to discover a whole new world of knowledge about digital marketing and business development in the startup ecosystem. This new experience has enabled me to become more diverse with my skill set and has helped me grow into the person I am today.
Early on from my childhood days I became fascinated with and very intrigued with watching television commercials. My fascination began to grow more and more every day, and this interest eventually blossomed into what my education and career paths have led to thus far. Additionally, I studied marketing in the past, and these studies enabled me to establish a more creative mindset, which in turn eventually gave me the passion and drive to pursue a career in the digital marketing and ad-tech industries.
In my job hunt, I scoured many job boards and recruitment websites looking for the perfect career opportunity in these industries. After an extensive search, it became obvious that AnyMind Group was the perfect fit for me, and I feel very fortunate that I have made the right decision and have been offered the opportunity to grow together with the company.
Learn and Grow with AnyMind Group
My role at AnyMind Group in the Publisher Engagement team is to promote and bring value to clients through our solutions and help them optimize their business endeavors. This entails providing consultation about various aspects of programmatic advertising, in addition to providing knowledge and consultation for one of AdAsia Holdings’ solutions, AdAsia Premium Marketplace (APM). Working in a fast-growing company like AnyMind Group has allowed me to provide clients with the latest and up-to-date industry knowledge and solutions, as well as provide them with support both in the realm of short-term and long-term business goals.
Starting off as a newbie in my team, I was willing to take on any type of task or challenge that was presented to me. Since then, my team has experienced massive growth and went through many changes over the past few years. Starting off from a team of three, our team has now doubled in size to six people, and we are looking forward to welcoming even more new team members in the coming days. Moreover, the publisher network in Vietnam has grown from just 50 publishers to over double since the time I joined the team.
Besides the growth in numbers, expansion into new markets, hiring new employees, and new product developments and features, I definitely think that AnyMind Group has also been successful through the adoption of the startup culture. The emphasis upon the company vision and “Growth for Everyone” mindset has really played a huge impact upon the way all employees are enabled to grow with the company and contribute to each other’s growth. I consider these aspects to be the backbone and driving force behind the company’s prosperity.
Throughout my time at AnyMind Group, my team has provided me with an abundance of support as well as comprehensive guidance and assistance. I have a great line manager and leader, C. Ngoc, who has guided me through tough times and also helped me to elevate my abilities to the next level. The culture of sharing and support that has been cultivated in our team is really remarkable and I have managed to gain a plethora of knowledge and experience in the digital marketing field in a really short time. Besides that, having such a strong support team as the platform operations team has been very encouraging and helpful as we work side-by-side and always have each other’s back during day-to-day operations.
On the other hand, that’s not the only source of support I have received throughout my career at AnyMind Group. I have received endless support from my family who has been by my side throughout the entire ride and they have always wholeheartedly encouraged me about my career choices. Since I was young, they always gave me the freedom to chase the things I love to do the most and make my own decisions – this in turn has given me the strong foundations and mentality to cope with difficulties and challenges and take every opportunity head-on. Having this mindset gives me a sense of satisfaction and pride in my work and reminds me of why I have chosen this career path.
Career Development
Starting off in a new career there is no doubt that everyone will face some sort of difficulties with work management. My simple tip is to divide work into two management categories – namely task and energy. In managing a task, if I can do things in less than five minutes, I will do it immediately. If I can do it in an hour, I will do it in a day, and if it will take hours or days to finish, I will try to finish it in a week. Regarding the latter half, gaining a thorough understanding of my own energy has also enabled me to finish as many tasks as I can efficiently.
After you have thoroughly assessed yourself, next I encourage everyone to develop their communication skills. I strongly believe that this is one of the key skills that can be used for solving problems. At the beginning of my career, I barely had any effective ways to have a conversation with others due to a high ego and not being aware of how to put my feet in other’s shoes. But once I realized that every discussion should start with the ultimate goal to lead to a win-win outcome, I learned to adjust my communication strategies and style based upon the details and context of many different conversational situations.
In striving towards my goals, I always ask myself what kind of legacy I would like to leave behind. With that question in mind, I seek further growth each day and proactively look for the necessary support to achieve my goals.
With full support from my team, I have been able to acquire and drive greater growth for many key publishers in the market, which ultimately led to my nomination and win of the “MVP award” at the AnyMind Group awards ceremony last year. Not only being active in Vietnam, but I am also working closely with publisher engagement teams from other markets for regional campaigns.
Due to the distinguishing characteristics and different standards for each market, it presents itself as a challenge to balance the campaign results with publishers’ satisfaction. My approach to overcome this challenge is to communicate proactively with the regional team – including but not limited to – providing frequent and timely updates, seeking feedback, and looking for the proper solutions. It is sometimes troublesome to take on some of these challenges, but also rewarding at the same time.
Observe, appreciate, and reflect
Beyond communication skills, I really wanted to sharpen my observation skills. I worked hard towards this goal, and I really believe at this point in time I now have a diverse perspective regardless of the circumstance, and I attribute this to observing the actions and work styles of my colleagues. For example, observing the way our Country Manager of Vietnam, C. Phuong, , presents herself when giving an inspirational speech or when my line manager consults with publishers about how to strategically overcome a problem. After observing all of this, I have come to the conclusion that the lessons I have learned and the situations I have been through can be fully appreciated and valuable if I am presented with the same opportunities both in my career and personal life.
I have always appreciated not only big opportunities and ideas but also small and meaningful acts of kindness from others such as other’s valuable time spent for considering my ideas and their provision of inspiring ideas and valuable advice. The grateful feelings that overwhelm me are my fuel for driving forward to improve, inspire, and interact with others and make a bigger difference every day. This passion for my career is what helps me to grow and expand my footprint in the company and industry.
Last but not least, every day I take a bit of time for self-reflection, a great 15-30 minutes spent. With the constant overflow of daily tasks, it is definitely worth spending some quiet time to reflect. I usually look back on what I have done over the week, how I managed and behaved in certain circumstances, and how I can move forward and improve myself. By answering those questions, I can define which aspects I need to improve upon every day, week, and year.
By doing so, it becomes unnecessary to wait for performance reviews to realize your achievements. The essence of growth in career starts at the point when you begin to see your gradual developments and nurture them for the road ahead.
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