Max's first year at Mentimeter - My story and why I enjoy my role as an SDR

My story

I started my journey at Mentimeter last summer and I’m getting closer now to one year already working within the Sales Development team here in Stockholm. Wow what a year! I’ll tell you more about my experiences at Mentimeter, but first let me give you my background story. I grew up in Sweden and professionally I have studied and worked within sales, communication and marketing for several years. I have always been curious about different cultures and I love to travel and to meet new people. This curiosity and passion for communication led me to study and work abroad for three years, before coming back home to Stockholm to be closer to my family and friends again. 

A bit later on after coming home, I made the decision to start working for Mentimeter because I really believed in the product and the culture. I’m super happy that my gut feeling was correct and joining Mentimeter was honestly one of my best decisions. During this crazy year I feel grateful to Mentimeter and for believing in my skills and interest, letting me grow in the right direction into my senior role in our team. I’m looking forward to continuing my journey and I see myself working long-term at Mentimeter. I have realised the privilege of having a fun and rewarding job while also enjoying the mix of days at home as well as days in our amazing office.

Here’s four reasons why I enjoy my job at Mentimeter

1. International vibe & team spirit 

The international vibe at Mentimeter is something I picked up early on when doing my own research, from the interviews and when I had my first onboarding weeks in the office. Mentimeter is a Swedish company founded in Stockholm, but our company-language is English and we have coworkers from all over the world. It is really cool to work for a Swedish company with such a global presence. It is fun to be able to communicate in English with all colleagues and to hear about their different stories and learn from each other. It is also inspiring to connect globally with different leads coming in from all around the world. With my background and interest in people and different cultures, this was a perfect match for me at home in Stockholm. 

Another thing that I truly appreciate within the organisation is the focus on team-work, team achievement is really more important than individual achievement at Mentimeter. Widely we do have a transparent culture with weekly company-meetings. More specifically we do have a lot of collaboration within the whole sales team and also with marketing and product. I love that we have seven nationalities in our Sales Development team of twelve people in total. Actually we do represent four different continents in our team only. I strongly believe in the strength of our diverse team, with different backgrounds and skills.

Our Sales Development team is the most friendly team I have worked with so far. I can honestly say that it is a pleasure to work with my teammates and it is motivating to see all different efforts and projects within our team only. Anything from demo-strategy sessions, improving sales content, working together with marketing and having fun social activities are just a few examples of what we do together. 

2. Menti culture - Humble & inclusive environment 

One of the core values of Mentimeter is to be humble! Humbleness is something I value highly in my life, both personally and professionally. I believe that if people are being humble, kind and respectful we are able to create an inclusive environment. I'm glad to be working in a kind and inclusive team. It is all about respecting people’s different backgrounds and realizing we all have our own personal challenges. One of my favorite quotes is: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.”

In general it is great to work for a company with open communication and a transparent environment. The culture of Mentimeter is all about having fun and doing things together as a team. It is also important to work with a strategic mindset and to embrace different responsibilities. To strengthen our culture we are having a daily prepared lunch and weekly breakfast together in the office when possible. In a normal year we do a relocation with all colleagues travelling abroad for a few weeks, socialising and working together from another location.

3. Product & connecting with users globally 

Another aspect that made me enthusiastic from the start was to work with such a nice product. It is easy to use and with a clear purpose of increasing interaction and engagement in different meetings. Our interactive presentation platform enables this in all types of settings, regardless if you are working remotely or in an office or classroom for example. I think we all have experienced static presentations either in work or in school, where it is only one or a few voices being heard. That was the vision from the beginning when Johnny and Niklas started the company, to create more inclusive and interactive presentations as former consultants.

One of my favorite segments to engage with would be schools and universities. I’m happy to hear all the amazing teacher-stories how our tools have helped them create a better environment for students. It is rewarding for me to be able to connect with a big variety of organisations and schools worldwide in my daily job as a Sales Development Representative (SDR). In our role we are the first contact-person within the sales team, so we really set the tone and it is crucial in our work to shape the customer experience from the initial stage.

We are in a privileged position to work mostly with inbound leads and after our qualification that could be through emails/meetings/demos it is fun to hand over the conversation to our Account Executives (new business) or Relationship Managers (existing clients) who are in charge of next steps. During my one year at Mentimeter I had conversations and meetings with users and organisations from most corners of the world. It gives me a lot of excitement to talk to stakeholders from global companies, consultant firms, primary/secondary schools, country governments, start-ups, famous universities and plenty of other examples. I’m proud to be first in line within the sales organisation, helping leads that come in and to receive so much interest in our product.

4. Professional development opportunities 

Finally the fourth and for me it might be the most important reason for my own motivation long-term and why I love my job, is to have the opportunity to develop. For me it has always been crucial to feel appreciated for my work and to continuously develop professionally. Therefore I am delighted that Mentimeter and my managers have been listening to me, noticed my skills and efforts, and also understanding where I want to continue developing my career. After 6 months at Mentimeter I started to build up my own professional development plan.

My aim was to step into a senior role based on my experience and interests, to still engage with leads but also working more strategically with internal and external content writing. Based on this I felt supported from my managers during the process to go in this direction. Part of the plan was me taking a 10-weeks copywriting course paid by Mentimeter (all employees have a budget for learning purposes). After I successfully finished the course and in parallel worked on different writing projects I officially started my senior role from 1st of June this year. Self leadership is one important aspect of working at Mentimeter. I am proud of the results and development based on how I built up my own case. I feel inspired from my first year here and as well from seeing other internal promotions of people moving into various roles. 

Summarised Mentimeter offers an inclusive working environment with plenty of opportunities to grow within your expertise. Also to enjoy our culture, benefits and the international vibe. With that said there are of course challenges when working within a fast paced start-up environment. Therefore it is important to have the right mindset and be open to tackle challenges and quick changes that do come up within different roles. 

I hope you found my sharings valuable. If you feel inspired by my story and would be interested in working within our sales team, you can read more about the roles and apply for jobs here.

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