What does it take to work for a social networking giant like Twitter? Pratiksha is proof that, as it is with a dream job anywhere else, experience and enthusiasm will get you everywhere.
What does it take to work for a social networking giant like Twitter? Pratiksha is proof that, as it is with a dream job anywhere else, experience and enthusiasm will get you everywhere.
The world is your classroom
“Having lived in multiple cities, I’ve always been interested in popular media as it helps me understand and give context to new places and people. I studied Economics and French at Northwestern University in the US, and interned at Bedouk Meetings & Events Media and Sotheby’s in Paris. Upon graduation, I decided to return to India, and try my luck in TV and media. I started as an apprentice in TV production at a TV station and, after about two years, I started managing its digital content production. There is a lot of room for growth in that area in India, and I wanted to evangelise the digital medium on a bigger scale.”
Think big, act small
“The internet democratises content creation and distribution, and Twitter has the power to connect people to realtime information like no other platform. I was excited to be part of that and empower internet users globally. As one of the first four employees at Twitter in India, the first year was incredible, as we presented Twitter to partners and users nationally. Working as part of a small and close team was a great opportunity to learn about multiple roles. I’m looking forward to taking all of that startup experience to build up the media partnerships function across Southeast Asia. There’s a lot to do, but it’s all very exciting work.”
All experience is relevant experience
“In my current role, I spend a lot of time working with media organisations on how they can leverage Twitter to reach and grow their audience. Having the operational knowledge of mass media and broadcast through my past work experience has been extremely helpful in understanding how we can support our content partners and help them leverage Twitter to reach their goals.” Enthusiasm trumps everything “The most important requirement of a job like this, in my opinion, would be enthusiasm for the possibilities of [the company] and its corporate mission statement, as well as passion for empowering internet users. Understanding and, more importantly, having a genuine interest in media and broadcast is also very crucial to truly deliver unique experiences to users and business partners.”
Enrich, enable, empower
“I love discovering those moments of inspiration when a user is able to get help from the local government in a moment of crisis via Twitter, or an NBA fan in the Philippines is able to engage in an #OnlyOnTwitter conversation with their favourite basketball player… there are so many examples of these amazing conversations that Twitter enables, and enabling them, while also empowering our partners and users to delight and enrich their daily lives, is extremely inspiring.”
Career experience
2010 Apprentice, NDTV (New Delhi)
2011 Production Assistant & Content Developer, NDTV Lifestyle (New Delhi)
2012 Content Manager, Digital Media, NDTV Lifestyle (New Delhi)
2013 Manager, Content Partnership, Ixigo (Gurgaon)
2013 Associate Partnerships Manager, Twitter (Mumbai)
2014 Media Partnerships Manager, Southeast Asia, Twitter
