I’ve spent close to 10 years as an AE in the DSP space at StackAdapt, The Trade Desk.
Earlier in my career things were hard but made sense. I feel like the growth came from setting clear expectations with prospects, finding gaps in strategy, running test campaigns, and building from there. It wasn’t fast, but it led to strong retention and long term partnerships. I loved my job and I was excelling for years.
Over the last couple of years I’ve been at 2 different DSPs. I’ve interviewed everywhere and the whole industry feels different. There’s more pressure to bring in new logos with expectations of 3-4 million in revenue year 1 from what I’ve seen. With less focus on what it takes to keep clients the expectations are often stretched just to win new business and not build a book.
Being in the job market right now has been rough and eye opening. Almost every conversation circles back to “what clients can you bring with you?” even though everyone knows non solicitations are part of the deal. The same companies asking that would have you sign one on day one. So it’s greasy… and I never share that information but it’s wild how that’s a requirement for some companies to move forward in the interview process.
At this point, I don’t know if it’s me not being able to cut it anymore after 12 years, or if the role itself has changed. I’ve been thinking about stepping away from an AE role into client success or account management, or maybe stepping away from DSPs altogether.