AbeBooks

Sector: High Tech
Company: AbeBooks
Name of Interviewee: Hillary Samson
Title: Manager of Interactive Marketing

AbeBooks

Victoria based AbeBooks is the world’s largest online marketplace for books. The company lists more than 100 million titles, and has over 13,500 sellers.[1]

Why work at AbeBooks? The company, unlike many others in the high-tech industry, has a fascinating product—books! For those who have a passion for books (as do the authors for this blog), Abe allows you to combine your interests. Its online business model appeals to technology buffs and book enthusiasts alike. This is not to say that you have to have in-depth knowledge of books for every position in this company, but it helps!

Another reason to work for AbeBooks: It is privately held and highly profitable. The management team can think long-term (it doesn’t have to worry about quarter to quarter results for shareholders) and is profitable in part due to this flexible approach. However, in the eyes of the current employees, it is the company culture that makes AbeBooks a great place to be.

Hillary’s Career Path

Meet Hillary Samson, Manager of Interactive Marketing at AbeBooks’ Victoria office.

Hillary began her career with an undergraduate degree in English from the University of Western Ontario (fitting for a future career with a company dealing in books). At this point in time, Hillary did not know her career path would lead to her to Marketing. However, she did know that she wanted to be involved in the high-tech sector, as this had always been one of her interests. Coming to Victoria, Hillary landed a position with Swans Hotel & Brewpub in Sales and Marketing, and eventually returned to school to receive her MBA from UVic. After a challenging attempt at starting her own magazine business, Hillary was hired at AbeBooks in a temporary position. This temporary position eventually grew into an offer for permanent employment.

Her first position at AbeBooks was in the bookseller community, essentially involving customer relations with one of Abe’s target markets—booksellers. She has also been involved as a Product Manager, a more technical position dealing with projects and customer relations. Last April Hillary became Manager of Interactive Marketing, her current position at the company.

In Hillary’s opinion, the most important prior experiences in her life leading to this career include:

Her MBA: Hillary received her MBA from UVic in the Entrepreneurship designation. The analytical skills and knowledge that she acquired during her MBA education have been applicable in all of her experiences since.

Athletics: As an Undergraduate student, Hillary was heavily involved in athletics (rowing, etc). The hard work and tenacity required and learned for sports carries through to her career in business and is an important part of Hillary’s success.

A ‘Typical Day’ for Hilary

Hillary noted that she is extremely lucky that she can spend a significant amount of time working on developing marketing strategies, as well as implementing those strategies for AbeBooks. However, there are other tasks that she must complete:

• Reading and responding to email take up part of Hillary’s day, typical for employees of an online business. AbeBooks is a highly email-oriented company and most communications with customers and within the company are done this way.
  

• Managing her three staff members is also an important part of her day. Because of the highly dynamic nature of an online business, things change by the day. Hillary and her staff meet often to prioritize work and discuss changes or new projects.
  

• Finally, staying on top of the competitive market analysis and staying informed about industry trends is very important, and can account for a large portion of her time.
  

Experiences at (and before) AbeBooks

In her career in general, some of the best and worst experiences in Hillary’s career happened when she started her own magazine. In the end, this business was not profitable and Hillary left it behind. This, of course, was a difficult experience due to the stress involved in running—and losing—a company. However, it was one of Hillary’s most important learning experiences in her life, and the lessons that she learned there have stuck with her since.

According to Hillary, the best experiences at AbeBooks are the times when she can connect directly with the customers, including conferences and discussion groups. As part of her position, Hillary needs to keep in touch with her target markets, both sellers and buyers of books, and thinks that this is one of the most enjoyable parts of her job. Also, AbeBooks recently went through a re-branding exercise (re-evaluation of the brand and brand image of AbeBooks, and determination of how to best achieve the ideal brand for the company) which they are currently in the process of implementing. Hillary found this to be an incredible learning experience for her and for the company as a whole. Finally, the dynamic and interesting people with whom she works contribute to all of the experiences that she has had in the company.

Some of the less pleasant experiences that Hillary has experienced at AbeBooks are those times when projects don’t go as smoothly as planned. Some end up taking longer to plan and implement than expected (for example, a database redesign that took three years), others don’t have the results that were hoped for. This can be very stressful and time-draining for everyone involved.

Company Structure

AbeBooks is not a flat company. Its 125 people are arranged in a hierarchical structure, much like other medium and large scale companies. Having said that, there is a lot of interaction between staff, managers, directors, and the CEO, and communication is very open and informal. Hillary works under the Director of Marketing with her three staff members in the Interactive Marketing team.

The basic structure:

Company Values

AbeBooks has four company values written into its company mandate:

• Innovation
• Integrity
• Trust
• Customer Focus
  

These characteristics are what your potential employers at AbeBooks are looking for, so demonstrate them in your resume, cover letter, and interview. They are also looking for people who are creative (especially in the marketing departments, but in others as well) and have technical and/or metrics skills (useful for all positions in the company). Hillary also stressed the importance of being self-motivated. In this workplace, there will never be someone looking for your shoulder to tell you what to do. You are expected to make your job your own, and take initiative to get things done. Finally, and you’ll hear this one everywhere you go; you need to be able to work in a team. The projects at AbeBooks are done in teams, and although you’ll need individual drive to succeed, you’ll also need to work well with those around you.

Starting out at AbeBooks

Once you've made the shortlist for AbeBooks, you can focus on the all-important interviews… that’s right, multiple interviews. Also, because of AbeBooks' team approach to everything, expect to be interviewed by a panel. Case studies are common in these interviews, and you will be asked to work through them logically. This is the time to remember all that you've learned about revenues, costs, and other case-study concepts.

As a new employee, your days will be quite structured. There is a three week training process for entry-level jobs, and everyone at every level takes part in "CS Survivor" (spending a day listening in on customer service calls). Team building exercises are also available, for example volunteering days at Habitat for Humanity. The yearly pub crawl, golf tournament, and Christmas parties may also interest you.

There are several opportunities for advancement (as well as lateral movement) once you are on staff at AbeBooks. All jobs are posted internally to the company; some jobs are only posted internally to encourage internal movement. For this reason, the org chart changes almost daily as people move around the company and experience the different positions offered. However, at AbeBooks you cannot rely on the natural progression of positions (staff supervisor, manager, etc) that in some companies are inherent to doing a good job. At Abe, movement is based on self-motivation and initiative—you have to work towards and apply for the positions you want on your own.

Hidden Benefits

As an entry-level staff member, you can look forward to some great yearly bonuses, tied in to both your individual performance and that of the company as a whole. As a mid-level manager, bonuses come quarterly rather than yearly, and are based on your team's performance. All employees are eligible for "fun awards" that recognize what a great job you're doing—for example, the "your co-worker rocks" award.

In Hillary's perhaps less-than-neutral but very enthusiastic opinion, AbeBooks has the "best benefits of any private company." Medical, dental, chiropractor, optometry, etc. are all very well covered for staff members. Also, there is a $25 per month allowance for employees to spend on fitness memberships, and the company will pay for your bus pass or, if you walk or bike the company will just give you the money that you would have spent on bus passes or parking.

Most excitingly, there are two fruit days and one donut day per week! Also (typical of the high tech sector) there is a foosball table and massage chair in the spacious, open planned office. Oh, and stock options too! AbeBooks seems to know that to us students, every little bit counts.

Travel & Other

Because AbeBooks has an office in Dusseldorf, Germany there are opportunities for travel between the two countries. There are departmental meetings, teambuilding exercises and 'summits' that employees, sometimes even those in entry level positions, can attend in Germany. As a manager or senior manager, there is travel involved to bookfairs and other conferences around the world—Hillary was recently in New York for one such event.

These international learning opportunities are accompanied by other internal learning at AbeBooks. For example, the company will pay for any book that you might want to read ordered off of the website (within reason, we assume). As previously mentioned, there are seminars available to employees, as well as "brown bag" sessions where employees attend presentations to learn about the other departments and their current projects.

Advice to Graduating Students

Be passionate about what you do. At AbeBooks, the employees have a passion and fascination with books and high-tech sector that keeps them happy and makes them productive in their careers. This ties in to Hillary's early comments about self motivation. Her advice: Give 100% and make your job into what you want it to be.

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[1] Company Information 2007. AbeBooks, http://www.abebooks.com/docs/CompanyInformation/ (accessed November 17, 2007).