Hillal Mostefaoui shares why working at Indeed is a life experience contributing to personal growth and cultural enrichment. He loves the nomad lifestyle of a traveller; read on to learn how Indeed gave him the opportunity to combine his passion with a professional career.

???????? Pour lire cet article en français, cliquez ici.

I have been an Indeedian for almost four years now, based out of the Indeed office in Paris.

Here is a quick view of who I am: I was born in Paris, and have a French mother and an Algerian father. Both are actively engaged in politics and are passionate about helping others.

The world I grew up in is characterized by multicultural influences, both within my family but also my surroundings. Maybe this is where my wanderlust came from and why I decided to combine my desire to travel and explore different cultures with my professional life and career.

Yet, it was because of love that I left my hometown Paris (the City of Love!) and first moved abroad. I fell in love with a beautiful Italian girl and since I consider myself a romantic I decided to move to Italy, where I stayed for two years. I already had several years of professional experience in sales and business development and that made it easy for me to find a job in Milan as Sales Manager at a local job search site. This was the perfect preparation for my next adventure. 

This was where my chapter at Indeed began. When I applied, the recruiter suggested I take the role of a National Account Manager (NAM) in Paris but I didn’t want to return to my hometown just yet. 

Since I had the urge to travel and to explore I asked for a job in Dublin. And I got it! I arrived at Indeed in Dublin in January 2017 and what can I say… WOW!!! 

I have never seen an office as impressive as our Indeed St. Stephen’s Green office: I saw so many people fluttering around, everyone having different and unique characteristics. I heard so many different languages be spoken around me. It was a beautiful melting pot of cultures and I was so excited to explore it.

At that time, the office only had around 500 people and the established Sales teams served the market across EMEA. 

In 2017, the French market team shared a floor with the Sales teams for Italy, Spain, Portugal, Russia, India and South Africa. The teams of the respective markets were sitting together for the sake of close collaboration and knowledge exchange. Although we wear headsets, tiny scraps were coming through – over all French, Italian, and Spanish was predominant. Some might find that distracting, to me it was inspiring.

Nevertheless, we fostered inter-divisional team work with Sales teams from the other markets too and I think that it really helped us to be all together in one location and learn from each other. It is an Indeed tradition to have an official close out on Fridays, when all Indeedians gather together to celebrate the crazy sales achievements and the spotlight deals of each team.

It was almost too good to be true. After years of living a nomadic life – of course always on a budget – I suddenly had the exciting life of a traveller while I was based in my new home in Dublin with a job that I loved and that I was compensated for very well. 

Imagine being a 27-year-old man and discovering this life after many years counting every cent… It was fabulous.

Indeed first hired me as an Account Executive for Acquisition on the French market. After 1.5 year I was promoted to Senior Account Executive and I internally moved from Acquisition to Growth. My time in Dublin really helped me to understand the multi-layered aspects of the sales process and to improve my sales skills a lot.

It was in 2019, during my time as Senior Account Executive, I achieved one of the milestones of my career. 

I had the honour to be awarded with the Top Gun prize, a global contest between all Indeed Sales Representatives. It means that I was amongst the best 10% in sales in EMEA. It was a real accomplishment because a large part of my French team won this prize and we were all so proud of us as a team and just really happy that we could share that moment. 

With Top Gun, we won a trip to Morocco… but sadly, due to the pandemic we had to stay at home. But Indeed just surprised us (like they always do) and instead gave us an extra bonus on our pay to make up for the trip. 

During these three years in Dublin, I also met my Parisian colleagues from the National Accounts team, since they were invited to the annual Sales Kick-Off Event in Dublin and I visited them when my business trips took me to France.

Fun fact: My last hiring manager Mel told me that she took notice of me during these work events. I got her attention because I was the kind of guy who talked to everybody, and who is not afraid to spark a conversation even with somebody I don’t really know. 

And that is something I really recommend to everyone interested in starting a career in sales. Go beyond your boundaries. Be curious, brave and bold. I believe that the only (social) limit that we have is the one we create for ourselves.  

I always appreciated the opportunities to get to know the Parisian team better. I knew we shared the same mission, the same company and I think we can also speak of family. Still, I was really curious how working for Indeed in Paris was like. Eventually, I wanted to take the next step in my career and was ready for another change and therefore applied for a National Account Manager position in Paris where I returned in January 2020.

Working at Indeed is not just about working hard, it’s 100% about the life experience you get. 

When I applied at Indeed four years ago, the recruiter offered me the NAM position and I said no…. I wanted to travel again, discover a new country, a new culture. And look where I am now? 

I’m at that exact same position but with four more years of professional and personal experiences that make me an even better Indeedian.

Interested in becoming an Indeedian? Check out our open roles on www.indeed.jobs

Read more Indeedian stories on our #insideindeed culture blog.