Ceagan Codrington is a Senior Director, Inside Sales at Indeed located in Dublin. Learn how his sales skills started from a very young age and how they eventually landed him a role at Indeed. He also shares advice for those considering getting into the world of Sales.
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I am a firm believer in the theory that everybody is in “Sales.” Whether you’re managing a stakeholder or bargaining with your parent about candy, curfew hours, or a raise in allowance. Most people are selling (or being sold to) more often than they realize.
My entry into the more classical field of sales started fairly early. My father has a very entrepreneurial spirit and disposition. I remember him buying up bulk overstock and attending fairs all over Amsterdam to bring these newly found items to market. I must have been 8 or 9 years old when I first joined along. We slept in a rented truck to be there as early as possible so we wouldn’t lose a prime spot. I’d spend the day haggling and negotiating with customers – enjoying every moment of it.
Ten years later, I landed my first Sales job. During college, I had several side jobs in Customer Service and after moving to the field of debt collection I landed my first sales job selling credit management services.
Joining Indeed
This is a pretty standard I-am-not-biased-at-all-but-Indeed-is-a-great-recruitment-tool story. I had a job, but I decided it was time for a new challenge. It had been a while since I’d looked for a job, so I had no idea what the best job search site was. At the time, Indeed was not as well known in the Netherlands, as it is today.
My cousin, who was already working in Dublin, advised me to use Indeed.com. After using the site to apply for a few roles, I was pleasantly surprised with the user experience and functionality. Commercially interested, I became curious about how Indeed generated revenue. So via the ‘about us’ link at the bottom of the website, I learned how the company works and came in contact with an Indeed recruiter. A couple of weeks later in May of 2015, I moved to Dublin, Ireland to join the company as an Account Executive for the Benelux (Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg) market.
How would you describe your role?
My role at Indeed has changed quite a few times based on the need to adapt to the constant change in the market and also having career progression opportunities within the company. As an individual contributor, I went from focusing on both new business and Account Management to a sole focus on existing customers. After a short time as Sales Team Lead, I assumed my first people management role where I established our first Account Management team in Amsterdam.
Throughout my time at Indeed I’ve witnessed our growth and evolution as a company and industry leader. When I started, we would literally spell out our name to clients. Now, we are a respected company that is synonymous with providing clients with tools, like recruitment advertising, to source candidates.
My Role as a Senior Director
In my current role as Senior Director, I head up our Dutch mid-market sales organization, leading 45+ Indeedians that are dedicated to helping all Dutch companies with less than 1,000 employees reach their hiring goals. In this role, I focus on supporting my teams so they can provide the best possible experience to our clients. We are a sales organization that focuses on long-term relationships, so we have a lot of fun as well. Thankfully that happens both in real life and virtually.
To set my team up for success I maintain relationships with many different stakeholders. For example, the Sales Strategy and Operation department helps us plan ahead, together with my peers in Client Success, we make sure the client gets the best of both of our worlds.
Additionally, I am responsible for all the revenue from our mid-market segment. A big part of my responsibility is forecasting to the business. I take pride in helping my directors in taking away obstacles to reach our overall goals. I regularly have meetings with leaders from other EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) markets to see how we can help each other and learn new things.
Why I love Indeed
I love many many different things about Indeed. The first one is the opportunity for people to develop. I personally made life-changing steps, and also witnessed a lot of my colleagues transitioning into different roles within the company. That has been very inspiring!
At Indeed, I have the opportunity to learn every day while working with so many great people. Seven years later, I still maintain the coolest connection with people from my new starter group and have the opportunity to also enjoy a drink with a person that just joined my organization.
Another thing I love is how the company takes care of us. At the beginning of the pandemic, we were one of the first companies to send our people home and our senior leadership continued making decisions with employee wellbeing as the highest priority. The way Indeed handled that time is something that I will never forget.
Any advice you have for people interested in your field or a career at Indeed?
I always say to people who aren’t sure what they want in a career is to start sales. I believe working in sales helps in building great character.
In my career, I had a lot of opportunities to move to companies that were supposed to be the next “big thing,” “rocketship,” or “a game changer.” Once you are in sales my advice would be to not jump to the newest, shiny thing. My advice is to strategically look at the company you are joining and ask yourself is this a sustainable business and do I see myself thriving here. At Indeed, we are a company that helps employees find the right position for them. Indeedians are empowered as decision-makers and everything all comes back to helping people get jobs.
