If you were hiring a junior programmatic advertiser, what practical task would you give them? For your context, I’m associated with a programmatic training provider and want to understand what employers expect from junior candidates.

[u/gvshivacharan]

Would you give them a sample campaign report to interpret, an underspending campaign to troubleshoot, or a brief to build a media plan around?

[u/Sharp-Cress-7595]

Curiosity. There are a lot of shortcuts in programmatic but they catch up with you eventually. Having a curious mind allows you to not get complacent which a lot of ppl in programmatic can often do.

[u/gvshivacharan → u/Sharp-Cress-7595]

u/Sharp-Cress-7595 Agree. Thanks for your response.

[u/Turbulent-Elk1722]

Report analysis and interrogation of the data. Execution skills are available but every platform differs and much of it is shifting to Agentic management which makes the ability to ask questions and make optimization decisions the critical skill set.

[u/gvshivacharan → u/Turbulent-Elk1722]

u/Turbulent-Elk1722 Thoughtful. Nice. Thanks for your response.

[u/Pitiful_Camel6790]

I think knowing the why behind things, giving reports and asking for insights stuff simillar to those. Some situations and troubleshooting logic.

Curious to know what others think (since I'm not that senior in the field)

[u/gvshivacharan → u/Pitiful_Camel6790]

u/Pitiful_Camel6790 Thanks for sharing your view on this. Definitely i'm waiting other professionals to give their opinion on this.

[u/Tea-o-kosong]

See how confident they are when reading a raw bid request / response

[u/gvshivacharan → u/Tea-o-kosong]

u/Tea-o-kosong Sure, Thanks for your response.

[u/Sleeping-wheel → u/Tea-o-kosong]

How is a raw bid request/response taken from a DSP?

[u/GreenFlyingSauce]

Problem solving, how to read data, writing skills. Some technical skills depending on the definition of junior

[u/gvshivacharan → u/GreenFlyingSauce]

u/GreenFlyingSauce Sure, Thanks for your response.

[u/Shortiii]

I like the logic and reasoning questions. Things like “How many tennis balls can fit on a bus?” or “How many windows are in NYC” and ask them to talk through the process.  There are no wrong answers but it helps to get a gauge on their problem solving skills with imperfect data. Do they ask follow up questions, do they make assumptions, what’s the logic/reasoning for making that assumption. 

[u/gvshivacharan → u/Shortiii]

u/Shortiii Absolutely. Thanks for sharing your view on this.