Nigerian-American Emem Adjah spent one and a half decades leading monetisation and revenue at some of the world’s biggest tech companies, including Google, Spotify, Snap, and X (formerly Twitter).
Throughout an incredible career that also saw her serve on Google’s hiring committee, she developed a never-say-never attitude. She kept pushing and building, turning nos into yeses at some of the most famous tech companies. And not wanting to keep all the knowledge that helped her climb the corporate ladder, she decided to write a book to reveal some of the practical ways she landed jobs.
In this edition of Techpoint Diaspora, we chronicle Adjah’s journey from her early days in Brooklyn, New York, to her role as an author and advisor to early-stage founders today.
Background and career journey
My parents were born in Nigeria. My dad is from Cross River State, and my mom is from Akwa Ibom State. They had my late sister there before moving to Brooklyn, USA, where the rest of my siblings and I (the last child) were born. Shortly after I was born, they moved to New Jersey, where they currently reside.
I have visited Nigeria, but that was many years ago. We visited Cross River, went to Calabar, and spent some time with family.
I studied international business at Northeastern University. The programme was a five-year course that integrates work into learning. So, even before I graduated, I had an internship at City Group and Finance. And then I was an Allocation Analyst at TJX, the company that owns TJ Maxx. And so I led the inventory and allocation for entire departments across the US with TJ Maxx, and I also conducted research at the US Embassy. So I’ve built up quite the resume, even as I was studying, and I think that really helped open up some doors.
After I graduated, I did a Fulbright to Hong Kong. My specialty was China and East Asian Studies. At that point, I thought I would pursue academia, but I did not want to become fluent in Mandarin and Cantonese, which the programme required. I decided I wanted to go into business and to work in tech in some way.
My first job was at Bloomberg in their financial sales and analytics programme. I provided guidance to clients on using the Bloomberg Terminal, then moved into sales, working with international banks. I then realised I didn’t really like finance, but I enjoyed the tech aspect, and I secured a role at another company that was small at first.
Ironically, I interviewed at Google and got rejected, which made sense because I did poorly in the interview. But because I wanted to work at a place like Google, I discovered a startup called MoPub, founded by former Google software engineers and product managers, and many ex-Google and ex-Facebook employees were flocking to the company. I landed a role there, and the week after I joined, they were acquired by Twitter (now X). In that role, I would say my career took off somewhat.
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I became a specialist in monetisation, understanding how technology and infrastructure impact how businesses make money, especially ad-driven businesses and auction-based buying. So that became my specialty in the market.
Soon after that, I went to Snap and worked in sales strategy for about a year. Then my boss from Twitter joined Spotify and said, “Hey, we’re building out this team, and I’d love you to join,” and that’s how I joined Spotify, rose through the ranks, and became head of monetisation. I was managing their ad tech stack, figuring out how we could grow ad revenue. Shortly after that, an opportunity opened up at Google, and I joined as head of monetisation.
The role involved bringing products to market and bringing market research back to product. How do we optimise our revenue while managing advertisers, ROI, user experience, and creator monetisation? So I had a global team, and we worked across all of Google’s markets, which was a great experience.
Soon after, there were changes in the organisation; Google does a lot of these, so my role changed. Normally, when the rework happens, you can either stay and find another position or take a package. I decided to spend this last year focusing on writing the book (The Tech Interview, HACKED, 111 tips on the business side of tech) that I had been writing for the last ten years.
What Big Tech companies look for during hiring
For Africans looking to work at big tech companies, Google focuses on about four areas when hiring.
The first is around general cognitive ability; how do you think and solve problems? It’s not just about pedigree (attending Harvard or Ivy League colleges). You’re not even required to have an undergraduate degree in some cases. It’s all about what you have done and what impact you can make. And even more so because context changes, problem changes. Are you able to reason through ambiguity and learn fast?
The second is around emergent leadership. How do you step up to lead, especially when the need arises? Leadership also comes from knowing when to take a step forward, knowing when to take a step back, and knowing when someone else should lead. Are you teachable, and do you learn from your mistakes and evolve?
Often, you’d get asked questions like “Tell me about the last time you made a mistake, what went wrong in this project?” The idea is not to look for perfectionists; that’s impossible, but it’s to find people who can grow and evolve.
The third is around role-related knowledge.
How closely have you done the job you’re applying for? And now, that’s not to say that someone from another industry cannot try. I’m a telltale sign of that. I’ve successfully jumped between different industries because I’ve been able to tailor my experience and transferable skills to match and weave a good story around it.
And the fourth is around Googliness, which is like comfort with ambiguity, humility, doing the right thing, and becoming someone people want to work with.
Hiring decisions are made by a committee, not just a single person, to keep the bar consistent and fair, to eliminate bias. So it’s very empirical, as numbers-driven as possible. They try to measure and capture everything from diverse perspectives.
Getting hired is a numbers game
For young Africans who have tried numerous times to get into big tech companies without success, I would say it’s largely a numbers game; it requires persistence.
I’ve gotten rejected more than I’ve gotten accepted. So it’s a bit about persistence, and I think the second piece is thinking outside of the box.
Sometimes, people run into an issue: they might be searching for an account manager role, but the title can vary across companies. So if you keep searching for an account manager, you’re limited to that title when you should actually be looking for an account director, a customer success manager, or a sales manager. Sometimes the title changes, but the scope is the same as what you’re looking for. So it’s being creative when looking for roles.
Visibility and networking are essential, especially early in your career, when you’re just establishing yourself. A lot of times, I would go to different campus sessions where companies were visiting and try to crash their information sessions. I got an interview at McKinsey via this route.
I visited Harvard’s campus while I was at Northeastern and attended their sessions. If there are any local conferences, try to attend as many as possible. Many conferences are also virtual. I think Afrotech has a virtual option too, and a lot of companies that join there, and even seeing who’s joining, sometimes recruiters will list their email, oftentimes even on LinkedIn. I’ve gotten interviews from recruiters who have listed their email or said, ‘hey, we’re hiring,’ and I reached out to them directly.
I teach people that in this market, you have to grab what you want; sometimes it’s not going through the front door, it’s going through the back door, climbing through a window, to get some of these interviews because it’s not as straightforward. It’s so competitive, so get creative in how you reach out to these companies, broaden your scope, try to get as much in person as possible, and if not, try virtual.
Mentorship: the defining factor
Early in my career, I was always very open to helping other people with their interviews and my unique approach, and sometimes assessing interviews. I was doing conferences and speaking on panels. People kept asking me a series of questions, so I decided to put together a book, since many were giving up due to a lack of information.
Surprisingly, every time I’ve talked to people, they didn’t know what was needed. Mentors have given me good tips that literally changed my life, my financial life. When I went to Spotify, for example, I was not aware of levels, and in tech, they determine your pay band. Some websites show what people with that level generally get. And this was before certain US states introduced salary transparency laws.
Do you know about refreshers? Do you know how to ask questions about equity? Do you know that a sign-on bonus is even a tactic, and what people generally ask for? People don’t know that, but this is life-changing.
I made some smart decisions, because of just one piece of information from a mentor I had when I was at Spotify.
Even on the financial side, how to negotiate can really be life-changing for people. Just one piece of information can really help people understand the baseline for a good interview, so you’re not left in the dark wondering, since most companies don’t provide feedback. That’s the whole purpose of my writing this book.
There are limited resources for people interviewing for roles in sales strategy, product management, or marketing; a lot of the books out there are for engineers. So I wanted to solve that angle by including case studies that are almost similar to consulting.
How has AI changed hiring?
Many companies ask how you want to use AI, but still want you to be careful when using AI in your resume or when answering certain questions because they want to hear the real you, while still encouraging you to use it in certain parts of the business. It can be daunting to know how and when to use AI.
And my guidance is always that AI should empower you, not replace you.
AI is really great for process-based systems, but anything creative or communications should be handled with care. Utilise AI tools to prepare harder, and not to impersonate you in the actual process.
Also, you need to realise that many companies now publish their own policies on the use of AI in their interviews. The workaround with this is simple: know each company’s AI rules, and stay on the right side of them.
Recruiters also use AI to help filter applications. Openings draw hundreds of applications, and a recruiter’s first pass at your resume runs seconds, not minutes. And because of the sheer volume, recruiters simply can’t get back to everyone. So silence is normal, it’s not disrespect. You might apply and never hear back at all; more than half of candidates report similar.
However, with AI, you can automate alerts and searches. This is one of the easiest AI-assistant tasks in the entire search. Ask the AI assistant for synonyms for the role you’re interested in. A simple prompt: “Give me 15 titles companies use for roles similar to [your target role], including seniority variants.” Claude, ChatGPT, or Gemini will handle it. Then wire everything into your job alerts and your headline. Also, remember to refresh quarterly because job titles drift as fast as the industry does.
AI is also reshaping which skills matter. While the need for some job functions has increased, others have seen headcounts being cut. White-collar jobs have contracted for months on end, with non-technical roles hit the hardest. The right thing to do is to leverage AI to amplify your value, or you’d be replaced by it.
