Agoda (Rejected)

Company values (culture):

1. Diverse and Inclusive: Agoda prides itself on having a work environment rich in diversity, with over 6,000 employees representing 90+ nationalities. This suggests they value a multicultural, global perspective.
2. Innovative and Experimental: The description highlights a “culture of experimentation and ownership,” indicating Agoda encourages a pioneering, iterative approach to problem-solving and product development.
3. Collaborative and Driven: The company emphasizes the importance of teamwork, referring to employees as a “skillful, driven and diverse team” working together to achieve their goals.
4. Purpose-Driven: Agoda’s mission to “make travel easy and rewarding for everyone” suggests they are a purpose-driven organization that values positively impacting the world.

Business Model

• Agoda operates on a merchant business model, where they purchase hotel rooms/inventory and resell them to travelers at a profit.
• They encourage travelers to confirm bookings to ensure a steady revenue stream.
• Agoda has a strong grip on managing its inventory, allowing them to easily provide accommodation options during peak travel seasons.
• Agoda has integrated horizontally, offering additional services like car rentals, travel packages, etc. to expand its service offerings.
• They allow users to book private properties like apartments and villas in addition to traditional hotel rooms.
• Agoda leverages technology and has a user-friendly website and app to provide a seamless booking experience.

Target Market

• Agoda is targeted at the 18-64 age group, with strong brand awareness and preference among travelers in the USA.
• The article mentions Agoda is a favorable choice for the 18-64 age group.
• It also notes that in the USA, 21% of overall travel consumers prefer the Agoda platform.

Marketing Strategies

• Agoda has a strong online presence, with 20+ million monthly website visitors and a website worth over $1.5 million.
• They have leveraged partnerships and acquisitions, such as the merger with the Qlika startup in 2014 and the WooMoo startup in 2016.
• Agoda has a loyalty program called the “Agoda VIP Program” to incentivize repeat business from customers.
• The company has also collaborated with the Thai government’s initiatives to promote local tourism through its “TTogether” campaign.

The kind of person

1. Global Mindset and Cultural Awareness:
   • Agoda values candidates who are culturally adaptable and comfortable working in a diverse, international environment.
2. Innovative and Entrepreneurial Spirit:
   • Agoda seeks individuals who are creative, willing to take calculated risks, and have a proactive, problem-solving mindset.
   • They value a culture of experimentation and ownership.
3. Collaborative and Passionate:
   • Agoda prioritizes team players who are driven, enthusiastic, and committed to the company’s mission of enhancing the travel experience for customers.
4. Tech-savvy and Analytical:
   • As an online travel platform, Agoda looks for candidates with strong technical skills and the ability to leverage data and analytics to drive business success.
5. Dedication and Self-Motivation:
   • Agoda wants individuals who are ready to make an impact and thrive in a dynamic, demanding, yet rewarding environment.
   • They value a strong work ethic, commitment, and drive to excel.
6. Adaptability and Growth Mindset:
   • Agoda values employees who are open to new experiences, opportunities, and developing diverse skill sets.
   • They seek candidates who are eager for personal and professional growth.
7. Innovative and Analytical Mindset:
   • Agoda advocates for a culture of perpetual enhancement and innovation.
   • They look for individuals with the ability to critically assess performance, analyze data, ideate, and empirically test initiatives.

Job Description

Role Team	In this Role, you’ll get to:	What you’ll Need to Succeed:
Marketing Analyst – New Verticals New Activities marketing Team: The New Activities marketing Team of Agoda leads the marketing for new products such as flights, activities and trips. The team is looking for an Analyst to help us scale up our new business for Activities, improve our targeting and execute on ideas reaching millions of customers and driving a significant share of Agoda’s overall performance.	• Learn: Boost your efficiency and grasp marketing tactics to enable the growth. • Add Value: Accelerate our innovation by launching and testing ideas, multiplying team success. • Test: Validate your ideas with A/B testing, shaping our communication strategy. Every idea, including yours, is vital.	• Committed to delivering on promises, showing determination to meet goals • Eager to learn and improve: Strive for efficiency, not just execution • Basic understanding of statistics required • High degree of ownership • Exposure in quantitative analysis: Advanced Excel skills required, SQL and Tableau knowledge advantageous. • Ability to communicate fluently and confidently in English It’s Great if you Have: • Experience with Digital Marketing / Campaign Execution • Proficiency in SQL and Tableau
Data Analyst Performance Marketing Team: The Performance Marketing Team of Agoda is a world leader in online marketing. This department is highly data-driven and focused on developing at-scale marketing programs that improve the lifetime value of Agoda customers through measurable marketing programs and channels. The team is a blend of the best analysts, marketing strategists, and data scientists in the world.	Search: Experiment with text ads, bidding, and campaign structures on Google, Bing, Baidu, Naver, and other search engines. Adapt to new product features and roll out changes from successful tests. Display: Test, analyze, and optimize campaigns on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and others. Modeling: Analyze the vast amounts of data generated by experiments, develop models we can use for optimization, and build dashboards for account managers.	Bachelor’s Degree or higher from top university in a quantitative subject (computer science, mathematics, engineering, statistics or science) Ability to communicate fluently in English Exposure to one or more data analysis packages or databases, e.g., SAS, R, SPSS, Python, VBA, SQL, Tableau Good numerical reasoning skills Proficiency in Excel Intellectual curiosity and analytical skills It’s Great if you Have: Experience in digital marketing Academic research experience
Analyst / Senior Analyst, Brand Marketing Brand Marketing team: The Brand Marketing team is looking for an Analyst to scale our digital marketing & brand research efforts. As a part of the Brand Media & Measurement team, you will manage digital campaign planning, A/B testing, and reporting across key digital channels like Meta, Twitter, YouTube etc., and also be responsible for management & analysis of brand research projects. This person will have the opportunity to learn and grow with the global Brand Marketing team based in Thailand. They will play a key role in analyzing all kind of campaign & research data to deliver insights that will shape the team’s strategy and fulfil our ambition of creating an engaging and meaningful brand in the tech-and-travel space.	Experiment: Conduct A/B testing on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube, as well as brand research in-house & with external agencies to demonstrate the impact of campaign activity on brand awareness. Execute: Own the performance of digital & social campaigns, optimize critical campaign metrics, and keep an eye on data to ensure that media is delivering against the plan. Learn: Communicate test results & campaign learnings to the team and broader stakeholders through comprehensive analysis, reporting and data visualization. Develop key learnings for different media platforms and markets. Analyse: Delve into data from digital tests & research studies to gather useful insights for optimization of brand campaigns. Collaborate: Liaise with external media partners (e.g. Google, Meta) for planning, analysis and execution, and consolidate media data and analysis with digital activity being run in-house.	A minimum of a bachelor’s degree in mathematics, marketing, communication, business, or another related field At least 2 years of experience in analytically focused positions Great SQL & Tableau knowledge Advanced knowledge of Excel, very comfortable using VLOOKUP and Pivot Tables Great project management, measurement, and planning capability; taking ownership from the start to the finish Knowledge of statistics and data processing practices (calculating p-values, data cleaning and normalization, regressions, etc.) is a plus

Common Interview Questions:

• “Tell me about yourself and your background.”

• “Why are you interested in this role and Agoda?”

• “What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?”

• “How would you approach a marketing analysis project?”

• “Can you provide an example of a successful marketing campaign you’ve worked on?”

Questions to ask

1. About the interviewer: I read your linkedin page (sorry for snooping around – but i had to do some research), seems that you started working at agoda just last week. Thats very cool. But what was your first day and first week like? Is it a little bit intimidating? Are there people there to help ease you in?
2. About Agoda: so what is the work method there – do people often work in a team setting or each have to do their own task – personally i prefer working in a team because it gets lonely.
3. About Agoda: I heard that you guys are doing the hybrid work model (that you only need to go to the office on tuesdays and wednesdays). How does that work? How is the work-life-balance situation like when people work from home?
4. About the Job: which position exactly? What’s the day-to-day routine like? Who do i answer to? Why are you hiring for this job (business expansion / fill-in that role)?
5. What is the worst part or the most boring part of that job? what do you think is the most important quality for this role? What are the most important metrics or KPIs that the marketing analyst role is responsible for tracking and reporting on?
6. About the Career: what is the possible career path inside agoda for this type role – i heard that it is possible to do internal transfers. Also is it possible to transfer back to China office in the future?
7. About Thailand: tax rates (ballpark)
8. About follow-up interviews: Now finally some questions about the next interview: format, time, etc